033 - Coaching Spotlight: Autumn Rue’s Journey to Salon Ownership, Scheduling, and Pricing Strategy

In this special coaching spotlight episode, we sit down with Autumn Rue, a dynamic and ambitious salon owner who has made incredible strides in just six months. Join us as we explore Autumn’s journey from nail tech to owning her own salon, Soul Beauty Wellness. We delve into the challenges she faces, including optimizing her schedule and implementing a strategic pricing strategy to ensure long-term success. This episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiration for any beauty professional looking to elevate their business.

Key Takeaways:
- Autumn Rue’s rapid journey from nail tech to salon owner in six months
- The importance of adopting an analytical approach to business management
- Strategies for optimizing a busy schedule to prevent burnout
- How to develop a consistent and fair pricing strategy
- Implementing a price increase effectively
- Balancing client relationships with smart business decisions



Resources Mentioned:
- Stylist Soul Tribe Membership
- Soul Beauty Wellness Salon

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- [Website](https://www.soulbeautywellness.com) (replace with actual link)

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Transcript

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Hello, friends. Welcome back to Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations. I am joined today by Autumn Rue. She is a member of Stylist Soul Tribe, and she is the owner of Soul Beauty Wellness, which is an incredible salon, aesthetic, wellness, which space that it has been my pleasure to watch her bring to life. She is a new owner. Autumn is a nail tech by trade, but like I said, she's been in Stylist Soul Tribe for not too long now. How long has it been, Autumn? It's been since November of 23. That's wild. So November, December, January, February, March, April, May. Six months. You have gotten done. What some people don't get done in three years and six months, it has been wild. So when I very, very, very first dropped the podcast, I will never forget you reaching out to me. Autumn was like, you know, this girl I work with told me about you. I listened to your first podcast episode. You were super vulnerable. You shared with me your story. You're like, I feel like I need to be part of this. I have felt instantly connected to you from day one. There's just people that are like that. So, I was telling Autumn this before we hit record. We definitely could have an episode with her, and I hope to one day. have her on and like share her story because she is incredibly inspiring and has done so much. But like a month or so ago, I got on my Instagram story and I said that somebody had the idea that I should do podcast recordings that are almost just like the coaching calls. I do one on one coaching calls all the time. That's part of soul tribe. I do them outside of soul tribe. And she was like, I'd love to just like hear you in real time coaching. And so I got on my Instagram story and I was like, would anybody want to do that? And Autumn's like, hell yes, I'd love to do that. So I'm going to try to refrain from just like having her share all the amazingness of who she is and what she has created. And this is going to be a coaching. Podcast episode, which I've never really done. So we'll see how it goes. I hope that it's not boring for those listening because we're going to get into the nitty gritty. I'm very grateful that Autumn is like brave enough to be transparent with all of these things and these numbers. This is really like a peek behind the curtains and Of course, it's not like a podcast kind of flow, so there's a little part of me that's worried, but I honestly think it's going to be incredibly juicy for those listening, especially those in a similar situation to Autumn, and I think it's just going to be fascinating for people to kind of hear my coaching style, because my coaching calls and my podcasts are very, two very different things, and I definitely put on different hats through all that. So anyway, I've been blabbing. Autumn, why don't you go ahead and give a brief little intro, Who you are, where you're from, a little bit about you, and then we'll dive into like full on coaching. How does that sound? That's amazing. Well, thank you for such a beautiful introduction. That was awesome and very encouraging. After I messed up the first one, it was great. Oh, no, it's awesome. Hey, that was encouraging as well. I appreciate you, Lisa. Yeah, so I am Autumn Rue. I am 22, and about three months ago, I opened up my own booth rental space. I had The idea of really just creating a space for people that they could be independent stylists and have the, you know, aesthetic that is clean and, you know, just everything that I have been wanting in a space and it just, yeah. So, yeah. With that, I have only been doing nails for four years now, so I'm very new to all of the business side of things. So, I am, like I was telling Lisa before this, I'm very just like, go with the flow, jump on big ideas it's a blessing and a curse that I, When I make up my mind about something, I will do it very quickly because I don't rest very much when I know that I want to get something done. So, again, blessing and a curse, but I'm very passionate about my career, the relationships I've made with doing people's nails, and How that has really made this journey possible. So yeah as of right now we have Three months in and we have a full space. So there's six of us girls insane yeah, so it's it's beautiful. It's a dream come true. And you know, luckily my husband He is my contractor. So he made that all possible as well so yeah, and he is his own business owner too. So I feel very inspired of people working for themselves. You know, there may be a day where I do take on like a commission employee or something like that, but you know, I've really found out that I'm passionate about people working for themselves. Yeah. But my whole, you know, I wanted to do a one on one with you, Lisa, because. I need to get more on the analytical side of things. Totally. I, I am profiting which is great, but at the same time, you know, this, if I'm being honest, this was like the first time I sat down to really get to the nitty gritty. