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 we are going to tap into what we started last week, which is how are stylists screening to find good salons today? And I had to do my research on this topic a couple of different ways.
I happen to be working with some stylists who were navigating a salon move, like they were not happy with where they were. And just so you know, if a stylist ever reaches out to me in the DMs and is like, “Britt, I’m not happy. I feel like I need to work in another salon,” the first thing I do is I actually try to convince them to stay. Just so you know if you’re a salon owner and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, Britt’s trying to get everybody to leave,” no.
If you’re a stylist who’s ever reached out saying you want to leave, you know that this is true. Generally I start by asking questions. I’ll say something like, “All right, tell me what’s going on. Have you tried to talk to your owner about your concerns? Here are some things that you might be able to put into place.”
Then sometimes I see more toxic behavior that’s bad for somebody’s mental health or wellbeing, in which case I’ll say, “You know, it probably is best for you to move on.” Usually what I say is, “Next steps are, listen, make a list of your non-negotiables and find salons in your area that can hit those benchmarks for you.” But nine times out of 10 it’s not as severe.
Almost always when a stylist reaches out to me ’cause they’re looking for a new salon or they’re feeling nervous, like they should leave, but they don’t want to leave, which is super common by the way.
And y’all, if you have stylists leaving you, very often they’re reaching out to me and they’re like, “I love my owner. I wish I could stay, but there’s nowhere for me to grow.” Or “I’m no longer being challenged,” or “they’re not letting me do what it is I want to do.”
Remember last week we talked about how freedom and flexibility was the number one thing that stylists are looking for today? So often you’re losing stylists because you’re not interested in adapting and that’s okay. You can build whatever salon you want, but more often than not when stylists are reaching out to me ‘cause they’re looking for a move, it’s not because they’re in these extremely bad situations. They’re just not happy and so I always try and talk them through, like “Listen, talk to your owner, see what’s possible. Is there opportunity, is there place for education? Can you overcome this?”
If not, then they make that non-negotiables list and the search begins.
I’ve done some research on what those stylists are doing for their research.
What current seasoned stylists are looking for when they’re looking for a new salon. Listen, generally speaking, when a stylist reaches out to me and they’re looking for a change, these are high achievers, high performers who are reaching out and, and they’re reaching out almost in shame because they know that they had a good thing going and their owner just isn’t growing with them, adapting with them, whatever it is.
Then also, I have my daughter—by the time that this podcast comes out, she’ll have been graduated for some time, but at the time of this recording about to graduate from beauty school. You probably heard her on the podcast a few weeks ago and I’ve been into her school several times and I got the chance to talk to her and her peers and find out, hey, what’s cooking? How are you finding salons that you want to work at? Oh my goodness, we could do a whole podcast episode on what her school experience has been like. I have to tread very lightly on that one. But whoa, I’ve learned a lot of things about what beauty schools do and don’t look like these days.
I’m coming from the perspective of what new stylists coming out of beauty school are looking for and what seasoned stylists are looking for. What’s interesting is their process for finding a new salon to work at is very similar, very similar with a couple of nuances.
Let’s talk about the difference between a seasoned stylist looking for a place to work and a new stylist looking for a place to work. Let’s start with a new stylist, like somebody who’s in cosmetology school and I want to debunk some myths.
What all of us do over time is we become jaded. I’m jaded, you’re jaded, and we start to see the world through our own filtered view. Until my daughter went to school, I in many ways forgot what it was like to be in the mindset of a beauty school student. We think that they have the knowledge, the interests, the insights that those of us who are more seasoned might have. They don’t. Not a single person in my daughter’s beauty school knows who Britt Seva is. She went under the radar the entire time. Nobody was like, “Oh my goodness, are you Brit Seva’s daughter?” Nobody in her beauty school was interested in learning business-based education. It is not on their mindset at all. They’re not worried about building a clientele. It is so different than in my mind what it should be.
