Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? 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 aren’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 hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva, and this week we’re going to talk about building as a new, a Struggling, or a Sinking stylist.
I don’t know that I’ve ever spoken to this directly, like I don’t know that I’ve ever on the podcast said, “If you’re a brand new stylist to the industry, this is what I would do.” I wanted to take some time this week to talk strategically about what I would do if I was starting to build my clientele all over again or if I was a stylist and I moved to a new state, which you know, if you leave your general geographic area, you are essentially starting over. It’s like you’re back to step one.
Now, on the flip side of that, we also have some established stylists who I would categorize as having longevity in the industry, yet never really getting their business off the ground in the way it could potentially go, so I want to talk to anybody who’s looking to boost their clientele this year, is looking to have a leg up. If they just want that step-by-step of, “Okay, things aren’t going great,” or “I don’t even know where to start, what is step one?” I wanted to dedicate this episode to that.
Now, if you are a seasoned stylist, thank you for tuning in. I’m so happy to have you. I invite you to still listen because this is going to be a great opportunity to circle back to the foundations of building and growing business. There’s a real chance I’m going to say something on this episode that’s going to make you say, “Oof. That’s probably something I could take a look at again,” because even though I’m speaking from the perspective of this is what I would do if I was starting from scratch, the principles are very much the same as where we would start if there was a seasoned stylist who wanted to make more money.
If there was a seasoned stylist who wanted to earn more while working less, if there was a salon owner who was saying, “How do I hire? How do I attract the best and the brightest?”, 90% of these principles are going to apply, so I invite you to tune in.
The other thing you should keep in mind is if this is the advice I’m giving the up-and-coming people joining the industry or maybe people who had been previously playing small, this is your competition who’s about to be coming for you. I’d want to know what they’re up to. I’d want to know what the advice they’re receiving.
So I hope this episode resonates a bit for everybody. I want to start by reminding y’all of my four hair stylist archetypes. I trademarked these way back in 2018 and I have a whole podcast episode dedicated to them. It’s going to be episode 141 and these archetypes essentially made up the foundation of how I decided I wanted to coach in the industry.
If you don’t know, now you know I didn’t start off coaching online. I don’t believe that’s a place that any coach should start. I think that’s playing the slow game. I started off very traditionally coaching stylists and salons in person. This was back in 2012 is when I took my first salon account. We’re over a decade into it at this point and probably about two and a half, three years into my coaching is when I started to really clearly see patterns. I had coached dozens of stylists and salons at this point and made lots and lots of mistakes along the way and really honed in where I wanted to coach, how I wanted to do it, and what my methodology could be.
By this point, essentially Thrivers Society and the entire methodology had been put into practice but hadn’t been necessarily framed out in full. And I said, “Okay, if I’m going to do this in a scalable, tangible way, and if I’m going to create a system that applicably works to every stylist and salon business, and produces a great result, I first need to deeply understand the pain points, the problems, the struggles, the issues of everybody in the industry,” which is no small feat. For the accounts that I had for who I was coaching, I identified these four different archetypes.
Whenever I looked at a business’s status health, if you will, I always compare our two greatest resources in this lifetime: money and time. When you look at business, any business, not just in our industry, but any business, the allocation of money and time and the abundance or the lack of both 1000% dictates the health.
I plot out on a chart where somebody lands based on how much money and how much time they have. When I look at stylists or salons or salon owners who have plenty of free time but are barely getting by, I call those Struggling stylists or Struggling salon owners.
I have to make clear here when I say “plenty of free time,” I know that as I say this, nobody listening to this episode has plenty of free time. Trust me, I know. I’ve talked to so many stylists who are like, “Britt, I would do everything that you say, but I just don’t have the time.”
Well, first of all, my response to that is always, “That’s a shame because if you did do everything I say, not only would you have a massive amount of money, you’d also have an abundance of time.” So to actually apply education, you gain money and time back. But that’s neither here nor there for this episode. But when I say “plenty of free time,” I mean you would like to be taking more clients, you would like to have more hours booked with clientele so you could be making more money. Because if you’re barely getting by, generally speaking, you’d like to have more business.
