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 today’s episode was so much fun to prepare for because the content is not from me at all. It’s from you all, which is my absolute most favorite kind.
I get asked all the time, “What is it going to take for me to break through financially?” I think that it almost seems like being a successful stylist is a legend or a myth or “Maybe one day…” It just seems so out of touch and out of reach and almost elusive or reserved for only a certain segment of the industry.
That’s not true.
What I decided would be fun is rather than coming on and doing a tactical episode where I’m like “the marketing funnel,” and I talk about the things I always talk about, I was like, “What if I reached out to literally six-figure stylists and said, ‘What are the changes you needed to make in your business to hit six figures? What are the changes you are needing to make in your business to scale beyond?’”
The responses I got back were so phenomenal. What was great is some of the things that they said, I was like, “Yeah, obviously,” because I knew. Then some of the things I was like, “Wow, that is so profound.”
I just want to thank everybody who participated. When I asked the question if you responded, thank you. I read through every single response. We had a few hundred. What I loved is how vulnerable people were and how honest people were. It wasn’t like, “I just improved my Instagram,” like people really got deep with me on it. I just want to thank you for trusting me with your heart and your soul and your truth. It was really incredible to read and I read through every single one, so thank you.
What I decided to do when I look back at the data was to organize this into categories. Whenever I’m doing something like this, I’m looking for patterns. I’m not looking for the one-off, like somebody says something incredible that they did.
But if I’m like, “That’s really obscure, it’s not really repeatable,” or they’re the only one that said it—I don’t always love sharing that advice because it’s like, will lightning strike twice?
One of the things I’m big on is I don’t coach to how to go viral on social media or how to create your own something unique. Those are all rare, shot-in-the-dark success strategies. I want to share a podcast where it’s like if you do these things, you will find success whether you live in a small town or a big city, whether you’re a barber or you specialize in extensions. No matter who you are, no matter what you do, I want this podcast to be for you.
That was the vantage point that I went with.
First things first. Whenever I say what does it take to make $100K or what does it take to be a six-figure stylist, without a shadow of a doubt, every time I use that word, somebody will say, “What do you mean, net or gross? It’s different.”
When people ask me that, I do—you can tell probably by the tone in my voice—I feel a little bit of a type of way about it. Either—for most of you, if you were to do a hundred thousand dollars in services, wouldn’t you be super amped on that? That is such an incredible accomplishment. Do you realize less than 12% of our industry is doing that?
When people ask that question of, “What do you mean net or gross?”, I almost feel like it’s of that mindset of “Well, a hundred thousand dollars gross is not that good,” or “It’s not good enough,” or something like that. If 88% of our industry is not doing that right now, doing a hundred thousand dollars gross is stellar, you’re literally in the top 12% of the industry.
The reason why I wanted to just say that for a moment is both numbers are phenomenal.
Now, to get to a hundred thousand dollars net, we have to do what I call scale. You can’t do $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 in services in our industry if your business is structured like it was when you were doing a hundred thousand dollars in services. We’re actually talking about two different businesses at that point. You can’t just use the same vehicle to travel a new journey. You need to restructure the business.
When I say a hundred thousand dollars, am I talking gross? Am I talking net? I am talking both. If you do not yet earn a hundred thousand dollars gross, this is for you. If you already earn a hundred thousand dollars gross and you’re shooting for net, still listen up because I will tell you from personal experience, several of the people who responded to this survey are doing well over $200,000 in services a year.
We have a good mix of feedback of those who are doing a hundred thousand gross, doing a hundred thousand plus net. We have a good cross section and we’re going to go through all of the feedback.
When I broke it down, there were seven very clear shifts that these very successful stylists made to get them to where they are, so I want to go through each of the shifts individually, give a little bit of detail, and then keep it pushing.
Oh, also I organize these shifts in order of importance. These might surprise you.
The first shift I want to talk about is pricing. A lot of you probably are like, “Oh, okay, well to make that much money, you need to be charging a way higher price point or definitely be raising your prices.”
