Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hairstylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen? Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you weren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success, but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer. Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists. I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hairstylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Well, what is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Braceva, and this is an episode I probably have owed you for, you know, eight years. When I started the podcast, I should have done this one. This is the first ever step-by-step guide, checklist, cross-check, to- do list. For any stylist who is either just getting started, just getting organized, maybe you’ve even been in the industry for a decade, and you’re doing the hair and making the money, but structurally your business is kind of all over the place. This episode is for you. So if you’re a regular listener or if you’re a thriver or been hanging out for any period of time, you may know that my beautiful daughter joined the industry, gosh, two and a half, maybe three years ago now. Straight out of high school, she decided to go to beauty school.
She had a wonderful experience. She worked commission at a salon for a couple of years and is now renting a booth. And it’s been a real joy and a privilege to be able to watch her journey, truly as her mom. With the additional perspective and knowledge of being in the industry myself and being coach and I, you know, have had the fortune of watching tens of thousands of stylists grow beautiful businesses for themselves and tens of thousands of stylists fail and drop out and lose everything and never make it. I, I really have gotten to see all sides of the industry. And so to watch her join the industry and navigate it as a young person has been eye-opening for me and it, it’s been so good for me to come back to what that looks like and what that feels like and what the challenges are.
Now, I will say the first several years of Emily being in the industry, she had no interest in being coached by me at all, and I think that’s fair. I think we both had like an unspoken understanding that I’m just gonna be her mom. I’m not gonna be her business coach. And if she came to me for advice on anything, I would always give her advice, but she didn’t jump into Thriver Society, which is my coaching program. I have not financially supported her business in any capacity. I don’t pay her booth rent. I don’t buy her supplies. Like she’s done everything by herself. And I think that’s important. This is an industry that thrives on drive. And if you’re not driven and you don’t feel the hunger and you don’t feel the pressure, I know a person’s not gonna make it. And so I want her to experience it like everybody else experiences it.
And a few months ago when she decided to rent a booth, she hit this crossroads of being in the industry, you know, knowing how to market herself, knowing the basics. But when she was going into business for herself, it was like a free fall. And that gap, that piece, I realized I didn’t have any external or free trainings to fill, and this episode is dedicated to that. And what I’d imagine is, if I wasn’t her mom or somebody else didn’t come along and help her, the list of things I’m about to share, probably 70%, she would’ve likely never put together or put together years down the road or stumbled into at some point in time. But the amount of things that weren’t instinctual was really good for me to have the reminder of. So I wanna share with you a huge list of things that any new stylist, any stylist looking to get organized should have in place to have peace of mind that their business is set up properly and that they’re set up for wealth and success and no scary tax payments and for rapid growth as a stylist as well.
So first things first, you have to des- determine a name for your business. And with any new stylist, I always suggest just using your name. So something that I have found is a lot of studio suite owners like to create really unique names for their suite. That is fine. You can do that. I’ve watched booth renters create really intricate names for their, I’m using quote unquote business. However, to the public eye, you’re a stylist working behind a single chair in a salon collective. So the l- salon has a name. It’s on the front of the building. It’s what I Google search to find directions to you, but then you as an independent also have the secondary name, which is different than your legal name and the name that I call you. Can you see how having like three names is really confusing? So whenever I’m coaching any kind of stylist who’s getting started, I always say when you’re determining your first name, how you’re gonna register your business, I strongly suggest just using your name.
You can use your first and last name, your first and your middle name. Either is fine, but I would stick with your name for simplicity’s sake, for SEO, for a lot of different things, I would go with that. Now, what if you are an employee-based stylist? If you’re an employee-based stylist, you don’t need to worry about creating a business name at all. Your business name is just your name, and these first couple of steps I’m gonna walk through, which are legal filings, you can completely skip. So I’ll let you know when you need to clock in if you’re an employee, but if you are an independent, Booth Renter is suite owner, you do need to establish a business name. Now, I did a little research on this. We happen to live in California. So California is one of the strictest, one of the most litigious states in the country.