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm very much like I just put blind faith into it. You're very intuitive and it has led you really well. And I want to say I do feel like we have some similarities in this way. I don't know how to describe it. Somebody with an analytical mind. I am not analytically driven either. Thankfully through years of working on this, I've gathered some business smarts, cause you do need to know those things as well, but there, and tell me if this is kind of what you're feeling too, there's something about just like chasing this big dream and just like letting go of control. And then all of a sudden you look around and you're like, Wait, how did all of this happen? How did this get here? I can't lose this. These people are counting on me. Yes. Let me do this. Let me make sure that the numbers are doing what we need them to do and that I have a plan moving forward because it always just feels good what you're working towards. So that's what I was saying to Autumn before we got on. Anytime I do a one on one coaching call with somebody, whether it's 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, two hours, I say, okay, what exactly do you want to get out of this coaching call by the end of it? I say that during hot seats too. On the off chance that we're, we get 30 minutes in and I'm blabbing about something else, I always want to know what the end goal is. And Autumn said she knows she has some, services that are priced off. Autumn has been just kind of doing this, like we said, all by intuition. I know when you join Soul Tribe, you're like, oh, I'm doing a price increase. I'm raising some things. It felt like, from the outside looking in, just being transparent, like, you were just kind of winging a price increase. You didn't know exactly how much to do, and, you know, We all do that multiple times sometimes, but then eventually there, you can get a lot more intentional about price increases, do the math, figure out exactly what it needs to be so that you don't have to keep doing 5 here, 10 here, you know, whatever. And we can make sure all of your services make sense. We're going to do that. She did also say that she knows that may come with You know, some shifts to clientele and we will cross that bridge how we have to and then I asked her about schedule as well because those of you that don't know, I have like a coaching methodology that I've created, and the middle portion of the cycle of success is schedule, clientele, income, and I think it goes in that order. I think you need to figure out the container of space, the supply of your time, but. What is that container of space we're working towards, working with currently, want to eventually be working towards? Autumn just shared with me that she works 48 to 50 hours a week. And that's crazy. We cannot do that forever. Like, I know it doesn't feel like work for you, but I didn't realize you were that much. Now, are you saying like, that's like, I'm going to say behind the chair, but you're behind the table or whatever. Is that like, Actual, you're serving clients 48, 50 hours a week, or that's including admin time. I would say that's including admin time. I would say some weeks it's less and some weeks it's more. So I, I am someone that doesn't need a consistent every week. I work this amount of days, this amount of hours. You know, I kind of like my days to be different. You know, I, I do, I have ADHD, so I, I need like this, like little shifts and things, you know, and so I would say 48 to 50 is roughly, you know, that's probably the average of like when I'm, you know, at the shop cleaning or, you know doing the admin stuff and then, you know, for nails as well. Okay, right now, what is your online booking available? I can service clients in this time frame. What are, what are your hours right now? So online, I only have two days a week open because I, all my clients are mainly regulars. So I book them out when they're at their appointment. So, but as of right now, I'm pretty booked out for the next three months. So people do have to wait and they have it. I have it to where they have to request and then I accept it. Just in case they don't book the right thing or, you know, I just want to add extra time for a new client and whatnot. Okay, so I would encourage you moving forward. And if you wanna, I mean, I, I'm a big fan of pre booking too. I know there's like a movement right now where people say not to pre book. I have case studies inside of Soul Tribe where they got on the no pre booking bandwagon, their books were really empty for a long time. We tried a million different things, the one thing they shifted, I was like, why don't you just try offering pre booking for three months, see what happens. We've tried everything else, try it. And her books are full and she just earned a price increase. So, I'm not trying to be like one side or the other, but I also pre book majority of my clients. Those that cancel all the time, absolutely not. They can book online. But the ones that I know are consistent and my clientele are like me, and if I don't pre book my dentist appointment, I'm not going to the dentist for three years. Like, life just flies by. That's just how I am. So, I would encourage you I would encourage you, Autumn, if you want to do this all the way through, I would encourage you to pick a set of days, at least for your behind the chair hours, that don't change, that are online booking available, even if that means you're full for three months, so nobody's going to fill them right now. But the reason I like to do that is I base pricing so strictly on supply and demand. I say, when it comes to pricing, when it comes to numbers, take the emotions out of it, because when you're going emotion driven, you can go two ways. You can say, who am I to deserve this price increase? My clients, you know, are already struggling. Things are inflation. Things are so bad. I can't raise my prices, blah, blah, blah. You can go that route. Or you can go, I've been doing this for however many years. I deserve to make this much. This new girl down the street is charging this much. I should earn more. Emotions can take you either way. And I think that in order to just not be making just false Things based on emotions. We just have to cut that completely out and go strictly off numbers. And the only way I can really clearly figure out supply and demand with somebody's prices is if we have a set supply of time, if your supply, let's think of it like a bucket. goes from sorry, if you're not watching on YouTube, I'm doing this with my hands right now. If it goes from this big to this big when clients need you, and then you're technically booked out, but then someone else wants to get in and you just keep making the bucket bigger. It's hard for you to earn