You know how it’s like hindsight’s 2020, so I’m always like, “Wow, if I could go back and go back to beauty school and do things differently, I would. I would try and take more clients, I’d try and learn more. I’d try to build on social media,” like I’d be focused on building my brand early. These beauty school students, their mind is just not there. They feel so soft in skills that they’re not even thinking about that, like that is so far from their mind. They’re terrified to build a clientele. We’re out here like, “Let me teach you how to build a clientele,” and they’re like, “That sounds terrifying. I don’t want any part of it.”
That was interesting to me in—a lot of salons are like, “We teach you education and we’ve got this path for you.” We’re speaking so far above their heads, it’s bananas. They’re coming from a really simplified, uneducated viewpoint when they’re still in school and just coming out.
That doesn’t mean that they are totally naive to what they need and what they’re looking for, but their criteria for what they’re looking for is very different. Versus a seasoned stylist has walked the walk, talked the talk, and their criteria is not the same.
For example, both new stylists and seasoned stylists are looking for salons that do provide clientele. I started talking about the shift probably 18 months ago. This came sometime after the pandemic where it became the responsibility of the salon to build a clientele for the stylists. We can say that’s unfair, that’s totally fine. It’s also the truth. It is what it is because the argument became like, well, if I have to build a clientele for myself, if I have to find my own models to do hair on, like if I have to do all that myself, why shouldn’t I just rent a booth or work in a studio suite? If I have to do it all myself anyway, why would I not just do it by myself?
This is where salon owners are getting themselves into a pickle because when I joined the industry—I’m going to make myself sound like a dinosaur. When I joined the industry in 2007, do you know how hard it was to find education? It was so hard. The only way I could educate myself was to fly myself across the country to go to an education hub or to find a salon who was regularly bringing in solid, proven educators.
Independent education did not exist in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. Independent education hasn’t even been around a decade yet. Does everybody have a grip on that? Independent education changed everything. The internet changed everything. Social media changed everything.
What happened even a decade ago is salons were able to leverage things like education, opportunity. There just wasn’t as much awareness, so salon owners could put all these hoops to jump through. You’ve got to brand yourself, you’ve got to market yourself, you’ve got to put yourself out there, you’ve got to find models for these classes and they could put all these requirements on things.
Well, the world has really changed. And while stylists do want education, they also are not willing to jump through as many hoops. The more hoops you create, the more likely they’re going to say, “That’s cool. If I have to jump through all these hoops, I’m going to do it on my own and I’m going to keep more of the money.”
I’m sorry, I don’t love it. I wish it wasn’t that way. But it is the mindset and I think it’s important to talk about. If you are a salon leader, a true leader, your salon brand should be building enough of a buzz that you’re able to find models for new stylists to work on in the classes. They shouldn’t have to be hustling to do that themselves. That should be a perk and benefit of working for you.
You should be creating so much demand for a client to simply be in your space, be in your ambiance that stylists are gaining the benefit of. When I work for Seva Salon, I do get several clients a month and they are viable target market clients.
Now driven stylists want to be even more in control and they will build their own brand and reputation so that their own clientele is filling their chair faster than the salon clients, which is great. That’s where we want everybody to get to. But at the beginning, stylists are looking for salons that will fill their chair, but they’re looking for a lot of other things too.
What I found was interesting is the first thing that both seasoned and new stylists are looking for is branding. It made my little Thrivers Society heart so happy because I feel like the work I’ve been doing for the past decade is finally paying off and it’s coming together because there is a real difference between the average salon down the street and a well-branded salon with culture and messaging and where it is visually apparent that this salon knows what’s up before a stylist even walks through the doors. Branding counts.
Let me tell you what’s branding. Branding is the way your website looks. It’s the way your social media looks. It’s the name of your services, it’s the colors that you use, it’s the decor of your salon. And P.S., just because everything matches doesn’t mean it’s branded well. If you haven’t updated your logo in 15 years, it’s probably time. It’s probably way overdue.
