Why Suite & Booth Renters Struggle (And How to Fix It) [EP:214]

A year into renting and still struggling? You’re not alone. In this episode, Todd and Jen break down why so many booth renters and suite owners can’t seem to get ahead — and how to fix it.

They’re not anti-rent or anti-suite (far from it). 

This is about clarity, accountability, and structure. Whether you’re a year in or just thinking about going solo, this episode gives you the tools to stabilize, grow, and actually profit.

Key Takeaways

• We’re not anti-suite or anti-rent — we’re pro-clarity and accountability.
• Freedom without structure quickly turns into isolation and chaos.
• Math matters: know your break-even and your effective hourly rate.
• Your Google Business Profile and reviews will outperform Instagram.
• Social media without faces or stories doesn’t sell.
• Mentorship, systems, and structure are what separate success from struggle.
• A 90-day plan can rescue your business if you take it seriously.

Episode Timestamps

• [00:00] – Opening takes: Real education & accountability in business
• [06:00] – Todd’s segue: why this topic matters and why they’re not anti-rent or anti-suite
• [08:00] – The #1 reason renters struggle: they don’t know their numbers
• [10:00] – Pricing mistakes and how to calculate your break-even point
• [15:00] – Understanding your effective hourly rate
• [16:00] – The second big issue: marketing — why no one knows you exist
• [19:00] – The power of Google Business Profile and reviews
• [22:00] – The social-media trap: why “back-of-the-head” posts don’t convert
• [25:00] – Math check: what your following actually means for growth
• [29:00] – The mindset problem: freedom without structure = chaos
• [31:00] – What independence really costs and why accountability still matters
• [33:00] – Why mentorship and structure aren’t optional
• [35:00] – 90-Day Rescue Plan: stabilize, rebuild, and grow
• [40:00] – Adding packages, care plans, and simple marketing systems
• [42:00] – Closing thoughts + preview of Part 2 (Why Commission Salons Struggle)

Links and Stuff:
Our Newsletter
Mentoring Inquiries

Find more of our things:
Instagram
Hello Hair Pro Website

Transcript

214

Todd: What's up everyone? Hello. Happy Monday. Good morning, Jen.

Jen: Good morning.

Todd: How are you?

Jen: Great.

Todd: Good.

Jen: I'm in a sweater. It's chill, so I'm happy.

Todd: a little brisk this morning, which is awesome.

Jen: I love it.

Main Discussion

Todd: do I. Today we're talking about, I'm excited for this topic and I, I don't know why 'cause it doesn't even relate. Well, it relates to hair industry, but it doesn't really relate to us directly. But

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: gonna talk about why suites and Booth renters struggle. Hopefully we can come up with some stuff to help people.

Jen: That would be great.

Todd: the things that I just keep seeing over and over again, so I think we can help people out there.

Jen: I would agree.

Opening Takes

Todd: But as always, we always start with our opening takes. Opening takes. So, yeah. What do you got, Jen?

Education & Growth

Jen: So my opening take, I'm gonna call it, I'm gonna title it Real Education, and here's what by that. Todd and I talk about education often because it's [00:01:00] happening daily if not every hour at our salon. But one of the things that I've learned over the past couple years is.

Todd: hate to interrupt you, but for people listening that don't know us or our salon, do you wanna explain why that hap, why you just said what you said? Because people probably like bullshit.

Jen: Come on in for a day. So I have an apprentice and in New Hampshire you are allowed to have one apprentice at a time. It's a 3000 hour program, and basically, hello Hair Co is her school. So why I can stand behind that. There's. Learning or education happening. If not, like I said, every hour, even by the minute, is because with Madison as my apprentice, she is being taught something all the time, or she's practicing all the time.

She's always learning something.

Todd: Open to the rest of our staff. If you're covering

Jen: yes,

Todd: they wanna brush up on or they find

Jen: yes.

Todd: to that education as well.

Jen: We just did a, a hands-on cutting class that I led for Madison and Brooke and Jamie came 'cause it's something they wanted to work [00:02:00] on. So I worked with all three of them, which was great because then they worked together too. And they also got to see the outcome of the same way to approach a haircut and how, depending on where you hold the hair, how it can vary so much.

So it was really awesome. There's so much learning to be had with things like that too.

Todd: Awesome.

Jen: So my real education is there is so much education out there that I think if you don't vet the process, you could. Basically be wasting your time, whether it's online education something you pay for monthly or stuff that's in your salon. It's really important to make sure the education you are picking to grow your skillset fits what you're trying to get out of it.

There are a lot of people out there that would say they're education is the best. Well, , not everybody can be the best. I take it a step further and I really love to bring in. Educators or education of people that are teaching and yet still behind the chair. That's one that's really [00:03:00] important to me.

