051 - How to Scale Your Salon and Work Less: Laura Elizabeth’s Proven Micro Salon Method

In this episode of Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations, Lisa Huff chats with Laura Elizabeth, a business strategist and life coach for hairstylists and salon owners. With over 20 years of experience in the beauty industry, Laura shares her journey from rebuilding her salon business in Dallas to developing her signature Micro Salon Method, which helps stylists scale their salons, work less, and earn more.

Laura dives deep into the concept of a micro salon—an efficient, profitable salon model that emphasizes small teams, smart scaling, and intentional business growth. She also opens up about her struggles with money mindset, overcoming the toxic hustle, and how her personal experiences shaped her success as a salon owner and coach.

Tune in to hear Laura’s insights on:

• How to scale your salon without going into debt
• The power of micro salons and lean business models
• Overcoming emotional discounting and charging what you're worth
• Leadership, mindset, and the importance of community in the beauty industry

If you're a salon owner or stylist looking for ways to scale your business while working fewer hours, this episode is packed with actionable advice and real-life lessons!

Key Takeaways:

• Why Laura scaled back her salon and focused on a micro salon model for more freedom and flexibility
• How emotional discounting can harm your business and how to overcome it
• The importance of mindset shifts when scaling your business and hiring a team
• How to hire and onboard assistants to free up your time and increase revenue

Connect with Laura Elizabeth:

• https://www.iamlauraelizabeth.com/

Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by the Stylist Soul Tribe, a community and membership for hairstylists ready to grow their businesses, connect with like-minded professionals, and find support on their journey to success. Learn more about our membership and how you can join at https://www.lisahuffhair.com/

We’re celebrating one year of Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations! 🎉 To mark this milestone, we’ve created six exclusive Starter Packs packed with powerful episodes, masterclasses, roundtables, and content from the Stylist Soul Tribe Vault. Click here: https://stylistsoultribe.mykajabi.co

Sign up for Mindset to Magic: https://stylistsoultribe.mykajabi.com/mindset-to-magic-sales-page