We need to look at what we can do to be a place and space that really drives business. If your salon is barely sustaining, it will be very difficult to attract a driven stylist who wants to work for you. So branding.
Next is online reputation. It doesn’t follow very far behind branding. Notice I didn’t say Instagram. This has been very interesting to me and this is one of the differences. Seasoned stylists will look for salons to work out on Instagram. When I talk to the beauty school, that is not it, which I was like, “Y’all, you’re not on Instagram?” and they’re like, “No, no, no, no, no. We know that the industry is on Instagram.” What they don’t know how to do is use Instagram to find great salons in their area.
I’m not talking about like oh the stylists who are never going to cut it. I’m talking about the driven stylists. They are not trying to find you on Instagram. A lot of it is because the platform has really changed and it’s not as easy to find businesses on Instagram as it once was.
Then we say things like, “Oh, they’re looking on TikTok.” No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Make no mistake about it. Gen Z stylists do not want to be marketed to by businesses on TikTok. Now do Gen Z stylists follow educators on TikTok that teach color and cutting and techniques? Yes. They like that but it’s not necessarily where they’re going to find a place to work.
Now in some cases it is, but here’s the catch is that TikTok has not been great at helping people to find local small businesses. My daughter could find a salon in Miami that she would love to work at. We’re based in California. I don’t know how you think the Seva family runs, but honey, this mama is not paying for her apartment in Miami. Not a chance. She’s going to have to pay her way to whatever it is she wants to do. That’s not going to work out.
She obsesses over some educators throughout the country that at some point I’m sure she’ll fly out to see, but working at their salon is not a viable option for her.
Finding local stylists, they’re Google searching, literally.
Now seasoned stylists will lean into Instagram because they’ve built an established network there. They’re more aware of what other options are in their area.
The reason I say online reputation is you have to make sure that you’re diversifying your efforts. One of the best places to do that to start is simply Google yourself. Google name of your salon, Google best salon in your city or state.
I’m sitting here in San Mateo, California, right now, so I might search best salons in San Mateo, California, and see what comes up, right? Best salons in the San Francisco Peninsula. That’s a good place to start.
Also searching your salon name and seeing what the story tells. All the time, I’ll do these searches, like I’ll be doing funnel reviews for Thrivers and they’ll be like, “Can you look at my website?” and I’m like, “Sure.” I’ll type in their name and the city and state that they’re in and their website doesn’t even come up.
And not only does their website not come up, their Instagram doesn’t come up, maybe an old dated Facebook page that they haven’t updated in months is what comes up.
You don’t get to be in the driver’s seat of what Google pulls up for you unless you choose to hop in that seat. It’s not just going to magically happen. You have to put in effort for a Google search to index the way you want it to.
Online reputation is next and that’s for both season and new stylists.
Then we have structure. What I am finding is that both season and new stylists want structure balanced with flexibility, which is the fourth thing. And like we talked about last week, 71% of people said flexibility is the number one thing they’re looking for when they choose a salon home, so you have to find the balance between flexibility and structure.
This is a really healthy tension point in my mind. When you look at successful businesses, there’s always healthy tension. It’s actually one of the key indicators of a successful business. If everything is too easy peasy lemon squeezy, it means the business isn’t pushing itself hard enough. There should be some level of tension and the relationship between structure and flexibility is a place where often there is.
You know how there’s this idea that if somebody says flexibility, it means they don’t want any rules. Did anybody grow up in a family where they didn’t have a curfew? I did not, but I was also a wild child who would sneak out of my house in the middle of the night. My poor parents, I’m surprised they ever slept at all. So your girl needed one. Like I was already like a feral cat. I needed as much control as possible.
