How to Make 6 Figures as a Hairstylist
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How to make 6 figures as a hairstylist, barber, cosmetologist, esthetician, massage therapist, or anyone else in the beauty industry.
Recipe for How to make 6 figures as a Hairstylist
Successful habits will add up to a successful business. And successful business will build to become whatever you want it to be, if you want to learn how to make 6 figures as a hairstylist, these HABITS should already be second nature to you.
Make 6 figures as a hairstylist Ingredient #1- Consistency
If you already have an established clientele, then you already understand how important consistency is.
👉 Consistency behind the chair. Your clients know that you can give them consistent results, and they consistently leave your chair happy.
👉 Do you run a clean shop? Being consistent in cleanliness is a habit that is essential for building your reputation to being a high-end stylist that is worth the prices you set.
👉 Dressing the part. Sweat pants or dress clothes? Jeans or shorts? Flip flops or closed-toed shoes? Which one speaks on you as a professional more than your personality? Are your hair and makeup done?
It’s 100% okay to have personality and fun in what clothes you wear- it’s part of the fun of being self-employed and being in the industry of expressing yourself. But it is a huge factor in how to make 6 figures as a hairstylist is wearing work clothes to work, and lounge clothes at home.
👉 Surround yourself with other successful stylists and business people. Network. Hear about how they have built their business to the level that it is. Hear about their mistakes. Their successful business habits will rub off on you.
Connect with other stylists and barbers. Choose a mentor for you to watch work. Learn from others in the same industry as you. Everyone has something new to offer.
👉 Are you on time? Punctual? Can your clients count on you being consistent in your schedule? Do you arrive and leave within your scheduled business hours?
👉 Pricing appropriately. Prices change gradually, not drastically. Yet consistently.
Being consistent with inflation and valuing your own time and business is important in growing your business to make 6 figures. Though I wouldn’t advise raising your prices dramatically overnight, and without forewarning your guests if the increase is more than $5 at a time.
Upselling Services
Consistently offering new services or promotions if brought up in casual conversation doesn’t sound like you’re pushing for your guest to spend more money.
If you are almost done with the haircut and ask, “Are we adding a shampoo today?”
Or
“Are we doing a beard trim too? Save you the time and mess at home.” A lot of times they’ll agree and say “Why not?”
But ALWAYS tell them that it’s a few extra dollars, or that there is a separate price to the extra service, it’s not included.
Being open with your guests about prices when upselling services makes you trustworthy. Don’t be slimy and sneaky. If your guest isn’t interested in the extra service then just be glad you asked, and now they know that you can offer that service.
Every little bit counts. If you upsell 5 $4 shampoos services in one day, you’ve just made yourself $20 AND your tip percentage went up.
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How to make 6 figures as a hairstylist Ingredient #2- Do the Math…
Price Services Appropriately
The first flaw that hairstylists, barbers, and cosmetologists to prevent themselves from making 6 figures is that they underprice themselves!
We want to be affordable for our clients but also if you are as good as you believe you are -and as skilled as your guests already know that you are- you don’t have to prove that you are worth your prices. They will pay to see you all the same.
As we talked about above, it’s important to talk to your clients if the prices are going to increase more than $5 at a time. Don’t be slimy and sneaky when increasing your prices.
Post your price board somewhere in the shop where it can be seen. This way if your clients don’t notice and ask about the change in price you can say that prices were increased and posted visibly there.
For help in how to go about calculating prices, we will take the example for how to calculate this from The Exquisite Find’s article
Booth Rent vs Commission Salon, Which Makes More Money?
On commission, you’ll pay roughly 45-50% or more per haircut (meaning you get to keep 45-50% commission).
✔️As an example, let’s say you charge $30 per haircut, at 50% that you owe the shop or your employer per haircut, which is $15 per haircut. And keep $15 for yourself BEFORE TAXES.
✔️ Generally 30% federal taxes in the USA, meaning subtract another $9, which will leave you with $4 per haircut, BEFORE THE TIP.
Now for Booth Rent AKA self-employed
The same math from above applies here as well.
✔️ Let’s say that rent is $300 per week for your booth or suite. And as a self-employed individual, you must calculate for taxes as well as other bills and expenses.
✔️ So if you charge $30 per haircut, and you have 8 haircuts in a day, that is $240 every day BEFORE TAXES.
✔️Subtract 30% for taxes ($72 from the $240), and that leaves $168 for your pocket every day, not including tips. That’s over $840 in your pocket every week, and $3360 every month from booth renting.
