WE'RE BACK BABY! ONE YEAR AS BUSINESS OWNERS

It's been a year as business owners, we dive into what it's been like and the changes we've been experiencing.  Did we make a profit? What's been new for us?

Transcript

 Every day starts in a typical way with retreat. Oh. Sometimes I can't understand. Hello. Welcome back. It's been a minute. It's been a very long time. Much longer than we would have preferred, I would say. Ozzy, we've been so busy. What do we do? We. I don't think we've talked since we've been to California. I don't think we've talked since we went to the cabin the first time. Oh, and then we went to the cabin with the girls. We've been to the beach. I mean, not that you guys care what trips we've been on, but. No, but California was a semi work trip. Yeah, California was a lot of fun. We, um, took some classes by Jane Matthews and DJ Muldoon. Yeah, there was a lot of cool people there. Um, if your client's listening, you should look up both their profiles. They're really fun. Cool. Like hairstyles. Yeah, they fit our vibe a lot. Yeah. Um, so that was really cool. We had a really good drink. Britney. Tell them about it. Oh, I'm not a drinker, but the strength, I mean, I had the girly version. It's a pina colada with, like a strawberry daiquiri swirl, but it's like a soft serve. And then you could get a rum shooter on top. I declined the rum shooter, but yeah, it's not like heavy, like ice cream, but it has like a similar texture. Yeah, it was just it tasted so good. It was so creamy. We dream about that drink I, I do and hopefully they did not take it off the menu by this year. So no back. Um, so I think we want to talk to you guys about, you know. Being business owners for a year now, almost a year and a half, I think it might already be. It's definitely over a year. Yes. Um, but just like what we learned, what we would do differently from the start, did we make a profit? What are we doing? What would we keep doing? Yeah. So let's start on what we would do different. I don't even know how many employees we have now. I have to think about this a lot. Okay, so there's five stations over there plus one six, and Emily's leaving. So seven currently, plus Ellie, plus Ellie. So seven. Yes. Well, eight now eight will be seven. Seven. We did have. We would have had nine. Now we only have seven. So we'll get into that a little bit later. Yeah. Um, lots to unpack and talk about today. Do we want to start with, like, financials? Yeah. Okay. Um, did we make a profit this year? We did. Just super impressive for your first year of business. Um, I think we're really proud of that. We were able to pay down a lot more of our loan, I think in the first year than we ever thought we'd be able to? Yeah, definitely. I don't want people thinking that we did this, like. I mean, we did do this all on our own, but like, we did not we could not have done this without that loan. Yeah, you definitely needed the loan. I mean, we did have to pull a lot of money out of our own pockets, but thankfully we had the experience of our salon suites, and I think that gave us a little bit of like a seed for planting this. But ultimately. Yeah. So there are some things that I think we would have changed financially from the beginning, and we probably could have been at like a better place. Um, we were in the negative to at one point. Yeah, January to like March last year, which is very normal. That's definitely our normally our slowest season I would say is like February for sure. Yeah. Um, so we did we did do we, there was this foil line that we really liked and we were buying really expensive foils. And I mean, like, they're so cute. They're so cute. They're adorable. They're worth it if it's worth it to you. Yeah. But they were like 20 some dollars box and then you'd have to pay for shipping. So that just wasn't our smartest decision. We probably didn't need the really cute fancy foils, even though we loved them. Like you throw them away like Zach. It's just now. Now they're $10 bucks, so it's literally like half the price. Yeah. Um, so just like, yeah, just things like that don't do it in the beginning. If you don't have the money, like nobody really cares about the foils you're putting in their hair that much, like it's not going to make or break your business if you have basic foils or cute foils. Yeah. And every now and then we do get fun ones just to like, mix it up a little, but just like one box or something. Mhm. Um, like Britney said we throw them out. So it's like why are we wasting our money on that. Yeah. But good for those businesses. They're killing it it seems. But that would be the first for me to go back. Yeah I think a smart thing that we, you know did do that we continued from our salon suites is we don't keep a huge wall of retail. We talked about this before. I think that really helped us in being able to have a profit, because otherwise you're just kind of in debt to your. S stock of freaking products that you need to push and sell. And so the fact that we didn't have, you know, 15 to $20,000 worth of product sitting on a shelf definitely helped us be in the positive. Yeah. And so towards the end of last year, we were like, okay, like we finally know we're doing okay and we're at a good place. And with the type of, um, like haircuts