price increases because it's hard to hit that trigger of the demand is higher than the supply of your time. So the market basic economics are telling us that we've earned a higher price because the market is willing to pay more based on the demand on my time. So I would highly encourage you. To find a rough idea of what that behind the chair hours can be, just so we can properly figure out price increases and earn them moving forward. So, in a dream world right now, and this can change at any time, that's what I love about this industry, in a dream world right now, what would your, I'm gonna again, call them behind the chair hours be? 35 to 40 bucks. I think, you know, because I do have plans of building in the next five years, I signed a five year lease I have already been looking at properties to purchase that are bigger. The space that I'm in right now is 1, 100 square feet. I'm looking at bigger properties, so I know that I'm still in this time where it's like I'm not fully ready to, like, Dwindle it down to like 25 hours a week because I still, you know, I have a 600 loan payment for the business on top of my rent and all my other expenses how many days per week do you like to work? I right now i'm tuesday through saturday So I have sunday and monday off I really want to do Monday through Friday, but I want to have two days in there that are, you know, I get off earlier. So again, mixing up my schedule a little bit. So not every week looks the same or every day looks the same. So having like a long day, a shorter day, a long day, a shorter day. And then, you know, so Monday through Friday. So I don't miss any of my daughter's stuff when she starts sports or anything like that. I would love to have a normal weekend, but I do make some of the best money on Saturdays. And you know, Again, another mental block because I know for a fact, I have no issue filling up my weekdays. So it's just like, I think it's that attachment to my clients that I know can mainly only do that time. It is. And I feel like throughout time, Autumn, we need to keep checking in on this and not get away from this because time will just go by. I think we should do one of these things at a time just because it's a lot to do all at once. So, I just wrote up a rough idea of 35 hours a week. Which I just want to point out too, even if you're working Monday through Friday, I was like, okay, let's do full or, you know, long day, short day, long day, short day. It would need to be, let's say eight hours, Monday, five hours, Tuesday, eight hours, Wednesday, six hours, Thursday, eight hours, Friday. I was just doing some rough numbers that equals 35. So let's start there. And then I, what I always say, and if you guys ever take Mindset to Magic Autumn, you have access to that inside the portal. Make sure you watch those as well. I think maybe you have, but definitely. I have. Yeah. Go back. So. We pick the schedule. If eventually you're ready to jump down to 25 or whatever, we can cross that bridge when we get there. But right now we're going from 50 ish hours a week to let's just talk 35 right now. Because all, let me just say this, Autumn is about to earn a massive price increase. So everybody buckle up. You guys are probably gonna poop your pants when you hear what I'm about to coach her to. But it's, I wouldn't coach everyone to this. I can just see where her business is at. So okay, we're at 35 hours a week goal. Next, what I like to say, have you watched the clientele training or no? I have, yes. Okay, so what I like to tell everyone, I'm just going to repeat for people listening, I always say start with your schedule. Before we move on to a price increase, I would hate to have you raise your prices, lose some of your favorite clients, and still be doing hair or nails with people that you don't love doing. Whether it's the service they get done, their personality, their vibe. So I always say the clientele stage is next. And so I would, I would always say kind of weed through, you know, my yes, no, maybe strategy. Do you feel right now, and obviously being mindful of your digital footprint and this existing on the internet, do you feel right now like you have any definite no clients that you should let go of before a price increase? I do not. So in this past, I would say these past two years, I have had to fire about three clients. Those are the only people that I felt the need to do that. Okay. Right now, it's basically It's just service. It is what I'm trying to go more towards because I do do Extension like the nail extensions. And like a lot of nail art and I have clients that get extensive nail art every single time That's their whole personality for sure. And that's what I make the most money off of and And so it would basically be the service that they get. Okay, so let's jump into numbers then now. So we have the schedule, we have clientele, I always say start with those before we just jump straight into price increase. You're in a great spot that there's not, you know, like, you're going to lose clients when you do this price increase. You have to lose clients because right now you are filling If you're three months booked out working 50 hours a week, I mean, you have, you have to lose people. You can't service everyone. Eventually, can you hopefully pass them along to another nail tech in your space, still keep it in the same business, hopefully. But you're in a great position that even if, if and when you do lose people, at least we know we love everyone all the same. Just let money decide. And sometimes it just becomes business where we just have to choose that. And I know a lot of people deal with, oh my God, I love these clients so much. If you love them that much, that's great. Go have coffee with them once a month if you want to do that, you know, like stay in touch if you need to do that, but eventually as a smart business decision, you have to decide, okay, the market is clearly telling me that my time is worth more than what I'm charging for it. So I need to make some changes. Okay, so The questions I like to ask everyone when it comes to a price increase is when was your last increase and I know it's gonna be tricky for you because you did an adjustment not that long ago. When was that again? That was in April and I increased my gel manicures and the gel, gel manicure with a soak off both up by 5, which that was a regret I had after I took the training. Yeah, I realized that was a. useless price increase because I'm not seeing much of a difference and It's not the percentage of an increase that it