Marketing & Client Experience

And what I've seen over time is those that are teaching and doing hair behind the chair, they have a different perspective for stylists hair prose throughout, because they're not just gonna show you a haircut that they understand you'd never do on a client. That's a waste of your time. Cool creative haircut, awesome, but I can't apply it.

So someone who's applying hair daily behind the chair to their clients understands not only the trends that are happening year to year, but also what clients are asking for because they're doing the same thing you are doing. So when they come into our salon, they're offering this whole new perspective of, here, let me show you something new, but let me show you something new that I apply daily when I'm at work.

So it, it's received completely different. And from the staff perspective, they're excited to learn from someone that's doing what they're doing, but also able to show them how to do it even better. So this weekend we hosted a curly hair cutting class. It's something that Todd and I were putting together since the [00:04:00] beginning of the year.

So you're talking, we're into September, actually it's October 1st. So this was a process to get this all organized together. This is something that we've never done where we're. Taking on the whole financial responsibility. We flew Addis out. We paid for the hotel, the car, and the education for the staff.

So there was a lot relying on this. One thing was just like, will it meet the expectations for the cost that we're spending? Right? And then will the staff embrace Addis and the education she's bringing in? I believed all of it would work out, but there's always an an unknown and a possibility that. It doesn't level up to where you want.

We were blessed with Addis to come to the salon and teach with a live model, and then we had mannequins and every single staff member from Madison, who's my apprentice to senior staff at Hello Hair learned something. And here's where the wind comes. , your staff learned something when the next day they're behind the chair, they're applying it and sharing pictures to celebrate [00:05:00] themselves, that they're so proud.

And we've had. Numerous amounts of that. It's so exciting to see they all, at the end, were thanking Todd and I for bringing Addis in, thanking Addis. It was a wonderful experience. We all learned something, not only from how to cut curly hair, how to style it, how to use certain products, how to use certain brushes, just things that we, we don't always think about.

And also how to take a minute to really look at someone's hair and. Cut their hair for them. So we'll be able to take that curly hair cutting class and apply it to all the clients that we see, not just curly hair. But I, I advise you if you're bringing in educators or you're supporting your staff with education to make sure it's truly what first they're interested in and that it's really gonna deliver so they feel like their time is worth it.

Todd: Good.

Jen: Good.

Todd: Okay. I wasn't sure. went off there. Awesome. Yeah, I, that was it was a great time. My

Jen: Yeah.

Leadership & Mindset

Todd: is gonna be really short. I'll keep it super simple. You have to take accountability if you wanna be a business [00:06:00] owner, you gotta take accountability. If you wanna do anything in life that makes any sort of impact, you've gotta take accountability. one of the things I saw the other day. Was somebody had posted, they were a commission stylist forever and they had a falling out with their owner and they're one year into renting their suite 'cause they left. And they're really struggling because the owner, where they worked a year ago talked trash about her to her clients.

So she lost a bunch of clients. And I just was thinking to myself, this is a year later. What have you been doing in that year? Why are you blaming someone

Jen: Right.

Todd: taken any accountability. You are still a year later blaming somebody that's not even in your life anymore.

Jen: You haven't progressed at all.

Todd: progressed.

And I think that's one of, this is actually a good segue. I think this is. A great way to showcase why so many people are struggling in their suite or in their booth rent rental situation [00:07:00] or whatever. And I wanna reiterate, I say this every time we talk about this topic. We are not anti rent, we

Jen: I.

Todd: anti suite, we are not hybrid model.

We're not any of those things. I think my own 2 cents is that any of those models can work under the right circumstances,

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: but it definitely can't be. Blaming other people for what's going on. And we've seen that from a lot of people that have left, hello even that have gone on and they're not doing hair or they're really struggling or whatever.

And again, I'll reiterate this, we do not want to see that if you decide to move on from hello, we generally give you a high five and , wish you luck. I am. I don't know. I don't know what I was gonna say next, but I, oh,

Jen: I always look at that as an opportunity.

Todd: yeah. Well, well, so for us, yeah. What I was gonna say is I'm never like salty, I generally am like, I wish this [00:08:00] person would've seen what we're offering.

what I

Jen: Right.

Todd: I, because I've

Jen: Well, we always say we can't want more for people than they want for themselves.

Todd: And this isn't a commercial for commission salons. Actually, I'll point this out. Next week we're gonna talk about why commission salons owners and commission stylists struggle. So we're gonna, we're gonna have, this is almost like a two part episode,

Jen: Love it.

Todd: and I just think that there's a, there's a better way to look at stuff. I think people need to start looking at, well, well, for one is taking accountability, but

Jen: Absolutely.

Todd: The other thing is let, well, let's dive in. Let's just jump into this since we're

Jen: Let's.

Todd: Right. What do you think, do you have any problems that you see with off the top of your head that are issues for people that are suite renters?

Jen: Well, they, yeah, they don't know how to run a business. They haven't done their numbers. They don't know what they need to make either per client or per month. For the square footers their overhead. They've most likely just taken wherever they left [00:09:00] and kept the same prices or lowered them. They didn't look at the overall picture of what it is to run.

