We are super excited to kick off a three-part series on starting your own salon! Do you have a passion for building an amazing environment where others around you can excel in their career? If so, I get it! Let’s dive into the importance of having a vision!

At the first salon I worked at, I had the opportunity to change my status from an employee to an independent contractor—at the same salon. If that sounds strange to you, it’s because it is not typical. However, it was an amazing opportunity! When I transitioned from an employee to an independent contractor, I started to run a business within a business, and I loved it! I found so much fulfillment and joy in marketing, developing promotions, starting referral programs, and everything that went along with running a business!

There is a lot to learn about running your own business, but I hope that sharing my story gives you the inspiration and insights to consider starting this journey of entrepreneurship! Let’s get started!

Your Vision

First, ask yourself why you want to take this jump and start your own salon. If you’re like me, you probably want to have a space of your own that is conducive to teamwork and allows for more structure and consistency. At my previous salon, I couldn’t help but see a few gaps in the system—components that I thought I could fix in my own business. Ultimately, I thought that I could do it, I told myself I could, and I took the plunge! 

After you understand why you want to begin this process, you need to develop your vision. Your vision is home base. It will be a point that you can consistently return to when the going gets tough—and it definitely will. I recommend that you start by picturing your dream space, and actually map it out on poster boards, using pictures from magazines, or Pinterest boards. Having a vision board gives your planning the hands-on element that most of us need.

In addition to your vision board, start writing down your ideas and putting pen to paper. Try this: close your eyes and take a tour of your salon. As you are walking through the space, write down everything that you want! Use all of your senses and consider what you feel, smell, see and hear. The more descriptive the better. Write down your shampoo units, the styling chairs you want, your color bar design, whether you see receptionists in your salon. Are there bathrooms? Color schemes? Is it bright and cheery or dim and cool? This is the fun part, so let your imagination do the work.   

Reality Check

And now is where the killjoy comes in. I don’t want you to discard your big vision and your dreams. You should definitely take your time with the first stage because it will give you momentum, create focus, and it will keep the dream alive for you.

But, when it comes to actually opening your salon, I want you to realize that it is probably going to take about a year. So, I want you to take this big dream that you have and cut it in half. Take all of the things in your dream and do them on a much, much, much smaller scale.

While you may feel like I just crushed your dreams, let me share my experiences, so you understand why it is important to start small. When I opened Be Inspired Salon in 2010, our space was only 750 square feet. It was very small! Since then, we have nearly doubled our space to about 1,150 square feet. But the important thing is that I didn’t start at that size. I grew into the larger space as my business grew and developed. It was hard work getting there, but it was possible for us and it’s possible for you.

When I first started, I was picturing the average salon having 8 to 10 stations and being around 1,200 to 1,600 square feet. Of course, I also looked for convenient locations and nice areas to be located in. At that time, though, I was definitely getting a little overconfident. I was so sure that I would never have a problem getting clients and filling chairs. I figured at the time that my income alone would cover the cost of the space. Hint, hint: that is not a good idea!

Eventually, I scaled back my ideas and hired only two people at the beginning and started in a small boutique space. We started slow and steady, so that we could build up to the success we have now. Within three years we were able to expand! But had I started out too big, I would have had a major issue with cash flow. That’s why I really encourage you to cut your expectations in half, so you can start out successful and build up from there.

You never want to be in a position where you can’t afford to pay your staff. That’s how businesses fail, and it does happen. In the first year of my salon, I didn’t make any money for myself. I was still covering the costs of opening, paying employees, and growing their clientele. At that time, I did have to rely on my husband while my business got off the ground. I worked very long shifts that year, and I was incredibly overwhelmed at times. Despite the crazy long hours, I LOVED the experience of working hard and building a business! I persevered, and it paid off!

Work, Work, Work!

Based on my experiences, I can say this with confidence: opening your salon will take double the money, double the time, and double the effort than you expect it will.

If you think that you can start a salon for $50,000; you need to be prepared that it’s actually going to cost you $100,000. So, if you want to start a salon for $50,000, you need to only plan to spend $25,000 because it’s probably going to end up being $50,000 in the end.

