Taking a Look In to the SMEs in Cosmetology
Nicola Jones Baker
Professor Thomas Boam
July 14, 2014
Kaplan University

First let’s define what an SME is. The SME stands for the Subject Matter Expert, and is a person who has special skills or knowledge on a particular topic or job.” SMEs are highly accessed by instructional designers to extract intelligence when developing courseware and learning programs (Training Industry2014).” SMEs are called to serve as guest teachers, instructors or lecturers or for training purposes. I consider the SME instructor to be an expert because they should have the proper training to be able to teach, instruct and answer any question that needs to be answered in their field of training. In my opinion, SMEs need to focus on their business, increase turnover, and improve quality. To do this, SMEs need to embrace all of the outsourcing services. This will allow SMEs time to concentrate on building their business and not concentrating or worrying about various tasks that can’t be handled all at one time.
A SME in cosmetology, should be a person who knows all the skills and have at least 25 years of experience under their belt. They should know all the ends and outs when dealing wwith hair, skilled in treatments of the skin, be knowledgeable in the chemistry of the products and be able to consult clients by looking at the shape of their face on what style looks better on them.
When speaking on the cosmetology business, the first thing that pops in the mind will probably be a hair style. Cosmetology is one of the most booming businesses alive today and it has many corporations with CEO’s SME’s and other great positions, like stylist or even receptionist of a salon. Many jobs are giving in a salon and being self- employed is what you make it. Salons are everywhere and anywhere these days, because according to the industry experts, the beauty business is prospering regardless of how the government says that we are in a recession. In 2005, it was reported to be at least 400,000 beauty salons in the United States and Americans alone spent at least $23 billion yearly on haircuts alone. Having a career in cosmetology is really on demand, and some beauty business such as in New York and California are seeing financial gains more than ever before. Those two states have a lot of celebrities who are willing to pay top dollar for services to make them look good at all times. One of the celebrity stylist named Ted Gibson stated that he drew and painted a lot as a kid, and he always liked creative things. He could have never imagined where this cosmetology would take him. “Initially, Ted liked the idea of being a hairdresser because he had a friend who had great success in the business and he wanted a similar lifestyle. Ted thought of the industry as a lucrative means to an end. "I had a friend that was very successful, and I wanted all the things he had -- like a fancy car and nice clothes, and the Rolex watch. What I didn't realize is that I would fall in love with the business of making people feel good on a daily basis."(Parkes2011).” Regardless no matter how hard times is right now, there are still many Americans who consider beauty treatments as an absolute necessity. People would obviously prefer to cut costs on other things just to get beauty services done and men are getting manicures these days, young teenagers are getting their hair professionally tinted and colored and semi-aged mothers are getting facials, hair colored and waxing to hide the signs of aging. For all these services, yes of course there are SMEs needed in cosmetology. When looking into SME, there are five steps that are associated with the training for being an expert, and they are systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning. When dealing with cosmetology, system thinking would be for the expert to analyze what materials and techniques that are used to complete hair styles for the class. Personal mastery would be for the cosmetology expert to not only have license but the proper experience in what is being taught in the class as well. Mental models is analyzing and breaking down each and every step that is being taught. Building shared vision would be for the expert to get feedback from the audience because someone in the audience may have a brighter idea to make a step run even smoother. Also this vision would allow the expert to see inside an audience member mind to make sure they understand the process that is taking place. Team learning is when the expert have learned from the audience and the audience have learned and have an understanding of what the expert taught. That is a “win-win” situation. I being self-employed at a salon there wasn’t really a skilled person to ask SME questions to. Everyone is basically on the same level. I would love to learn more about the exemption from the continuing education courses that somehow is easily granted to some folks. The best training in my field is to keep up with the latest styles and techniques by attending continuing education classes or buying the style or technique video you would like to learn. All new styles is always a plus to learn because it makes you more and more money the creative you are. The only surprises I could assume is that after watching the expert could you had really taught yourself before paying the money for someone to show you. While there was no interview to do, it made me realize that no one is never too smart not to learn more. It’s always refreshing to take a course to broaden your knowledge about a particular topic or subject. When comparing this information with the market simulation, it just reminds me that if a person is skilled or have experiences with a certain field, it is best to ask them what do they think about a situation and what is their advice on what to do next. Certain students are more skilled to carry out certain jobs, and even though mines is in cosmetology, my experience relies best on the marketing and advertising for the marketplace simulation. In cosmetology, I have learned to advertise and market myself to sell what I can do to make people beautiful.

References
Parkes, Gwen. 2011. Beauty Business Still Booming in Ugly Economy. AOL Original. Web. http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/01/17/beauty-business/
Unknown Author. (2014). Training Industry Taxonomy. Web. Copyright 2014. http://www.trainingindustry.com/taxonomy/s/subject-matter-expert-(sme).aspx