Say you have 3 colors in one day at $100 per service (I hope you do not charge that low, but for the sake of doing the math, let’s keep it simple). That’s $300 before taxes and before tip! In one day you have already paid rent!
How Much Does a Hair Color Correction Cost?
But is that enough to make 6 figures as a hairstylist, cosmetologist, or barber?
How to make 6 figures as a hairstylist Ingredient #3- Calculate clients per week
How often do your clients come to see you?
One thing you MUST do to make 6 figures as a hairstylist is to calculate how often do your clients visit? On average how many clients do you see per week? And what is their average ticket? $30-40, or $200?
Is it for a haircut or a color? Do they come every 2 weeks or every 6 months?
Calculate your prices, your week, and your average ticket.
This way you can calculate your business income and all expenses appropriately to know how much more you need to increase prices to become a 6 figure stylist.
Do you see enough clients every week to grow the business to make 6 figures? Or do you need to increase your clientele?
11 Tips on How to Get Hair Clients Fast
How to make 6 figures as a hairstylist Ingredient #4- Act on the Math
Now that you know how to do the math, act on it.
You know what to do!
Are you pricing appropriately? Or are you undercharging your services?
How long will it take you from this point on to make 6 figures as a hairstylist, cosmetologist, or barber?
Do you keep 6 figure making habits?
How much do hairstylists make with tips? Do we count tips?
A tip on tips…
Don’t count on tips to make you a 6 figure stylist. If you like, you might be able to include 10% of your tips into your regular weekly income, but tips fluctuate. We want the most accurate calculations for you to successfully make 6 figures as a hairstylist.
How much do hairstylists, cosmetologists, and barbers make per hour with tips? The correct answer is 20%. There is no exact number. It depends on the price of the service, and how long it takes them to calculate how much in tips a stylist makes per hour.
Some go home with more than others. It depends entirely on the stylist, client, their relationship, and the price of the service. It fluctuates to more or less depending on the salon, barbershop, and area.
How much should I tip my hairstylist?
Let’s talk about Retail
Recipe to how to make 6 figures as a hairstylist Ingredient #5- Retail
Selling retail isn’t everyone’s forte. But it is important in building your business.
A few tips in selling retail-
- Only sell products you believe in
- Don’t push products that your clients don’t want
- Let the client decide if they actually need the product
- Try out the product while the guest is still in your chair
- Act like it doesn’t matter if they buy retail or not, because in the end, it is up to them. If they feel that you are pushing them to spend money on something they don’t need, it doesn’t build trust in you and they won’t buy any retail ever.
For more tips about selling retail please read The Exquisite Find’s How to Sell Retail
Whether you are a seasoned stylist or are in training, understand that if you are in a salon that gives you a commission on retail you still could receive 10% or more of the total retail price. It adds up if you are good at it and have established strong trust relationships with your clients.
How to make 6 figures as a hairstylist Ingredient #6- Do it!
Be a 6 figure stylist even before you are one! Act the part!
Kind of like ‘fake it until you make it’, except for real. If you use all of the ingredients to the perfect recipe to making 6 figures as a hairstylist behind the chair, then you will make it happen!
Don’t go through the motions. Show up to work with purpose! You have a goal to reach and you are going to do everything you can to build your business to that level. Act like it!
- Dress the part
- Push Yourself
- Remember to give yourself the grace and time to build your business to the 6 figure level. It’s okay if it takes several years.
For those in training-
The above recipe to successfully build and push yourself to make 6 figures as a hairstylist, cosmetologist, or barber is for you too. However, I strongly recommend that making 6 figures be a goal that you set for yourself for several years after graduating school.
You need to build experience, find your mentors, and learn How to Get Hair Clients Fast before getting a booth. Give yourself grace and time to set yourself up just right. Don’t skip the learning steps, because they are what give you a foundation to become a 6 figure stylist sooner rather than later!
You don’t have to make 6 figures as a hairstylist to be successful
Just because our passion and career is in the hair industry, if we don’t make 6 figures doesn’t mean that we cannot or are not successful already.
Where do you want to be? Are you content and successful at the level you are at? And maybe will build to make 6 figures as a hairstylist later on? Good for you!
✔️ Success is measured by what you call success personally.
What does success look like to you?
✔️ Please give yourself room to grow, and set little goals to find your success in before reaching the top bar.
