5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Going Independent

Let me guess, you are a hustling, bustling hairstylist behind the chair, working so hard to build a beautiful career for yourself, one that gives you time, freedom, and energy to spend with yourself, your family, and your friends. But you feel like you're always working in your business, even when you're not behind the chair. My name's Hunter Donia, and I help you automate your systems and implement really beautiful strategies so you can grow your business without the overwhelm. And this is the Modern Hairstylist podcast.

Hello, friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Today, we're gonna be talking about going independent. A couple weeks ago, we talked about my journey getting into the industry and starting out in a team-based salon, and, uh, we t- we've been talking about team-based salons and, like, all that stuff, 'cause that was all the beginning of my career, and, like, I've been through that all, right?

But we haven't talked yet about my journey of actually going independent, and what I wish I had known before going independent. So that way, anybody out there who is maybe thinking about it or if you are independent now, uh, maybe you can just relate to this, can get a little sip of this tea, okay? So, um, I have my good friend Caitlin here with me today. What's up, Caitlin?

How you feeling? Hey, friend. Doing good. How about yourself?

I'm good. I'm excited to have you back on the pod. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you.

My pleasure. So, Caitlin is the one who tells me what to do and where to go with these conversations so that way I can stay on task and my ADHD doesn't go all over the place. So, Caitlin, introduce us to what the hell's gonna be going on today. Okay, so today, we are going to really dive deep into, like, what you wish you knew before going independent.

We'll touch a little bit on, like, what it looked like as you were going independent, and then kind of take a, a look in the past too, to, like, really see what did and didn't go the way that you wanted it to. Okay. I love it. The way that I got into my own independent, um, business, right?

So, I, uh, so I'm in a suite right now. That's how I started out. In Pennsylvania, booth rental is illegal, so it's not like I could just, like, go into a salon and booth rent at all. Like, it's just like, you have two option, or I guess three options.

Like, you open up your own team-based salon, you get into a suite, which is kind of like the loophole here, or you, you're just a W2 employee s- based salon stylist, right? That's, like, what you do. And so I'd never even, like, had any concept of independence at all besides, like, opening up your own space, and I just thought it was, like, a very large, crazy task. Like, I thought it was, like, a whole thing.

You know what I mean? However, I got into this team-based salon when I first moved out to where I am now where, you know, the salon was fantastic. The salon owner was so cool. She was an excellent leader.

She still is an excellent leader. The staff was pretty all right. I got along with everybody and everybody was pretty cool. It was a good environment for me to be in.

However, I did feel like after educating myself and after getting really obsessed with the business side of things, you know, everybody always told me in my team-based salons, like, "Hunter, you just give the most badass client experience." Like, that is just, like, what your strength is. We are blown away by it, and we, like, wanna learn your ways. Like, that's always how it's been for me, and so I just knew that if I was in full control of that client experience from, like, A to Z and if I was in full control of the decorations and exactly what the client experience really looked like from fr- like, from all angles, then I could probably create something really badass for myself.

And so I, like, inquired in the, to the local sola that we had. I was building from scratch in this new area, so, like, I had no clientele. I, I had, like, a week's worth of clientele, you know? I was like, "There's no way that I can ever make this work with what I have going on now," you know?

Like, like, it just w- it's just not possible. It's too scary and too risky. But I did inquire just to see, like, how much it would cost so I could plan maybe for the future and I could set goals and, like, figure out, like, what I would need to do to get there, right, and to feel comfortable with starting there, and the pandemic hit. The pandemic hit shortly after I inquired actually.

Pennsylvania all shut down. My salon was really great about staying connected with us in between. Like, we would do Zoom calls and, like, we would get education. I was educating the shit out of myself and, like, doing a lot of work with, like, social media and stuff over the pandemic and over quarantine, and it was, like, towards the end of quarantine, I was just, like, I couldn't imagine going back to my team salon.