A business, even as a suite. So as a solo independent owner you still have to know how, what's your bottom line? How much money do you need to bring in? What does it cost you? So when people will be like, oh, what should I, what should I charge for a haircut? Or, the big one I see is like, who does extensions out there?

What do you charge for? What I charge? And what you charge are extremely different numbers, because my overhead is extremely different than your overhead. So they, they don't match. So when you're looking at what you should charge for a haircut, well, how long does it take? What are you paying out for that?

And, and work it backwards. You say that all the time?

Todd: hours

Available per week, per month, per

Jen: yeah. And what then, at the end of the day, what do you wanna make? What do you wanna take home? Now we can work it back. And if you can't use that haircut to begin with, 'cause maybe it's too high because you've taken on more than you even realize, then we need to find mini jumps to get you to that haircut so that you're profitable.

Todd: What do you mean it's too high? the amount you need

Jen: Yes, the [00:10:00] the amount, the amount you need to charge in order to be profitable could be higher than you would, I'm gonna assume is higher than you realize. So you're losing money on certain services and you're wondering why. You are not making a hundred percent of your money, which is also not a thing, but where you are not maybe as profitable as your friend told you you would be.

And that's because you don't know how to work the numbers with the profit to get where you wanna be. You're just guessing and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna throw it in the universe and hopefully I'm successful. That is not running a business. That will not work. Maybe you are lucky for a little bit, but that will run out.

Todd: Yeah, I had math as my first problem too. 'cause everyone knows I'm a list person, so I have lists for these shows. I. A common problem, or the most common problem is people look at the rent and they go, oh, my rent is $300 a week. Anything over that I get to keep, I can do

Jen: Nope.

Todd: I can do $600 and make 300.

what ? Or I

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: dollars and keep 700. That's how they look at it,

Jen: Right.

Todd: and [00:11:00] not true. I think we talked about specific breakdowns recently on an episode. I don't remember what episode it was called or how far back, but if I. Think of it, I'll put it in the show notes as a link. But there's so many more things. You've got your insurance, credit card fees, your back bar, laundry, if you gotta do laundry, software, your marketing, which we're gonna get into hopefully next. 'cause that's a huge one. Did I say taxes? Did taxes. did I say

Jen: Woo.

Todd: education? Because education's still gonna be on there. Events, community events to stay involved with the community because when you're on your own, you're not gonna have that just naturally around you. I know everyone says that, this salon is, we're a big community. Or where, where this or we're that? Well, well then why are so many people complaining about lack of community?

Jen: Right.

Todd: think what owners or what booth. Rental owners are putting out there and, and the reality of what's happening in these salons are two different pictures

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: who, who you look at. Because we see the flip side too. We see can't find renters, and when I do, they don't fit my culture well. Yeah.

It's hard to

Jen: Right.

Todd: a culture on somebody that wants to be independent.

Jen: Right.

Todd: sort of intuitive

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: So how do you fix that stuff? You do the stuff, Jen said, you've gotta work your math backwards. How much money do you want to make needs to be included in that? Which is profit. much money do you want to have left over, not just from doing hair. this all really breaks down to, you can figure out, there's a million online formulas and calculators and coaches and gurus and masters that'll tell you their methods the best. But here's the deal, it all breaks down to percents. So you didn't want to be a commission employee, now you're a commission suite owner.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: factor in what it. What the cost to pay yourself, and

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: gonna be somewhere in the 40 to 50% range if you're lucky.

Jen: Right. Yeah.

Todd: So what I would do is I would add everything up. I think I put this recently in a newsletter, like I did a like a co, like a cost calculator or cost analysis or whatever, and it was just, you have to add up all of your fixed costs, so literally everything that you're paying out, then you have to divide. And you have to figure out how many hours of services you are providing per week, per month, however you wanna look at it per quarter, per year, it doesn't matter. And then you've gotta break that down into I need to be producing, say a hundred dollars per hour over the course of this week for 24 hours or however many hours you work. then you minus all your stuff to double check. And here we are. We're at this point.

Jen: Once you do this too, it makes it. A lot easier when bringing on either new services or new products or things. So say your rep comes in like, oh, you have to try this new conditioning treatment, whatever, and they're gonna give you a suggested price. Well, you [00:14:00] need to do your math of what you need to make so that you can figure out what you should be charging.

It happens all the time. Because they don't, they don't understand, like, that's cool that that's what suggested, but if I charge that, I'm making basically $2 on this service. So that wouldn't make sense. But once you do the math and you look at like, oh, I would love to bring in this, I'll just use conditioning treatment, this conditioning treatment for my clients, it's something that, it's a problem that I've been seeing often.

So I, this is a great solution to solve this problem for my clients. Great. Now you'll work back. This is what it costs me per service. This is what I wanna make. And then now how to price out how to charge your client and you're not guessing and you feel good about that and there's a confidence behind it.