we do, and we just really want like lived in natural styles that people can air dry. We did pick up a couple things from, like some smaller batch like indie brands that we know will make people be able to walk around with, like the haircuts that we give them, like, to the best of their potential. Yeah, to be a natural stylist and just, like, have that effortless look. Yeah, for sure. I'm, you know, supporting a small brand just feels better than you know. It looks so cute on a shelf compared to, like, I don't know, Pantene or whatever. Yeah. Um, I don't know if we can say, like, brands names. Uh, but it's fine. Um. Oh, we were able to give our people a small Christmas bonus based on, like, their sales for the year. So, yeah, I think that's something like we should be, like, super proud of for our, like, first year in business, being able to, like, give somebody. Bonus. That's not something that normally I've never really experienced in, like the salon world. I don't think I've ever received a bonus, like in general in any job. I mean, even like a like, I guess I've gotten like smaller Christmas gifts, but like, yeah, definitely Christmas gifts. And I mean, you know, any gifts? Understandable. Any. Yeah. Any gifts a good gifts. Not knocking like, if you can't do it. But you know, I think we did do the math and like realistically the profit you turn is like maybe what, like 3% of your total gross sales. So if you're not doing things 100% correctly, which were not still, I don't know how many salons are making like insane profits. I really don't know that they'd be able to like, I know it sounds like even we've talked about this again before, like even being in our salon suites. It was a big like reality. Like you're making a smidge more money, but the responsibility you have now, right? I don't really know if it weighs out the well. And like, this is the amount of money you're making, like side shoot conversation. But I feel like a lot of people and we've said this before are unaware of like. First off, how much money or how much money they think that their cricket owners are taking? It seems like we're just not. Unfortunately, I don't want to talk about taxes. Yeah, we don't, but. I think that we're all unaware of how much a business costs are run until, like, we see it like, yeah, in front of us. And like, you see profit and loss reports and you're like, Holy shit. Like, where is that money going? Um, but it all makes sense and we don't really buy things aggressively. So no, I don't know. But and we do try to do like smaller things. Yeah. We try to buy lunch for the girls when we can, you know, we try to do, like, get together as we do, like potlucks where we all get together and have have dinner. And we just started like a thing where we want to try to take one employee out, like to a nice dinner, like at least once or twice a year, just to have that one on one check in. You know, we want our people to feel appreciated, because I feel like the only way like our business can thrive is if we have happy, you know, employees who feel like they're valued. I mean, that's what people want, right? You want to feel valued. You want to feel like important that your boss is actually care about your well-being and not just their bottom line. Right, exactly. And that they're not just there to like, you're not there that just to make them money because like. It's I don't know, I don't feel like we see anybody that way. Like we're not the type of boss that's going to, like, pressure you to work more. Or like, we don't make our people, um, make up their time if they want to take off. Yeah. And a lot of salons do like crazy to me. I know I didn't realize that till recently how common that is. And but that's part of the issue is like just that old salon business model. And they can survive if their clients are taking off or they're yeah, people are taking off. And that's like, well, it's very interesting to think about. Yeah. Um. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, um, we definitely had some. We're gonna get it down. We're gonna get into employees. Yeah. Um, and not when you lose an employee, like, it's. It's a weird. I don't know, it was weird. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Um, it's because you you get attached to this person and, like, you know, you want what's best for you, want what's best for them, and sometimes, like, what's the best for them. Exactly. You know, isn't, you know, what you have to offer. And I feel like that's a hard thing to, like, swallow. Because no matter what, you feel some kind of guilt, like you feel like, oh, like, did we support you enough? Could. Have we helped you more, you know? And that's. Yeah. Yeah. So we took on a lot of newbies, and I think we were just excited. We had this like space and we wanted to fill it. But like if you're not prepared, this type of salon model and structure is hard for somebody brand new out of school. Yeah. Absolutely is. It's not you know, it's different. And we're still I would consider a still brand new. Oh yeah. We're still like a little brain a lot. Uhhuh. So we're still learning, you know, how to best support our staff and, um. Yeah, just it's definitely a hard thing. Yeah. Um, and just, like, teaching people straight out of school, like, if