5 Steps to My First Six Figure Year.

On my first day of hair school in 2007, we were asked about our goals. My goal was mainly to make enough money to feed my 2 young daughters and live comfortably - but I always like a challenge. So, I thought ....I'd like to make six figures and own my own salon within 5 years of working on my own. And guess what? I did it.

After finishing school and then an associate (assistant) program that was about a year, I worked in a large commission salon for a few months, realized I would never make any real money under their self serving business model, spit the kool aid out in their parking lot and ventured out on my own.

As a marketing major in college, knew I would need something to set myself apart from everyone else, possibly a niche, considering I had a year of training plus school under my belt, and we were in the worst economy since the great depression F*ck me, right?

Once I decided on specializing in curly hair, it snowballed very quickly and honestly, if I could have had a "me of now", coaching me back then, I would have hit the six figure mark sooner and with WAY LESS STRESS.

5 things I did to get to six figures:

Focused on a speciality/niche

If you have a speciality it is a very simple way to set yourself apart from everyone else in a crowded space. It doesn't mean you must only offer that specific service, but finding a way to set yourself apart is always going to help you.

Worked very hard and practiced a ton to master my craft

Literal blood, sweat and tears. Late nights, early mornings.

If you're lazy and not willing to work hard, stop reading this now, because I'm not the one to help you. Everything else, I got you - but if you're lazy, I don't even want you.

The access to education you guys have now compared to what I had is INSANE. With all of the online education available, free and otherwise, you can practice from home as much as you want to try out different techniques.

Spent a TON of time teaching myself how to market /trying different things to see what worked - and what didn't.

I would ask every person that sat in my chair how they found me - doing this helped me realize what was working and where to focus more energy and what was a waste of my time.

Stayed on top of social media and ahead of the curve.

It's always better to be proactive than reactive. Playing catch up is harder than creating the trend. Etc. Etc. Be aware of current trends and always be the one thinking "now everyone's jumping on this, too" rather than "I'd better get on this." I did all of it without a TON of followers, either. Attracting the right audience is immeasurably more imporant than vanity metrics. Hundreds of likes doesn't always put hundreds of butts in your chair.

Shifted from a chair rental to a suite owner.

I am 100% certain that had I left the chair rental enviornment sooner, I would have hit six figures a full year earlier.

No one else needs to be up in your business if you're going to be blazing trails and taking names.

Unless the chair rental situation is providing you something - a really big something - suite rental can't, you're better off on your own. I have never met a suite owner - and I know hundreds of them, that has said "I wish I never did this." In fact, the only thing I've ever heard ANYONE say ANYTHING other than "I wish I did this sooner", "It was nowhere near as hard/scary/stressful as I thought it would be."

When you own your own suite you can funnel all your potential clients to YOU, they book, confirm, and show up ALL THROUGH YOUR SYSTEM without any interference. If you're booked out for a while, they'll have to wait, learn to pre-book, and you'll be in a better position to increase your prices. In traditional booth rental salons if the clients can't get in with you a receptionist will very likely offer them another stylist who has more availability. NO THANK YOU. Also, If you choose to sell retail YOU stock it, choose what you want, and keep 100% of the profit vs 10-20%.

Sign up for my email list at the very bottom of this page for even more amazing info to help you grow your SUITE LITTLE EMPIRE. I would absolutely love to connect with all my cosmo students and stylists and help you KILL IT and help make all of your business goals a reality.