And now that when you do that service, you are making X amount of dollars.

Todd: One of the things you can do without getting into too much detail here, I'll try to keep this brief, is just to create an effective hourly rate for yourself. At what hourly rate are you making the money you wanna make? Great. Now, if a service is less than that, it's something that you should [00:15:00] consider eliminating if you can't raise the price your effective hourly. If services, if for some reason your services are all over the place, say you're a la carte and they just aren't based on time at all, they're just based on whatever, they're probably based on something you saw another salon do. But if it's over that effective hourly rate, then you're doing a little better during that time. So

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: an easy way to look at that stuff. That's basically what we do at Hello

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Everyone has their effective hourly rate. For a couple different scenarios and Done. What other problems do people have? I think the next biggest one is what? Go ahead.

Jen: Marketing. Marketing.

Todd: that's what I was

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: So nobody knows you exist. Nobody at all. And I know people out there like why use social media? And I wanna break that down in one second. The social media misconception. What you really need to be [00:16:00] doing is you need to be engaging the clients that you do have. The people that you are already selling to are the easiest people to sell to again, which

Jen: They believe in you.

Todd: correct, which means friends, their colleagues, their people in the, their circles are going to be like-minded. if you can attract those people, you're in business before you're just like. Why aren't people coming in? Why aren't people, I've tried all this stuff. Why aren't, why aren't clients coming in? I've tried offering discounts. It doesn't matter if you offer a discount if nobody knows you exist.

Nobody's

Jen: Right, right.

Todd: And I wanna break down why people aren't seeing it. But gimme a second. Let's start with things that people can do or why they're invisible online. So you're invisible 'cause you don't have a Google business profile. What about that? It's free. do you not have that? If I can't find you on Google, it's gonna be

Jen: Oof.

Todd: to find you everywhere else.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: [00:17:00] What about reviews? Reviews are so easy to get, what you can do to get reviews. Hey Michelle, hope you like your hair. Would you mind leaving me a review? I'm really trying to grow my clientele. If you can't do that, or if you are somebody that's like, ah, that's really awkward to me, you shouldn't be running a business, because that is part of running a business.

That's a basic part of it.

Jen: It also means you're not connecting with your clientele.

Todd: Yeah.

Jen: you're not connected, then you're, that's weird. But if you are connected and there's a really great relationship there, it is not difficult at all.

Todd: Yeah. I, I agree a hundred percent. So getting reviews is a huge one. The other thing is your social media. Your social media cannot be a shot at the back of the head with no call to action and some arbitrary language like, , fall vibes or whatever. That's cute,

Jen: I.

Todd: but your marketing or your trying to get the wrong people, and I'll break that in one second.

Jen: Now you're in business, so you're [00:18:00] Insta. You have to be more professional. You're trying to attract clients where when you are under like a commission salon to me, then your Instagram or your social media is just your walking business card because the business that you're working for should be doing all the marketing, but now you are doing it.

So your social media has to look professional like you are running a business.

Todd: Yeah, for sure. So what are the fixes to these? And then I wanna jump into, I wanna break down some, some social media numbers, but. The first one we talked about was you Google My business or,

Jen: Yep.

Todd: Google Business Profile

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Claim

Jen: And that's free. Come on.

Todd: Yeah, claim, go on, claim it, create it. Add some photos, add a booking link.

Add your services. Add service descriptions. You can add FAQs on there. Frequently asked questions. You can add a ton of stuff if you don't think that's important. I will tell you right now, it is more important of a strategy than social media.

And I don't care what anybody says. That's the reality.

That's [00:19:00] every grouping, every bunch of numbers that I've seen, all the metrics that I've seen from tons of different websites, just like Google, but a lot of marketing websites will tell you that search engines are the biggest bang for your buck. I'm not even talking about paid ads. That's probably a good idea too.

But you'll. You'll probably, if, if you're not doing marketing already, you'll probably need to hire somebody to do that. So that's probably a, a little down the road thing. The second thing we talked about was the reviews. So how do you fix that problem? I don't have any reviews. Well get some, you've gotta consistently ask clients for reviews. as as simple as it gets. bribe

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: for reviews that is frowned upon by Google and can get your. Google listing taken down. So don't do that. But what I would recommend doing is setting yourself a goal. Say your goal is I want five new reviews per week. Well, not a hundred percent of people are gonna remember.

It's not that they don't like you, it's not that they don't even wanna leave a review [00:20:00] for you. It's that people forget. 'cause we're going on our, along our days, and I know we all like to think we're the center of everybody's world, but we're not. The second the person's outside of your chair, outside of your salon or your suite, they're not thinking about you anymore. They're just not, they're thinking about what's for dinner? I gotta pick my kids up. I gotta get Gwen saxophone. She forgot this morning. I've gotta go over here. I've gotta get, pick her up. I've gotta get to gymnastics. And that's just one kid, not three, just saying people out there.