So some of the things I cross-checked was like, “Is this everywhere? Is this California?” In my research, in almost every single state in the United States today, a business needs to file a fictitious business name statement, a DBA, an assumed name statement to register the business. This is a consumer protection policy, so it looks like that this is basic Google research. So I’m gonna rattle off some state names, strongly suggest that you do your own because what I’m finding could be old or dated or inaccurate or whatever, so I’m gonna rattle off some names, but please do your own research. States like Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Wyoming might not have requirements at the state level. However, this article says local county and city rules do still apply in several of the cities and counties within those states.
So with that being said, something that everybody who is renting a booth, renting a suite, opening a salon needs to know is you are required to run your business by the requirements of the city, state, county guidelines, whether you know them or not. Claiming ignorance is not an option in the eyes of the law. I have been through audits. I’ve had issues with things like that. And what I have experienced is even the smartest most research person can miss some things. And I strongly, strongly, strongly suggest you look up your state, county, city, local requirements as far as registering your business. But in the research, I found the vast majority of states do require you make a fictitious business name filing or a DBA filing, doing business as filing. And the requirements for that are different state to state. Generally, there is something you’ll have to do with some sort of official county office.
Gen- usually it can’t all be done online. Sometimes, but usually there’s an in- person component. In California, you have to publicly announce your business name in newspapers, which seems so antiquated to me, but it is still a part of the process. So looking up your local process is gonna be step number one. Step number two, file for your business license if you’re gonna be working independently. That is not the same thing as the fictitious business name statement or the DBA. They’re two totally different things. So you need to have a business license through your, um, city or your county. There’s usually an application to fill out. Often you can find it online. There’s a nominal fee. You do have to have an established business address in order to do this. Sometimes on the form, you’ll see there’s like a physical location and a mailing address, but it will be asking for those kind of things.
So you’ll wanna have that sorted out as you go to file that. If you intend to sell retail, in some cities and counties, you will also need a retail sales license, so you’ll want to look up the requirements for that as well. What that is noting is that this is somebody who’s selling a physical product or good, and will be collecting sales tax. If you’re somebody who does extensions, you might fall into this category. If you’re selling things like shampoo and haircare, you’ll definitely fall into this category. Again, every county and city is different. You’ll need to look up your requirements to make sure that you have all of the paperwork set and in place if you are doing business in their area. Now, if you’re an employee, those first three steps you get to skip and move on to the next. So next, you’re gonna open your bank accounts.
And whether you are working independently or you are an employee, I suggest that you follow a variation of these steps. We use a method called Profit First. And when I say we, I mean my business, which is called Flourish Salon Business Development. You might notice Thriving Stylist or Thriver Society. We use Profit First as a way to manage our finances within this business. I also mean the Civa family. When I say we, we also run our personal finances using a system like this. I personally learned this system when Mike Mihalowitz came as a speaker to Thrivers Live, which is our members only event. He spoke to a room of, I think it was like 300 Thrivers at the time about his profit first wealth management system, and it was amazing. He’s authored a book by the same title. Um, he’s absolutely incredible. I think his method works very, very well.
I strongly suggest you run your business that way. Here’s how most people run their finances, money in, money out, hope for the best. So what I have found is, particularly with independent stylist, but with employees too, is stylists will, let’s say today is February 1st. Let’s say by February 4th, they’ve taken five clients. They’ll say something like, “Great, now I’ve made my rent for the month.” And it’s like the first five days were just to make sure that the rent was paid, which I get why you’re doing it, you’re simplifying the math. It’s just like a very interesting take on it. So, okay, so you made your rent. So then, you know, you do hair for a few more days and what you’re making after that is kind of like the money that you have available to spend is what I assume is happening. It’s just such an interesting way of running finances, but I assume that’s what’s happening.
And the most of these stylists are also the people who are basically buying color on demand. These are also the people who are requiring clients to submit digital consultation forms so that they know what to buy at the beauty supply store before the client comes in because they’re going to the supply store a few times a week because they don’t have any kind of savings to fund, you know, a big order and they also don’t want to overbuy things. They’re just like literally buying color on demand. Those sorts of systems happen when the, the money is way too tight and the money runs way too tight. It’s called living paycheck to paycheck. When you look at like the simplest terms, that defines any kind of business or person who is literally living and dying by how the money comes in and goes out week to week.