It just felt like such a huge, massive, daunting task to go back there in the middle of all that was going on and, like, for all of us to have to be coordinated and to all- for all of us to have to do all these sanitary things and, like, these special operations, and, you know, some people in the salon did not have the same opinions or beliefs as I did, so I knew that, like, after this very, very, very political time, time of our lives that I would not... That, you know, it would be a shitshow in the salon. And so I just felt like it was time for me to make the leap, and it was three weeks before quarantine lifted in Pennsylvania, and all of a sudden, I just said, "Fuck it," and I decided to reach out to the landlord of my sola that I'd been in contact with, and she was like, "Yeah, we actually just had this one place open up," um, which by th- by the way, they were completely full, out of capacity, like, before that. But she said, "We just had this one place open up.

We, I think that we could get you up and running within three weeks before shutdown, uh, opens up, and so let's do it." And I was like, "Okay, screw it. Let's do it." And, like, literally, you guys, like, I had barely any clientele.

So then I went ahead and I opened up the space, and I blew the f- up. You know, I, I did it very strategically. I, like, created a whole email campaign.Luckily, my salon owner was fantastic and she gave me all the contact information to the small amount of clients that I had at this team salon, right?

Um, so I was able to reach out to them. I went crazy on social media. And all of a sudden, m- my shit blew up and my business blew up. And going independent was the best thing I have ever done for myself, one of the best things I've ever done for myself, and I don't regret it at all.

But it was scary as hell. So scary. I had the deepest pit in my stomach. My poor boyfriend, like, had to hear me, like, freaking out every single day up until the day that it, that it happened.

I'm not gonna lie, I mean, it was a big investment for me. Now, I'm kind of, like, a 0 to 100 kind of person. I'm like, "I'm gonna do it the whole way and I don't do things half-ass." So, you know, I probably spent a lot more money than anybody else would be spending on their, their suite or would have to spend on their suite in the beginning, but I definitely went ham and it was a large investment.

But everything, everything paid off. It was truly, like, the best thing I've ever done for myself. Now, once I blew up and, you know, I- I- I was, like, about, like, six months in, you know, I was overwhelmed and there was a lot of things that I had to change, but that's like a whole other story and I guess we're gonna be getting into some of that today, so... Yeah.

So, I mean, we're gonna break a lot of that down, but I, I think it's probably safe to say that, like, it- it- it- the very least, your first year was, like, a huge learning experience. Am I right there? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Like, I learned , I learned so much about business, about myself, about, like, what I really want in my life . All of it. All of it. It, it, it was super...

It's been a super fascinating time. Like, for real, like, having my own independent business and now having two businesses, I mean, you just learn so much being your own business owner. Yeah, it's just been crazy. And so, um, that's why I came up with this list.

That's why you and I, Cailyn, we came up with this list of five things I wish that I knew before going independent, and that's why we're gonna be sharing it with you today so that way you don't have to go through the pain and suffering that I did. 100%. So, I mean, let's just dive right into it then. Uh, like Hunter said, we did a little, like, pre-recording interview and we kinda broke down, like, the five key things that he wished he knew before going independent.

And the first one that immediately popped up was, um, that you wished you w- were allowed to choose what services and what people you served. Can you kinda break that down a little bit more for everybody? So what I- so rephrasing that, I wish I was more aware of the control that I had. I wish that I had stepped into my power a little bit more of having my own space and being able to do whatever the hell that I wanted to do, you know.

I think that in the beginning, you know, I- I was definitely operating from a spa- a space of scarcity because I was so scared and I was coming from, like, nothing as far as my clientele went, you know. And so, you know, I was taking anything and everything and I was taking a lot of bullshit, you know. And I think that looking back, I wish, uh, that maybe not in the very beginning, but early on, I would have been like, "Okay, Hunter, like, you're paying money to be in this space. You are super successful, you have enough clientele to do whatever the fuck you want.