Jen: I'd even say like, so if the review thing, you're like, where do I start? Pick your clients that you vibe with the most, like make it authentic. Right. Start with them. They already love you, so they're gonna do it. They'll be like, dang, yeah, of course that takes me two seconds and do it. So like we have up a QR code, they can, while they're processing they or getting their haircut, they can do it right then and there and they'll look at you and they'll be like, done.

You're like, oh, awesome. That was easy. And then once you get. Like some movement with that, you'll be like, oh, this is really easy, and you'll, you can then ask more clients. But start with your faves. They wanna celebrate you.

Todd: gonna say is set [00:21:00] yourself a goal. So say, what did I say? Five

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: a hundred percent of people are gonna remember. So maybe that means you're asking 20 clients a week to get that five. Don't ask five clients. Always, always be proactive. Always overshoot your goals. You, yeah, like I said, if you need five, you're probably gonna have to ask 20 people you're good. 'cause that's, . Is what it's

Jen: Another part of it.

Todd: people just forget. And then social media, before we dive into some numbers, but stories.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: is this person happy that they came to you? Because that's what connects people tie. When you look at marketing tie an emotion to that and that's what makes you successful.

If you're able to tie in emotion to it.

Jen: And hair brings out emotions,

Todd: show stories with people's faces. Have posts with people's faces. But Todd, my clients don't wanna show their faces. Then ask different clients.

Jen: right? Some will

Todd: it out. Again, take [00:22:00] accountability. Don't blame the clients that don't wanna show their faces.

Find the ones that do them. Make them feel famous. Make

Jen: I.

Todd: feel like a celebrity. Tell them how excited you are to have done their hair, and how excited. Get in the picture with them. How about that one? That's an easy win. Tell their story, and you can't tell somebody's story from the back of the head.

There's no, you can't see their eyes, you can't see their expression. I have no idea what they look like back there. They could be crying.

Jen: Also clients, when you do the back of the head colorists, see the color you're trying to showcase. A client just sees it. Really as probably one color, maybe two. They're not getting out of that picture what you're hoping, but like if you're want a hairdresser to be like, whoa, that looks so good. They're gonna see what you're trying to showcase.

A client doesn't see that where if you show somebody smiling, they get a feel and then they're like, I wanna feel that, and that hair color looks really cool. And then you're like, now what do I do?

Todd: For sure. So let's break down. A lot of people think, well, I [00:23:00] post on Instagram every day, but clients aren't coming in, so let's, let's break down. How many people are following? Let's, let's pick a thousand. So you're a suite renter and you have a thousand followers.

Jen: Okay.

Todd: What does that look like? let's break this down. Where are my notes here? Hold on one second. Oh, here we go. And the reason I chose a thousand is because it's just an easy number to

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: right? I

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: how many followers, if you have a hundred followers, the, we're gonna talk in percents here. So it's,

Jen: The math's just easier.

Todd: look at. So you hit a thousand followers and you. Even if 10% of these people book with me, that's a hundred clients, I'm all set. I'm good to go. But let's look at a thousand followers and what's likely happening. So of that a thousand followers, 40% are probably other hair pros. [00:24:00] So there's 400

Jen: I was gonna say 50%, so that's funny.

Todd: So I, I looked online and I just, it's, it's hard to put averages on stuff. So I look across a bunch of stuff and then I just average it out. For someone out there, they're gonna be like, no, I barely have any hair pros that follow me. Great. The majority of people do, and the majority of people probably, like you said, Jen, have 40 to 50% of people that follow 'em are hair pros.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: That's 400 people off the bat that , you met in school, you met at classes, you just networked online.

They're never gonna book with you. They'll like

Jen: Right. They're your cheerleaders.

Todd: tricks you into thinking that your marketing's working. But it's not because they're never gonna book with you. Now let's take out another 30%, which is another 300 people that are your friends, your family, all that stuff, right? These are just supportive people, but they're probably getting their hair done for cheap by you or for free.

I,

Jen: Right.

Todd: they live too far [00:25:00] away and they'll hit like on every single post. But that doesn't put clients in your chair. Again, you're kind of tricking yourself into thinking that now, out of the thousand of those give or take are people that are never gonna book with you, but are giving you love.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Then you have people that are following you for like, nostalgia. These are like old time friends, people you went to high school with. Maybe it's people, maybe it's, . Even on Facebook, I see people that follow, like teachers that we went to high school with or whatever, right? So that's maybe another 20% of people.

They're mostly just lurking. They're not even engaging with your stuff. They follow you 'cause they know who you were 10 years ago. They knew you as a kid, so they follow you. That leaves you with 10%. So that's your real target audience, and those are the people that actually might sit in your chair, but here's where it gets interest.

Interesting. With social media stuff like Instagram, only two to [00:26:00] 6% of people even see your post.