Connect with Lisa Huff

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Transcript

1:09

Hi, friends. Welcome back to Stylist's Old Tribe Conversations. Today I am joined by Laura Elizabeth. Laura is a business strategist and life coach for hairstylists and salon owners. She teaches how to scale your salon by working less and making more as you build your beauty empire. And if that's not just like somebody I'm meant to be talking to, then I don't know what is. Hello, Laura. Thank you for being on today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to get to chat with you and dive into these topics. I'm really glad that we're meeting digitally. Hopefully we can meet in real life someday, too. that's another thing I love, am obsessed about having a podcast is I get to have like. deep meaningful conversations to really get to know each other so much more than just like Instagram likes and story replies. Like after an hour conversation, you like really know somebody pretty well. And so that's really cool. So I'm so grateful to have a chunk of your time and to get to know you a little bit better. So why don't you, Kind of introduce yourself, start back to what feels relevant, I'd love to hear a brief overview of your story and what has kind of brought you into where you are and how you're serving the industry right now. Absolutely. Well, I've been doing here for over 20 years. It's like, I think back to when I first started and how different the industry was to where it is today. I moved to the Dallas area, which is where I live now. So I'm originally Canadian, but I moved to Dallas area when I was, Oh my gosh, it's probably been 11 years ago now. So that's like right when Instagram was starting to like erupt, but it was still so new. No one really knew how to use it. And I had to rebuild my business from like the ground up. I was in a commission salon and it was around the season where it was like two years of like not having any family here, rebuilding a business with no friends or family. I was in a very new, but Unhealthy marriage that was new but falling apart. So divorce was erupting and I found myself in this place of divorcing shortly after like it's about a year and a half to two we moved and then We got married and then within a year and a half, we got divorced. So it was just so much change in just such a short period of time. And I stayed in Dallas because I had already, like I said, I've been here for two years. I had established my business. Things were going well. I got into like, I've hired a life coach cause I was like, my life is falling apart. I don't know what to do with this. through the life coaching experience that I received, I was like, the industry needs more of this. Have you ever had mentorship before that? Or was that your first, like, major taste of that? That was my first major taste. aside from having salon owners. Teaching you how to do haircuts and stuff, yes. But in a deeper level. And man, that is crazy. It's powerful and addictive if you get somebody good that cracks you open. I was so grateful to have my first mentor. Her name is Ruby Fremont. She's an incredible person. You can find her on social media. And she introduced me to retreats and to like opening up my heart and talking through hard conversations and doing shadow work, which I was like, we need more of this. So I started tiptoeing into the industry as a coach. Which at that time I had. I've been doing hair for 17 years, I had been, not 17, a little, about 15 years, I had been educating and traveling and doing, hair extensions with a company, so I had already had a taste of, teaching for big masses, but I hadn't yet done my own thing as an independent educator. So I started to kind of dabble in that and figure out different ways to serve our community. And then I came out with my first rendition of a course, It was a great course, but it was such a baby course. that was when all these digital platforms were created. So you didn't, I mean, nobody knew how to do it. Yeah. It was, like the Brit Sivas were coming out and like, The Jamie Danas like it was like watching them do it. I'm like, yeah, they can do it. I can figure this out. so fast forward about four years ago. I opened up my own studio like 2020 hit I got remarried And I was like, I just am ready to go on my own which is a crazy time to do it, but I did it So were you educating before you went out on your own? I was. What was the first course about just out of curiosity? It was called the elevated creatives. It was really about, I was teaching hairdressers how to create six figures because I did it really well in my industry. I worked for a salon. I was mentored really well. I was able to build my business within a year and generate six figures as a commission stylist. So I'm like, well, if I can do it, I can teach other people to do it. But every time you do like a course launch, you get better and you niche down and you get more specific on who you're talking to. And I think, tell me if you agree with this, this has been a lot of my story, the people who find you when they're meant to find you also, for me, shapes the direction of what you create. you then, get the first round of people for this course. You are more intimately interacting with them and then you know what the industry needs next. It needs next and just kind of follow that breadcrumb trail. That's kind of how I operate. Yeah. No, absolutely. I think every course got better because of the feedback and then because of who you align with and I went from mentoring like commission stylists to independent stylists and then salon owners and even from there, it continues to like blossom, which is really cool because I get, I get the opportunity to help influence and grow other people within