probably should have been before that increase Have you ever done an increase before in the past? Yes, I increased the other services that I do. I want to say about a good eight months ago Okay, because what I like to tell people and you know this all i'm so sorry for repeating myself But i'm being mindful of people listening what I like to tell people is I coach to You If you have increased your prices less than six months ago, especially a significant increase, anywhere from 10 to 30 percent, and you're still bursting at the seams, give it six months. It has not fully taken effect. I'm telling you, there's been plenty, I've done plenty of back to back 30 percent price increases, and you think you're good, you think you're good, six months go by, and all of a sudden, I got gaps in my books, I'm not used to this, and then you run your numbers, and you're like, oh, we're good. That was what the price increase was supposed to do. So typically, I will tell people. To wait. Like, I would typically tell you wait April, May, June, July, August, September, October. I'm not gonna tell you that right now, though, because 5 is nothing, and that was kind of silly. And the only reason I make people wait is because my thought process is there are going to be people that are on you were at the peak of their budget right now and if you even mention the word price increase it could be 50 cents but you said price increase they're already thinking about leaving you there you're going to lose people no matter what when you do a price increase so i feel like it needs to be worthwhile and so i always coach between 10 and 30 i'm feeling like we're probably gonna be up to 30 but we also have to do some adjusting to see where everything lands so you said you have services that are you think you're losing money on or are underpriced. So what I like to do, and I don't think this is in the training, so tell me if this works for you mentally. I like to break everything down by the minute. So, like, your gel manicure right now costs how much? It's 60 for just a regular gel manicure with no soak off, and that usually takes me an hour. Okay, so right now you're 1 a minute for gel manis. What are some other services that you're doing and what are those running at? So, the GelX, which is the extension that I do, it takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to do a full set, and that's at 85. And then if I do the soak off with that which usually I'm doing a gel x soak off with it because it's a new set every single time. So that's 110. And it takes me about an hour and 45 minutes to do that. Now most of the time people get designs with me. I, I would say 85 percent of my clientele gets designed. So that is another. 20, 30, 40, sometimes 70, closer to 100 for some of the designs that I do. Okay. But then it takes about that much time too. So another hour to do that. Now are enough people getting designs that you are wondering if maybe that should just be worked into the price? Like, for example this is almost like when a hairstylist stops charging a la carte for a bleach, a toner, an Olaplex. It's like, you just get it or you don't, or even like a blow dry, like in my. In my situation, if somebody's like, I don't want to blow dry, it's like, cool, if you really want to skip the time, it's complimentary, they're paying for, but it's complimentary, but you can leave without it. Like, do you do enough designs that maybe the design should just be complimentary with a higher price point, and if people don't want them, then they leave it, or no? So I thought about doing tiers, like one, two, and three, because it's really hard with designs when, you know, it could be a design on two nails, but it's like a very intricate, like took me 30 minutes a nail to paint, you know? And so it's like, I tried to do it by like how many fingers I was doing for the price of designs, but then that wasn't working because I would spend so much more time on doing something intricate. So, I've been thinking of a tier system where it's like, you know, a lot of people send me their inspiration of what they want, and I basically give them a quote of what that design would be. So I'm thinking of potentially doing tiers. Okay. And having set pricing. So what would those tiers be? Three of them? Like a basic, mid range, and high detail, or what? Yes. Okay. The only thing that worries me with that is that if, I end up doing something and I've already committed to this being Tier 2. And then it ends up taking me the time of something that was in Tier 3 because I've never done it before. Well, do I just not get paid for that time because it ended up taking me longer than I expected? For sure. Or, you know, so, So what do you do in that situation right now? If you quote, but then it gets to you're doing it and it takes longer. You just ring them out higher price? Or you stick with what you originally quoted them? I stick with it. You know, and now if I didn't quote them, Then I do what I feel was right and I always make sure to look at the time when I start the design So then I can have a better idea of like, okay, how intricate was that? Because maybe something I've done it a million times, like a full set of checkered nails, it becomes easier. So then the time is different. I just got better at it. But trends are probably changing so fast, too, that as soon as you get used to something, it's out and they're doing something new. That's fascinating. So what I would compare that to is you don't realize how frickin thick somebody's hair is and you're now 45 minutes into a blow dry and you're like, oh my god, we haven't even started curling yet. So, okay. Absolutely. Okay. Let's, we can go a few different routes with that. So I'm gonna say, obviously we run the risk of, once you give a full blown quote, you give a full blown quote. I think that's fine to stick with. You live and you learn. You adjust your quote as needed. I don't mind the idea of the tiers, but I'm wondering, here's what I do. I think that sometimes we overexplain to clients, like, what I, I I know it's a big thing in our industry right now, session pricing and session, you know, whatever, I have four years done session booking, where, like you're saying, it would be mid, minimum, mid, or max, like, design or whatever, they book that, but there's no quote. When I do it and then I ring out a la carte still because I didn't want to lose money on adding a partial highlight to somebody. I still wanted to be able to upsell those things. So I do a session booking where it's very clear to a