Jen: I was just gonna say, even if they just even see your post

Todd: you have a thousand followers, that means two to six people maybe saw your post.

Jen: now why

Todd: That, that are

Jen: it.

Todd: clients. And you can be like, yeah, right Todd, 50% of my 50% of people see my post, but we just broke down. How many of those don't matter? So

Jen: Is an uphill battle,

Todd: your posts are reaching maybe 20 to 60. And out of that group, those people that are really ready to book, maybe that's even lower than that, two to 6%. So you're talking one let's, let's stick with the two. You're talking two to three people that maybe see your post that are actually looking to book a haircut out of a thousand. So that strategy needs to change. I think people can, , you can do lots of stuff. I, I think one of the big things is storytelling. Like we mentioned,

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: the story [00:27:00] of your clients. Why are your clients happy? Well, hey, , was going to. Her high school reunion and she was nervous, so I was able to chat her through this and we gave her a new hairstyle and now she's going to her high school reunion, confident, and she can't wait to see Brad there in hopes that his wife left him and whatever, like, what ? Tell

Jen: That's awesome.

Todd: a little aggressive there.

Jen: We're literally in reunion season too. I think so. That's great.

Todd: Oh, are we right now?

Jen: It's coming up. Yeah.

Todd: I don't really follow reunion season, so I wouldn't know that.

Jen: It's usually the weekend of Thanksgiving. I, my client yesterday was in getting her hair done for her reunion, so,

Todd: really? That's cool.

Jen: yep. 20 years I think she said.

Todd: Wow.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: So anyway, when you start to think about Instagram and social media, you've gotta be aggressive with it if you want it to actually produce, and you have to find your target audience, which is not. Just [00:28:00] posting the back of the head. I know I keep harping on that, but it's it's true because like Jen said, unless you're a colorist, if you post the back of someone's head, right, this is, this is a crazy one to me. You post the back of someone's head with your hands holding the hair up and your comment is dimension, and maybe you put a magic wand emoji. What the hell does that even mean to somebody that doesn't know? First of all, that hair's not gonna look like that when you let it go. Why are you holding

Jen: Right.

Todd: That's.

Jen: Again, you're, you're advertising to other hair.

Todd: You're

Jen: Other hair pros. Yeah.

Todd: and

Jen: Which isn't gonna grow your business. Now remember, you're now running a business. This isn't just for fun anymore. You have to run a business.

Todd: doing social media for fun, sure, do whatever you want. No one cares. But if you are trying to be effective with your marketing. Or you think you're effective with your marketing, but you're posting on Facebook groups? I can't get any clients. Maybe you should just, maybe you should switch things up a little bit. I think mindset is [00:29:00] something that people get twisted or goals, even maybe as people just see like, oh, it's freedom. I'll own my own business and I can do whatever I want.

Jen: Hmm.

Todd: That's not really true. You are in the service industry for starters. So you are now responsible for being of service to your clients. And that often means for booths and suite renters that want a penny pinch. And I'm not saying penny pinching is bad. Not saying bootstrapping is bad. I'm just saying you're facing an uphill battle. So if you don't want to do things like invest in a good software that will allow your clients to book, phone's gonna be freaking blowing up and you're gonna have to deal with that. Then you're gonna post online. How do you guys set boundaries? My clients are blowing my phone up. Well, you wanted to run a business.

Jen: Right.

Todd: need to set up systems. Even if you're just a one chair shop, you still need systems in place to protect yourself or else you are doing literally [00:30:00] everything and you already are doing everything.

It's just that some of the stuff can be, like a software booking system is a massive relief to a business because your

Jen: Right,

Todd: and it doesn't. If you're by yourself, it doesn't need to be anything crazy. You don't need super powerful software, but should have something. How many

Jen: right.

Todd: you talk to that still don't have booking software?

Jen: A large percentage.

Todd: numbers around 50% of

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: still don't have booking software.

Jen: Yep.

Todd: is insane to me.

Jen: And part of it is they just look at all the flaws, like, what if this, what if that? I'm like, you're missing out on so many people booking with you. I'm not sure why you're worried about the few people that aren't gonna book the right service. Like,

Todd: You do a consultation and then you just adjust the

Jen: or you just pay attention.

Yeah.

Todd: Back to mindset. When you go off on your own, you probably, your first thought was, now I can just do hair and be happy. But you're no longer just a hair pro. You're no longer just a stylist or a barber behind the chair. You're also the marketer. You're the administrator, you're the tax preparer. [00:31:00] 'cause you don't wanna hire an accountant. You are the all the things, right? You're the cleaner you are.

Jen: I think the mindset one is really big. 'cause what you're saying is like, yeah, I just get to design a logo and make a pretty space. Yep. You do get to do that, but that wears off. Really quickly when you realize all the other things you have to do, you are now in charge. You are your, you're the manager, so you have to deal with the redos.