One of the things I always say is that as a business coach—reckless pricing advice or saying things like “You’re overbooked, raise your prices,” that’s incredibly reckless advice. The action that needs to be taken if somebody is overbooked or maxed out or is feeling too much pressure from their clientele, the answer is not always raise your prices.
I think that default answer is a very antiquated way of thinking in our industry. I know many, many, many stylists who were screwed over by price increases thinking that that was the end-all be-all solution and it’s just not.
The reason I put pricing first is it was actually the least popular answer, but there were a few people who said pricing and I want to go over what they said.
Number one, “Raising prices with confidence and not feeling bad about it at all.”
Number two, “Charging accordingly.”
“I stopped emotional discounting altogether.”
Next response: “Using the Thriver Society pricing calculator to actually price what I should instead of making up my prices based on what other people were doing in my market.”
Response number five: “Shifting to session based pricing.”
Then response number six was another vote for no more emotional discounting.
I want to talk about session-based pricing for a second. In Thriving Stylist Method, I break down the three most common pricing methods in our industry today. The three most common pricing methods are a la carte, session-based, and hourly. I break down all three. All three work. None of them are perfect for everybody and I believe that different pricing methods make sense for different specialties, different stages of business, different markets. In Thrivers, we take a look at, “Okay, I know you think this pricing method over here is cool, but what does your clientele think is cool?”
Session-based pricing is something that a lot of people do well with when they are ready to scale. Entry-level stylists, it generally will sink your business. But when you’re in a place of growth and scalability and you’re ready to crank it up, session-based pricing is often something I lean into coaching to and it can make such a massive difference.
Session-based pricing gives you the highest profitability per hour of any pricing method out there. However, like I said, it’s kind of reserved for the successful. If you put it into place too early, it can be devastating, which is why I don’t coach to pricing unless somebody’s a part of my coaching program and I can pull up their calculator and looking at the data and all the things, but also I don’t want you to jump to it too fast. But it is something that when you put it into place in your business, it’s fuel to the jet. It’s huge.
Number two were the schedule shifts and I’m obsessed with these.
First answer, “Slowing down, less hours behind the chair, and having an office day.” I loved that. One of the things that’s a little secret of Thrivers is if you coach with me, you will work less and make more. One of my first requirements is to get you working behind the chair 20% less. I have yet to coach to that, have somebody actually do the system in full, and not make more money. So it’s interesting that somebody responded saying that ’cause I do believe it’s true.
This is one of my favorites. This was a laugh out loud for me. I’m obsessed. This person said, “I stopped looking for reasons to block off my schedule and leave work early or late. I set my schedule and I max it out every single week.”
The reason I laughed is ’cause it was so relatable. I can remember being in the salon and a client would want to book an appointment and I would book an open slot for a stylist and they would come in and ream me and be like, “Why did you book so-and-so at the end of my day? I was hoping to leave early.” I don’t know, because you are open to take clients at 3:00 PM on a Friday.
Often, we do that. We’re like, “You took my morning spot. I was hoping not to come in that early.” Do you want to make money or not? I mean, it’s truly a choice in this industry. What it reminded me of is—does everybody remember, I think it was early 2023, it could have even been 2022 when Kim Kardashian made that super famous statement that really got her into some hot water. And the statement was “Get your ass up and get to work,” when somebody asked her, “What is the advice that you give women who want to become more successful?” I understand the point she was trying to make. The way that she did it was a little much and a little aggressive and I totally understand that. But I think the point she was trying to get at when she said that was the point that this stylist was expressing, like stop looking for reasons to block yourself off. Stop making excuses. Stop saying “I’m going to come in late, I’m going to leave early.” Commit to a schedule and then max it out and work it.
It doesn’t mean never take time off, work morning, noon and night, like bust ass. I don’t believe in that. I don’t even believe in hustle culture. I don’t believe in any of that stuff. But if you are somebody who does fall into the category of trying to get out of it or doing as little as possible, that’s fine. You can do that, but you will limit your financial growth.
