Salon Swagger

Brie (00:00)
Hey there, salon and spa superstars. Welcome to salon swagger, your go -to podcast for all things commission based salon and spa ownership. I'm Brie and I am here with my amazing cohost Chandra. Hey Chandra, what's up?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (00:13)
Hello, good morning.

Brie (00:15)
How's it going?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (00:16)
Good, it's crazy but good.

Brie (00:19)
Yeah, it has been a crazy day. Well, I'm gonna make it a little bit more crazy Because I kind of had something planned for today. However, today's episode is gonna be a little interesting. I was on social media last night, you know, just scrolling that thing that everybody does and a post popped up and it just grabbed my attention. And when I say it was a heated debate, holy crap, girl, it was heated, heated. It was at that moment.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (00:24)
No.

Brie (00:49)
I was like, this is what we're going to talk about today. This is what we have to talk about. So this debate was about working in a commission salon that has a level system, right? As we would call it growth career plans for your team. We can just kind of cue the eye rolls from all of the salon, spa owners out there right now, and a ton of stylists and technicians, right? Because that's what's going to happen when they hear this. It's crazy. I know, I know.

people have definite feelings about level systems, but honestly, it blows my mind. It really, really does. Anyways, let's get back to the debate because it got so heated, girl. Listen to this. People that work in commission salons that have career growth plans, that have level systems, they were offering to literally show their W -2s to complete strangers.

in order to prove that they were making over a hundred K per year, working four days per week in a commission salon. They were literally, isn't that crazy? And of course I was reading the comments knowing that it's a million percent possible for technicians to be able to do this, right? I didn't get involved, but I was like, these people are right. It is totally possible. I have people that do it. You have people that do it.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (01:55)
Wow, yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Brie (02:16)
It just baffles me that so many people are against something that can absolutely truly work. I think there's really a couple of reasons that owners and employees alike, they don't buy into the whole career growth plan or level system. In one aspect, I think it's because a lot of salon and spa owners, and I don't want this to sound mean at all because I don't mean it that way, but because I was one of these people.

just they just have a lack of operational structure in their business, right? Or a lack of knowledge in general when it comes to creating these career growth plans for their employees. I think that's one of the big reasons. If these roadmaps and plans are not set up correctly, heck yes, it is going to spell disaster for everybody involved. The second thing I think, or the second reason I think,

technicians are against these level systems is because they don't really understand how they work. Once again, falls back on ownership for not explaining it. This could be maybe people don't like them because they worked in a salon where they had a horror story, right? The level system was run incorrectly. And once again, not the employee's fault. With years of research though,

I have come to find that most technicians, they just think it's a little bit more of a controlling environment where there's a level system involved. So they automatically just go against them. They're like, nope, not having it, don't want to do it. So now with my little rant out of the way, I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to lay out why commission salon and spa owners need to create these career growth plans in their studios.

and really what advantages they offer for both the business and the employees because it's a huge advantage for everybody. Before we get into too deep though, let's talk about what a career growth plan looks like in a salon, just in case we have people listening that are kind of unaware of that. In my opinion, it's really no different in a salon than it is in any other business, right? It's the opportunity for a stylist or a technician,

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (04:21)
Mm -hmm.

Brie (04:40)
to grow, to promote within an organization. It always starts with a training process. Then you work your way through to different levels or different promotions. You reach these levels or promotions by hitting certain benchmarks, certain KPIs, which is the same in all companies. And then as you promote yourself, you are able to charge more, which means you make more freaking money. This strategy can also grant people the opportunity for leadership positions, such as management educator.

salon coordinator, things of that nature. Honestly, there's a lot more perks, but that is kind of the quick version. Would you agree with that quick version?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (05:20)
Yeah, 100%. Yep.

Brie (05:22)
Awesome. Now, before we start explaining the process really quickly, why do you think salon owners don't run their level systems or growth patterns correctly? And why do you think technicians are against them?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (05:40)
Well, I think most salon owners don't even understand them themselves because when we encounter a lot of different owners who try that they fail at, I feel like they don't even really understand their own level system or how they get them from point A to point B either. And I think that's where a lot of the struggle comes in for the stylist or the service providers because then they are being run, led by somebody that doesn't even really understand it in the first place, or they're not getting behind it either because.

for whatever their reasons might be. And I think sometimes they're overly complicated, because that's what mine was like for a long time too, is if your level system is overly complicated, it's frustrating for everybody and they're not gonna be successful. So then they get that bad stigma around it. Yep.