Why are you saying yes to shit that is making you miserable?" I really, really wish that I leaned into the fact that, like, there's no other person responsible for this business besides myself, and there's a lot of power and responsibility that comes with that, and I have full control of my destiny and how I show up and what I'm being exposed to every single day in this business. And, um, I had to set boundaries. I had to set boundaries for myself and I had to get really clear on what actually mattered to me.

Di- did the money that Karen gave me overcome my mental health and how I felt that day and when I went home, or just the week leading up to her appointment? Like, literally that whole entire week, I'd be dreading seeing Karen, right? And I'm not- Karen is not the actual name of this person, but, or like a person, right? But w- I had to get really clear on what is more important to me.

Is it this dollar or is it this brain? And for me, it was the brain. It was, it was, it was my mental health at the end of the day. I had to choose me.

And I wish I had done it sooner because I don't think I would have gotten to the breaking point that I did. However, my breaking point was, like, a massive, huge, beautiful lesson that- for me to learn and go through, and that's literally why I'm where I'm at today, you know? And so, like, everything happens for a reason and, um... And, and I think, you know, with this list, like, keep in mind, like, nothing is going to be perfect.

Nothing is gonna be perfect. There's no such thing as doing things right the first time. I, I really don't think that that's actually a thing. As much as we wish that that was the case, I know I do, like, whenever I'm making decisions I, I, it's so, like, stupid but I'm always like, "I just wish I knew what the right decision was, and, like, I just wish I knew what the right decision was to where it's, like, everything was cool about it and everything worked out."

And that's just not how life works, you know? And so, th- keep in mind, like, I wanna share this stuff with you to make your journey of going independent easier or maybe ref- your reflection of how this is going for you now a little bit easier, but you will always be refining, you'll always be learning, you'll always have a new tr- uh, a strife to be working through and a new hump to be going over because that's just what the journey of success and careers look like, you know? Um, once you get to this level, it's gonna take you doing something different to get to the next level and it just is what it is. And so...

But in the beginning what I really, again, what I really wish that I had leaned into more was my power of being able to say no. 100%. And I think, like you, uh, a memory, like, popped up in my head as you were saying that. I think my favorite phrase as of, like, the last, like, year or so has been, like, we as, like, an adult society, like, we don't know what the hell we're doing.

Like, we're all just doing the best that we can, so, like, thinking that you just don't have that one leg up yet, like, you never will have the one leg up. Like, you're always gonna be learning. So I love that.So the next point that we wanted to bring up then was, um, being more mindful about your retail buy-in.

I know we both can, like, talk for days on that. But break it down a little bit for us, like, what the retail buy-in looked like for you, and what you would have done differently. So from my general understanding, the pandemic pushed a lot of people into independent ownership. I think that a lot of people ended up opening up their own suites or going booth rental after the panoramic.

At the time though, like prior to that, prior to pani, a lot of brands weren't catering towards the smaller suite owners. A lot of suite owners want to be involved with, they weren't, they don't, they didn't have options that were very feasible or reasonable for solo people, because they want these big-ass, huge salon buy-ins, right? Like, that's what their business thrives off of. At the time, like, the options were, like, you just had to spend thousands of dollars on this original buy-in, just like any other salon would have to, and, like, that was what it was.

And so I know that Caitlin and I, we both did that. Like, we spent a shit ton of money on our retail buy-in. And looking back, you know, I love my product line and I, I, I don't know if I would necessarily... I don't know if I would necessarily change what I did, especially because I am an educator for my product line and, like, I'm really gung ho on it, you know?

And I, and I sell good retail, you know? I, I do really well with retailing. However, I didn't need that h- all the SKUs of the entire line, you know? I really didn't.

I, I, I just needed my go-tos for my go-to people and, like, what my specialty was, right? And maybe an online affiliate website, where, like, the people can go and get whatever they need from the entire line off of the website, you know? You do not need to, to invest a, like, thousands of dollars into that initial buy-in. You really don't.

I am a firm believer in in-person retail. I think in-person retail products is, like, a game changer, and I don't think... I think that getting rid of it completely is not the smartest thing to do, as far as if you really wanna make money off of your retail. Like, I, I truly believe that.