you don't have the time for it. Yeah, because we both are still, like, behind the chair. And we will be behind a chair for the foreseeable future, you know, someday, obviously, the goal is to be able to step back and, you know, be more, you know, on the business end and education end and, you know, just being there to support our employees. But we're definitely not there yet. And I don't think we realized how much time and effort and energy like you need to put in to like, a brand new baby stylist and like making sure that you're, like, cultivating like a good environment for them. Yeah, that's definitely something that I feel like we did not do correctly. Like, no, definitely. I think with each person, like we've learned more and more. Yeah. And even my like the last person we added on that we're was new. We're kind of like, oh we love Ashley. Yeah. But we were like, we don't know if we like, can do this anymore because we had struggled with the first two. Obviously they're doing their I'm sure the other person that left is doing great. I'm hoping them the best. Yeah. Like and they they took a break from here to like it's not like it was anything like they just mentally needed a break from hair, you know, and for their own mental health. Um, and then Anjali, she's obviously thriving and she's really. Well, she is like an anomaly. Like she. I don't think she realizes how, like, you know, she literally out of school. No clients, just most of her days. She only works two days a week right now, but they're pretty much full days, which is awesome. For your first year. Yeah, out of school. But yeah, going back to all that, it's like by the last person that we added, we were just kind of like, I don't know if we should do this. Yeah, I think we decided we wanted to take a break on like, and if it wasn't a specific person. Oh yeah. We're like no, no. Yeah. If it weren't we had no relationship with her before, you know, school before she even went to school. She was a client of mine, you know, and we had talked about how she wanted to go back to school. And, you know, we always kind of knew, like, she would probably end up with us. And we are like, so happy to have her. But yeah, it's definitely taking on new people. It's a lot of responsibility. And you take on a lot of like. Worry for them because you want to make sure again, like you're helping them build and, you know, grow. And it's not it's not easy. Yeah. We have realized too, that like in the beginning with especially having someone who is fresh out of school and someone else who is still very much growing their book, that we were very chill at first and I would say a little naive. Oh yeah. For sure. Um, not that we were like, not that anybody was bad or not that like, no, I don't think I don't we don't regret it. No, I do, we, I think now that we're farther out of it, like we can see like where we could have done better, what we should've said to ourselves, we don't need employees. We're not gonna have any employees in the beginning. And then we kind of went back on, like, our own word. Uhhuh. Because we got excited. And we don't regret anything because we're at a good place now. But having employees right away was definitely a challenge. And I think that's something that everyone who's considering opening something needs to know. Like. Yeah, and you kind of need to almost. I don't want to say you put your employees first, but you kind of in some situations need to. And that's something like you need to be okay with doing. Yeah. Like your expectations. You know, you can't expect everyone to put in the same effort as an owner would because they are owners. Like, why would they I don't know, you see things differently. Like you're looking at things from a different perspective and putting that expectation on people. I feel like can be like toxic in a way. Yeah. Really. Um, because you should care more as an owner. So yeah, it's just been a whirlwind of things for sure. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything else we could talk about, we, uh. Oh, we can talk about Ellie. So we're super excited for her. She's going to be. She doesn't, like, have any ties to hair at all. And that was at a request. Yeah, we we really wanted that. So she, you know, she's helping us with our social media. So she has just like that really good eye for like, you know, Instagrammable shit and you know how to do all of that. So she's helping with that. But then she's also kind of helping with like the not so like glamorous side of like a salon. You know, when you get busy and you have, like, towels piled up in dirty bowls. So she's just helping us with all of that. And yeah, we're excited that we were able to, like, bring her on and can afford to have her. Yeah. It like becomes a lot especially like we mentioned earlier, we're still behind the chair four days a week each. So like it's a lot of like extra effort to try and like make content and post videos and come up with new ideas because we're already like, working on new ideas throughout the salon. Yeah, we have so many ideas coming, some stuff coming, some new, exciting stuff that's like, I don't know why we're doing it to ourselves, but it's glutton for punishment. But yeah, it's fun. It'll be fun. No, it is gonna be so fun. Um, and