Brie (06:26)
100%. So I really think we need to start this first segment with talking about the foundation of career growth, which would be training. And I'm going to say this now so people can quit listening if they want to, but you have to compensate your employees when they are training. It is a necessity for every single employee that comes to work for you to train. I don't care if they got out of school today,

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (06:43)
Thank you.

Brie (06:56)
or if they are like us and they have been in the industry for decades. People have to understand what your studio stands for, the way that you do things. There's no other way to set people up for success except through training, right? So let's discuss some of the types of trainings that you would put in place as we created your career growth plan in your studio.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (07:15)
Mm -hmm.

Brie (07:26)
Let's talk about that. What does that look like for you?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (07:31)
Well, I think, you know, first of all, it starts with what your culture and all of your stuff is, because I think that's really a big piece of how they're going to get behind their career growth plan as well. So if they're not getting behind what you're trying to train them on, that's going to be one of the biggest steps right there. And then I think moving on to making sure that you're covering every aspect of what their career growth plan should be. You're covering that in your training. So if it's a technical skill that they're trying to learn through your career plan.

They need to be trained on all of those things. If it's how to sell product or how to sell services, if it's how to, you know, excel in, you know, certain area, I think that all of those things need to be laid out very in depth and very thoroughly through your training program.

Brie (08:18)
Yeah, I agree with that. And I think as we've coached so many salon and spa owners, that's what we see, right? Is they think that they have a training program, but what it is really is the salon owner having the employee shadow them every second of every day. And that's not a training program. That is literally being an assistant to the owner. And you hit the nail on the head. There are so many different aspects when it comes to training, right? Yes, they need the technical skills.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (08:41)
Yeah.

Brie (08:48)
But they also need the customer experience, the client journey. They need the front desk information, right? They need the how to open and close the studio. They need to know how to sell, how to upsell. There are so many things that go into play when you are training your staff and team. Hence the reason training is forever.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (08:50)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. Yep. And yeah.

Brie (09:11)
So what does your plan kind of look like?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (09:16)
So ours really walks through every aspect of what you just said. So we really start with that culture piece, then we start with their client journey. I think the biggest thing for me is we have to set them up for success in every single part of their job. And so they need to know how they got to do their consultation properly. They need to know how they can do that client facing stuff first. And so we put them through all of that first, and then we start kind of their technical training.

And they do shadowing and they do things like that, but as part of their career path, they need to understand what their KPIs mean, what their numbers mean. They need to understand what is expected of them. And so I think so many times where even I've had issues in the past is I didn't have it spelled out so thoroughly all the time. And I just thought people understood.

And then, you know, that I'd get frustrated because I'm like, they're not doing the stuff I tell them to do. But then when I really, you know, dig into my training program, my training program is not really setting them up for success in those areas. It's just, you know, lacking those things. So I think that's kind of, you know, the journey of what our training program looks like and what we, you know, that's our goal. Our end goal is to set them up for success in every area that they need to know.

Brie (10:34)
Yeah, it's our job, right? As owners, that is our job and we have to do that. So I think you brought up a really good point. And to me, this is kind of the meat and potatoes of it all, like mapping out that journey. When we talk about the promotions and the performance metrics, because these have to be created and they have to be created according to your business data. Like I need to say that slow and loud.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (10:37)
Mm -hmm.

Brie (11:03)
So many people think, all right, I'm going to set goals for my team. I'm going to set benchmarks for my team. I'm going to set KPIs for my team, but I'm just going to make these numbers up, whatever sounds good, right? Or I'm just going to use what Chandra uses or what Brie uses, and I'm just going to make that work for my studio. And it cannot be done that way. It has to be based off the data of your studio. And once again, we fall back to what? The financials, right?

the financials of it all. And I think that is something that people don't realize or they just don't have a full understanding of is that that's the only way to create KPIs for success for both your employee and for your business. With that being said, let's talk about a few of the KPIs, key performance indicators for those of you that don't know or benchmarks that employees need to meet in order to

qualify for promotions, maybe in your studio.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (12:06)
Yeah, and I think that, like what I said earlier, when I think a lot of the stigma around a training program or a level system or career path is that the owners don't fully understand, right? And so I think one of the reasons that they don't understand it is because they're just going and pulling information from what other salons are doing, or they're given metrics from a manufacturer company that they carry product from, or they're given these random numbers and they don't even understand why they're giving those to their team.