So when I say “plenty of free time,” it means plenty of hours that you’d prefer to be taking clients, but you’re doing other things. Whether those other things, be your bartending, you’re taking a yoga class, you are nannying, you’re taking care of your children, like whatever it is, you’d like to have more clients.
If you’d like to have more clients and you’re barely getting by financially, you’re what I consider to be a Struggling stylist.
Then we have the Sinking archetype. This is no free time and not enough income. A huge portion of our industry falls into this category. They’re working their booty cheeks off, but they’re not making enough money. I have talked to so many stylists who are like, “Hello, I work 40 hours a week and I’m making $10,000 this year.” “Hello, I work full-time and I’m making $25,000 this year.” When you look at the average income in this industry, no matter what city and state you work in, we’re getting out of the range of livable wage at that point. That is very challenging.
My first year in the industry, my pay stub was less than $20,000. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which happens to be one of the more expensive places to live in the country. I already was a mother of a four-year-old. It was incredibly difficult and so I deeply empathize. I was working more than full-time. I was in the salon working 40 hours a week, taking another eight hours a week of education. I was away from my home 50 hours a week plus commute time. Away from my baby, away from my boyfriend at the time, who’s now my husband, away from my personal life, the life I was trying to build, and I still a lot of times could not put gas in my car. Don’t even ask me how much debt I was in at that point in my life. That would be called Sinking.
I think if you’ve ever been there, you can say, “I know that Sinking feeling, right?” It’s not for lack of effort, but the money isn’t there. That’s archetype number two.
Then I have my Sacrificing stylist, which we’re not going to get super into today because if you are building as a new, Struggling, or Sinking stylist, you’re certainly not Sacrificing, but I’ll touch on it.
The Sacrificing archetype is the stylist who has plenty of money, but no free time. It’s funny because when I joined the industry, this is what I thought success looked like. I saw the stylists around me, whether they be in my salon, the educators I was learning from, who were literally living to work, like working around the clock, making a good living. Don’t get me wrong, [they were] driving nice cars, owning their homes. They could go on fancy vacations, amazing. But I looked at all the sacrifices they were making, sacrifices to their health, mentally, physically, emotionally, sacrifices to their relationships, like failing marriages, failing relationships with their children, and all in the name of money. And they were convinced like, “Well, if you double book, if you work long hours, this is what it’s all about.” And I was like F that. I did not get in the industry for that.
But I think for a lot of us, even still today, we look up to the people who are so deeply in the hustle and grind and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to get there.”
Be careful what you wish for because you talk to any stylist who’s been there and they’re like, how did this happen? It’s a trip. So Sacrificing isn’t what you want either. You can have all the money in the world, but if you lose your entire life to sustain it, what’s the point?
Then we have the Scaling archetype: plenty of money, plenty of free time, and that’s where I coach my stylists to get to and my salon owners to get to in Thrivers Society.
Today we’re focused on the Struggling, the Sinking, and the brand new stylist who doesn’t even know what is happening yet, okay?
When you are Struggling, Sinking, or starting off in the industry, the goal is to get you more guests and more demand, period. The money will come, the free time will come. Anybody who’s actively coached with me will tell you I don’t coach to the hustle in the grind. However, I also believe that when you are starting any kind of new business, new side hustle, new venture, there will be some sacrifice. I think it’s very naive to say, “I’m brand new and I’m going to work this perfect princess schedule.” Go for it. You’re just going to play a really long game. It will take a long, long, long time to build like that. Can you? Of course you can. Anything is possible, and there’s always exceptions to the rule, but I think that stylists need to know today that freedom and flexibility and wealth is earned.
Now, when you coach with me, success and that balance in that dream schedule comes in a matter of months—I’m just going to say anywhere between 12 and 24 months. I believe it’s fully achievable if you are willing to dedicate yourself and make the sacrifice for that long.