Success can mean that you graduated cosmetology school and passed your licensing exam! 🥳
Or that you have an interview at the salon or barbershop that you have dreamed of working at forever. 🤩
Success for you could even mean that you can pay all of your bills and you are happy where you are at.
❌ One of the biggest lies of this day and age is that money will make you happy and that is the definition of success. FALSE! ❌
Success is defined by what YOU define it as.
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What about side hustles?
What if you are successful and content where you are at in the salon but you still want to earn some extra income while you are building your business to make 6 figures as a hairstylist.
Are there some kinds of side hustles are out there for people with our kind of schedule? Absolutely!
Blogging-
Starting a blog is not as easy as it sounds. And truly is an investment in time. However, once you discover and narrow down your niche, and learn how to grow an audience, it can be monetized (make money) and become a type of side-hustle or even full-time business.
I learned all that I know about blogging from my coach Laura, by taking her incredible blogging course
Check out How to Grow your Blog Exponentially in 2022 with Coach Laura Here!
Though her niche is travel blogging, Laura definitely knows how to explain and make blogging of any niche an income.
Highly recommend checking out her course!
Uber Eats-
Uber Eats is an easy way to make a little extra cash whenever you have a few hours on the weekend or in the evenings.
You get to make your own hours, clock on and off whenever you like, and you earn money for delivering lunches and dinners to individuals at work or at home. The only thing you need is a valid drivers license and a car.
Etsy-
Etsy is an excellent way to turn your hobby into a business! If in your downtime you enjoy to sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, or creating your own products this is an excellent way to make some extra cash by listing and selling your project here.
You have your own ‘online shop’, and you can set your own prices for your products. Etsy does however get 5% of each sale.
Buy and Resell Thrift Items-
Buy and resell items you find at the Thrift Store- collectors books, items, and antiques. This little hobby would require you to know your stuff. You will have to know the value of certain antiques and items that you might run into at a thrift store or second-hand store.
Or, if you like to refinish furniture, you’ll have to have an idea on how to raise the value of an ugly piece of thrift furniture to make it more valuable and prettier to resell.
Donate Plasma-
Though technically you would be selling your plasma, you would get paid for every visit.
It’s just like donating blood. Blood is removed from your body and placed in a machine that spins and separates the blood from the plasma and returns the blood to your body.
Sell your own products by using Affiliate Marketing!
Have you ever dreamed of developing your own product line? Clean ingredients that match exactly what you and your clients are looking for.
Though the process of developing your own product line takes years, the benefits you reap are exponential if you do it right.
One HUGE way to sell your own products is to not only offer them as retail in your shop, but to join an affiliate marketing program.
Affiliate marketing is a way to get your product out there based on ‘word of mouth’ of other influencers or outside sources.
How it works is a business will reward an influencer or affiliate for every sale made that was referred to you by their recommendation.
An affiliate is someone outside of the company that wants to talk to their audience about your product. Affiliates only receive a commission for every sale of your product sold by the traffic they sent to you.
So basically, you get to tap into someone else’s audience and they do extra marketing for you because they believe in your product and want their audience to have some of it too.
How cool would it be to have your own product line that others market for you! And only costs you a tiny percentage.
With that said…
If you already have your own product line and are ready for sales to take off and have others market for you, how do you get started? It’s easy!
Though intimidating and maybe a little confusing, let me explain what joining an affiliate program does for you.
Not only do others provide extra marketing for you, but programs like the ones below keep track of everything for you.
- The program will keep track of each affiliate and each sale FOR you, simplifying and consolidating all of the information on their portal for you to check on.
- New affiliates can sign up for your product through the program but only if YOU approve the newbie first, and you can keep track of who is talking so fondly of your products. And so you aren’t bombarded with inquiries or emails regarding the sales of affiliates.
- Nobody gets paid by you until they actually make a sale. When you get money, they get a percentage too. It’s a win-win!
Learn more about Tapfiliate Affiliate Program Here!
Tapfiliate Affiliate Program is an affiliate marketing program specifically for small businesses. You can choose which of their programs suits your business best at the time of your joining and can upgrade at any time as your business grows.
Check out Post Affiliate Pro Here!
Post Affiliate Pro is the best affiliate marketing program for small -but quickly growing- businesses. Post Affiliate Pro makes it extremely easy to keep track of your affiliate payouts, commissions, and partner performances.
Don’t forget your shop while having a side hustle
Whether you are investing in side-hustles, or only building your business, remember that your full-time work is still your full-time work. Side hustles should not take priority over your main income.