I think you are, you are missing money that is put on the table if you are not carrying in-person physical products. But that doesn't mean that you need every single SKU on your shelf, you know? And so I wish that I would have evaluated that a little bit better, because I definitely still have products that, like, I bought in that ori- original buy-in that, like, I never sold, you know? And so, um, that was a big waste of money.

I- it just was. And I would encourage you to really, really, really consider what that investment looks like for you and how worth it it is for you, and think about, like, "When I get this on my shelf, am I gonna be able to sell all of these," right? And don't forget, you're gonna be restocking them and buying them again, right? So just take in consideration what your buy-in actually looks like, how worth it is for you, and do you really need all those SKUs, and do you wanna be working with a brand who is not taking into consideration that you are one person and they're not flexing, flexible with you to give you a startup package that is m- makes sense for you and your business model?

100%. And I think it's good to note as well that, like, do consider that products do expire. So, like, if you're buying into an entire line and you have just, like, shitloads of products, are you gonna be able to sell those within the expiration date and, like, not leave your clients with an expired product when they buy it? So, huge, huge things to think about.

I think from my own personal experience, I wish that the product line that I bought into, I wish that there would have been an option for either, like, a equal exchange, like, "I won't use this product. Can I exchange it for something that I will use of the same value?" Or even, like, a product buyback, uh, system. Like, I feel like bigger brands need to do their due diligence as well when it comes to having people that are suite owners.

But definitely, definitely do your research. Get really close with your, um, distributor and all of those good things too. But definitely do your research. Moving on to our next topic then, or our next point.

You said that you wish you knew what was possible with technology, and I quoted you on my notes here saying, "I wasn't utilizing the things, things the way I should have and I didn't have it optimized." Can you kinda break that down a little bit more? Yeah. So I hear a lot of people say, like, "Yeah, I use online booking," but how often do your clients use your online booking, right?

Like, d- is your online booking something that your clients are excited to use and it's easy for them to use, or do they end up just contacting you anyway because it's, like, a hard thing for them? Or are you using your online booking in a really strategic way where you are setting or you're using it as a boundary between you and your clients, right? So for me, like, I was spending so much time in the back and forths in my texts, DMs, emails, phone calls, et cetera, et cetera, with my clients, getting them scheduled all the time, getting them rescheduled, all of those things, when in reality, like, I, I had this online booking site, yeah, sure, but I could have been using that to stop so much and lessen so much of that extra communication that took up so much of my time when I was not behind the chair, in my personal life, you know, with my family, my friends and myself. And so, you know, I find that a, a lot of the time, I, I, like I said, I'll ask people if they have online booking and they say yes, but how often are people actually using the online booking?

And, you know, I'm at this point where I'm online booking only. So you can't book an appointment through me when you're not in the salon. And even then some, I've removed a lot of my pre-booking, like, 90% of it. And it's been an excellent change for me, and I really...

Oh, my God, I would have implemented that from the beginning. I, I truly really would, because it would have just ch-... saved me so much time, so much stress, so much energy, and I wouldn't have fallen into the weakness of myself, uh, coming in early, staying late on my days off, and, like, scheduling myself outside of those working hours. Because if you're doing online booking only, then nobody c- then, you know, your hours are your hours and you can't screw yourself over with that.

So I wish that I had used my online booking, uh, to its fullest. I wish that I had used digital forms to the extent that I use them and t- that I teach to at this point, you know? I'd always been, y- you know, a techy person. I had a laptop in my lap at the age of, like, eight, like, literally, like, if not younger than that, and I would literally , like, build websites for fun.

Like, I've known Wix and I've been using Wix f- for a long time, just because I just thought it was interesting and fun, like truly. And so I have this techy side to me, but I didn't really ever... I mean, I was using forms as soon as I got ou- out the gate into my suite, you know? I was using forms, but I didn't, I didn't go deep into, like, what I could actually do with them until I got to my breaking point where I was like, "I need boundaries, I need automation, I need systems," and then I dot- dove real deep into what JotForm can actually do and it's changed my freaking life and it's been changing so many of my students' lives in the way that they're working in their careers as well.