their journey of what they're doing. Yeah. So, yeah, fast forward to today. What's the, what's your current situation and life look like right now? So, I'm a mom to a two year old. I own and operate a micro salon. So I have a small team. We work out of a studio. We have three chairs. Obsessed. I love it. I absolutely love it. I've gone down the rabbit hole of opening a salon, and I'm like, I just don't want to dedicate that kind of time right now, and I really love what I have, so why go bigger if I don't have to? Yeah, how do you define a micro salon? Because I was saying before we hit record, Laura came on my radar from a couple Soul Tribe members who took her course about opening a micro salon out of their suite and expanding in that way. So not to say you coined the term, but that's definitely when I first became aware of this thought process. So like, how do you define a micro salon and then how did you go about going from a studio suite owner into a micro salon by your terms? It's a good question. I would say it's anywhere from. To minimum two chairs up to five chairs. Okay, so at some at one point we actually had two studios We had side chairs amongst our two studios. Mm hmm. So it's it's keeping it on a smaller scale You typically have a team of maybe six people if you have a rotating schedule Yeah, I've chosen I've done the six people. I am keeping it small on purpose. I've done it. I didn't love it So every time I try something on, I take it off. I'm like, all right, keeping that, letting that go. And everyone has a different journey. I have one member in Stylus Soul Tribe that she was running out of, I think, three studios at one point before she found her right space. And it was such a seamless, I think so many people will go so quickly into debt and build this big, massive dream. But I think. The process that you're talking about is just running a very lean business, assuming cash flowing as much as you can, making the most out of the space that you have for as long as you can before you expand that container. Absolutely. I started with the. Two chair suite, brought in a renter and then hired an assistant and we outgrew that within like eight months. And then we were able to get into a bigger studio that had the capacity for three chairs, maybe four if we squeeze it in, but I didn't do that. And then I was wearing a mat leave and I was like, well, I need to hire people to help with my like offloading clients. So then I started hiring on stylists, grew the salon. We had, I think at one point like Five to six people working between two suites came back from Atlee, had some changes. And then I was like, you know what? I'm scaling back on purpose. And I'm going to make this feel better. And since then we've just kind of had this nice flow. And I really think it is important. Like we scaled to capacity each time before we bit off more than we could chew. And what I was willing to do and not do versus I think some people, and I could see myself doing this, I'm going to speak for myself, will fall into this dream of thinking, okay, they design the salon before they design the business plan. And you fall in love with this idea, and then you get in there, and you're in debt, like hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, because of the build out, and then you have a massive overhead, and now you have to, build a team, you're hiring a desperation, and then you have bad hires. So it's like through these four years, it's only been four years that I've been doing this. I've gone through the ability to hire and fire, unfortunately, and get better each time. And unfortunately, because that is such a lesson. I mean, when you were at your, we'll call it the peak of six people since that's the largest capacity you've got to, let's say when you were at like three, four, I don't know how, what speed those people came on but you could have easily said, like, I see this vision, I have this many people interested, let's make the massive container. But then a year later, a baby later, whatever, you're like, no, I want to see it. And I think what you're teaching people to, again, in that small container, it allows you the freedom to back off if needed. I think that's beautiful that that's where you're at. It feels good for us. it gives us a way to like manipulate it to our, to our liking and I would never knock on a big song. I have some dear mentors in mind that I look up to that are really good friends of mine. And they run amazing salons. I'm not, I'm just physically and emotionally not there. What we get to do is really cool because it does bridge that gap of being by yourself in a studio to, I now get to work with a team that feels really good in the line for me. And I think you've heard this from other hairstylists and salon owners that they build something that they wish they had. for me, my last salon, I didn't realize how bad it was until I left, but it had a really toxic culture. I know that term it's coined a lot, but it really was toxic. I had stylists that worked there that literally said that they were out to get me. The salon owner sabotaged like a photo shoot that I was putting together for my like, for my own portfolio. the salon owner also, had some pretty nasty things to say about me behind my back and then to my face. it was truly toxic, but I've never been one to quit. So I stuck through it. my intention was when I build this and I find a team that aligns, everyone has to have those similar core values. We can be different people, but you need to come in and buy into the vision that we've created. So you can win. So I can win. So we all can build and grow together and not just have a warm body to take up a chair. So that's why I've been so intentional like this last most recent Employee. we