You may have the “go big or go home” mentality, but I promise you that it is very challenging. Most salons fail within the first seven years, and a huge majority of those fail within the first year. It’s a very expensive decision to make, so choose wisely. Be willing to start small and work towards that big vision, so that you can build on it year after year.

Just remember that even if you resize your dreams in the beginning, you should always have your big vision in your mind and in front of you. That is where you’ll want to be someday.

Be Inspired Salon has been open for six years now, and it has been an absolutely amazing experience! I encourage you to start your own salon if this is your dream too. Don’t stop—do whatever it takes!

We hope to see you back for Part 2: Funding Your Vision where we share our insights about securing the money to start your salon! In the meantime, check out our weekly podcast and follow us on social media!

Take a moment to think about where you want to be in 5 years. Seriously, take a moment to visualize these goals and dream big! Start by asking yourself these questions: what are my career goals, where am I living, what vacation am I planning, where am I working? Now that you have a picture of your bright future, ask yourself one more question: are you surrounding yourself with the people who are going to help propel you to that next level?

Who Are Your People?

Renowned businessman Jim Rohn once said: “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” Considering that statement, are you spending your time with the right people? Think about the people who genuinely want to see you succeed and are always cheering you on. Who are those people? Take a few minutes and write down five people who you want to surround yourself with and will help propel you to your next big dream.

Limited Exposure

Now that you have established your Top 5, think about those friends who need limited exposure. These are the people who didn’t make it into your Top 5, but you can’t completely forget and let go of them. For instance, your constantly complaining coworker or your irresponsible sister-in-law are really draining you, but you can't cut them out of your life. When you are around these people, you maybe feel worse about yourself, and you know deep down that they are not the right fit for you. While you can’t control that the fact that they are in your life, you can control the amount of time and energy that you spend on them. Who are the people in your life that you need to limit your time with?

Limiting your time with relatives can be challenging, so you may need to get crafty. Here is one example. Let’s say that when you go visit your relatives, you normally stay Friday through Sunday. However, you know that a weekend with relatives is really draining and counterproductive to your positive and proactive mind-set. So, try telling a little fib. For example: “Hey Aunt Cathy, I know that when we visit we normally stay until Sunday, but we are going to come Friday and leave Saturday because we have an event Saturday afternoon to attend.” While this is a little dishonest, you know that limiting this exposure is a benefit to you.

It’s Time to Let Go

To recap, you now have a Top 5 group and a limited exposure group. Finally, take a deep breath and ask yourself: who do I simply need to let go? These are the people who are constantly questioning you, maybe making fun of you, and you just feel insecure around them. Maybe these are people who don’t have the same habits and lifestyle as you, so their influence is actually disrupting your five-year dream plan. It does seem difficult to let people go, but stay focused on the positives. If you purposefully surround yourself with those who you can learn from and grow with, the negatives won’t be on your mind.

Starting today, you must think about who want to hang out with because this is one step towards reaching your success. Who you want to be in the future—those habits and behaviors—needs to start today. Every year, sit down and ask yourself these three questions: who are my people, who do I need to limit my time with, and who do I need to let go? Always believe in your dreams and focus on building great relationships with great people!

Want even more personal and professional advice? Follow us and listen to our weekly podcast to learn even more tips and tricks from the pros! We hope to make it in your Top 5!

How many of us are excited for what 2017 will bring? I suspect like many, you’re setting goals and planning on bigger and better things for your career and your personal life as well. Today I want to share the formula for change! I cannot take credit for this formula. I learned this from my ActionCOACH mentors.

ActionCOACH is a global business coaching franchise. They help you go from here to there. It’s all about growth and development, but action is necessary to get the results you want. I hope that gets you as fired up as it gets me! If you don’t have a mentor and/or accountability in your life, specifically for your business, I would highly encourage you to consider hiring one. My mentor has dramatically changed my life for the better, with an emphasis on my career. And to shamelessly plug Beyond The Technique, you know we do offer this service! And it’s custom to our industry. Bonus!  Check out our services page to learn all of our options.