That's just what they were given. And so that's cause I did that in the past too, for many years. And, you know, I was like, you gotta hit these numbers. This is what I set up because this is what I was told to set up, but never in the past did anybody die. Yeah.

Brie (12:46)
Well, and a lot of times, a lot of times they're unattainable. And when they're unattainable, it is going to give everybody a negative outlook on everything. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but that's a big thing.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (12:53)
Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, and no, that was perfect. Yeah. No, that's perfect because I think that is exactly true. I think that's what happens a lot. And so you've got to be able to, in the way that I reset mine up and we've seen a huge change in our profitability, in our employees happiness, in their actual amount of time it's taking them to promote, they're doing it quicker. And it's because we reevaluated all of those things and we took our current situation. So.

our expenses, what we do in sales, all the different things that are specific to my business, not to anybody else's business. And we created those KPIs and that commission structure level system, all of those things, according to that information. And that changed everything, because before, what I had wasn't setting me up to be profitable. And so,

even though maybe we were hitting these numbers, we could never hit that profitability and we couldn't figure out why, because we're hitting these numbers, right? And so you have to really look at those things when you start creating those KPIs. So that's like the first thing. And then some of the most common things you want to make sure that you're tracking for them are going to be things like client retention, sales benchmarks, pre -booking benchmarks, all of those things. And those, they need to start learning how to do that. And then,

why they need to hit that. Because if you're a new stylist, for instance, just for example, and you're just on your own and you're in a salon that has some kind of career path, then you're not understanding how to grow your business. And so what that's really teaching them is how to actually grow their business behind the chair, not just, I just have to hit these numbers because my salon is mean. And I think that's where they get this like stigma sometimes. But once they get from here to here, you know, from A to B,

Brie (14:47)
Right, right.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (14:53)
Z or whatever, they realized at that point, my gosh, this was actually really helpful in making me become successful faster. That was my long -winded version, but there you go.

Brie (15:02)
Yeah, 100%. No, I love it. And, and it's so funny because we always compare right the solos to the commission salon stylist because that's really what it is. That's what you have to compare. When solos are trying to build their businesses, it's just based off of this is how much money I need to make a month to live, or this is what I want to make. It's hard to start. It's hard to start in a commission salon too. I am not saying that it's hard regardless of where you are.

The difference is, in my opinion, that solo has to really keep working like that forever. When you're in a commission salon that has a level system, as you promote, you are raising those prices, which a solo can do as well. You're raising those prices though. You're working less a lot of times, and then you have growth opportunity of making money when you're not behind the chair as well. And so I think that's where people...

don't see the differences so often, right? They're like, I'm just gonna work for myself and hit that glass ceiling at some point and I'm capped out at 15K a month to whereas in a commission salon, you have so many opportunities to make so much more money in so many different ways.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (16:16)
Yeah, I agree.

Brie (16:17)
Yeah. You also said about the commission structure. So I wasn't going to get into that a whole lot today because I think that is one of those things, you know, as well as I do. But once again, it is, but once again, and maybe we'll do that next week, you have to create a commission structure that is unique to your business. It cannot be copied and pasted. I see people on Facebook and Instagram all the time asking people, Hey,

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (16:24)
Yeah. That's a whole call. Yeah.

That's a whole episode in itself.