I definitely think this time of year is going to be a great time to, like, start that. Um, um, but, like, we put a lot on our own plates, so it's definitely nice to have someone to, like, help with the creative side of things. Yeah, we also did just take, um, a women's leadership class through Yale. That's what we did. And that was really like it was really eye opening to like, hone in on, like, what you're like, leadership style is and like how to best, like, lean in to like your, um. Like your personal strengths, like really leaning into them and utilizing them in, um, like your mentoring and leadership. Yeah. I feel like you learn a lot about yourself, and like there was this whole part where, like, we had friends and families fill out this paper that, like, was stuff that they noticed about us. We were doing what times when we were, like, doing our best. Um, and I don't know, it's just cool always to hear. Yeah, it's it's hard to kind of like, I don't know, it was hard for me like to be like, oh, like, well, when do you feel like you were performing at your best like that? I, I know I hated it. I was like, I don't know, I know I hate talking about myself that way, which is such a bad. No, I know I literally talked about that with a therapist. Yeah. But I'm just like, why is it so uncomfortable for me? And I remember I like asked Aaron. I was like, what should I put for this? I was like, I don't know, I can't help you with that, but I don't know. It's like, oh, it is. It's very uncomfortable. But that's part of the vulnerability. I feel like of the course was like putting I don't know, I think that's like making you look at yourself, you know, and just really getting to know, like yourself, that's like typical, like a feminine energy kind of thing is like. Putting other people above you. So, like, you don't really think about yourself. Yeah. Um, but it was just very fascinating. It was do. Yeah. So that was really exciting. Um, I'm trying to think if there's like, other exciting things. So we started doing like fun specialty drinks for the like different seasons. So right now we're doing like a lavender mocha. And, uh, it's like a, it's like a, it's like dirty soda. It's called a dirty cowboy. Yeah. So that is sprite, like a rose, um, syrup and and a villanelle. Yeah. Vanilla cream with, like, a, a little cherry in it and a little cotton candy. So that's fun. It's like a nice little pink drink. And then. I'm working on my I know I, we have some fun merch right now. So I'm shirts. I know we want to like, get some new, um. Design designs. Yeah, we have some cute little stickers right now. Oh, we want to do a hat at some point. So, um, so that'll be fun. What do you feel like is like, the biggest thing you've learned this year? Um hmm. That's a tough one. I would say that not to, like, like, bite off more than I can chew, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like, again, like, I get so excited and get, like, so many ideas and, like, I really need to, like, just set a goal of, like, a couple things, like tackle those and then on to the next. Because I feel like I know I'm good at like like again, like I said, just like getting so excited and like wanting to do all these things, but like, not following through, really. You are kind of like that. Like, I feel like I feel I feel like you're an idea person and I'm a doer person, you know what I mean? I would agree, um, but similar to that, I would say to like let go. I think because like, I feel like we both like, cope with things by trying to take control of, like, random things instead of, like the bigger picture. So I feel like just like letting go of control is a big lesson for both of us. Yeah, definitely. Because it's okay to, like, feel out of control sometimes. Yeah, yeah, I think that's like a very minimal first podcast back. Yeah, it it's been a year. It's been crazy. Yeah, it's been very crazy. But it's been exciting and we're so happy. We just like sit back sometimes and we're kind of like in all. Yeah. Like it still doesn't feel real even just um, so like obviously we said last year we were in the negative. But to see like our growth from January, February of 2024 to 2025, it's actually mind blowing. It is like, yeah, it is insane the amount of growth we've had in a year. Like I think emotionally, physically, financially. Huh? I mean, we've already hit what? We're over $100,000 in sales already for the year, which is sad. Don't get that twisted. No. Yeah. Uh, our bank account does not mean that. Keep in mind, 50% right away goes to Employees. Yeah, they gotta get paid. But but I mean, that's just crazy. Like to think about, like. And that's not even we're not even through March yet. Yeah. That's just three months. Yeah. So it's it's wild I know. But at the same time we're just like, grateful that everyone who has chosen to be with us in this journey has. Yeah, our employees, people that have stuck through us, growing our clients. Yeah. We like, couldn't do this without you guys. You know, use our the reason we've had all this growth and yeah it's we're so grateful. We definitely are. So I think that wraps it up for today. Yeah. Yeah. Later. Every day starts in a typical way with retreat. Oh sometimes I can understand all the things that I see. Who I need you.