It’s very fragile. These are the kind of people where it’s like if you get injured or you’re out of work unexpectedly, people who have to stress about maternity leave because the thought of taking weeks away from your business, you’re barely, barely, barely catching up as it is. It’s a lot of financial pressure. Profit first removes all that. So what happens is, using that same example, you see clients from February 1st to February 4th. With profit first, there is no, great, my rent is paid for. Nope. A portion of the first person’s visit is gonna be allocated to rent. Another portion of their visit is gonna be allocated to professional savings. Another portion of that visit is gonna be allocated to your personal income. Another portion of that is gonna be dedicated to tax savings. So it’s not like perfect, four clients paid my rent. It’s, you know, 20% of every client goes towards rent.
20% of every client goes towards tax. And I, I made up those 20% that was fake. Don’t follow those numbers. The numbers are actually different for everybody. So my allocations are set by my CPA every year, and they have changed every single year I’ve been in business. My personal profit first allocations are set by my financial advisor because it, it changes all the time based on how you’re living and how you’re spending and what your business looks like. There’s been years where I’ve been able to take really great profit chunks as a business owner, and then there’s been times where it’s been like 2% and you’re lucky. Like it ju- it really depends on what’s going on with the business. So if you haven’t read the book, I strongly recommend it, profit first. It’s amazing. Um, we have some trainings on this within our training portals too to help kind of help you out, but that’s how I really, really strongly suggest that you run your finances is profit first method.
So how do you get started with something like that? You do have to have multiple bank accounts. This is one of those things, I learned this phrase, buy once, cry once. This is one of those. Opening a bank account as a business can be a little bit nightmarish. People always ask me, “What bank should I go with? ” The bank you go with, personal preference. I think there’s a lot of like buzz around banks. I know a lot of people like credit unions. If you have a bank you like, go with that. I don’t have a recommendation for like what bank is better or worse. What I do recommend is that you have at minimum three accounts, whether you’re an employee or you are an independent. Those three accounts would be income, so money coming in, tax savings. If you’re an independent and you need to set aside and save for taxes, you should be setting aside and saving for taxes every single week.
So you need an account for that to go into. That can be a savings account. So money’s gonna be pulling out to go to that savings account. Then ideally, you also have a savings account just for business savings or personal savings. So whether you are an employee or you are an independent, you wanna have that savings account, and that’s gonna be money that can be used in case you have an unexpected expense, you need to put a deposit down somewhere, whatever it is. Savings is savings. Now, if you’re independent, I like you to have an additional account, which is going to be your expenses account. So you have the income account, that’s gonna be a checking account. Whatever processor you use for your payments, whether it be, you know, Square or something else, the money coming in is gonna go right to that checking account.
That’s called your income account. From that income account, you’re gonna allocate to the other accounts. So your tax savings account, your business or personal savings account, and then your expenses account. So your expenses account is what you would use to pay your rent with, to buy salon supplies with. And then you could have an additional account, which is actual income. And that’s the money that you can truly spend. Some people don’t create an additional account for income. If you have a personal checking account, that’s your income account. So you could just withdraw off the business income account to your personal income account. Now, if you are an employee, I still suggest having multiple bank accounts, but you don’t need to create an entire business banking portfolio for yourself. You could just create additional accounts within your existing checking and savings. So usually what happens is people, money comes into the checking account, you get the check from your boss, or you get a direct deposit or whatever, and then you start paying for things, you start paying for bills, you start paying for gas, you start paying for groceries, you start paying for drinks out, whatever it is.
Money comes in, money goes out. We don’t do our personal finances like that. And when we changed how we did personal finance, I cannot even express enough what a beautiful impact it had on my life and my family. And, you know, talking about money and a marriage is hard. This changed everything for us. So money comes in, it goes to the income account. And then same. We have the same thing. So we have an expenses account that all of our bills are paid out of. So that income account funds the bills account. We have our savings account, we have an investing account, and then we also have our free spend account, which is the money that either of us can spend on whatever we want. And when that money’s gone, it’s gone. And we don’t accrue debt. It keeps us in budget. It makes sure all the bills are paid.
There’s, there’s no surprises. So whether you’re an employee or whether you are a business owner, I recommend doing it like that. I know I went through that really fast. If you have additional questions, let me know. But please, please, please. If you are a booth rental or suite owner stylist, do not run business and personal expenses in one checking account. Like the worst thing you could do. I cannot express it enough. If you’re gonna take one thing away from this podcast, it’s you need a business bank account. Do not put income from your business directly into your personal checking account. You will make a financial mess for yourself. Do not do it. Okay. Next, I strongly suggest you sign up for … I like QuickBooks self-employed. You need some kind of bookkeeping system. The reason I like QuickBooks self-employed is it’s very inexpensive. You can get started for 20 bucks a month.