My daughter never had a curfew, didn’t need one. However, our family is very structured and she knew—I said, “You don’t need a curfew, girl, just make good choices.” She’ll tell you it is a very famous quote in the Siva household, “Make good choices, have a good time, make good choices.” I say that almost every time she leaves the house and she does. She’s been raised that way. She also knows that if she chose to come strolling in at 3:00 AM, I would make her life miserable for weeks because the structure of our family is be respectful. Your dad and I are not going to sleep until you get home, so keep that in mind. You have a young brother here, like be a role model, be an example. I want you to be the sober driver for your friends. There were values we instilled into that child so that she had a lot of freedom and flexibility. If you ever see her, you should ask her and she’ll tell you the same thing. She had all the freedom in the world because we have deep structure in our family. There are very serious expectations, very serious repercussions if you do not follow them, and the reward you get for all of that is as much freedom and flexibility as you want.
You can find that in the salon space as well. So when I say the dichotomy between structure and flexibility, it’s things like a growth path but a growth path that the stylist is in the driver’s seat of. Very much like the growth path of like the nineties and the early two thousands was like you achieve all of these things and then you get this promotion which equals $5, then you do this other thing and that equals a promotion that that means another day and another it’s like so overly complicated. It’s almost like playing video games, like unlock the tomb and then the demon comes out and then you get 16 golden coins.
It’s like we’ve created these really cuckoo bananas growth paths in the salon that are way too complex. When you create your growth path, I want you to think like corporate America. How does corporate America work? You do a good job, you get a raise. Does good job mean that you check every single thing on your job description? No. Do you know how many people have become VPs and presidents of companies only doing half of their job description? However, the result they produce is so stellar and they add to the culture of the business in such an incredible way, but the business needs them even though they only do half their job description. The result is still stellar and they’re an incredible team player so they get promoted. That’s how corporate America works.
We have made progress so complicated in our industry, it’s becoming nearly impossible and that’s very discouraging and why people say “F it, I’m just going to rent a suite.” If your growth path and plan is so convoluted and you don’t allow me freedom and flexibility, that’s fine. I’m just going to do it by myself. You have to create a structure where it is motivating to stay.
When I say the dichotomy between structure and flexibility, that’s what they’re looking for.
How will they know they found it? Okay, well, first of all, like I said, a seasoned stylist will look you up on Instagram. A newer stylist will always start with Google. Both are going to Google you either way. Online reviews count a lot, your website counts six times. Your website doesn’t count once, it counts 16 times. Okay? Your website is very, very, very critical. If your website is junky, you’re going to hire a junky stylist, I’m sorry, it’s just the way that it is today.
Then they’re going to look at social media to see what kind of work it is that you do. Do you do the services that this person is looking for? That’s the next step.
Then they look at the site again to figure out the next steps. Your employment page is very important. I want you to think of your employment page as a sales page. I will tell you, I was trying to help my daughter look for places to work. I mean maybe one of the 20 salon websites we looked at had even enough information for me to support her in making a viable decision. It was so bad. And I tend to think salons are missing out on really good people simply because of bad websites and lack of information. It’s so bonkers to me. I’m like, “Man, you’re not even trying.” And then when salon owners are complaining about they can’t hire stylists, I’m like, “But are you trying, like your website looks like you don’t even care.” You have to sell me.
You know how I’ve talked about—you’ve probably heard me talk about this before. Our industry is very much like real estate. Sometimes it’s a buyer’s market, sometimes it’s a seller’s market. Right now we’re in the this weird, funky, hybrid space where in some markets, it’s a buyer’s market. In some markets it’s a seller’s. From 2000 and probably like ‘16, ‘17, up until 2022, it was pretty much a seller’s market. Sellers got to drive the prices up. Buyers were trying to buy things off market ‘cause as soon as something went to market, there was multiple offers.
That is not the market today. It is much more of a buyer’s market right now than a seller’s market. In our industry, it is a stylist’s market, not a salon owner’s market. Salon owners, I’m sorry, you are not in the driver’s seat unless you are the elite 1%. The elite 1% of salons are still in the driver’s seat. They have the drawer full of resumes like I talked about last week. If you’re in that position, I’m cheering you on and giving you a high five. I know that you’re the ****. That’s amazing. But for the vast majority stylists get to be picky. If you’re not trying to sell the dream of working with you on your employment page, you’ve already lost the battle. Don’t bother running ads. Don’t put up something on Craigslist. Don’t go to Indeed. Don’t post something on social media saying you’re hiring. Literally don’t even try until you get your website employment page right and tight.