You have to do deal with the client complaints. You have to deal when anything goes wrong, you have to be the cleaner in your salon. There's so many other things than just picking out your logo and making a pretty space That doesn't resonate with running a business. So. Those things are fun, but those aren't the things you should be spending your time or your energy in growing yourself to get ready to run a business.

And I, I think sometimes when we, , make a list of all things you have to do, most people are like, that's way too much stuff. Well, you're running a business, you gotta do a lot of stuff. If that's too hard for you, you might wanna rethink that because working [00:32:00] under another, like a commission salon, you don't have to do any of that.

You can just be creative and have fun. But otherwise you're, you're signing up to do all of the things.

Todd: Yeah. So how often have you heard somebody say, well, if I'm a business owner. I need to know all the answers, or I need to have all the answers, or I don't wanna be

Jen: You need to have a team in place,

Todd: And so when you work by yourself, you likely don't have a team in place,

Jen: right?

Todd: which brings me to my next mi. That's a mindset flaw. And the reason it's mindset flaw is because you don't have any accountability. if you are somebody that isn't showing up on time for your clients at a commission salon, how are you thinking that that's gonna change when nobody's looking for you?

Jen: Right. Probably gonna get worse.

Todd: Yeah, it's probably gonna get worse. You have no one to hold you accountable because you don't have any mentorship because you think you're supposed to know everything. I see people that go off on their own that are just like, I've heard it a million times. Probably not a million. Probably hundreds, not a [00:33:00] million. That's a really large number. But I've heard it a bunch of times where people will say, I don't want to ask questions because then people won't think I know what I'm doing. no. It's pretty clear you don't know what you're doing.

Jen: Most intelligent people ask the most questions.

Todd: For sure.

Jen: Or surround themself with the people who know the stuff they don't need to know. That's how we do it, right? I don't need to be the accountant. I don't need to be the lawyer. I don't need to be the bank person given the loans. I just need to know who to call when I need that stuff.

Todd: you need to have structure. That's a lot of it breaks down to, you need to have structure. It's when we talked about the marketing, your marketing needs structure. When we talked about the math, your math needs structure, we're talking about mindset right now. Your mindset needs structure. So when you have freedom without structure, you are going to have chaos

Jen: Yes.

Todd: you, don't necessarily know what you're doing.

Not that that's bad, it's just that you don't know, again,

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: anti any of this stuff, but if you are somebody that's looking for help. You should find somebody that can help you form some [00:34:00] structure within your business.

Jen: Right.

Todd: Even if you're on your own. You should have the foundations that Jen and I talk about all the time.

You need a mission, you need a vision. You need core values.

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: that are going to guide your decision making processes along the way.

Jen: and it keeps your business cohesive.

Todd: Yes. So that way when you're approached about something, you can just look at your core values. Does that help? Does that align with your core values?

Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. Yes or no? That should answer if you do it or not.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: push you towards your vision? Does making this choice move me closer to my vision, have no impact, or set me back? It should be really easy. But if you don't have that stuff in place, and if you don't truly believe in it, you're gonna struggle

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Operating under chaos.

Jen: Right.

Todd: chaos word. Maybe we should

Jen: Yeah, it works.

Todd: chaos episode.

Jen: Okay.

Final Thoughts

Todd: So let's talk about some things people can do real quick before we wrap up. [00:35:00] Kind of a rescue plan. So have things broken down into sort of 90 days the first couple weeks devote to getting your Google stuff set up.

Jen: Yep.

Todd: business posts, upload the photos there. You can upload photos so that when people search, hairstylists near me and you pop up or don't pop up 'cause you don't have this. But when you do have it, you pop up and someone goes, oh, Ford Hair Productions cool. all it says. Now if you put some photos there, now people are like, oh, I like this work. Oh, that person looks happy. These people look like they're having a really good time. This is fun. Now there's an emotion tied to it, and now somebody goes, I might book with this, or I might follow this person. So now you're increasing the people that are following you on other platforms and increasing your odds of finding clients that are actually gonna sit in your chair.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: The other powerful thing we said there is reviews. [00:36:00] Just send some text messages to your past. Say say 30 clients, or say your past two weeks of clients. Send a text message with a link. Hey. I really appreciate our time together. I would love if you left me a review. I'm really trying to grow my business so that I can continue to provide services for you. Some of 'em will, some of them won't. Some of 'em will forget. Some of 'em will go, oh shoot, next time they see you, I meant to leave. Review. A review. I totally forgot. That's fine. Pull it up right now. 'em.

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: That's what our

Jen: let's do this.

Todd: we,

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: do stuff where we go through phases where we're like, all right, let's get some reviews, and it's always a lot of fun. Over the next couple weeks after that, work on reaching out to your clients. Find, find clients that, and if you have a good software that should be able to do this for you, but identify the clients that haven't been in for a while. Maybe they've just fallen off, maybe they forgot to book. Maybe something came up and now they're like, shoot, how do I, whatever. Because think about it through [00:37:00] their eyes, not your eyes. out. Hey, I have some spots that opened up. I haven't seen you in a while. You wanna grab one of these? And if you're like, that's awkward. Well, I don't know what to tell you at that point.

