The judging process is independently administrated by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management and includes a coordinated judging panel of university business professors, business leaders, global members from the trade media and recognized salon industry leaders who provide broad business perspective, experience and insight to the impartial judging process.

University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management

The Judging Process Includes Six (6) Phases:

1. Phase I
   Online applications including all general information and financial data are submitted direct into a proprietary judging database at UCLA.  Entries may be submitted in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.  Once received, the materials are translated into English, and all financial information is converted to US Dollars for comparison purposes.
   
   
2. Phase II
   UCLA sorts the data, based on a variety of pre-established financial productivity benchmarks.
   
   
3. Phase III
   Following the initial data sort, all entries that fall below the financial productivity benchmarks undergo a physical review to identify mitigating circumstances that may have affected their numbers. (i.e. significant investments or expansion, natural disasters, etc.)    
                      
4. Phase IV
   This phase includes the physical judging process by the judging panel.  Judges work in teams of three (3) people, with a member from each discipline:  academic or business, industry leader, trade press.  Judges review and discuss each entry at length, though they score each entry individually.  The scorecard data is entered into the proprietary judging database.  The judges do not decide “who wins” and, in fact, don’t know who the winners are when they leave the judging summit.  Entries are not compared or judged against each other; rather, each entry is evaluated and judged against previously established performance standards.  While the judges review the essays and physical materials provided, they do not see any of the applicants’ financial information.
   
   
5. Phase V : 
   Once the physical judging process is complete, the results are input, and then combined with the financial data to create a final entry score.  These scores are sorted electronically by country.  The entry with the highest score, exceeding the established performance standard in each area of judging criteria, is eligible for the Salon Entrepreneur of the Year™ Award, in either the independent or chain category, for that country. The salon with the next highest score in a given category, that also exceeds the performance standard score in each area of judging criteria, is eligible to win their country’s Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for that category.  If no entries meet the performance standards in a given category, no award will be assigned.

6. Phase VI : 
   Once the scores are tabulated and potential winners are selected, a due diligence process confirms the accuracy of the entry, references and truth in disclosure statements. Following that process, the finalists are confirmed and notified that they are a Global Salon Business Award winner for their country, though they will not be advised of which award they will receive.