If anybody tells you it takes more than two years to build a solid clientele where you can have that freedom and flexibility, I would advise you to find a new mentor or coach. That’s a very old school way of thinking, and ignorance is a choice in today’s world. There are tons of free and paid education resources. We’re going to get into some of those today that can help you, and it doesn’t need to take years and years and years like it used to when I joined the industry. It will take somewhere between 12 and 24 months of hard work, and I want to be honest on that, but if you can make that commitment, you can have it all.
The potential barriers to success, particularly when you’re starting off in the industry—I’ve identified six, these are probably the six most. There are plenty of others.
First is going to be budget. I mean, let’s just call it like it is. Generally, not always, but generally speaking, when you join the industry, money is not something that’s in abundance. You can’t pay to rent a booth full-time without going into debt, right? You need to make cash. You don’t have a huge savings account to live off of. You want to build this business but if you talk to a business advisor, one of the first things they say is, “What is your startup cash? What’s the value of your bank account as you start this business?”
The thing that’s interesting about our industry is nobody tells you when you’re in beauty school, you’re signing up to be an entrepreneur. You’re signing up to be a business owner, even as an employee. I can count on one hand the number of employee-based salons that I know of where the stylists who work there are fed in a full clientele, like the stylists don’t have to market themselves at all. That is exceptionally rare.
Even if you have employees at your salon, I think it’s important to understand you are leading a team of entrepreneurs and you can have entrepreneurs in an employee-based setting who live for the culture. I personally have that, like if you met my team who works for me today, I have 14 phenomenal women who work for me. If you met them and sat down with them, they are all entrepreneurs in their own right. They own their zones, they do their thing, they’re not micromanaged, and they’re here for the long haul. I think that’s pretty rad, and I think that any salon can have that as well.
But when we look at a barrier like budget, I think it’s really important for stylists joining the industry to know that is a concern, and I have some solutions to that.
The second barrier is confidence. I know if you are just starting off in the industry, beauty school was eye-opening for you because you realized, “Whoa, this profession’s a little more complicated than I thought.” “Whoa, I guess I am an entrepreneur and I’m going to have to figure out how the heck to build a clientele.” “Whoa, I’m afraid that I’m going to make a client mad.” “Whoa, there’s so much left to learn about formulation, about cutting, about styling, about texture, about everything, right?” “Whoa, I don’t even know how to have a great consultation.” “Whoa, I just sprayed down the back of my client’s shirt with water, right?” There’s all these things that are scary when you’re first starting off.
Now, even those of you who are seasoned but are moving to a new community, I have watched some of the stylists I admire the most—you know who you are—move to different cities and states and go through an identity crisis of like, “Am I great?” “Am I marketable?” Even if they were a big huge deal in their previous community, when you’re the rookie again in a place where you know nobody or hardly anybody, it is a trip on your confidence so we’re going to talk about all that.
Number three, digital presence. You don’t have to like it, but the internet rules our world. It is so ironic to me when somebody is holding a smartphone in their hand and trying to give me a speech about how much they hate the fact that the industry is so reliant on websites and social media right now. Unless you’re carrying a Nokia flip phone in your pocket, it’s really difficult for me to take that conversation seriously.
Consumers today are living on their smartphones. I’m sorry, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re likely listening to it on your smartphone so how can you say, “I wish we could go back to 1997 when it was all referrals and word of mouth?” You can’t have it both ways.
We live in an internet-based world right now, and so digital presence is critical. It’s how we as humans find everything. I know it’s frustrating to have to learn new skills, and I certainly didn’t think I was going to have to become a photographer when I joined the industry as a stylist. A lot of things I didn’t know when I joined the industry. However, you can’t fight the reality of how the world has evolved. We just have to adapt to it, and I can help you do that.
Then we have online reviews. We are living in a time where social media is actually shaky. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about both TikTok and Instagram. However, what I think is important to understand is that online reviews, your digital reputation is not going anywhere. I find that to be the most stable component of social media today.