And so I just wish that I knew what was possible. I knew... I wish I knew that I could elevate the client experience without adding more work to myself, and I wish that I, I knew that I could set boundaries without jeopardizing the professionalism of my business with these modern technologies and tools that we have today. Yeah.

I, I don't really have anything to add. I just completely 100% agree with you, all of that. I mean, your courses changed my business entirely, and it's all for automation, so completely agree. Um, and that will kind of, like, bring us into our next point then too, was, uh, you had mentioned that you wish you knew that you didn't have to put your phone number or your online booking link out to the public, and I feel like that is a huge, huge point that a lot of us still even think about, think that we needed to have it available to literally any random Joe off the street.

So can you break that down a little bit more too? Yeah, totally. So I know I've told this story before, and so I'm sorry if you've heard it before. But I was on Facebook Marketplace, I was just, like, scrolling it, just because I wanted to spend money, as we all do.

I was just, like, perusing and I saw this Apple Watch and I was like, "Ooh, I don't have an Apple Watch. Like, maybe I would like one." So I reached out to this person who was selling this Apple Watch and I was like, "Hey, can you do this for, like, $100 less?" And he was like, "No."

And I was like, "Okay, bye." And so that was that. And then a couple hours, hours later, he reached back out and he was like, "Hey, I can do this for $100 less." And at that point I was over it.

I was like, "I don't really need an Apple Watch." Like, I was just scrolling Facebook Marketplace like an idiot and, like, trying to spend my money 'cause I was bored. And so I said, "No, sorry," like, "thank you though." And he was like, "Why not?"

And I was like, "Mm, I'm just over it." Like, "I wish you the best of luck though." And he kind of got, like, aggressive with me, and it was, like, a little scary, and so I blocked him, of course. And then he went to my Facebook business page, and for whatever reason, when you block somebody on your personal Facebook, apparently, you know, they can still get access to your public business page, which is s- scary.

So he went to my business page and he d- he messaged my business page on Facebook and was, like, asking, like, "How can I get an appointment?" Like, "I wanna book something with you." And it was so scar- because he was, like, getting, like, angry, like volatile with me, like already, you know? Like, on the messages.

And it wa- really freaked me out. I was like, "This dude sees my salon address, like, he can see my hours that I'm in the salon," right? Like, anybody can just walk up in that independent space and do whatever they freaking want, especially... I mean, there's no receptionist, like, there's no barrier between you and the person.

There's just the doors up front and your salon suite doors, right? And, like, that's scary. And like, I mean, I... As a gay man, it's scary to- for me to be, like, in this rural area and know that there are, like, crazy-ass people who don't agree with me and my- the way that I live my life and who I am, and they can just, like, uh, go crazy and, like, go on my Facebook business page, see my address and just walk up in my bitch whenever they want, you know?

And so that is scary to me, and that's why I don't put my online booking site, uh, link, my hours, or my phone number, my business phone number out to the public anymore. And I don't have to, and everything works super successfully because I have a separate space for my clients and I have a separate space for my- for new clients who are coming in, and, and the new clients only see what they need to see to get started with me in their journey. And my existing clients who I know, I love, I trust, they all have all of my information, you know? And so I've created these digital spaces where they get everything the- that they need without me having to also give it to new people as well too.

And so I just think that we should be taking into consideration our safety when it comes to all of this stuff. Like, it's not just, like, sexy, cool automation systems, boundaries, it's also your safety at the end of the day. And I, I mean, I'm, I'm not even a woman and I know that women have their own fears and own experiences around safety and things like that as well too, and so think about your priorities and, and even mental health. You know, this- these are boundaries as well too, you know?

