7 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Hair Extension Business
Do you know how long it takes to become a business owner?
7 minutes on the ASIC website.
Do you know only 2% of businesses make it over 10 years of operation?!? And 98% don’t make it past 2 years?!?
How can we become badass business owners if we don’t understand the foundations of business?
I have learnt SO much in my 10 years of being a business owner, and now I want to share with you some of my top business tips that I wish I knew from the start.
Firstly, define what you classify as "Success". It is different for us all.
What is success for me?
Success isn’t fame, money or love.
For me, its growth. Its progress.
Progress is a choice. It’s a conscious decision you make to learn, grow and evolve.
Here is a simple formula for you
Progress = happiness.
Ive learnt that as long as im progressing, my mental health is in a good place & I feel happy.
Progressing professionally, personally, & emotionally has had a huge positive impact on my mental health.
1. Go To Sleep A Little Smarter Everyday
The compounding affect that this will have in your life is insane.
Committing to learning something new every day, big or small and becoming consistent with doing so is VITAL to growing. Not just as a business but as a human being.
Consistency is key to being successful, whether you’re in business or not.
Small steps, every day. No matter what.
Read a book. Listen to a podcast, learn a new skill, goal set, ALL OF IT.
Alot of my knowledge has come from FREE seminars, FREE podcasts, & reading.
2. Know Your Why
I find this question very… grounding.
Its easy to get overworked, overwhelmed and lost in the day to day pressure of being a business owner, and something I always come back to when im feeling this way is asking myself …. WHY!
What am I doing this for?
I encourage you to write it down and list 5 x reasons for every WHY.
WHY are you are doing what you’re doing. Or THINKING of starting something new….
“If the WHY is strong enough, the how will work itself out”.
When I first did this, my first answer I wrote down was - because I needed more money.
I then felt selfish for placing so much importance on a dollar value.
Is money all I care about? I thought to myself…
So then I asked myself WHY again.
And my answer changed to… well, Because if I had more money, I would have more time.
WHY do I want more time? So I can work more ON my business… WHY?
So that I can have more Leverage! WHY?
To spend time with my kids, More holidays, more opportunities, to learn more, to enjoy more of life…. Do you see the power of asking multiple WHYS?
See, whilst money doesn’t make me happy, it is a tool that buys me leverage. It buys me time, opportunity, & security. Not just for me, but the people I care about too.
3. Reverse Engineering
There is a term that Kerwin Rae taught me a few years ago. And its called reverse engineering. I now apply this into all areas of my life but the main part of business I apply it too is my INCOME.
The concept is to become really specific on what it is your end goal is, and then work backwards from that.
For 7 years I operated as a Sole trader, only concerned about the income I NEEDED to earn every week. Instead of what I WANTED to earn each week.
So guess how much I earnt? The amount I NEEDED.
I was living off my BARE MINIMUM.
During the seminar and he asked me to write down my dream income on a piece of paper.
It took me 3 different goes.
1st time I wrote $1500 a week.
Next I wrote $2000 a week.
And then
I wrote $10k a month. REVENUE! Not profit. REVENUE
I wasn’t even GST registered.
Now my salon turns over $70k a month minimum.
This is to just show you the power of ManifestACTION.
I personally don’t believe in manifestation.
You cant sit around dreaming and waiting for it to happen and actually believe it wasn’t meant for you if the opportunity never arises.
For me, I 100% believe that because I am constantly LOOKING for opportuntity, the universe sends me the right opportunity at the right time.
So, my darling reader… what does your dream income look like?
Lets say you want to earn minimum $120k a year PROFIT… does that sound realistic for you?
Lets break it down
$250k / 12 months a year = $20.83 k per month is your income goal
Divded that by 4 weeks of the month and you have = $5.2k per week targets
Lets say ideally you only want to work a 4 day week?
$5.2k / 4 days = $1300 profit per day.
Say there is a standard 8 hour work day
$1300 / 8 hours = $162.50 is now your minimum income earning hourly wage.
This hourly income goal should affect your career choice.