And online review sites are social media. Social media is anywhere where a consumer can have a digital conversation about a person, place, or business. Google Business, Yelp, the NextDoor app, all of those more review-type social media platforms, very much considered social media and they land on the Interest level of my Hair Stylist Marketing Funnel. You got to be there, and it’s hard when you’re starting off or when you’re in a new city. You’re like, “I’d love for people to talk about me online. Unfortunately, nobody knows about me,” which leads into point number five.
Nobody knows who you are, so it’s nice to be like, “Yeah, I would love people to rave about me, but I don’t have confidence. I don’t have clients. There’s no digital presence.” It’s like what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Like how would I possibly get reviews? I don’t even have any clients.
I hear you, I get it, we’re going to talk about it.
Lastly, photos of your work. You’ll see there’s a lot of correlation between all of these things, and that’s what makes it overwhelming. Most of you know all of these components, you’re like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it, but how do I start? Like where does this come from?”
Let’s talk about it.
I personally think the very first thing you do is you create an education plan. I always say confidence comes when you’ve already put in the work. I don’t know about you all, but when I was first learning to drive a car, I was scared as all get out. I had trouble knowing which pedal was the gas, which was the brake, what all the letters meant on the shifter, right? What does N mean? It means neutral. I know that now, but at the time I was like, drive, reverse, anything else? I’m not so sure.
Remember the first time you had to formulate by yourself and how you were like, “If I turn her hair orange, I’m just going to walk out the door, like I’m not cut out for this.” Confidence comes when you have education always, in anything in life.
Anybody remember the first few meals they cooked for themselves? My poor husband does. He remembers the first few meals I served to him that he choked down with such grace and he is very thankful that 20 years later I worked it out. But in the beginning of anything, we are uneducated, unexperienced. It doesn’t allow us to be confident. Nobody’s leaving raving reviews about my driving when I’m 15 and a half, right?
Education is the very first thing I would focus on.
Don’t even worry about the Instagram post yet. Time out on any of the marketing. Freaking educate yourself.
Now, I know that because budget is a barrier, you’re not in a place where you want to spend $600 on a program, $200 on a program, like that’s too much of an ask. Understandable, so I want to share some of my favorite free education resources.
Now as I say this, please know that literally every single name I’m about to drop does have a paid program and I would encourage you when you do have the budget for it, pay it back in full, like good karma is a great thing. If you have really soaked up somebody’s free education, really consider supporting them in their paid resources. If you like somebody’s free stuff, you better believe their paid stuff is usually 10 times better. Not always the rule. I’ll say I’ve made some bad investments too, but for the most part, right?
My first resource is—I’m going to shoot my own horn to start and then I’m going to be gracious and share lots of others. But this podcast has almost 300 episodes at the time of this recording. This is the largest, most-downloaded podcast in the industry and I tend to think it’s because of the way I have formatted all of the episodes and I continue to be very strategic in the way that I do it. I want this to be an exceptionally valuable resource.
I would start at episode one, and I would let this be your binge for a while. Listen to the tactical stuff that I share. Listen to the stories, right? You’re going to soak up a ton of information just by listening to the episodes of the podcast.
I just did math. I’m a little shocked myself. If you sit down and listen to every episode of the podcast, it’s about 90 hours of content. That’s a lot of free business-based educational content, like soak it the heck up. I would be be greedy.
The next person I want to shout out as one of my favorite industry speakers, educators, human beings, is Carly who has The Blonde Chronicles. Does anybody obsess over Carly the way that I do? You can find her on Instagram @the.blonde.chronicles.
What I love about Carly is she is very generous in the way she shares simplified, tactical, color-based, communication-based education. She just makes it easy. She doesn’t try to make it intimidating, she doesn’t try to flex. She makes it so tangible that you can’t help but love her. So when you wonder why she has a huge following or why people adore her, look at how she talks. Look at how she speaks. I learned from her, and I’m not even doing hair on the regular anymore. I would follow Carly.
