052: Building Your Empire: The Esthetician's Journey to Freedom

Are you an esthetician feeling overwhelmed and burnt out? This episode dives deep into the transformative journey of turning your practice into a profitable business. Host Kari Jo Patterson reveals the secrets of transitioning from solo service provider to empowered leader. Discover the nitty-gritty of setting a sustainable pay structure, the critical mindset shifts needed, and how to cultivate trust and effectiveness in your team. 

Kari Jo exposes the common myths that hold estheticians back, including the misconception that finding the right employees is enough for success. Instead, she advocates for forging a solid foundation where employees are nurtured and developed. The emphasis is on creating systems that facilitate business growth, allowing more time for you to focus on your passion rather than getting bogged down in daily tasks. 

With practical guidance, Keri navigates the complexities of the beauty industry, shedding light on how to enhance client services and boost revenue through smart investments. She offers insights on why commission rates higher than 45% can be detrimental to your bottom line, along with strategies to build a committed workforce keen on growth. 

Tune in to gain not just knowledge but also actionable steps to embark on your path to financial freedom. We invite you to implement these strategies into your own business, take control, and thrive. Feel free to subscribe, share, and leave us a review!

To learn more about coaching please visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

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Links You May Want to Check out:

Join the Client Building for Estheticians group to go deep in learning all the latest tips and strategies https://www.facebook.com/groups/clientbuildingforestheticians
Check out Kari Jo’s courses here https://esthelaunchacademy.com

Chapters

• 0:32 Reality Check for Estheticians
• 7:37 The Truth About Employee Trust and Training
• 28:41 Crafting a Profitable Pay Structure

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, where passion meets prosperity. Your host, Kari Jo Patterson, transformed from a solo esthetician into a successful business owner, achieving ultimate time and financial freedom by the age of 38. Kari is the author of Fearless Prosperity, empowering estheticians to build their empire and achieve financial freedom, and the creator of the empire growth system for estheticians. Get ready for some empire building wisdom Now. Welcome your host, Kari Jo Patterson.

Kari Jo Patterson: 0:32

Reality check that every esthetician needs to hear is on today's episode. Let me ask you this are you running your business or are you running from burnout? Because here's what I've been seeing over and over again with my coaching calls so many estheticians they say they want to grow, but they refuse to step out from the treatment room long enough to actually make it happen. Recently I had a coaching client tell me that I just don't know if I can trust my employees to take care of my clients the way I do. And my response is you don't have to, because they're not going to take care of them the way that you do. Let that sink in for a minute. Nobody is going to do things the way that you do them, but I can tell you this you, being behind the chair, you don't have a business, you just have a really exhausting job. So here's the myth that I think is keeping everybody stuck. There's a myth that's floating around this industry that nobody wants to work anymore or that good employees are impossible to find, but that's actually not the real problem. The real issue is that most estheticians have no idea how to properly train, pay or pay their employees, and they have no idea how to keep them motivated. And I get it because I used to be in the same spot. Right, I thought, if I could just find the right person, everything would magically fit into place. But this is what I learned is you don't find great employees, you create them. This is the mindset shift that we got to start changing.

Kari Jo Patterson: 2:17

When I was starting my business, I had this realization that changed everything. It was I was still thinking like an employee, even though I was the business owner. See, what is it that employees always think about? They think about their schedule, they think about their paycheck and they think about their skill set. But what is it that a business owner thinks about? A business owner thinks about how do you create systems that make money even when you're not in the treatment room? How do I build a team that people actually want to stay around? How do I make sure my business is profitable so that I don't feel like I'm trapped, working 80 hours a week, coming in at all hours of the day, all hours of the night? And the first step in that whole entire thing is understanding your pay structure.

Kari Jo Patterson: 3:14

Here's the deal. So many business owners are either overpaying their employees to the point that their business is struggling or they're underpaying them and wondering why they can't keep their staff. The average business owner in the beauty industry takes home only seven percent of their revenue. You heard that right, seven percent. And I've talked about this many times, but I'm going to throw it out here again. When you go to sell your business, whatever price like whoever's going to come in and buy your business, they're going to take the numbers that you have to the bank to see and the bank's going to look at it to decide is this a good investment or not. So the bank has this book that basically tells them oh, in the beauty industry, if they're getting about 7%, that's average. That is what is average in this industry. But I guess I shouldn't say so. But if you look back in every single face group that you go to any of the Facebook groups, you always see these estheticians and they're always complaining about their commission rates, saying that their boss is stealing from them when they offered them, say, 35% commission instead of paying 65% or 50%. But guess what? Anything above 45% commission is literally business suicide.