Another person echoed something similar: “Being consistent with my schedule. I’m not constantly changing my hours or adjusting my day when I have gaps. I always work my full schedule. When I need a vacation, I take one.”
Both of these stylists are saying, “I set a schedule and I work it.” If you only want to work 20 hours a week, then create that schedule but then be there. Do not find excuses not to work. If you want to really make maximum income, consistency is key.
Then another one, actually same track: “When I’m in the salon, I’m maximizing every hour. When I have an office hours day, I’m working on my business.” Again, if you’re in the salon taking clients, you are in the salon and you’re taking clients. Have the office hours day, schedule time to work on your business. This was a consistent theme across the board.
This is not one-off strategy. It’s if you want to know what six-figure stylists are doing, this is what they’re doing.
Then we had education shifts, lot of patterns here.
Somebody said, “Thrivers education coaching,” Somebody else said, “Being consistent with truly everything I do. No more breaks or excuses. If I’m frustrated or overwhelmed, I lean into education. I know that means that I have more to learn.”
I love that somebody said, “Always learning, always growing, never thinking education is something not worth paying for.”
Next, “Taking masterclasses and advancing my education.”
Next, “Dedication to continuing education.”
Next, “Invest in mentors who have walked the path you want to walk.”
Next, this one, I loved: “Choosing to be the smallest vessel in the room.”
If you’ve never heard that saying before, being the smallest vessel in the room is probably the most impactful position I’ve ever been in in my life. I’ve been the smallest vessel in a lot of rooms. What that means is I often explain it as the dummy in the room or the least experienced person in the room. If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. Putting yourself in a position, like humbling yourself, always knowing you don’t know everything, always knowing you have a lot more to learn, always saying, “What are my blind spots? What can I change?”, not making excuses, that will make you successful.
There was a stylist in my salon, very veteran stylist—and by veteran I mean probably 13 years licensed—working at a high price point, had experienced a clientele, talented, no doubt. By the time I showed up at the salon, this person was refusing education. I never took an education class with the stylist, they never showed up for any of the paid educators we saw. It was like, come in, do my clients, leave. Now this person’s no longer behind the chair and it’s not because they didn’t educate themselves. It’s because they had decided to go another way and do something else completely and their life is great and that’s totally fine.
But at the moment you stop educating yourself, you will stop growing. The industry will pass you by. What does that say to your clients? Whether it’s obvious or subliminal or your dirty little secret, you’re the person who’s just choosing not to learn anymore and then you think you’re still going to make lots and lots of money. It’s just not going to pan out.
Lastly, “I never feel like I’m done learning, taking classes, or bettering my business. I’m at almost $200,000 gross revenue now and I still know something is missing. I know I can do more.” There is this craving quest, yearning for knowledge that you will always find in high performers. They find mentors, they’ll pay for education, they’re making sure they’re taking cutting-edge classes. That is a consistent through and through.
Next, we have structural shifts. Somebody says, “When I brought on an assistant, my service revenue increased by 63%.” Okay, I love that, but I want to talk about it with a small caveat. The one thing that this person did not mention is how that affected their profit margin. If you’re bringing somebody on to assist you, just don’t forget, you also have to pay them. Employee taxes, there’s all sorts of expenses too. I’m certain that they’re still making more money, but just keep an eye on the profit percent.
The other thing too, whenever you bring on an assistant, it’s going to reduce your time wealth. To have a great assistant and to continue be bringing in great assistants time over time over time, you need to educate. Just know that’s a sacrifice in time wealth in order to make more money.
Just something to keep in mind.
Oof. This one, this one I loved. “I started claiming all of my cash. I was a little sad about it, but it was a commitment to myself to really start taking my business seriously.” I’m obsessed. I’m obsessed with that advice and for some of you, you’re like, “Ha ha, I never claim all my cash.” Okay, but then you also might not be a six-figure stylist. And listen, that’s okay. Life is all about choices. But when you start taking your business seriously, it’s amazing how things start to come together. I just thought that was an incredible, vulnerable share.