Brie (16:46)
Can I see your commission structure because I'm a new salon owner and I want to offer something good. And I'm like, that will set you up for failure almost instantly. And we've seen that, right? We see it in the people that we coach. We also see it in the industry. It's proven less than 5 % of salons are profitable. And the majority of those are one to 3 % profitability. It is.

so small the amount of salons that are over 10 % profitability. It really, really is, especially to see that with the owner not having to provide services, right?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (17:24)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brie (17:26)
Awesome. So we talked about training, how important it is. Everybody has it. I don't care if they're new to the industry, not, we talked about the important metrics, the key performance indicators. And once again, that's a whole episode on its own. They have to be created distinctly for your business, right? In a, in a certain way, let's talk about the financial incentives. So how employees benefit economically, I guess, maybe, some of the benefits for employees.

who engage with and succeed in a structured career plan. So is there anybody that you can think of that works for you that you have seen go from 15K a year to over 100K a year within your level system?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (18:11)
yeah, we've had many success stories with that. And I think, you know, if you talk to any of them, they would not want it any other way. And so I think that's definitely, yeah, you can definitely be done in that type of structure.

Brie (18:21)
Right.

So what does that look like for your employees? Because for mine, I'll just speak from my level system. Mine, they get perks as they promote, right? Like maybe they don't work every Saturday or maybe they take off days from the week and they work less. And so for my master artists that are at the top of the top, right? They work like 30 hours a week, maybe 32. And they're hitting over $100 ,000 per year very easily.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (18:53)
Yeah.

Brie (18:58)
And that's not even considering their cash tips. I don't, you know what I mean? Like, I never know how honest they are when they write those down. None of us do. Let's be honest. Like we can only do what we can do, right? So they could be making $150 ,000 a year for all I know. But what does it look like in your studio? What does that look like for you?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (19:08)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's very similar, I think. They do get more perks as far as schedule flexibility. They can pretty much kind of do whatever they want at that point. I would say most of them work between about 25 and 30 hours a week.

Most of them are on a three -day workweek schedule and they're still hitting those numbers I think you know it also allows us to pay for Education and to offer things that they can't get if they're just doing it on their own or in a salon That doesn't have it set up that way allows us to offer other benefits like 401ks and you know different paid time off or things like that Where you know all of those perks they wouldn't normally usually get?

Brie (20:03)
Yep. That's awesome. And so many people don't see, they don't see that big picture. And one of the reasons is, right, a lot of the people coming out of Cosmos school, they're young. They don't care about 401ks. They don't care about health insurance. They don't care about any of those things, but this industry is hard on your body and you don't want to have to do it until you're 70 years old. So everybody out there listening that is young, you should be thinking about those things now. Don't wait because they're very, very important.

Another area that I think creates, well, I'll say growth plans create something that I think is very important when it comes to salons and spas, and that's operational efficiency and customer service excellence. Like there is nothing better. So let's talk about how smooth operations and excellent customer service, how that goes together with career growth plans. How does that kind of intertwine?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (20:50)
Mm -hmm.

I mean, for me, I feel like it teaches them how to do business. So during their career plan, as it helps them excel quicker because they're learning how to do proper customer service, they're retaining their guests more, they're learning how to do their consultation thoroughly. So they're having less re -dos, they're having less issues, and that allows them to promote quicker through their career.

plan. And so I think having all of that operational efficiency in place, like we have a very, very structured client journey that they have to follow. And like I said, sometimes like in the beginning, when people first start working for us, they're kind of like, this is weird. You know, this consultation process is kind of weird. This whole thing is kind of weird. But then when they get the consistency down and they see how quickly they grow,

It's incredible compared to when we didn't have those things in place. It was so much harder to retain those guests. And they can command a higher ticket. And that also gives them a lot more money. Their add -on sales are higher because when you're following that process, it just sort of organically happens. And I think that's what people forget sometimes is they think, this is just controlling, or it's just this annoying structure. But once they actually start to see the results of those different things that you implement in that way, then.

they start to get behind it and they realize it is for their benefit and they see how much quicker they grow with it.