client. They're booking a two hour, three hour, four hour color. There's no fancy names. That's all they do. And then I ring out a la carte, which you could do, but I always have a minimum hourly rate. And I don't explain that to clients because I don't want to charge hourly. I don't want them to be watching the clock. I want to sit. I want to chat. I don't want to feel rushed, but I always have in the back of my head, My minimum hourly rate that if for some reason a la carte doesn't ring up to that, I will add extra time or length and density or something to make sure I'm earning the minimum. Like if I, if I could have done two haircuts in that amount of time, I at least need to earn that. Most of the time a la carte comes up to higher than that. So we could do that. So why don't we, now what I wanna do is, you said$60 for 60 minutes. That's a dollar a minute. I wanna do this math on the gel X and the$110 one two. So an hour and 15 minutes is what? 75 minutes. So we're gonna go an$85 service divided by 75 minutes. You are earning one 13 a minute on those. And then an hour 45, 60 plus 45 is 105 minutes. So, 110 service divided by 105 minutes, sorry guys, this is when I told you it was going to get boring is 104 per minute. Do you have other major services that we want to just have on this list to see if we're really off per minute on anything else right now? I would say the Luminary, because the Luminary is something that's very popular right now, and not everybody offers it. How much does it cost, and how long does it take you? So, for the full set, it's 85, and it takes me about an hour and 15. For the fill in, it takes me about an hour to do a fill in, and it's 80. Okay, so 85 divided by 75 minutes is also 113, so that's similar to the GEL X. 80 divided by 60 minutes is 133. Any other services you want me to break down by the minute, or no? I would say that's good for right now. And then you know the practice and you can also go and do this with every single thing you have. Absolutely. So what I'm learning right now about you, Autumn, is you are ranging anywhere from 1 a minute, to 1. 04 a minute, to 1. 13 a minute, to 1. 33 a minute. So before we even go into a price increase, I would like, because this is comparing this to, you know, being behind the chair, you don't want to be making way more money doing a color than you would doing multiple haircuts in that amount of time or else you're going to resent those haircuts or vice versa. Your time needs to be worth the same amount. Now, if your prices were very, very, very low, of course, color costs more than a haircut, kind of. It's the wear and tear on your body. Does luminary cost more than gel? Maybe. Of course you have to make sure you're breaking even and hit that profit margin, but once you get beyond those profit margins and you're covering your monthly expenses and there's margin to play with, I like to just have your time be the same no matter what services you're kind of doing. So let's just play 133 a minute for everything because that's the highest one right now, Let me just run some math. Sorry, guys. This is where it gets boring. 113 divided by 133. I would say it's hard mentally to me. Hang on. Sorry. I don't want to 16 percent increase. So if we were to jump up from gel X to the luminary fill, it's like a 16 percent increase. I feel fairly confident that we can go 16%. I mean, I think we can go up to 30%. With you right now, so if I were you, how does this feel? I know you're starting to say something that's complicated, so definitely tell me your objections to this. What if we just start off with 133 across the board, and that is times 60, that's 79. 80, so call it 80 an hour. How does that feel? Well, that feels amazing. Does it feel scary or how does it feel because you're you're earning that on your luminary fills and so there's this is why I mean and I know you haven't paid attention to the numbers, but if you have a day full of luminary fills, you make way more money for your time than a day full of the 110 service. I don't remember what that one was or the 60 service. The gel manicures you wake make way more money doing. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, then you start resenting your gel clients, and it shouldn't really matter what they're getting done. You know, especially if you, if you, when you run the yes, no, maybe list, it's not like you want to get rid of gel manicures all together. You just need to be compensated for your time properly. If a ton of people are willing to pay you 1. 33 a minute, that's That's what your time needs to be worth now, you know so I'm in a rough baseline, say, I think we're at least jumping up to 80 an hour. So then the next questions I like to ask people when it comes to price increases, how long goes your last price increase? You guys know my rules. Six months. I usually have people wait once you hit a year You're probably due that kind of raises how much I would raise you or the likelihood of me coaching you to an increase if it's been Two three years you really need one or you're going to start bleeding out losing money Okay, so that's first question. Next question would be if a brand new target market client found you today So if somebody wanted the works, they wanted the coolest set of nails. They just found you They want to start coming to see you regularly How long would it take for you to get them in, sticking to your schedule that you should be sticking to? So, as of right now, it would be about three months, but I would want it to be within the same month or two months max. So what would you do? Just expand your hours, or you would say, I'm Not taking new clients or what would you do right now in this situation? Well, that's what I had it as for a while when I wasn't taking new clients, but then I opened up my space and I'm like, I want the most exposure for my space. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I like to, I think a healthy amount is being like three to four weeks booked out. Some people might say you should be able to get in in a week. I want a little bit more security than that. I don't want to be sitting around a whole lot. If you have enough, I guess in your situation you, there's no lack of things to do. You can clean, you can do other roles. So yeah, right now being three weeks booked out, three months booked out. is definitely not a healthy. You need to realize that somebody could find you and genuinely on them be willing to pay three times your prices right now. She can't even get in to see you. So like, you will never know. And so I would, that definitely ticks high on the price increase right now. Next question I like to ask is in case you do this big. You know 30 percent price increase or whatever. I'm always worried. You're gonna lose clients. That's the point. Of course, you're gonna do that I want to know when I'm coaching people to price increases What kind of new influx of guests are you getting so what that I know that your marketing funnel is working People are aware of you all of the things are happening so that when you lose a chunk of clients We have a constant flow of new people coming back into your business. So I Roughly on average, how many new guest requests are you getting on a monthly basis right now? I would say anywhere from seven to close to like 12. Okay, that's good. I have, as of right now, for the rest of, so for June, I know that I have five people on my wait list. But I do believe that a lot of people get Turned off by having to wait so long. It could be long. It could be more than that. Okay. So, and again, this is gonna be different. If you are doing clipper cuts and people are in, out, in, out, in, out, you can do way, you can service way more people than if you're doing 4 hour extension services. So, like, I know that these numbers are kind of gonna be skewed and it's gonna be different. What would you say the average person, how long are they in the salon with you? Close to 2 hours. Okay. Okay, I would say average because I mean I don't do very many gel manicures anymore So I would say an average of probably two hours because I would say most of my clients do get like extensive designs where I make Kind of hair color. Yeah, so I feel very good about five to ten new guest requests. Three to four is healthy or just not super due for a price increase. Once you hit five to 10, great. When you hit like 25 and anybody listening, who's like, God damn it. I haven't gotten a new guest request in three months. Don't feel any type of way, but there are, there are a couple members inside of soul tribe. I don't know what it is with their business, but they can like 45 new guest requests a month. It is bizarre. And I tell them. You need to keep raising your prices until you find out what that number is, that that massive influx slows down. Because what that tells me, if we're talking supply and demand, again, basic economics, I can remember sitting in Mr. Hauber's class, learning about this, that the market is telling you right now that You, if that, if 40 people a month are interested in your services, they would pay a lot more than what you're paying right now. You need to get to that next level where that market shrinks to an amount of people that can fill the supply of your time. So, 7 to 12 is very healthy. It's very good. It's very beautiful. That makes me confident that if you lose a good chunk of people in a price increase, rest assured, marketing is in play. Your funnel's working. People are finding you. There if I keep coaching you to price increases, it's not like you're just going to dwindle to no clients. Again, there will be people that refill these spots. How do you feel about doing that across the board? I feel good about that. Do you think you need to be higher than that? Or you think that's a good starting point? No, I think it's a great starting point because I was, once I sat down and did my numbers about, you know, how much I was working a week and, on average, what I was making an hour, I felt kind of sad about it. I was like, You know, I'm an owner now. I've worked really hard. I know my worth in a service, and especially what I give to someone in the chair. You know, I make these really deep connections. I give them service that they can't find elsewhere, or it's few and far apart. So I was a little discouraged when I saw, like, what I was seeing. technically averaging out. So 80 sounds beautiful. Okay, let's start there. And so if I were you, here's how I do price increases for anybody listening. It has evolved over the years. The first price increase that I earned I remember I was so nervous. I felt like it was my civil duty to make sure every single person knew every single penny that I was raising. I over explained myself. I did too much. After Many, many, many price increases over the years. I've learned, I know some people say, Oh, just don't say anything. I kind of think that's icky. I'm not judging other people if they do it, but I feel like I respect my clients enough that they should be able to budget for when they come in. Cause I think that they're responsible adults and they should know what they're paying. So what I do. Today is May 22nd that we're recording this. I don't know what day it's going to go out. Because it's May 22nd, I love even round numbers. I would say June 1st, announce that you're implementing a price increase, which kind of sucks because you just did that April 1st. But say I'm implementing a price increase. The verbiage I like to use is very vague. It's very simple. It's not Cost of goods have gone up. It's not all this over explaining. They don't need to know any of that. I say something along the lines of, as of, so you're going to announce this June 1st, as of July 1st, so we give them 30 day notice. That feels appropriate. As of July 1st, I am implementing a price increase. Not all services will be affected, but you may notice an increase at your next sale. visit. Please let me know if you have any questions or you would like a quote for your next visit. That's an email blast. That's a, I have put in my client only Facebook group. I wouldn't coach to putting it out publicly. Like I wouldn't put it on your regular Instagram. I just don't think it's necessary. I think only your clients need to hear it. Again, back in the day, I used to put a station talker out. I used to write a note on each person's file, like I warned them, they got notice. I've stopped doing all that. So I would say June 1st, announce for July 1st increase. From June 1st to July 1st, as you're ringing people out, We all know this. I have some clients that I have asked them a million times if they want to quote, they show you a design, they're like, whatever it takes, just do it. I don't care. Money is not on their, their mind. I have learned after so many price increases with these people, they're like, okay, Lisa, I get it. Like, I don't need to, you don't need to tell me this every time. Good for you. Raise your prices. And then I have some clients that I know will, like, have a pre written check or, like, I know they pay attention and they've asked before and they've