Trust me on this, it will make your life so much easier. It’ll make your tax filing easier. If you were ever to get audited, you’ll have your butt covered. You will know how much money’s coming in, how much money’s going out. And the cool thing about QuickBooks is it sorts everything for you. Your accounting becomes incredibly easy. If you are a independent stylist, you have to pay quarterly taxes. This makes it very streamlined. If you are an employee, again, you do not need the QuickBooks self-employed. This would just be for independent stylists. I promise, promise, promise, we’ll get to you in a moment. As I’m going through this big fat list, if you are an employee, I hope at this point you’re like, “Wow, I’m very fortunate to be an employee at this Crossroads because I don’t have to do so many of these things.” And that is one of the benefits you pay for when you’re an employee is, yes, there’s usually a commission or an hourly wage and the business is keeping some of it, but the reason that your salon owner’s keeping some of it is because they’re doing all these parts and pieces so that you don’t have to.
So employees do have it so much easier. Getting the personal finances organized is still something I suggest for every employee based stylist. I promise you’ll build more wealth that way, and I’ll get back to you in a moment. So if you are an independent stylist, make sure you get that QuickBooks self-employed. It links right to your business banking accounts and it will make your life one trillion times easier. So you’re gonna link it directly to your income and your expenses account so that QuickBooks can monitor everything that’s going on and create the monthly profit and loss statements for you. Next step, if you are an independent stylist, you’re gonna choose your online booking system, choose wisely. There are dozens of them out there. They all have different features and different pros and different cons and different price points. Do your research and find the one that really makes the most sense for you.
This is one of the most important decisions that you’re gonna make. And if you look up Thriving Stylist Podcast, episode 247, I do a breakdown of a lot of the best salon softwares out there, so you can take a look at that as well. Okay. So once we’ve done all of that, then you’re gonna get your branding done. So branding is arguably the most important decision you’re gonna make at this point. So getting the bank accounts done is like my number one have to do it. Branding is so critical. The brand that you build is the heartbeat of your business. It can’t just be choosing colors you like. It can’t just be choosing a cute seed name. It has to be very intentional. Your brand is not a logo and it’s not colors. Those are branding elements. The brand is the subliminal message that gets sent out into the world about you.
And the subliminal message is either, this looks great, I’m probably gonna book an appointment, or it’s, who the heck is this person, or this feels chaotic, or I don’t think they’re for me. And so the brand is critical. In Thriving Stylist Method, we cover branding really early on. We go over that. I have some resources coming out early into 2026 more about branding too. So if you’re not yet in Thriving Sales Method, keep an eye out. Those resources are coming for you, but making sure that you have your brand done before you even take your first clients, really important. We have a lot of people who join our Thriver Society Coaching Program in cosmetology school and work on their brand specifically. So what’s interesting and what’s a little known fact, even employee-based stylists need to have a brand. And in saying that, it should become abundantly clear that a brand is not a logo.
Even an employee-based stylist should have their own brand, and that brand shows up on their personal Instagram account, and it shows up in the way they talk to their clients and who their target market clientele is. They can still use the salon name, the salon logo. All that stuff can be salon related. The stylist as an independent has their own brand, and that’s where branding gets really confusing, and we miss the mark. Only stylists who are deeply branded grow fast and well, so everybody needs a brand, employee, independent, everybody. Next step, you get your website up and running. Notice we have not gotten to social media yet, which is so ironic because social media is the thing that most stylists do like in cosmetology school. They’re like, “Okay, perfect. I’ll start my Instagram.” That’s great. That’s like one of the very last steps. So we’re kind of filling in the gaps that need to happen before that.
So get your website up and running. A website is not the same as the online booking system. So a couple steps back, we did the booking system, this is different. When you have your business set up where it’s just like Instagram and then I click the link in your bio and it goes to a, a booking page, you’re probably losing 70% of potential clients because what it’s saying is, “Cool, you found me on Instagram, you like my photos, give me cash.” You’re missing a really important step in the customer journey, and I don’t doubt you’re booking some clients. What I’m also certain of is you’re losing lots. So the website is the middle piece in that. The website is the number one salesperson in your business. It has to be there, and it’s a missing piece for a ton of stylists. If you work at a salon that has an amazing website, you can likely skip this step.