Kari Jo Patterson: 4:32

I had an employee that was working for me and she was making under 45% commission. She wasn't even working 20 hours a week and she was going to be making working 20 hours a week and she was going to be making $75,000 a year. Yes, it is possible for you to be at a lower commission rate and for you to make a crap ton of money, but the reason why that happened this goes into like a little bit bigger of a story is the reason why my employees could make money is because I had a commission rate. That was set up so that I could take money and invest it in newer machines the hydrafacial. When the hydrafacial came out, I was able to buy that because I wasn't getting screwed with my commission rate. Right, I was able to go buy a laser and bring on a medical director because I wasn't getting screwed in my commission rate, but because I was able to do that. It then allowed them to do higher services that they get paid more to do, so that they could bring in better checks and work less.

Kari Jo Patterson: 5:37

Put it this way if you are going to be, say, making let's say you're on a commission rate and you're doing like they're getting 65% and you're getting the leftover Are you going to have money to go invest in that? No, not, unless you're doing it out of your own pocket. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah, their paychecks are always going to suck. They're going to be stuck doing $65 services. That just isn't sustainable.

Kari Jo Patterson: 6:06

Listen, if your pay structure is built right, it's not about you chasing the highest percentage. It's about building something that's scalable, sustainable and that everybody can profit. More you got to the employees are putting in a little bit more so that they can have the newest things, so that they can then grow and you guys can be the first to bring in the newest big thing, cause we always know this industry. They always have like new big things Anyways, yeah, so I want you to think like, if you are a business owner, and okay, carrie, I get it. Pay structure is a big thing, but where do I start? How do I start? I want to let you know that anything over 45% is dangerous. You need room to pay rent, you need room to invest in your equipment and you need room to actually profit.

Kari Jo Patterson: 6:58

The second thing is it's not about commission. Employees stay when they see a future. My business I was continually bringing in the newest things so that they could continue to grow. If employees can see a future, that's what's going to make them stay. And step three is you need to train them to be successful. Most owners, they throw their new hires into the treatment room and they just hope for the best, and then they train them occasionally and you know whatever? No, you need to train them in a way that they get a guaranteed win. Take the time to train your employees when they start.

Kari Jo Patterson: 7:45

Okay, at the end of the day, you have two choices, right, you can keep working yourself into exhausted trying to control every single tiny little detail, or you can build a system that's going to let you step back and actually grow a business and a team. And if you're serious about making this change, well then I have something that will seriously help. I just released my brand new course. It's called the Esthetician's Guide to a Profitable Pay Structure and it is basically for those business owners. Listen, I took a whole year last year.

Kari Jo Patterson: 8:21

I had so many calls with estheticians where I just talked to them one-on-one, and there was one reoccurring theme is everybody wanted to know how to pay and set up a pay structure, but nobody wants to pay for a mentor, which is fine. There are people out there that they are the DIYers that are like just give me the system, I'll figure it out. Well, guys, this is for you. This is for the business owner who wants to set up the right system, pay their team profitably and grow their business without the fear of losing money. This is for you if you're business savvy and you want a DIY roadmap. You don't need a higher mentor, you just need to follow a system. You can get access to it today.

Kari Jo Patterson: 9:09

I will include it in my link and, guys, once again, if this episode was helpful, do me a favor. Screenshot it. Share it, dude, share it in a group. For me, I don't even care. Share it wherever. Help me, let me let. I would love to also hear your biggest takeaway from this episode. Thanks for listening and tuning in and I will see you on the next episode.

Announcer: 9:30

Bye, guys thank you for listening to the esthetician podcast with carrie joe patterson. Each week, carrie brings you real world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Carrie's Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more visit wwwcarriejopattersoncom. That's wwwcarrijopattersoncom. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.