I learned the change formula from them and today I want to share it with you. I think that when you finally understand what it takes to change and you acknowledge what it means to have all of these tools for change, you can finally implement change into your life. But are you ready for change? I think that in today’s society, the easier you can adapt to change the quicker you can find the success you’re looking for. Your willingness to change will be transformative for your future successes.

If you are someone who really likes a methodical pace to life, this might be a very big challenge for you. To progress in your career and have great success, I think it’s incredibly beneficial to be adaptable to change, because there is no constant in life. We’ve all heard the saying, “The only constant is change.” So, I want to know, are you ready to change in a positive direction?

The Formula 

The formula of change is this, [D x V] + F > R

What does that mean? 

‘D’ stands for dissatisfaction, the ‘V’ is your vision. ‘F’ are your first steps and ‘R’ stands for your resistance.

What this means is your dissatisfaction times your vision, plus your first steps has to be greater than your resistance if you want to change.

Here’s my personal example: Many of you already know that I’ve struggled with weight my entire life. I’m entering into an adult phase of my life where it’s new to me to have such a healthy lifestyle. With this challenge and change, my level of dissatisfaction had to be greater than my resistance. However, I also had to have a vision. I had to believe that change was possible, that I actually could live differently, and that I actually could get to a certain point. The vision had to be there. I had to believe and see what the future could bring.

I also had to have some first steps prepared, and for a while I had no idea where to begin. Eventually, I decided that my first steps would be to join a support group for people who struggle with food and to create a fitness plan. Those elements had to be greater than my resistance for change. When we get in that hamster wheel, it’s easy to stay there because eventually we become very comfortable with the same old thing. We accept the way we are.

But the moments when we become dissatisfied and say, “What am I doing? I don’t want this.” are so important. Those moments have to be greater than your resistance. You need to have a vision and decide on your first steps.

Do you need to have the fifteenth step planned out from the very beginning? No. Those future steps can be flexible because they may change as you do. Really, the first steps determine the third, fourth and fifth steps, so don’t overthink it! You don’t have to know the end game to begin. You don’t play basketball knowing you’re going to win the game. You believe it, you have the vision, but you have to start by taking the first step. You just have to start playing the game.

Your level of dissatisfaction needs to be high-- you have to be dissatisfied with where you are. And then you have to add that vision, add the first steps and you’re on your way to change.

Is your dissatisfaction level high?

The following is a professional example.

I have stylists that are extremely loyal to my salon. They love working, they’re hard workers, and they go out of their way to put in extra effort. We have weekly team meetings. We have bi-monthly advanced education on top of our weekly team meetings. We serve more brides in our community than any other salon, so many in fact, that we’ve been able to charge more than double the price of competitors in our area.

Long story short, my team is phenomenal and incredibly talented. But at some point I realized that I was not willing to change my structure for them to have time off or to work less. I had fear, which we’ve identified in previous talks as being false expectations appearing real. My fear was if I let them work less they may not treat this like their career. My fear was they’d look at it as more of a hobby and take their careers less serious. I was afraid that they wouldn’t care as much anymore and they would only participate part-time. They wouldn’t have any real accountability to their careers.

For years that fear kept me from changing my full-time protocol. It was like, “you’re all in or you’re out.” And this is such a reflection on me as a person, because as leaders we tend to implement what we think is best for us, and I’m definitely that person. I’m all in or I’m all out.

But I realized that I wanted to grow bigger at a second and third location. So I needed to decide if it was feasible for me to have professionals who were full-time or if it was more realistic to be accommodating and flexible. Eventually I decided I needed to change my outlook on this part-time option for them.

Previously, I’ve lost some really great employees and team players because they also thought the policy was “all or nothing” because that’s what their leader put out there to them. There wasn’t any animosity in their leaving; we still care deeply for each other. But, I lost employees that I was very sad to say goodbye to. I did lose these great people because I was just so rigid and stuck in my ways.

Finally, after losing two top performers because I didn’t have any other option for them, my dissatisfaction level was at an all-time high. So I had to take a firm look and decide what I would rather have. Do I need to have everyone be full-time? Or can I be more flexible?