If it’s branded, if it speaks to your target market clientele, that can serve as this step for you. If they do not, if they have a website, but it’s not for you or your clientele, you don’t have a really gorgeous, very robust bio on there, you’ll likely need to have your own website. So that would be the next step. Next, set up a photo shoot. I know this is super awkward. Even if you are an employee-based stylist, I cannot emphasize enough the power of having professional photos of yourself, and you’ll need them for social media. If you are independent, you’re gonna need them from your website. When I talk to new stylists or growing stylists or struggling stylists, almost always one of their primary concerns is fear of showing up on social media, embarrassment about showing up on social media or not having the content.
I completely understand. Social media is intimidating and scary and all the stuff, but I was having a conversation with a stylist the other day about embarrassment and fear on social media and I said, “If you are making $100,000 a year as a stylist right now, would you still have the same fears about social media?” And they were like, “Well, no, I wouldn’t care what anybody thought.” That’s the mindset you have to have right now, because you’ll never get to 100,000 if you don’t get over the fear of putting yourself out there. And if you’re listening to this in real time, I released a really cool short-term resource. It is a five-part series about how to grow a clientele fast. It includes five podcast episodes and five digital articles. It was released early in 2026. If you missed it, such a bummer. We’re always releasing free resources.
This was a free bundle that’s coming out at that time. It was the Build Your Clientele Fast training series where we talked about how to overcome the fear of putting yourself on social. We talked about pricing. As a stylist and how to, to price yourself to grow fast, we talked about increasing demand and improving guest experience and all that kind of stuff. But the getting over the fear of putting yourself on social was a huge part of that series because I know it’s a piece that holds people back. I promise you having the professional photos removes at least 30% of that fear because that content is gonna position you in a really confident way. It serves as filler content. You’re gonna feel good about it. It’s gonna help get you started. Set up the photo shoot. Next, set up your review platforms. So if you don’t already have those, it’s gonna be Google business profile.
I suggest Yelp, depending on what market you’re in. In all major markets, I suggest you have a Yelp. If not that, then Google Business Profile. If you’re like, “I hate Yelp,” just please know if you do not create a profile for yourself, a client can create one for you. It’s part of the way the platform works. I know a lot of times we talk badly about Yelp because it filters reviews. Google also filters reviews. Instagram has the strongest algorithm of all the social media platforms out there. Your content on Instagram is heavily filtered and removed from your follower’s feeds. It’s the same thing. So everything has an algorithm, everything is filtered. I’m assuming that everybody listening to this podcast episode already has an Instagram. It’s like the one social media piece that I think 90% of our industry gets innately. You can’t skip it. You have to have a social media presence, but I’m recording this episode with the assumption that that’s kind of one of those given things that everybody knows they’re supposed to have.
So assuming you have that, make sure you also set up your review platforms. Reviews serve a very different need and niche than just an Instagram does or a website does or an online booking page does, so make sure that you have those review platforms up as well. Okay. <laugh> That was a huge, huge long list. That’s all the things I suggest you do before you even take your first guest. It’s long. And like I said, this is one of those things that I didn’t realize. It is a really beefy, robust list. It’s so much that has to be done in such a short period of time. Now, if you’re already up and running and you’re like, “Okay, I didn’t do those things,” that’s fine, but give yourself a deadline of when you are gonna do those things. Once those things are in place, then we can get what I call the marketing funnel up and running, and that’s where I can help you fill your chair, 10 to 15 new guest requests every single month, no problem.
That’s very easy, but you have to have these things in place first. And then last things last, once you have all that stuff done, once we’ve set up the marketing funnel for you so that you have a strong demand and your chair is filling and all that kind of stuff, then I do suggest getting a business credit card. That’s an advanced strategy, probably deserves a, an entirely different podcast episode all on its own. If you have additional questions about this, please, please leave me a rating or review on iTunes. Let me know any questions you have. I always scan those ratings or reviews to choose future podcast episodes, all right? As I always say, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