She also has an amazing paid membership that’s wonderful as well if you want more in-depth color tutorials and it is at such an affordable cost. I don’t get any kickback if you work from Carly. I just deeply admire her work. So she’s @the.blonde.chronicles. Soak it up. She’s got some really great posts and resources.
Next, I want to shout out Cara Williams on Instagram. She’s @haircolorkilla, all one, haircolorkilla, all one handle. What I love about Cara is she is also somebody who shares very openly on social media what she’s learned about color formulations, toner, troubleshooting. If I was a new stylist, I would obsess over everything she posts because again, I learned just by looking at what she’s posting on social. I’ve seen her speak, she’s a fantastic educator, but she’s also generous in what she shares to those who maybe aren’t ready to make the investment. I would fully follow her.
@Sydneyannlopezhair. Man, if I don’t love the way Sydney teaches. I think there’s a real difference between people who are smart and people who are good educators. Sydney’s a really good educator and whenever I follow her on social, I’m like, “Wow, I learned about color placement.” “Wow, I learned about photography.” “Wow, I learned about styling.” “Wow, I learned about confidence.” She’s very well-rounded. If I was a new stylist, I’d obsess over her.
Then lastly, I want to shout out my girl, Miriam. She’s @lovemiriamg. What I like about Miriam is she keeps it simple. Miriam specializes in one thing and you’ll see it repeated over and over and over on her feed. She doesn’t have an overly complicated Instagram feed. Her content isn’t overly produced and she kills it, like her business is blown up and she does a couple things and she does them really well. And again, as somebody who doesn’t even do hair anymore, I learn so much just by watching what she does.
Even if you don’t have a budget, I would really lean into all of those resources to learn and get started and start connecting with what really good education looks like.
Talking about digital presence, so this is going to be my Hair Stylist Marketing Funnel. I have several podcasts on this. I released a series back in December of 2022. Let me give you those podcast numbers. If you listen to Thriving Stylist Podcast episodes 259, 260, 262, you are going to get really great insights on everything that relates to the Hair Stylist Marketing Funnel, so I would really, really lean in there and what you’ll find is I talk a lot about all of the elements of digital presence, so defining who your target market is, who it is you want to attract to your business.
Building a website for your clientele is the very first thing I would do.
I’ve talked about this openly. If you’re sick of hearing about it, that’s okay. I’m going to be talking about this for the next two years, so buckle up. You might as well settle in. My daughter is currently in cosmetology school. Her boyfriend, who I adore, is currently in a barbering program. I’m watching these two kids very closely about what it looks like to navigate both sides of the industry right now. I’m very thankful they both turn to me for insights. They don’t super love learning from me ’cause they see me as Brittainy, the person that I am in real life, but they also can respect the knowledge I have, and they both say, “Okay, what’s,”—they’re intimidated by building a clientele. I understand, and for both of ’em, I said, “We’re going to start with the website. I don’t even care about your Instagram. Let’s not focus on reviews. Let’s figure out who it is you want to work with and let’s build you a freaking website,” because I know so much boils down to that.
I saw another article recently about “You won’t believe this, but websites still matter for salons.” No shit. Are we really so shocked that websites still matter in the digital world that we’re living in? In a time where Instagram is so deeply unstable, in a time where TikTok is being talked about being banned in the United States, we’re shocked that websites, the only piece of the internet you can possibly own, are still important.
Friends, come on, let’s get real here.
So I’m like, “Okay, we’re going to own your digital piece of the internet first.” And you can’t just have a website. Your website has to be banging, especially as we step into 2023 and 2024. So I’m helping these kids build incredible websites and by helping them, I’m showing them where to go. You should know me as a parent, my daughter had to start paying her own car insurance, her own cell phone bill, her own car registration, car payments, everything, the moment she turned 18, it’s not because I’m mean. It’s because I want to raise self-sufficient adults and so I’m going to show them where to go, they’re going to have to pay for it, figure it out. I have lots of tools and resources to help them, but that’s what these kids are working on right now.