decided just part ways and it's disappointing when something doesn't work out. And as a leader, you reflect on yourself. It's like, what could I have done better? And how could I have led better? And how could I have seen this differently? And at the same time, I have to trust, my vision I am not willing to waver. I'm not willing to bend just to make someone else feel more comfortable in people place. Like I'm done. I don't have to do that. Yeah. And even you saying like, people will say I built what I didn't have in it almost. Everyone is on their journey where they're supposed to be in props to the people who are sustaining these massive, businesses, but building what you wish that you had does feel very on defense. And what I'm hearing you say is like. This is what current Laura needs right now. And I'm building what I need right now. Yeah. And that's powerful. Yeah. And it's funny because a lot of people won't, I think it's a selfish thing to say. Yeah. But I'm so past that. Well, and if you're not going to build what you need right now, who is? So like to build a life that you really love and that you really, you know, want to be excited about what you're doing every day. I think that is very powerful. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm going to receive that. I have a hard time receiving things and it's interesting. I think when you have a really solid vision and you're, you're not willing to waver on it. I've found as a strong leader, you will, you lose a lot of people along the way. And that's been, I've been, I've gotten better at accepting that because not everyone's going to be understanding that everyone wants to support what you're building. some people are going to be like, Oh, well, she's a bitch or she's selfish or whatever it may be. But then the people who are in my corner and I have amazing stylists right now that just are full all in, like they get it. And I'm going to go all in on my team as well, too, to make them as successful as I can for the. Capacity that they're willing to grow. And I think that's special in having those people, like, if your vision touched every single human or the average human, it probably would be a pretty average vision. So I think it's only fair to have to Dig pretty deep to find the right people because that's how unique and special your vision is and that's not saying that anything's wrong with those people or anything's wrong with your vision, it's just going to be a tighter alignment because it's so deep and true to who you are and, I think it takes a lot for someone to stand secure in that. I think a lot of people, myself included, struggle with this. Sometimes waver or question vision, not knowingly waver, but question if it's still where they're meant to be when outside sources aren't giving you the hits that that's right. And so I guess maybe let's unpack that a little bit. We had a couple little mindset things for talking points, but whether you want to just say what's coming to your head from that or go back on like your mindset journey, but I think there's something to that. And that's what I'm seeing from you just in this brief, moment of us getting to connect. thank you. I feel that that was probably the biggest foundation that was starting in the beginning of when I went down the journey of life coaching for myself Like peeling back the layers and getting to know who is Laura. And like, why do I have these insecurities? Why do I people please so much? Why do I want to be so liked? Like all I wanted to do was to be liked by everybody. And what I kept being shown was people who were threatened or felt insecure around me and were disliking me. I had to do a lot of work around that for years to be okay with who I am and what my vision is, even if it's different than the next person's. And there's definitely like seasons like this last I'm coming out of a season of especially transition with motherhood hormones really took over. postpartum was rough and it's not like three months later. It's like years later. It's wild. I'm still having, I have a therapist I love and I like still go to I still would question like, is this what I want? Is this what I need? And I, as much as I would appear to show up confident, I would still question everything. And the sign of a really good leader is you can't get complacent where you're at, you have to continuously question, audit, assess, let go, give yourself some space and capacity to like stretch and try new things on, even if it doesn't work out. Yeah. And if someone were to see the transition and growth and then the tightening back up of our business, they'd be like, Oh, well, that's a failure. But If you were to see the finances on paper, it actually is doing so much better with less capacity of people, which is giving us so much more alignment. I had to just get to a place of trusting myself and trusting that intuition and trusting my gut that what I knew was enough. one of my biggest lessons learned is I spent 50, 000 on coaching, like an obscene amount of money because I was so desperate for answers. I just didn't know what I wanted. initially I was kind of upset, like, why did I spend that much money? I was in debt at the same time. It gave me a lot of clarity around what I did not want and what I did not have time to do, which actually put a big mirror up and allowed me to see. What I knew or what I was actually building was exactly what I wanted. I just had, I had to go down the path to prove to myself that these were not what, these were not things that I wanted. And social media is really tough because you see, Well, the content of all these different modalities that will work for a lot of different people and you have to have discernment for your business and what feels good for