Next, “Getting rid of services I didn’t love.” Getting rid of services made them more money.
“Going all in on the clients that bring me joy and letting go of the ones I used to be scared to lose.”
“Leaving a toxic work environment, actually paying attention to the numbers, and using that knowledge to make changes.”
“Having a true system for contacting clients consistently.”
“Tracking numbers, setting goals and sticking to them. Learning to be just as good on the business side of things as I am on the hair side of things.”
The longer you are in this industry, you realize the business is maybe more important than the hair. Isn’t that the dang truth?
Lastly, this was another one of my favorite comments and to Kay, I’m just going to refer to her as Kay, Kay is the one who responded this into me. I got chills when I read it. She said, “Budgeting, planning, true accountability, and above all else, staying humble.” I freaking love it. It’s like know the numbers, hold yourself accountable, and don’t be in the game to be an influencer. Stay humble in the process. Keep your head down.
There’s a lot of celebrities who are quoted as saying that build an empire in silence. In time, people will see. They don’t need to see the dirty insides of the journey. When you look at people who literally make the most money, they’re not the flashiest. They’re the people with their head down, grinding it out, making great decisions, educating themselves, putting in the structure, doing the work, not feeling like they need to impress anybody else but themselves.
Often, the most successful people are not the flashiest people in the room, so align yourself with the right people and make sure that you’re staying humble and holding yourself accountable. I freaking love that.
Now, before I get into the second half of this list, if you are serious about increasing your income this year, I have maybe the coolest freebie I’ve ever done before. We have a private podcast feed filled with the seven most popular podcasts I’ve ever done about increasing your income. We have episodes like what does it take to make a hundred K, the fastest way to build a clientele, the marketing funnel, creating opportunity and branding even in tough markets. Four phases of scaling beyond a hundred grand, building as a new struggling or sinking stylist, why your business is growing slowly and what to do if your demand is so high, it’s actually hurting your income and growth.
If you want to maximize your income this year, you’re going to head to www.thrivingstylist.com/topmoneymakingpodcasts—and there’s an S at the end of that. You can access all seven episodes right now. Again, that’s thrivingstylist.com/topmoneymakingpodcasts. We’ll link to that in the show notes as well.
The next shift is going to be the marketing shift, so solidifying my brand and website, niching down my target market, not doing everybody or ever every service. I stopped double booking. I specialized in a particular service that very few in my area offer. I honed in on my specialty. I created a true brand that literally draws in the best clients every month. I took the time to focus on being good at just one thing and going all in on marketing-wise, education-wise and clientele-wise. I built a truly well-built website and made such a huge difference for me. And of course I got serious about Google niching way down, only posting about what do I want to attract.
What was the consistent theme there? Be special, have a specialty, niche down. Don’t be a generalist. Figure out what it is you want to do. Get really freaking good at it. Be the best person at it in your community and you have a business that can grow and scale.
But here’s the thing is you can’t just be good at it. You know how you need to know how to market it. You need to know how to position it, how to brand it, all the things.
Second-to-last shift, we have experience shifts. People will pay more for quality. I’m now sure to do what nobody else in my area does in every single way that I possibly can. You’re not trying to be as good as the best people in your market. You’re trying to be better than them.
“Elevating the salon experience, prioritizing being on time for every client, dressing more professionally.” I love this. And listen, I’m not the wardrobe police, but the whole be, do, have idea if you want to make more money, probably showing up in yoga pants, running sneakers—it’s not that it’s a bad thing, there’s plenty of super successful stylists who dress comfortably and dress how they want to, but if you’re looking to attract an elevated clientele, it’s something to look at and it’s something that this stylist noted, so I had to share it.
“Be present. Listen during the consultation, don’t be distracted and don’t rush. Make your guests feel like they are your number one priority.” I love that.
