You Can Do More Than Cut Hair: The Personal Economy

You cut hair, so you think all you can do is cut hair. Or you color, or you do nails, and that is the whole menu. Then you hit the ceiling. You can only fit so many clients into a day, and the only way to earn more is to work more hours. I want to show you the way out, and it starts with seeing three areas of income instead of one.

The three areas of the personal economy

The personal economy has three areas: service, product and knowledge.

• Service. You start here. Early in your career you don't know anything else yet, so you cut and color hair to make money. Nothing wrong with that.
• Product. As you master your craft, you become an expert on the products that go with your service. From there you can do affiliate marketing, open a Shopify store, or create your own product and become a brand.
• Knowledge. This is education. You can teach in-salon classes, run virtual classes, build a course, or do coaching and mentorship.

Each area has layers. In knowledge, I sell courses, mentorship, a community and one-on-one coaching. Same area, four different offers.

How I built mine

The wrong vehicle

I was in the Dominican Republic for a bachelor party and ended up staying three or four months. Sitting on the beach, I decided I wanted a job I could do from anywhere in the world. I figured the answer was a website, but I do hair. At the time I was big into MMA and action sports and windsurfing, so I started a site called Buddha Sport. I couldn't make a dime with it. I didn't know enough about making money online to monetize it. So I came back to the States and went back to doing hair.

The $10 lesson

I was working next to a Salon Centric, and a client asked me for a product. I ran next door, bought it for $10, and sold it to her at the $20 retail price. That was $10 profit for a five minute errand. I remember thinking I had the right idea in the wrong vehicle. I was trying to sell skateboards and MMA news online, and I should have been selling what I already knew.

The Shopify store

I started a Shopify store as an online extension of the retail in my salon. Shopify isn't a third party seller. It's a website builder, so the store is yours. I listed the products I had access to as a licensed stylist: Biolage, Colorlast, Redken, Pureology, the basics you find at Cosmo and Salon Centric. Then I reached out to other distributors and negotiated better rates when I bought in volume. It quickly turned into a completely different business.

I'd wake up, check my Shopify account, and see $800 in overnight revenue. Revenue, not profit. Then I learned email marketing and built more on top of that.

Stepping into knowledge

A couple of years later I saw a hole in the industry. A lot of coaches don't own a salon anymore. If you were in the business 15 or 20 years ago and you're not in it now, what you teach doesn't apply today. I had saved a couple of salons my friends ran, and they told me to try the knowledge thing. So I stepped into coaching and mentorship.

Today I have revenue from my salons, from products I sell online, and from coaching, courses and community. I can bring my family to Florida, look at salons, and still earn. That is freedom.

Why this industry is built for it

• Everyone needs a haircut. It's about as close to recession proof as you get.
• New people step into the industry every year, and there is very little leadership or business guidance for them.
• Products can come out of nowhere. Olaplex did it. Moroccanoil did it with one oil. K18 came after. The next one could be yours.

Here's a place to start. If you use a particular cocktail of products to get a result for clients, why not formulate that into one product?

And right now, e-commerce has never been easier, thanks to AI and Shopify. Building your reputation on social media has never been easier either. I'm confident I could move anywhere in the world and be busy doing services, just through social media, networking and the lessons from years of failing in business.

Pick one idea

An owner of a studio asked me in the chat that she has so many ideas and doesn't know how to get them out there. My answer: pick one. Take the idea that excites you most and don't stop until it has traction and is making you money.

Entrepreneurs see ideas everywhere. You walk into a restaurant and spot something you could use in your salon. That's good. The skill is saying no to the ones that don't line up with your mission right now. There will always be another opportunity. You won't miss the boat.

Content is just documenting

She also said she doesn't understand social media. I didn't either at first. I've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in courses and learning through experience. So take your education seriously and get around people who are good at creating content.

It isn't that hard. Document what you do and post it. Right there on the live, I shot a post for her studio: I was at Jamie's salon, Salon Lusso in Naples, Florida, I tagged her studio, and I tagged Jamie because she's building a team. That's the whole process. Somebody on YouTube is eating cereal, so someone will find your day interesting.

Quick answers to owner questions

How big should the salon be?

2,000 to 3,000 square feet is a good size for a profitable salon. Smaller and you'll outgrow it. Bigger is a lot to handle, unless you're happy with a micro salon. One of mine is a micro salon and it's easy to manage. It also depends on your leadership. It's easier to manage five people than 50. If you've never owned a salon, start smaller and grow.

I run several locations in North Jersey. That gave me low risk, because if one struggles the others pick up the slack, and if one has a flood or a power outage I can move clients to another. It also gave me experience with different personalities. Now I plan to condense into one big location, so I have one or two managers instead of four or five, and one internet bill and one phone bill.

Should you start in a suite?

This is my opinion only: suites cost too much per square foot. Look for a small 700 to 800 square foot space, maybe a three-chair micro salon just off the main street, and learn social media well. The girls I know who rented a two-chair suite paid $1,100 a week for a space no bigger than the corner I was sitting in. My five-chair salon, with two sinks, a break room and a back room, was $1,350 a month at the time.

A suite can still work. It's turnkey and it's a one year lease. If you're oversubscribed and can cover the month's bills in a couple of days of work, you should be fine.

How do you partner with someone who isn't a stylist?

• Give each person a designated role: money, marketing, management, talent, or investor only.
• Lay it out first so everyone knows their part, then build a what's next plan.
• Meet every single week to talk about the business. If you don't, communication breaks down and problems follow.
• If they're an investor only, read the book Simple Numbers. It covers how to pay a manager and some partnership structure.

How do you find new hires?

Create content that attracts stylists into your world, so they know you, trust you, and see your salon and culture. Then open conversations. If you message 100 stylists or barbers in your area every day, one will say yes within a couple of days.

Your next step

Write down the three areas: service, product, knowledge. Next to each, write one thing you already know that someone would pay for. Circle the one that excites you most, then post about it this week.