been mindful of their budget. From June 1st to July 1st, as you're ringing people out, the clients that you know don't give a shit, just don't even say anything to them. You know they don't care. There's no sense of bringing it up and over explaining yourself and making yourself feel weird. The clients that you know pay attention, I would just say, Hey, did you see my email? I'm going to be implementing a price increase before, you know, for your next visit. So it's still the same amount this time, but I just wanted to know if you wanted to quote for your next one, because really Autumn, the luminary fills are not getting raised. They're the same price. Those people are not going to be jumping, but everybody else will be. So to me, that's just like a good, subtle, Respectful way to go about it. How does that feel? It feels amazing. So in the past I've definitely made like social media posts about my new price list and when it goes into effect So with this last one I did that again. I said, you know, and I pinned it to my profile but I do feel that it is not everybody's information to know if you're not sitting in my chair and this doesn't affect you Then, you know, why have it be out there? And obviously, my website has my prices. Exactly. And I think that is a good place for it to live. Yes. But you also just have to remember, there are people that are already feeling so tight, especially right now. Feeling so tight, so stressed about money. They do not need another thing being shouted from the rooftops that your prices are going up. Honestly, for somebody, if all they're doing is getting a luminary filled, they're going to get that email. They might have a moment of like, oh, dang, Their price isn't even gonna go up. Nothing is even gonna change for them. Right. You know, so it's just not necessary to be like price increase, price increase, price increase. And there's just a lot of chatter in the beauty industry right now of how kind of entitled and egotistical our industry has gotten. And like I just, and I agree. And I, and I do. Yeah. We don't need talk about it, it for don't this whole world to see. Exactly. Yeah. And, and also it's hard because I do feel as if like, you know, with hairstylists there is a lot more product cost. So, with me, I am only spending roughly, at the max, 300 a month on product, and that is on the higher end. I buy more expensive product that lasts me a long time. With hairstylists, you know, I'm probably every service, I'm probably only spending 5 10 on product. And so, comparing it to that world, but wanting to also be paid the same is really hard. But you know what, that's where it does, and that is a, what you just explained, and I don't blame you for saying that, because you, again, we've seen so many posts of like, look at my Swan centric receipt. That is such a Amateur way of thinking about business. Absolutely. I agree. I agree. Yeah. Cause you get to a point, and now Autumn, you can say, oh sure, acrylic powder, I don't even know if you use that, but like, costs pennies, I'm sure. But like, you are a whole ass salon owner that is keeping the water running and keeping the amenities stocked and things like that. So that's why at a certain point, of course, if you're not even profitable yet, there needs What is your baseline profit number? But thankfully, you're beyond that point, which I love. At this point now, it is truly supply and demand. And as you were saying that, I was like, damn, you're brave for saying that out loud. In case your clients ever listen to this, because it is that fine line of what we keep to ourselves. You know, but, It gets to a point where it's not about paying for the goods, like you're, you're beyond that point, and it's a smarter business now that we get more sophisticated and it's supply and demand. And if enough people in the marketplace are willing to pay for your time, You have earned for your price to go up. And again, that is a basic economics. You can open up any basic economics book. You can listen to anything. That's just how it works. It's how businesses stay afloat and stay running. And I guess from a moral standpoint, I got some people hate capitalism. I hear, I hear that thought too. I'm not, I'm not opposed to that, but. That's why I didn't want to put money in somebody else's pocket and it is, it is a weird transition now that, you know, I was an independent stylist just working for myself. And I felt like, oh my gosh, I'm not in corporate America. I get to work for myself and not make somebody else rich. Well, now it's like, kind of, I have to switch into this little bit more of this business mindset. You are allowed to make yourself rich eventually and do good things with it. Yes, I fully believe that. I really do. And I do trust, so like, every time that I've done a price increase, My clients kind of giggle at me and they're like autumn that was like, why are you stressing out about it? like that's nothing and then Maybe I lose one client, but it's like someone that's in college or someone that you know Right now just can't afford to get their nails done because these are luxury services And so what I tell all my girls at the shop, you know two of them actually three of them now because I just hired another nail tech which is someone who I Will be able to flood some clients too and you know, we've been doing a lower price point than you. Yes Yes, and we're, we're gonna be working together on, you know, her building her confidence of, you know, raising her prices over time once her skill set goes up and stuff like that, but I tell them, I said, you know, these luxury services, we cannot be worried about other people's pockets. We have to be worried about ours because, you know, we're the ones making a living out of this. We don't get PTO. We don't get insurance. Now, that is one of my goals in the future is to have a group. Which is why you need your profit margins to keep growing and growing and there's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely. Absolutely. It is, I think in our industry, just so hard that we build such deep relationships with our clients that, you know, we do care about them. And we don't want to be like. And we still want to see them, but you don't want to be greedy. And but again, that's why I take the emotion out of it. The math is telling you right now. And honestly, Autumn, this is a, this is a, I don't know the word. I'm looking for a humble price increase. You probably could do more than this, but I say do this July, August, September, October, November, December, January, kind