Jen: You are running a business.

Todd: You can work on

Jen: Time to get uncomfortable.

Todd: re work on your rebooking. I know that you work for yourself now and you don't have any KPIs that you have to meet and you're not sitting down and meetings talking about rebooking percentages, but they're still valid.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: So if you're not rebooking your clients and you're, you're letting them leave without rebooking. You should rethink that strategy. Maybe you launch a referral program. I don't know what that looks like and we don't have time to break it down. So figure out a Referral Pro program and offer that to clients. Hey, send me in Send me in your colleagues. Send me in. Whoever. Friends and family doesn't matter. Again, those are people that are likely gonna connect with you because if you with your clients or you love your clients. You really like get excited to see them. Like I know I have [00:38:00] clients that I get excited when they're in my book. I'm like, ah, I can catch up with this person. I wanna see how their puppy's doing.

Or they just had a kid, I wanna see how that's going or whatever. They started a new job and I'm excited to catch up with them. are, if you're excited about that person seeing that person, the people in their friend and family group are gonna be similar, so you'll be able to connect with them as well. Next few weeks after that, you could create some sort of maybe this goes on your social media or maybe you start a newsletter where you talk about caring for your hair. You talk about a plan. So if you're doing Blonding for example, maybe it's, , you're gonna wanna come in every Help Me Out Gem, what would it be?

Eight to 12 weeks?

Jen: Sure. Yeah. That works.

Todd: 12 weeks. Here's what you can do at home in between. you're staying in front of people.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: do a newsletter, you put a photo on there, or not. My newsletter doesn't have a photo, and you just break things down. Hey, here's my booking link. If you didn't book your appointment for eight to [00:39:00] 12 weeks already, go ahead and do that now. Also, here's what you can do in the meantime, you can use this shampoo, you can use this. This is gonna help your color. You can avoid these things, whatever. It doesn't matter. As long as you're in front of people. And then that's another thing. Now you own that email list as you start to build that email list, because if Instagram ever disappeared, have your email list so you can still reach those people.

Jen: Whoa.

Todd: Yeah. You can even add a link for retail. Hey, here's the product I recommended. If you didn't pick it up then because it wasn't the right time and you want it now, here's the link. Use code Todd for 10% off, whatever, however you wanna do it. Or maybe you partner with a local business and you wanna do some cross promotions.

Again, know what that looks like, but do that. once you have your marketing stuff set, spend a couple few weeks working on auditing your timing, auditing your pricing. Maybe you can create some sort of packages. I know memberships are [00:40:00] popular right now. Maybe you're creating packages so that people don't have to think. Now you're marketing to a higher end client.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: that package looks like you're just bundling things like, , maybe you have somebody that wants, well, let's just stick with Blonding. So this is what the service looks like. This is what products I recommend you take home that day. This is aftercare.

You're gonna get a follow-up email. People love that stuff. And then just track, rinse, and repeat. No pun intended.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Pun. Pun intended. So, yeah, but those are the things that I would do to start to rescue your business. I think those could really help. Do you have anything

Jen: agree.

Todd: What did I miss?

Jen: I think that's a great start. You don't wanna be too, too much and you're too overwhelming.

Todd: Well, if you are out on your own in a suite and you are struggling a year later, you need to be too much. It's you.

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: already went through the phase where you could have made big changes by compounding, but you likely don't have time [00:41:00] now.

Jen: right.

Todd: Unfortunately, like I agree with you, you don't wanna be overwhelmed, but it's too late. If you wanna rescue your business,

Jen: You gotta start now.

Todd: have to do all the things

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: responsible for all the things. And that starts with accountability. I love when I can tie it back into my opening take

Jen: Oh, it was awesome.

Todd: and education too. Just kidding.

Jen: Oh yeah. Nice try.

Todd: All right, so. If you want more details or more things broken down for you, jump on our email list. You can get there through the links in the show notes or reach out or whatever. Reach out on Instagram. I'll be there. I'll post a picture in the back of my head and just write

Jen: Call it salt and pepper.

Todd: Newsletter.

Jen: Oh yeah. Okay.

Todd: Salt and pepper. Salt and

Jen: Newsletter

Todd: in the back of my head.

Jen: there. It's,

Todd: be effective. It's all in good fun, people.

Jen: Lemme know how that goes.

Todd: If you need any more help though, reach out. We're always happy to chat with people. Get them on the right

Jen: Absolutely.

Todd: can.

Jen: Our goal is to help.

Todd: Alright, [00:42:00] I think that's it all.

Jen: Okay.

Todd: Bye.

Jen: Bye.