Next, this advice is from a Thriver named Tara and I’m completely obsessed. She says, “Treat every guest like they’re planning to tell five friends about you and they just might do it. Never rush through your clientele. Everybody counts.”
“Asking myself often, if I was a client in my own chair, how would I feel? Would I feel prioritized? Would I feel important? Would I feel like I’m working with the best stylist in my area? Or would I feel like just one of the many on their calendar that day?” Hmm, that’s a good one.
“I’m a curl specialist and the number one thing I now hear most often is ‘My last stylist didn’t care about me or listen to my wants or needs,’ so now I ask a ton of questions. I listen, I educate, and not just at the first visit, but at every visit.” This is a common misconception. A lot of stylists are like, “My clients always know they can ask me anything. I’m always here to listen.”
If you are not asking, if you’re not probing, if you are not having effective consultations, not just at the first visit, but all the time, if you’re not actually having kind of interventions with your clients, they will go find somebody else.
Often, what I found is when clients say, “My stylist isn’t listening to me,” it’s not as if the stylist is like, “No, you’re wrong,” or “Stop talking. I don’t want to talk about that right now.” Most stylists don’t behave that way.
When a client feels like they’re not being heard, it’s often because you’re not asking them to express their opinions. Really think about that.
Last but not least, and I think the most important, I cannot believe how many mindset shifts were a part of this survey. This is what really blew me away in all of the right ways. Listen to this. “I got rid of my limiting beliefs around money. I decided to be okay with losing longtime clients in favor of gaining the right clients in my chair. I’m not running a sorority, I’m running a business.”
“Joining Thrivers Society. Not really for the business coaching, but mainly because it shifted my mindset massively.”
“I got rid of my limiting beliefs around money. People will pay more for quality.”
Lastly, believing truly deserve it. As you’re listening to this episode, do you really believe you deserve success? Or do you still have that story of “The cards are stacked against me? I’ve been dealt a hard hand. My situation’s different. I would, but I can’t.” Do you really truly believe you can have it all?
I’ve, personally as a business coach, I’ve met too many stylists who work through adversity, only work part-time, don’t work weekends, don’t work evenings, and still make so much money in big cities, in small towns all across the U.S., beyond the U.S. I’d love to say it would be so much easier if I was like, “This advice is just for my big city people.” Or, “This only works if you’re working 40 hours a week.” My experience has just told me that’s not true. I know a lot of stylists working 40 hours a week were burnt out and not even close to making six figures. I know part-timers who are making six figures and are really balanced. I think a lot of it truly is this believing you deserve it. Making the structural changes, fighting through the fear, putting yourself in the right rooms, educating yourself endlessly, and not making excuses.
Now, before I wrap the episode, I want to remind you one more time, if you want that super-strategic seven podcast bundle, you can head to thrivingstylist.com/topmoneymakingpodcasts right this second and get your access.
Final thoughts to wrap it up here. It’s a mindset game. At the end of the day, like I know when I mentioned the idea of claiming the cash, a lot of you laughed in my face. You’re at a crossroads. I’m not saying that if you don’t claim your cash, you’ll never make a hundred thousand dollars, but the stylist who made that point wasn’t saying they claimed their cash ’cause they were scared of the IRS, they were saying, “I claimed my cash because I needed to commit to myself that now I’m going to start taking this business super seriously.” Do you take your business super seriously?
I have to be honest with you, if you’re not taking business classes, like paid business classes or not working with a coach or not focusing through a true strategy, you’re a little bit dabbling.
I don’t know of a lot of super successful six-figure stylists who aren’t working from a plan. Sometimes you get lucky, often you don’t. Choosing to be in the mindset of “This is my time. I am going to make it. This lifetime’s going to be worth it for me. I’m going to show my family what’s possible and I’m going to do the damn thing,” that is step one.
I hope this has been impactful for you. It was a super fun episode for me.
As always, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