Does this process overwhelm you? GOOD! It did for me too.
I was charging $80 for services that took me 2 hours + … I was never going to achieve my income goals by charging that price.
So what did I do? Increase my pricing, outsource non income earning tasks so I could devote those 4 days x 8 hours so I could atleast TRY to achieve my income goals. Then … I duplicated another me!
Which leads me to my NEXT lesson.
4. Love Your Numbers
Love the numbers & the numbers will love you!
When I started my business back in 2012, I would work all year, print out my bank statements, hand it to my accountant and pray to god I made a profit.
How many of you can relate to having NO financial literacy?!
The importance of testing and measuring is HUGE!
I highly recommend getting an accounting software program such as quickbooks or xero & using a POS system like Square to do your weekly reporting.
Accounting softwares will automatically send your transactions into a feed, where you will code them into relevant categories.
These “categories” should be fanned out as much as you can so that you know specifically where your income is increasing and decreasing.
For example – when I first started with quickbooks, I would code all of my income as SHE – Sales
The problem? How do I know which service is producing me the most amount of money?
Now, I code as
SHE – Sales instore
SHE – Online Course Income
SHE – Sales Online
SHE – Supplies & materials
SHE – Hands on training
This is so I can look at my profit and loss and determine where the increase or decrease in income is coming from. Knowing these figures will help me make better judgement calls when trying to make business decisions, & grow.
5. The Time Audit
Do you know that 80% of what we do doesn’t earn us any money?
2 years ago, I was a single mum, operating as a sole trader with no employees, you can only imagine all of the non income earning tasks I was doing.
So I did a “Time Audit”
For the entire 24 hours in a day, for 7 days a week, I would document my normal day.
Given that my industry was so niche, finding an employee would not be viable because I had NO time to train. I needed someone who could give me more TIME!
So I created a list of all of the things I could potentially outsource, wrote a job description and ended up hiring a Personal Assistant!
For me, this was one of the hardest decisions to make.
Hiring an employee that doesn’t make me money?
But my gut was telling me it was the right decision…. And I was right!
Not only do I have more time in my day, I have more energy to work ON my business instead of IN it.
Having more free time, I created an onboarding process and then created a job description for income earning tasks.
My point here is, don’t limit your mindset to “I cant afford it”, or “No one will do it like I will”. Having a team who share the same values and passion as you do, will help you reach your goals 10 x.
6. KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid
The most profitable businesses are sometimes the ones with the most simple blueprints.
Having a home based hair extension business fits perfectly with "keeping it simple."
My home based salon has the benefits of
- Minimal overheads = maximum profit
- Ordering stock as needed = no depreciating assets
- $330 average hourly income
- Building a brand based on ONE service and being really damn good at it
- Doing a time audit once at maximum capacity and then outsourcing non income earning tasks
7. Community
Community plays a huge part in building a brand and reputation.
A huge part of the growth of my business comes from referalls & word of mouth. This wouldn’t be the case If I moved to a different city every year.
Some of the most common ways to grow a business, attracting new customers, retaining current ones, and expanding offerings is getting involved in your local community.
Community involvement is an easy and effective way to increase brand awareness, establish a positive reputation, and grow your business. Plus, it allows you to establish meaningful connections and give back to those in need.
While brand awareness is vital for all businesses, it’s particularly important for startups. After all, if people don’t know about your business, they probably won’t buy from it.
Once you establish trust, your chances of growing your business becomes very high. People have motivation to turn to your brand instead of a competitor.
Network, go to events, & “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have”.
Now, I know i've touched base on a few key points that have helped me reach my success but I would love to show you my personal business blueprint.
I have created an A-Z roadmap showing you how I did it.
If I had to start over again, what would I do and how would I do it.
The hair extension industry is getting bigger and bigger, along with the population of people in your local area.
Its a Go-At-Your own pace course, designed for the complete beginner
I would love to be your mentor, and help you achieve your own personal definition of "Success"
CLICK HERE to find out more information.
I hope to see you in the student lounge,
Sam x