of perfect timing. Go through the end of the year. See what the fallout looks like. See what the repercussions of this price increase looks like. See, are you finally actually working 35 hours? If you are, do you want that to go even lower now that your kids are getting older and maybe getting in sports? Maybe you don't. And if so, you run those exact same questions. How booked out are you? How many new guest requests are you receiving? When was the last price increase? Oh, and then are you changing your schedule? Those are like the four questions I ask everyone, and that equation tells me if we're due or if we're not. So and you can continue working that down, and as an owner, especially if you get these girls that you can, you know, kind of pour these people into, you have to step into the identity and the role of like, I do much less people at a much higher rate so that I can feed them. feed the businesses of these girls that are in my space. And that's just kind of the role you eventually take on. And I have full faith that you're gonna step into that beautifully. Thank you. It definitely is like a transition of mindset, which I knew coming into it, it really would be. But taking these scary steps, which like I'm used to at this point, but then like, It is hard when you put a mirror up to yourself and you're like, Okay, but you cannot be telling other people to not be afraid of price increases and all these things and letting go of people. That is what you preach. You have to. You absolutely have to. And I want to be that example for people in our industry because I just love our industry so much for having this freedom and having these options and you know, if they, they're not going to take advice from somebody that isn't doing what they're telling them to do, you know? Yeah, and again, that's why I come back to and I always just whenever it comes to price increases and and like actually coaching people and knowing they're about to change some things in their business because of what I said, and their family will face the repercussions of it. Again, I just want to preface with this is all because of them. The data in the math is working. If autumn was just like, oh, my girl is like killing it at doing nails now, but you're sending all these clients and they're not staying with her. They're not retaining. She doesn't have another part of the system that where the market isn't saying we value her at that number, then you don't get to earn it, you know? And that's just, again, why I say no emotions strictly based on the, on the numbers and the data right now. But right now, autumn, like you are easily, I feel more than confident coaching you to this much of a price increase. And I would say. Let's touch base again in six months and consider doing another one because I don't even know if this is going to shake quite as much as we wanted to where you're only 35 hours a week and if somebody new finds you they can get in in three weeks like that's what I would like to eventually get to but rather than blowing everything up at once and changing everything let's do it slowly let's do it smart let's keep a close eye on it let's love our clients well through it and then go from there cool you So do you feel like that answered all your questions? We're coming up in an hour, so I feel like we navigated that pretty well. I guess I just have to get through the mental block of knowing that I will be losing some clients, and of course that's co I need more free time. I cannot let myself get drained and my business, you know, suffer because of not making these changes. I vividly remember being in a mastermind, and it was when I was finally cutting Saturdays, and it was like, I went from one, every other, every Saturday, to every other, to every three weeks, to once a month, to once every six weeks, just because there was just these Few clients that I loved so much and I cared about them so much and I didn't want them to leave me and I knew they were Saturday people and I remember being in this mastermind and saying that and I remember the girl's name. I'm not going to say it in case she listens to it. but I don't want to lose her. And they were like, Lisa, do you want to go get coffee with her? Like, do you want to start a friendship with her? Because you can do that. Your business needs to allow you to do that. I'm like, Well, no, I don't want to do that. And they're like, okay, then that's the that's what's telling you it's business. It's not personal. And I think that's just where that you're good girl. I think that's just where that line needs to be to decide that is, is, is You don't need to hurt people along this process. Your clients still love you. Eventually, you just have to put on your business pants and say, this is what I need to do. And you're in a beautiful point. I was not at this point where I could pass along to somebody that is still in my ecosystem. Yep. I was just passing along to any client and never seeing any return on that. Yep. But I needed that for my, for my time and, and, yeah. Schedule so I think you're in a beautiful spot. I think we should have you on in a few months to check in on the price increase and then to also tell your story because it is I would love that so much. Thank you so much for this opportunity and just being the coach that you are. I love you so much. You are the best. Alright, any other questions before we wrap up? No, not at all. I will put all of Autumn's social media, website, things like that in the show notes because she has an incredible mind presence. She has incredible branding. You guys will see. See you and I just love following her stuff. I like to get nail inspo and she's doing really amazing things. So if you are just an owner in any capacity of any booth rental salon, the way that she's doing things is really impressive and really innovative and really intuitive. You're young and you're, you're, you're moving quick and you're seeing fast success, but it is so clear from the outside looking in that like you're on the right path and you, this is your like destiny and you just are brave enough to step into it. And I love that. Those words mean so much to me because, you know, the imposter syndrome will set in and it's like you get all of these thoughts of like, you know, who do you think you are, and then when you see somebody that you've just met and they can see that in you, it's just so validating, so I appreciate your kind words. Thank you so much, Autumn. Thank you everybody for listening, and I will talk to you all again next week.