Do you want any random-ass person just going onto your online booking and then booking an appointment? It's like, how often have you had somebody go on your online booking link, book an appointment, and you're like, "Who the hell is this?" You know, like, "Who the hell is this?" And, like, you don't know if they're booked for the right thing.

It's like, you can avoid all of that by just taking your online booking link off of your site, having them go through a digital form consultation process, and then automatically having them book the right thing. So you can still have controlBut you don't have to have everything out there for anybody to just take a hold of whether you know them or not. Yeah, and I feel like that's actually a really big hang-up for people that still don't do online booking, is they're so worried that somebody's gonna book the wrong thing or some random person is gonna book something that they don't wanna do. But like, literally, just don't put your booking link out there like that.

The final point that we were gonna go over then was, you had said that you wish you knew to think of your business in categories, and I'd love for you to elaborate a little bit more on that for all of us. Yeah. So, we always say that we are the everything of our business. We are the CEO, we are the marketers, we are the salespeople, we are the finance people.

We have to do the indi- inventory, we have to do the operations, and we have to do the hair, right? Like, we have to do the actual hair, you know? So we have a lot of responsibilities as these business owners. A- and so that feels really overwhelming.

It feels really overwhelming that we have all these different responsibilities. And when you're thinking about all the shit that you have to do and trying to juggle it all, it can get so overwhelming because it all kind of mushes together and it grows into this big monster. What I learned to do that has helped me so much in both of my businesses is think about every part of my business as a separate department. So, uh, you have the marketing department, you have the sales department, you have the finance department, you have the operations, um, et cetera, et cetera.

And so now, I really break down everything that goes on in my business into these separate categories so I can attack them in a strategic and focused way. So like, I have days where I will sit down and I will just focus on my marketing strategy. I'll have days where I sit down and I focus on my operations and getting the, my inventory restocked and, and all of that good stuff, right? So when you break things down in the, into these different departments, these different categories, whatever you wanna call them, you're different C suites, right?

Like, you're your own C suite. Like you're, you're every, you're all of the C, E, whatevers. When you step into each of those roles individually and specifically, you're able to have a little bit more of a focus and you're able to get a little bit less overwhelmed because you, you have a, um, you have focus, right? And focus just destroys overwhelm, in my opinion.

It, it really does wreck overwhelm when you have a specific order of things that you're doing and a way of doing them in that order. Yeah, I completely agree. I'm like jotting this all down right now. These are excellent points.

It's, it's funny 'cause it's like, it's stuff that I know, but to actually like do the things in categories as opposed to like dip your fingers in every single thing all at once, like it really does help to kinda minimize that, so... Is that all? Is that all the five things? Yeah, that's all five.

Oh my gosh. How do you feel? Well, I feel great. I hope that, uh, you listening to this, my friend, enjoyed this episode.

If you're thinking about going independent, sometimes you gotta feel the fear and do it anyways. Make responsible decisions for yourself, but sometimes you gotta feel the fear and do it anyways, 'cause I know that's what I did and it was the best decision that I ever made. If you're independent right now, I hope that this was helpful for you. Um, I think that we dropped a lot of bombs that could be totally helpful for people who are independent right now, absolutely.

And so, uh, I really hope that you enjoyed this, my friend. Caitlyn, thank you so much for helping me host today. I appreciate you. Not a prob.

And we will see you on the next episode of the Modern Hairstylist podcast. But hey, if you have one 30 seconds out of your day right now, if you wouldn't mind leaving us a five-star testimonial wherever you're listening to this, whether it be Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and maybe possibly even leaving a little blurb on Apple Podcasts about your experience listening to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. We would very much appreciate you doing that because it helps us reach more like-minded beauty professionals just like you. And we want to get as much education to the peoples as possible to elevate this industry collaboratively.

So, Caitlyn, again, thank you so much. Listener, thank you so much. You're a badass, amazing human being. I hope that you have a great week ahead and we will see you next time on the Modern Hairstylist podcast.

Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2022 Hunter Donia LLC.