I revised my vision. It now works for people who do have families and want to work part-time :)

First Steps and Moving Forward 

The first step for me was to sit down and create an action plan of what the outcome would look like and how I’d get there. After that I met with the managers of our hair salon--these are the leaders that help to implement all changes. We met, discussed our outcomes, and realized how great the change was. We now have options for both full-time and part-time and it doesn’t feel like those options are prohibiting anyone from being their best when they’re involved. You can work part-time and you can still participate; it’s a real, full-time career even though you’re here for a minimum of three days.

We offered this to the team and told them about what an amazing opportunity it was, and they were so happy to have more options. It was a win for everyone.

The underlying message here is that as a leader, you have to look within. If things aren’t working out your way, maybe you’re being too resistant to change. If you’re not getting what you want or need, ask yourself what you can do to change. That way you can ultimately have the life you desire.

Share with me on social what changes you’ll be making this year! And if you haven’t already, please join our private Beyond The Technique Group page! This is a safe place to share ideas, questions, and challenges with other professionals across the US. Cheers to a great year ahead!

In this post I’ll show you an easy strategy that will bring you goal setting success. Goal setting can be a difficult hurdle to jump before you can start achieving real success, but it’s so important to do! It might seem daunting, but with this strategy you start with small, specific goals, and use your sense of accomplishment to do more and more.

Start by setting one specific goal. You’ll only have to start with this goal for one week. Then you’ll maintain it for the next week, while adding another goal by week two. Let’s break this down together.

The First Week and First Month

Here’s an example of a simple, obtainable goal. Let’s say you want to drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day. That’s one, specific goal. And notice it’s detailed, meaning it’s a particular amount. So you’ll set this easy goal, and it’s just for one week. And then, after just one week of maintaining that goal, you’ve had a success! It wasn’t hard, didn’t last long, but now you’re encouraged by your victory and feel better about adding on.

So you’ve made it one week with that one goal. When week two begins, you’ll still be drinking that amount of water daily, but in addition to that, you’ll add a second goal. For the second goal you might plan to take a walk two nights a week after dinner. Pretty simple. Just two nights a week, take a walk after dinner. If that’s not feasible for you, it could be before breakfast or midday—whatever works for you and your routine. But these goals are supposed to be simple and achievable. The activity -walking- is simple, and the timeline- after dinner- is specific. You could even add more specificity and say that you’ll always take this walk on Tuesdays and Fridays, or whichever days work best for you.

So, week one you drank water. Week two, you’re drinking water, plus taking walks after dinner. And for the rest of the month you just maintain those two goals. After the month is up, you can say that you’ve reached serious goal setting success. Now you’re more encouraged to add on new goals or increase the ones you have now.

Month Two

In the second month, continue drinking that amount of water and walking twice a week, but also pick up that book you’ve been meaning to read. You know the book I’m talking about. It’s the one that all your friends said was awesome, that you then bought on Amazon, and then let it sit around, totally unread.

Starting in the second month, you need to pick up that book, and just read three pages per day. Some of you might struggle with this. You’re going to want to read more than that; you might really get into it. But you should cut yourself off. Dedicate yourself to the goal, and show yourself that you can do those three pages per day throughout the entirety of the second month.

And by the end of that second month, you’ve continually accomplished three goals! Not only have you set specific goals, but they seem to be easy for you to accomplish. What you’re doing is creating easy, obtainable habits, that are still benefiting you, and giving you that sense of accomplishment.

Know Yourself and Stick to Your Strategy

Now, there are some people out there who will want to just go big or go home. And if you know that that’s you, then go ahead and go for the gold. But for most us, going a little bit at a time will build up the momentum that we need to push through, and obtain goals. It’s like a snowball effect. A little bit builds up more and more until you achieve huge success. That’s what this is all about.

Not only will you be astounded by your sense of accomplishment, but you’ll have the desire for more. You’ll have more joy in the time you’re taking for yourself and these little feats, which will become big victories over time.

I’ll admit it; I am that person who loves to go big or go home. But it can be a struggle because when I crash, I crash big. I fall so far, and so hard. So maybe I don’t have it all figured out. But I have things that I’ve started and maintained, and I know that if I can do it, you can do it too.

This is the best way to begin goal setting—small, specific tasks and adding only one or two per month. Are you ready to start kicking tail on goal setting?