you. And sometimes it is making those investments and realizing that's not what you needed to get to that place of having that confident voice within yourself. And do you think there's something to even just say just the energetic exchange of that? amount of money just makes you energetically Dig into something that that deeper would you say? Like even when you said why did I spend that I didn't like it taught you what you didn't need But don't you think there's something powerful? In a season in life where you're ready to just like and like I think of money as energy And like you're just energetically gonna Go into solving this, what is making you uncomfortable right now, like the, what that ends up showing from it, right? I do. I mean, I agree. I think when you're investing that type of money, there is this expectation of a return. And I don't ever expect it to be what I think it's going to be. Normally it's like, I'm going to get this return back on money, but maybe it is knowledge or maybe it's experience. It's an energetic return. and I think initially it was just frustration because I was like I didn't really have the money to begin with and then I didn't get back what I was expecting so I had to change my mindset around that to figure out like this was actually exactly what I needed I just can't do it the hard way. I always say money is energy you can make more of it it's not going to go away and never come back unless you have that scarcity right there. Yeah, it's a replenishable resource. And you put that in one of your talking points, and I feel like I definitely attract people where this is something they struggle with. And so I can talk about money mindset all the time, but like, what's your take on that? When did you kind of crack through? Is that also life coaching? I, I will coach people on a regular basis and there's. Some of them that you can tell that have, have worked through it, but there's some people so deeply stuck in hard money mindsets that like it is etched in stone in their soul and like that you can tell they want to work through that so bad, but it's just there and it's really deep and it's really there. What's your take on money mindset for people? I, A hundred percent agree. Like the people that I work with, a lot of the stylists that I get to work with, if they're locked in on this lack mindset or that there's a value perception of what they do behind the turn, they can't charge more, whatever it may be. It comes down to money mindset. And a lot of it is from where they were taught money. Childhood. I mean, DNA things. Like it's in our lineage sometimes. And it's up to us to like take that responsibility and get curious. And sometimes when you do money mindset work, it opens up things in your childhood or of your past that you're like, how does this correlate at all with money? Give me a weird example of that. Like, so someone listening kind of gets what you're saying. I'll have to do it for myself because I don't want to speak about anybody I actually work with. So like for instance, us growing up. We, my dad came into money later on in life when I was like probably in my teenager years, like 14, 15 years old. And so we went from like being kind of poor, which I didn't know we were poor until we had money. And then you're like, Oh, this is very different. And I saw how money was really damaging to my family. And I saw how it corrupted not just my dad, but then his side of the family. So there's a whole family dynamic with money and status and money is equivalent to success. So then I get embedded in my head that like, If I'm going to be a hairdresser, I better be a successful AF hairdresser because I'm not going to be poor and make everyone think that, Oh, she's just a hairdresser. And so in the beginning years I had this really toxic hustle that I worked over 40 hours a week. I made great money, but I did it in a way where I was exhausted, but I had all of this to show for, and I blew it. I blew all the money that I had on alcohol and partying and clothing and just it was such an image That was seared into your brain that that is the the sign of success And that's what you do when you use the chase to accumulate and then once it's accumulated show it in as many ways as you can Yep. So I had to do a lot of work on myself to be like, why did I do that? Why am I in debt? What does this mean about me Like I do a lot of Inner child work. And there's still new things that come up. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I have to clear this too now. Cause I think doing the inner child work and especially having my son reparenting yourself can be the biggest tool to healing your money mindset, which then allows you to have just a better nervous system to how you spend it. How you say it, how you work with it. I'm in a new season right now with money. I found a new CFO, which I'm excited about this person. Awesome. And the way that they're, helping me with just managing the businesses. I'm like, I am seeing this from a new perspective and it feels exciting. Versus I think sometimes people get a little bit constricting with like a budget Or telling me how to spend my money or having an allowance. Because to me, I'm like, oh no, this is an opportunity for a massive growth. I feel like also in our industry, a trip to the CPA is so triggering because we didn't go to traditional college. We don't know how to run a spreadsheet. We know how to make great money. We know, but there's something about like having someone look at it and judge what you're doing. Especially because they just don't know the lingo, or they're worried they're not doing something right, and it's such a vulnerable thing to let someone in. So I LOVE that you found somebody that you love. I have a team right now