And if you move to a new city or state, if you’re building from scratch, 1000%, I would coach you to start with the website. Once you know who you’re trying to reach, how to build an effective site and it’s done, then we worry about social media.
Talking about social media, where do you start? Well, you do need some photos to start on social media. If you’re still in beauty school, start taking photos now and we get embarrassed and we’re like, “Well, I don’t want people to think like I’m new to the industry. I don’t want people to think I’m still in school,” but you are. That is your reality. Let’s not hide from the reality. Let’s own where we are and enjoy the journey. It’s really fun.
If you’re new to the industry and you talk to somebody seasoned, there’s nothing more powerful than scrolling deep in somebody’s feed and looking at their humble beginnings and seeing where they are now. It makes you appreciate and be proud of that person in such a deep way because you realize, dang, look where they started and look where they are now. You’ll be proud of yourself and others around you will be proud of you, so don’t hesitate to show where you’re at, photos of your clients in beauty school.
If you are moving to a new community, please, please beef up the photos of your clientele.
Now you can recycle photos. I coached to this in Thriving Stylist Method. Ain’t no shame in that game. Today’s best and brightest do it all the time. You should be doing it too. But a good goal is to take 25 photos of every guest you see, even if you hate how the hair turned out. You know why? Because even if you never post those photos, I want you to get used to taking pictures of clients, get used to posing clients, get used to practicing writing captions. It’s okay to not know what you’re doing yet, but you’re not going to get better unless you put in the reps.
You’re going to need to start trying 25 photos of every guest you see, push through the awkward. You need to start building your content bank.
Then we get to online reviews. I do have some podcasts about online reviews. I’ll do another one about how to get more, lots of training on how to get online reviews and Thriving Stylist Method verbiage to use, techniques to use how to do it without being scammy.
Those reviews will come, but for now, worry more about the branding, the website, and getting the photos as you start to show up as a professional with your website, taking pictures, talking about your referral program. The reviews will come. Be patient, own your journey where you’re at. We will get them. But I want you to establish that digital footprint.
Now, lastly, I want you to choose active marketing awareness. Let me tell you what passive marketing is: hashtags, geotagging yourself in a location on Instagram, asking for referrals. All of that is very passive. That’s hope-and-pray marketing. “I throw this out there and hopefully something great happens.”
When you’re starting off, you’re going to have to be active, you’re going to have to actively comment on other social profiles, not wait for people to come to you. You’re going to have to put yourself out there in your market, whether it be promoting yourself on Nextdoor, promoting yourself to a new local business, shaking hands, kissing babies, offering a promotion to a local community, like you’re going to have to get in the mix.
I have a whole section in Thriving Stylist Method about local network marketing, but as a new stylist, get your hustle on.
When I first started building clientele, this is old school, but guess what? Old schools to do school, it’s coming back around. I sent out postcards. I probably spent 50 bucks on this promotion. All went on the credit card. Don’t suggest credit card debt, but your girl had to do what she had to do to get by. I spent probably 50 bucks on postcards and postage, and I went through every freaking name in my address book, in my mother-in-law’s address book, like everybody I could think of because I knew nobody in the community I was building in. I can’t emphasize that enough. Well, I knew my husband and my mother-in-law. I didn’t know anybody else, no friends, no family, nothing, and so I essentially wrote postcards to strangers, people from high school, old school. I probably got eight clients that way out of probably a hundred postcards, but that’s okay. I had somewhere to start and you don’t have to start there.
But what I’m saying is like tap into what you got. Do a few kind of tough haircuts, tough styling services. Put yourself out there, work through the funk, and you’ll find that you build your confidence along the way.
When you don’t have a client in your chair, you better be learning. Lean into that free education. Pay for it when you can. Lean into learning to take social media photos, learning to consult, working on doll heads. The more you pour in, the more you get out. Invest in yourself and it will happen faster than you think.
I hope you’ve gotten some great insights from this podcast. Leave me a rating or review and let me know if you have any more questions.
So much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