Brie (22:27)
Yeah, 100%. That smooth operation is so important, right? Having those roles, having those responsibilities, having the client journey, having all of that stuff is going to benefit every single person. So for the salon and spa owners out there that think, well, I don't want to be that boss, right? You need to be that boss. It is the only way to ensure that your business is going to run smoothly, whether you are there or not. It is the only way to ensure.

that your employees know exactly what is expected of them, right? Very, very important. And it's the only way to ensure that your clients are going to have the same amazing experience every single time they visit your studio. Without those roles and responsibilities and operations, it's never going to happen. It's just not. Something that we didn't really discuss earlier that I think is kind of important to discuss,

As we are creating these career growth plans and we're getting these KPIs and benchmarks set up right for our teams, one of the most important things that owners need to think about is explaining the exact steps to take in order for your team to promote. And we touched on it just a little bit, but this is a big problem. When employees can see, right? When they can see where they can go,

and they know the exact steps to take to get there, they are then in control of their own destiny and there is nothing more beautiful than that. So how do you go about showing your employees exactly what they can achieve, that it is attainable and kind of giving that to them and saying, here's the ball, it's in your court now, go do it.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (24:14)
Yeah, I mean we have several things that we put in front of them to get that information across. I think one of them is making sure that your structure is laid out very simple. And so we have it laid out to where they can look at a sheet of paper. It literally will say like, this is what you need to do. This is how many clients it takes. This is how many of this service. This is all of those things. So all they have to focus on when you're talking to them, we try to make it as easy as possible, right? So all they have to focus on is,

I need 20 clients and I can do this, this and this. Or, you know, we try to break it down so that all the minimal things that they have to focus on. And then we check in with them all the time. And so we do weekly check -ins if there's somebody that's new and they're starting to build. If there's somebody that's struggling and they're not getting it, then we might do daily check -ins. And we try to make sure that we are always celebrating every single win. And so when they start to feel that and they start to see that, I think that they...

it really helps keep them on track with everything that they need to do. So we're putting all the information, we're not hiding anything from them. I want them to see their numbers, I want them to know where they are, I want to make sure that they know exactly how many things it takes for them to get to this next level. And so if they're short by like two pre -books that week in order to hit their goal, then we might, you know, we will check that and tell them, hey, you only need two more pre -books, let's, you know, get that in. So then it starts to become a habit for them. And I think that's when it starts to get easy.

It's hard in the beginning because you have to keep constantly training them over and over again, you know, to what they need to be doing to hit those benchmarks. But once they start to get it, it just sort of organically happens and it gets easier for them. And we still keep that top of mind. Like even with our masters, they still have a career growth plan that they're following. So they, they might have quarterly meetings necessarily because they've already gotten all the beginning stuff out of the way, but we still make sure we're always meeting with them. And we're always putting that top of mind wherever they're at.

whatever they need to get to the next level, whatever they need to do to grow.

Brie (26:17)
Yeah, I love that. Honestly, we should all have career growth plans all the time, even us owners, right? Like it should never stop. We constantly have to grow in life or there's something wrong. Like we should all want to be better every single second of every single day. So let's talk about, okay, we hear the word control all the time when it comes to commission salons and spas. We've said it in this podcast, we've said it in others all the time, right?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (26:22)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Brie (26:45)
But when you create these career growth plans, like we just said, it is putting their own destiny in their hands. How, in my opinion, that feels really, really good. They can do whatever they want to do. They can set out and accomplish anything that they want. For me, it's like, okay, Nicole, you want to buy a new car? This is what we've got to do, right? And one of the beautiful things, because there's probably a lot of salon owners out there thinking,

This all sounds amazing, but I don't know how to freaking create any of it, right? One of the amazing things that you and I created together is the tracking that will show the employee exactly where they are and exactly how much they will make as they promote within their levels. How do you think that benefits our employees being able to see those things, especially monetary wise?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (27:39)
Yeah, I think it's a huge benefit because when you're trying to work towards a goal, I mean, we all do this as humans, right? Like if something sort of doesn't feel like it's attainable, then you kind of just ignore it or you don't try that hard because you're like, yeah, that's my goal. Sure, I'd like to eventually make this much, but that's never really going to happen, right? And so I think having that tracker for them to really.

Brie (27:53)
Yeah.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (28:02)
watch and look at and you can play with the numbers and be like, okay, if you only had three more people, look at how much more money you could hit towards your goal. If you're trying to save this much or you're trying to buy this car. And so really tying those personal goals to their professional goals is key to getting them to be excited about it because then when they see it, again, like you said, you're putting it in their hands. You're just like, here's what you got to do to get here.