that I feel real good about more than I, but I gotta work on those triggers, for myself as well. thank you for getting vulnerable about your own story. I really appreciate that. Dave Ramsey has a quote that says, money doesn't change people, it exposes people, I don't know if you would agree with that, but I know people with a lot of money that are icky people, and I know people with a lot of money that are some of the most amazing people that you would ever, and I really, that's a truth that, I agree with, I'm wondering if you feel the same. Oh, a hundred percent after going through it and doing the work on my own family lineage money doesn't make people bad. It does expose people in good or a bad way. I want to make a lot of money and help a lot of people in return through making money. it's not just to be like, I'm not a person that needs items that are branded, but I want opportunities to take that money and put it out there in a different way, and take fabulous trips. money is freedom, and we get this one life, and that's what makes, things happen here on this world that we're in. I also, when I said about people with an etched in stone, and you agreed that there are some people that coaching them through money mindset is so hard, and I'm thinking what I heard you say, and it seems like the simplest answer, and I would wholeheartedly agree with you, but it's really hard from a coach perspective, is In my opinion, it literally comes down to choice, and you can say that you're choosing to change your money mindset, and for some reason, you can keep hitting a brick wall, and I'd love for you to maybe even expand on this, like, shadow work, or inner child things, or, you know, all the different, like, healing modalities that you have found, but what I heard you say is just, like, you have to choose That even if it is lineage, even if it is generationally, whatever it is, that there just comes a point with people that I know with really inspiring money mindsets that they just decided from this point forward, this is my belief and this is what I'm picking up and bringing with me, right? Yeah, it's like hitting a rock bottom. It's deciding to make a choice and committing to it. And I think sometimes we almost have to brainwash ourselves into believing it. Like we have to say it before we believe it enough times that your subconscious is actually trusting of what you're believing or choosing to believe So just like when you're rewiring your neural pathways, you have to choose to commit to this new way of thinking and believing and being. Even if money feels scary, hard or unobtainable. And this comes into play with her menu offerings and her emotional discounting and her inability to make the income she wants for her children. And for me, I'm like, okay, well, what's your, why behind running your business? And we have to get to the depths of like her why, and it's so powerful. It's around her family. I'm like, so you're willing to sabotage this depth of why? Because you are afraid of making someone upset or losing your clientele. Yeah, and honestly, and I think their logical brain knows they're not going to lose their entire clientele. It's really these micro moments of discomfort that we're so terrified to go through that, you know, down the road in the bigger picture will, I mean, it's truly like taking something out of your family's pocket if you're not willing to do that. And I see so many styles struggle with those tiny little emotional discounts that just add up. And I think telling people to pause and really think about what is that deeper reason. And does, Sandra's 15 off that she's going to make a face or say something, is that really worth it in the grand scheme of things when you times that times all the clients that you're doing this to, times all the days that you work behind the chair, all the years you've been here, is it really worth it And it never is. Well, and I don't think that people realize that those micro Discounts are adding up. Like we even did it reverse engineered. I'm like, well, if you were to add 10 percent on the top of each service, you could be making a 10, 000 like increase annually. And she's like, excuse me, excuse me. Private school. You could have to take a extravagant trip. There's so many things you can do. I did that one time too. I had a one on one coaching call with someone and I made her, she's like, Oh, I have a few clients. Cause she was about to earn a price increase. And she was like, I have a few clients that I discount. I'm like, okay, tell me their names. And she was like, okay, this person, this person, this person. There ended up being 22 people that she was emotionally discounting. She thought it was four or five. We did the math and it was like, 16, 000 a year just from those emotional discounts, and then it was holding her back from raising her prices because that gap between her other clients and her discounting clients were starting to get so big. And eventually you just have to like turn the lights on and bring everybody up to the same page. So, I'm glad, I'm glad we went there. I wholeheartedly agree with you on all of that. We're 33 minutes in. Yeah, I want to go there. So while we're on the mindset topic, you also had the embodiment of a confident leader, and even just the way you worded that, I want to know what that means to you, and how much of that goes hand in hand with just kind of like the mindset talk, or is it? Different than that, deeper than that. Where's your, where's your mind at with that? It's a really great bridge into that because there is a lot of mindset that goes into leadership. And when I'm working with past students that have gone through the micro salon method course, it is this fear of who am I to be hiring an assistant, training