Next, structure, organization, and what specifically they’ll learn is what they are seeking. Not generalization, specifics. Very specific who’s teaching, what they’re teaching, what the schedule’s like, how long it’s going to take, what promotion looks like, how much money can I make? Just like the kind of job listing you would find if you were going to work at Apple or Google or Meta or any of these tech companies. That level of detail is what people are looking for today.
Now, like I said, decor, style, and branding really matters. What does your salon look like on the inside? Are people happy? Oh, here’s something that was interesting. My daughter actually went to a job interview to a great salon, to be totally honest, and she called me when she left and she was like, “That’s a no.” And I was like, “Okay, get out of here to take a step back for a second. It’s not a no. Tell me what’s going on.” She’s like, “No, Mom. It was like seriously a no.” And I said, “Why?” And she said, “None of the stylists were nice to me.” And I said, “Were you nice to them?” She was like, “Mom, you know me. I smiled, I said hi to everybody. I made eye contact, I introduced myself,” and I will tell you my daughter is 19 going on 35. She is mature, she’s not perfect. She’s still a young person, but she has great manners and I don’t doubt that she did smile and was warm to everybody and she was like, “It was like I was a burden being there.”
For anybody who has even the slightest inclination of like, “Well, it’s because she’s Britt Seva’s daughter and people feel it,” type of way, I’m telling you no, it’s not like that at all. At all. These people had no idea who I was and they were just cold to her.
She’s like, “I can’t imagine being in a place where I’m not wanted.” For those of you who have stylists on your team who are negative or nasty or create drama or think that they’re like king bees or queen bees, really check yourself on that because you could lose out on really great talent because of that.
What if there was a stellar stylist in your area who was looking for a new salon home and maybe that person’s already doing 80 grand a year in services and they come into your place in space and all of the other stylists are mean and catty because they see that stylist as a threat. Now you’re going to lose out on great talent because you’re the rest of your team can’t handle it. That is inappropriate and you really have to think about stuff like that.
Decor, style, branding, culture matters and people are screening for that.
Lastly, stylists want to work at the place that’s hard to get into. That’s why I go back to if you’re running ads for people to work for you, if you are like, we’re hiring, we’re hiring, come on in, we’re still hiring, we’re still hiring. It’s like, would you want to go?
Have you ever walked by a restaurant and you’re like, “Ooh, that restaurant’s empty. It’s probably not very good.” Versus you walk by a restaurant that is packed on a Wednesday night at 5:30 PM and you’re like, “Damn, that place is probably great.” That’s how stylists feel when they’re looking for a place to work.
Even as I talk about this, some of you are like, “Britt, I am desperate to hire, but I am not that dream salon to work at.” I know this is hard advice. Hold off on hiring until you’re that dream salon. I hate the saying “if you build it, they will come,” because I don’t believe that’s true in full. But you do have to build it first before you summon people there versus saying, “Come on in, I promise we’ll get better.” It’s “Come on in, you won’t find anything better.” That’s the messaging we want to go.
I hope this has given you a starting place to like where to go if you’re looking for key talent today.
Main takeaways. It is a stylist’s market, not a salon owner’s market. If you’re a salon owner, you are at the mercy of the marketplace right now.
If you want to be catching the best of the best, you need to look like the best of the best. Competition is stiff.
It has to be more worthwhile to work for you than to work independently on their own.
Education is in abundance everywhere.
So what can you do to beat out all of that? How can you provide a place that has the flexibility, the structure, the reputation, the clientele flow, the culture, the compensation, everything to make your salon the place everywhere wants to be?
Y’all, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