And then it's up to them to drive the car from there to there because otherwise, if you're the one trying to push them up the hill all the time, they're never going to get up the hill, right? You've got to get them to get behind it and get them excited about it. And I think having that tool or having something like that and getting that in front of them, that's what you need. That's what motivates them to get moving.

Brie (28:48)
Yeah, 100%. I mean, who wouldn't want to see, okay, I'm a level one right now. This is exactly what I need to do to hit level three. And when I hit level three, I'm going to make 10 K more a month. I'm just throwing numbers out there, but that's amazing, right? It's going to initiate drive in their lives. And they're going to want to push themselves more and more and more. And that's one of the big things you hit the nail on the head. Once again, owners try to push it. They try to force it. They try to.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (29:16)
Yeah. Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Brie (29:17)
railroad, right? They're employees. And that's the wrong way to go about it. It's about knowledge. Knowledge is power, period. It's about us teaching them, them seeing it so that they want it and they go out and get it. 1 million percent. With that being said, for those people listening right now who are salon or spa owners, they work in a commission base, but they don't have a level system right now, either because they've heard

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (29:32)
Yep. Yep.

Brie (29:46)
or experiences about them or they just don't know how to create one. What would be your best piece of advice as to why they should jump on this bandwagon and do it now?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (30:00)
I mean, I think you definitely want to look at creating one, even if you have a bad stigma about it or whatever from who knows what happened in the past or whatever it is, whatever kind of negative ideas you have around it. I think I would definitely at least explore more information and try to find out maybe if it would be something that would help your business because nine times out of 10, it definitely will. And then I would seek out some help because...

this is a very complicated thing to set up and do it correctly. And so I think when you try to do it on your own, if you just start going down the path of, let me ask all these other salon owners what theirs looks like, or let me see what this person's doing, like what we said earlier, it's not gonna set you up for success. So don't waste your time with those things. Streamline it, make it quicker, and reach out and get some help from some successful people that have already done it, or a coach, or somebody that, you know.

is something that you want to emulate to find out how they did it. But yeah, that's where I would go with that.

Brie (31:02)
And another thing about that, it does not have to take 12 months to create this. A lot of people will tell you it's a long drawn out process. It's really not one just the same way that you're giving your employees the ball. It's in their court, right? To make as much money as they want to make or promote as quickly as they want to. It's the same way when you're creating these types of operations in your business, it's up to you. If you work hard, if you're ready to get it done, you get the information.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (31:07)
No.

Brie (31:29)
It can be created very, very quickly and implemented very, very quickly. It's truly the only way to track everything in your business without career growth plans. You can pull numbers from your CRM system. You can see different things, but you never really have a true scope in my opinion of what's going on. Yeah. Nope. Not at all.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (31:51)
Yeah, and neither does your team. So they're running around too, that's what we have to do. Yeah, yeah.

Brie (31:57)
Everybody's like a chicken with their head cut off just going doing whatever they want to do, right? Awesome

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (32:03)
Yep, and that's what we find out a lot in the industry. So I think it's, yeah. Yeah.

Brie (32:07)
We do. And I think people are, they don't reach out for help because they're embarrassed. And I hate that for people. I absolutely hate that for people because there is no reason to be embarrassed over anything, right? Times have changed, things have changed, business changes all the time. Maybe you just weren't taught something. We say this every episode, we are creative people, the majority of us, not analytical. We think completely different.

And so we've got to start learning to use that analytical side of our brain in order for our businesses to actually grow and for it to benefit us and our employees.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (32:46)
Yeah, for sure.

Brie (32:48)
So what advice would you give to employees out there or independents out there who may be struggling to grow their business, right? Or just tired of working 24 seven to make a good living for themselves. However, they're scared of going into a commission salon that has a level system because maybe they have to start from the bottom and work their way up.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (33:13)
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think I would consider looking for somewhere that has a level system because I think that's going to set you up for success. Even if down the road you decide you're going to go off and do your own thing, you will be able to succeed so much quicker because you've had that base foundation and understood how to move up, how to build that business, how to build your books, how to build all of those things. And if you're just doing it on your own and you're in a salon that doesn't have that structure, I mean,

I don't want to tell people to leave where they are. But I think if you're struggling and you're frustrated, I think you should start looking for somewhere that has that and find out how long do your stylists take to get through the level system? How long does it take them to get from level one to level four or whatever levels they have? Because that'll kind of give you some insight too onto what their career path looks like. I'm amazed by our stylists constantly because they're able to go from literally right out of school to like,

almost master stylist level within a matter of like a year or so because they are just killing it and pushing themselves so hard to reach those other numbers. And so if you're in a place that's set up for success, you're going to grow so fast and you're going to, you're going to see that, you know, money in your bank account and you're going to see, you know, those, those different perks that you can get that you might not be getting right now. So I would definitely, that would be my advice. I would start looking for somewhere that is.