an assistant, teaching anybody beyond what I already do. And that's step one in leadership is learning how to lead a new person into your business, which then can populate into something even bigger. And. I find that so many people don't realize that they already have systems in their business. I don't have systems. I don't know how to teach these. you run your business for the last four or five years. Right. And you have systems and we either default to systems because they're comfortable, but they don't feel good, but we have them because they're already there. Or we have systems that actually support us. it's our decision on whether or not we're going to. Lay everything out. It's kind of like doing a financial audit. It's very vulnerable. Lay everything out. are things working? Are things not working? So the number one things I hear from a lot of people is that I don't have enough time. I'm like, okay, well, where is your time going? And so many things go into things that don't need our attention. Automating more things in our business can be supportive. and when we teach back to someone, so if we do bring somebody in to help us with our salon to scale it and grow it, it does put a big mirror up as to who am I to be doing that? But we have so much knowledge to give I always say knowledge kept is selfish It's not helping our industry. And if you've been doing it for five years, you have so much more knowledge to give back to someone who's five years less than you are in the industry. So embodiment of leadership to me, it's, using the courage to use your voice and to be comfortable teaching what you know, not comparing yourself to what you see other people doing, who've been doing it for 15, 20 years longer, but starting where you're at. And letting that be the catalyst to start growing your business. Because when clients see you teaching back to somebody, it adds a higher ticket value to what you already do. And then your clients want to reform more people to you and respect you in a different way. It's just, it's a ripple effect that I find that a lot of styles avoid because they fear they don't know enough. They don't have enough put together. It's like. I want to start a diet, but I need to get on my diet before I start my diet kind of thing. Yeah, and it's like sometimes just action creates momentum. what would you say is like the benchmarks if, because I think a lot of people who listen to this are independent stylists, like what's your take on when people should start? considering either working with an assistant, growing in that way, utilizing the, the method that you've come up with. When should people start really thinking about that? I would base it not off how many years you've been doing here, but off of your capacity of where you're at. So typically it's going to be a stylist who is booked out like six weeks in advance. You have a demand, you have maybe have a wait list. You could possibly be ready for a price increase because when we bring in an assistant, we do want to create more. Increased value. So your prices should increase to help offset the cost. Cost of your assistance. People who can't afford it. Yep. And then you have the ability to train your protege to then start taking clients that can't stay with you, but wanna stay in the business. So it helps increase just overall revenue in general. There is like, just like starting anything, you do have to put some time in to getting some foundations set. So I can't say it's a plug and play, but give yourself three months for quick foundations and you can hire somebody really fast in my opinion, versus waiting for a year to prepare your business. So it's definitely someone who wants to, Who's at capacity, does not have more time in their day, does not want to work more hours behind the chair. And this has this like the heart space and the physical space to have maybe a second chair and to grow in that way. So, and there's a lot of people out there that have that space. I have a student right now that I'm working with who's in a single suite and she actually reorganized her suite, had a professional organizer come in and tell, like help her put higher shelves up and like get long of it short. She has two chairs now and she can bring an assistant to help her with her business. And I'm sure you see, on paper how quickly that transforms the numbers, I would have to assume. Minimum 30%. Insane. I mean, insane. people that are in your world that take this course and that you coach and then are trying to bring on assistants, how do you recommend they feel? Find them because I feel like a lot of people get stuck at that stuff. They're like, okay, I'm ready. But then it's like, we're actually doing it. Like, do you, do you put yourself out there? what is your recommendation for sourcing those people? Such a good question. we're on a hunt right now. Instagram is probably my. easiest way of finding people. I love to go on local pages, like not just regular pages, but beauty school pages. I look for students that graduated. I'll DM them. get a conversation going, introduce myself. Especially beauty schools that will do their walk and make their TikTok Find those stylists, reach out to them. And you want to find in this, like an assistant or I should say a graduate who had an Instagram, like. Make sure they've already started to doing that work because that will help the salon business. And so it just, it negates that thing of, I don't know how to do it cause they're already doing it. And then you can just show them or teach them how to do it more or buy a program and have them take it. so that would be tip number one. I would say getting like networked into beauty schools, show up, teach a class, like get yourself, even if it's teaching them how to