One thing for sure, starting, owning and growing your own salon/spa business is not for the faint of heart.

To succeed, you must be bold and possess a level of determination that will be tested time and time again.

The problem is that boldness and determination are more about your spirit and attitude than your skill as a leader and businessperson. There are many bold and determined owners that get beat up and never truly experience or taste business success.

In a skill-based industry like salon and spa, the vast majority of owners are hair stylists, estheticians, massage therapists or nail techs. It’s one thing to be a successful service provider, building a successful company is a very different undertaking.

EXAMPLE: The dreaded “staff walkout” scenario is all too commonplace. Walkouts happen for a reason and can always be traced back to an owner’s leadership abilities.

The dilemma and danger of “Perceived success”

If there’s anything I’ve learned after four decades of coaching salon and spa owners, it is that “being busy” does NOT define success.

“Being busy” and “broke” is not what business success is all about. It’s gut wrenchingly stressful for an owner that just doesn’t know the process or right decisions that will lead to profit.

Having a gorgeous retail area stocked with the very best products, while most clients go to checkout without a professional product recommendation, is not business success. It’s squandering the opportunity.

FACT: It’s what leaders and systems accomplish between “being busy” and “net profit” that defines business success.

Because business ownership is brutally unforgiving, achieving true success requires a unique mixture of skills and abilities.

To better understand the makeup of that unique mixture, I put together the following ten defining factors of salon/spa success:

1. Courage to Go the Distance: Achieving your salon/spa business vision is never a cake walk. Sleepless nights, worry, stress and working insanely long hours are all part of the process. Success is about cherishing the wins and pushing through the losses. Success is about having the courage to make those tough and best decisions to ensure the survival of the business. And when success truly is achieved, you will have your courage to thank for it.


2. Business Model Refinement: A business model is essentially the “operating system” your salon/spa is built on. It’s the unique combination of vision, systems, structure, accountabilities and leadership that defines your salon/spa brand on a day to day basis. The tighter and more refined you make it, the better and more predictable your salon/spa functions. FACT: If you think structure, rules and systems suck, don’t become a salon/spa owner.


3. Culture and Team Building: These are not soft and fluffy buzzwords. Culture and team building are the cornerstones of leadership and business success. FACT: All it takes is one toxic waste spewer employee (or leader) to contaminate a business culture and wreck teamwork. Integrity, fairness and compassion are absolutes just as much as screening, indoctrination and plucking the occasional weed before it spreads.


4. How to Create Profit: As stated earlier, it’s what happens between being busy and net profit that ensure financial stability and strength. Salon/spa owners notoriously lack the financial skills and know-how to create profit. Salon/spa success is about creating profit. “Being busy” can only mask financial problems for a while. If you can’t create profit, you can’t achieve business success.


5. Managing Cash Flow: Part of creating profit is the ability to manage cash flow. That means creating and locking your spending into a Cash-Flow Plan (or operating budget). Managing cash flow is the only way to ensure predictable expenditures and to build your “sleep good at night” cash reserves. It’s a discipline. It’s a non-negotiable. Got it?


6. Building a Better Balance Sheet: Most salon/spa owners never look at their Balance Sheet — because they don’t understand it. FACT: It is your Balance Sheet that defines how successful your business is in numbers. It tells you what you own, what you owe and what your business is worth. So, if you plan to live and work forever, have fun ignoring your Balance Sheet. If you plan on retiring or selling your salon/spa one day, that “day” will be better if you learn how to build a better Balance Sheet. Got it?


7. One Playbook – Same Page: When owners say, “We need to get everyone on the same page,” what they’re really saying is there is no playbook. In Business as in sports, there are executed plays, blown plays and what happens when there are no plays to follow. This all comes backs to leadership, systems and structure — but with a heavy dose of “communication” to hold it all together. If your salon/spa has employees coming to work at various hours, checking their “appointment book column,” then begin servicing their first client — there is no playbook or anyone on the same page. It’s just a group of people working their way through “their” columns on the book. Success demands communication and information flow. Got it?


8. Balancing Productivity: It’s not “how many service providers, stations or treatment rooms you have, a key element of salon/spa business success is balancing your productivity rate. In a service business, your “hours for sale” are service provider payroll hours. If those hours are 60% productive, 40% of your service payroll dollars are wasted. (Hours devoted to training and developing new talent and refining skills is not wasted but must be budgeted and managed.) It doesn’t matter if you’re on commission or Team-Based Pay, low productivity rates drive up your cost per service. Lastly, having clients on a waiting list when you have hours and talent available doesn’t make sense. Got it?


9. Their Hands – Not Yours: It’s all hands on deck during a business startup. But when a salon/spa business matures and the only way the owner can take a decent paycheck is to work his or her butt off servicing clients, success is “perceived” not real. If you love to service clients, then schedule time and enjoy yourself. But as the leader and business owner, you have greater responsibilities to your company, your team and clients that patronize it. If you’re stuck behind the chair or in the treatment room, it’s time to rethink your business model and your work.


10. Sustainability and Expandability: I always say, “Your business doesn’t exist on your timeline.” It means there’s no reason for your business to slow down when you need to slow down. A business has a timeline that can and should far exceed the human being that started it or owns it. Sustainability is about a healthy and vibrant long-term functional life. Expandability is about the ability to adapt and grow over time and create new opportunities. When combined, sustainability and expandability add an essential element to your culture called “career growth paths.” All business success is defined by the ability to thrive and endure long term.