Their goal is to set you up for success.

Brie (34:45)
Yeah, I think people should just really think about it, right? And I, like I said, I am not saying anything wrong about working independently, booth renter, suite renter, whatever you want to do, but there's two ways to look at it. Yes, there are rules at a commission salon. However, it's not as bad. If it is ran properly, it is not as bad as what everybody thinks, right? But you can work for yourself constantly.

have to handle everything and kill yourself and hit that glass ceiling to where there's no more time in the day. You can't raise your prices anymore. You can't make any more money, right? Or you can work in a commission salon that has a growth plan set up for people where you bust your butt in the beginning, right? You start growing and growing and then you get to cut back some, which is very rare. Most people have to work more as they get...

Up into their career but with level systems you really don't because it's set up in the way of where you don't have to kill yourself and the reason i bring that up is because that was in that hot debate last night if you work in a level system you are literally killing yourself twenty four seven and i'm here to tell you it is nothing like being an independent contractor because i've been one i know exactly what that feels like.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (35:53)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Yeah. Yep.

Brie (36:07)
Awesome. Well, I think it was a good topic to talk about today. I think we can wrap up this episode with that. We've kind of been all about the power of career growth plans in the beauty industry today and it needs to be talked about. We kick things off by understanding why these plans are more than just nice to have, I guess. They're really a must have in your studio. They provide clarity and motivation to our teams. They map out what their career

plan should look like. And we've also talked about how essential they are for keeping our employees engaged and eager to promote and excel in their job, really. We also dove into career growth plans and how they can boost your business. Remember, everybody needs to remember when our teams know that there's a path forward, they are more likely to stick around, which is really, really good for you as an owner.

That means lower turnover, more skilled professionals under your roof and a smoother operational status altogether. We also talked about what the guest experience, right? Satisfied and motivated employees, they are going to give superb customer service. Happy employees means happy clients. And that's why people keep coming back. In my opinion, the crucial takeaway from this episode.

Just my opinion is how growth plans need to be tailor -made, right? It's super important to base these plans on the actual data from your specific salon or spa. It is not one size fits all. You can't just copy and paste a plan from another studio and expect it to work. You have to tailor the plan to fit your unique environment and team dynamics. It is the key to ensuring that your employees are successful and your business remains profitable. Would you agree with all of that?

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (38:03)
Yep. 1000%.

Brie (38:04)
Alright.

So I think our challenge to salon and spa owners out there that are listening is to take a moment to think about your studio. How are you actually helping your team grow right now? What are you doing? And do you have clear steps in place that they can see in order to climb higher or to climb the ladder in your business? If you do not, I highly recommend looking into career growth plans because

It will help. That's what I've got for everybody today. Thanks for kicking it with us on Salon Swagger. Now go out there, create some amazing opportunities for your employees and for your business and make some boss moves. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. We have these amazing strategies, interviews with industry experts and these in -depth discussions like we just had. If you have any topics that you want to cover or want to hear us talk about in future episodes, you can reach out to us.

Chandra tell them how they can reach out to us and where to follow us on social media.

Chandra-The Beauty Biz Agency (39:10)
Yeah, make sure you follow us on social media, @thebeautybizagency and you can reach out to us on Instagram. Just send us a message of any topics you would like to know about or discuss, and we'd be happy to put an episode together. Also, you can send us an email at admin@thebeautybizagency.com

Brie (39:27)
Awesome. And don't forget to visit our website because we have some amazing free resources and strategies that you can literally implement today to level up your salon or spa. With that being said, until next time, keep slaying those business goals with style, SaaS, and a whole lot of swagger.