curl hair or do a braid, like they don't care. They just want outside influence to come in and help show their students what's possible in the industry. And then word of mouth. I always make sure I connect with other salon owners. That could be helpful because if they happen to have, salon owners that may have an established business but can't take on all of the inquiries? They will offload inquiries or applications if they trust you, like you, and know you. So those would be three really easy ways of Getting yourself out there. And then of course, promote yourself, like promote yourself that you're moving into having an apprentice and that you've created a program or that you're looking to have someone to learn underneath what you specialize in. So I feel like it's actually a lot easier than we give ourselves credit for. And just being brave and shouting it from the rooftops, which I think a lot of people get stuck even in that. I feel like a lot of people also get stuck with, you know, The crippling fear of I can't afford to hire somebody, no matter what number they hit, they think, oh, when I hit a hundred thousand a year, I'll be able to afford to hire somebody. Then they get to a hundred, they realize the profit margins aren't what they think it's going to be. what do you say to people that are really terrified to jump into, Employees are employing somebody and bring some, bringing someone on payroll. That's one of the biggest questions I get is like, how do I afford them? So there are actually, it's like a formula that I share that allows the stylists to see if you follow this criteria, you actually have at least 7 percent per month to pay an assistant, which that might even just be part time to start. But even if you have somebody part time in your business, two days a week, you will see how much they support your business and the growth you will actually have, not only that, but you will also see the amount of like, Extra stuff that keeps like open tabs on your brain dissipate. And you're like, I'm going home on time. I'm not having to stay and do extra work. I actually don't have to call back my clients. Like those things are worth it. Plus you're teaching someone how to grow their business alongside you. So there's just a lot of value to it. We do a lot of like on the job training. So we offload like losses and blowouts and treatments and stuff that they can start doing immediately. We teach them, which then allows me to stay in my zone of genius. We do a lot of extensions and topper. So I'm doing all of like the high ticket stuff and she's taking over on some of the lower ticket stuff and our revenue increases and it pays for itself. Amazing. Okay. So what all products do you offer? I mean, we've talked about this course that I know people have taken and every raved about. Do you offer one on one coaching? If somebody is listening to this, they're loving what you're saying. What are all the ways that people can work with you or get in touch with you? Thank you for asking that. so we do have our micro salon method course, and we're actually going to be doing a launch very soon with that. I do one on one coaching, so it's going to be more of a higher ticket, like personalized coaching. And then within the micro salon course, we're actually going to be offering, a new thing I haven't done. I've just started. We just started, which is combining group coaching with the course. So you get best of both worlds. So honestly, there are options within my product suite where you can jump in that, like. 150 and just start combing through some like money mindset all the way up into doing one on one coaching. Incredible. Well, I will make sure to put all of those links in the show notes. thank you so much. This was an excellent way to spend my time. I'm so glad I've gotten to connect with you, Laura. I hope we can continue to stay in touch. I'm very excited to hear about this launch coming up for you. I'll definitely be cheering you on and, I'll put everything in the show notes, anything else. that I should add that you feel like adding any other final thoughts before we wrap up. I just want to say thank you again for having me on and for opening this opportunity to connect and network because what you're doing is I've been watching what you've been doing as well for a couple of years is just so needed in our industry and to create that type of community. The students that have worked with me have shared their experience with you. And it's so nice to see more of us out there supporting our community and creating opportunity for community. Number one, especially in the independent type settings. There's a lot of people that are by themselves and feel lonely. So you're doing really big work as well. So thank you for doing that work and for opening this opportunity for networking for us to connect. Another perk of this podcast is I just get to make friends who are doing similar things to what I'm doing. So I just want to say right here, right now, we are connected in a way now that as you're continuing to grow, doing projects, like it's a lonely group that very few people understand this level of, I mean, it's incredible. It poses all new issues that you never knew from being behind the chair. Education is just a different beast. It's beautiful. It's amazing. But it has very specific, unique challenges. And so it's really great to connect with other people who are doing it as well and understand the behind the scenes struggles that don't always. get shown on the glamorous side of Instagram when it comes to educating kids. So, yes. All right. Laura. everybody, for listening and tuning in. Like I said, I will put all of Laura's info in the show notes, so make sure you check that out, and I will talk to you all next week.