Increasing Profitability And Managing Your Finances As An Entrepreneur

Something that I've controversially kind of believed as a business consultant for hairstylists over the years is, we should not necessarily be so stressed out about our finances and spending a lot of money on our finances until you actually have finances to worry about. Here's the tea. I am not... I am not, like, a professional.

I honestly don't even claim to be, like, an expert in money, okay? However, I am pretty literate financially and I really understand my own numbers and my business. I really understand my income, like, and I have been able to, you know, work really closely with a lot of stylists with their income and their finances, like, for a while now. And so, just the consistent theme and thought is, I think that a lot of stylists, particularly because, like, none of us, no matter if you're a stylist or not, but especially for stylists, like, our financial literacy is so low as business owners and we just don't know what we don't know.

And it feels so overwhelming and we always feel like it's such a chaotic mess. And especially when, like, the tax season comes around and it's, like, time for us to start to get this shit together, we're always, we always create this, like, really large sense of urgency or feel this large sense of urgency to get our shit together with this stuff. And I think that people who are making, like, 75 to 100K or less, and I'll say mostly or less, I'm just gonna tell you that I think that you should rather focus your efforts and labor and time and money on making money versus figuring out the management of your money, because there's not gonna be that much of a difference as far as, like, how you're saving your money and spending your money and all that stuff, because there's not as much cash to be able to be worried about. And so I'd rather you focus a lot more of your effort on staying compliant, doing what you need to do, like paying your taxes, all that stuff.

But for those of you who are, like, 100K plus, that is when we actually really should, I believe, start to take our money and the organization of it and the understanding of it and the taxes of it and the savings of it a lot more seriously, because now we actually have cash, finances and expenses that are a little bit more significant and something to actually focus on, and in my opinion, a lot more worth investing in, right? And so I'll actually have a lot of people who are in that space come to me and it's one of their most top of mind things to focus on, and in my opinion, it's actually a really appropriate time for u- us to actually work on it. Like, for the people who are not booked and busy, are worried about, like, the instability of their income week to week, like, you have bigger fish to fry, as weird as that may sound, right? Because again, you're not making money, so then you need to focus on making the money to be able to manage it, right?

You managing your, your, your money as much as you want is not gonna change your circumstance. But when you're making that much money, when you're making, like, 100K plus, the way that you manage it, the way that you understand it, the way that you invest it, the way that you look at your profit, all that stuff absolutely does start to make a difference and we should at least, at the very bare minimum, have a good understanding of it, and also maybe some of the opportunities that are available to you now that- that weren't available to you before, where you can start to save some money And so in today's episode, we're just talking about the m- like, money, all right? We're just talking about, like, specifically the management of your finances from, like, a bookkeeping, from, like, a profit and loss perspective, and from, like, a little bit of an accountant perspective. Now, I am not your accountant, I'm not your lawyer, I am not your expert here on this specific topic.

Again, this is just me speaking from my own experience and from the business consultant perspective, so talk to a real person who knows what the fuck they're talking about, about this topic, okay? Like, I don't... Like, don't fucking listen to me, all right? From a legal perspective.

Anyway, what's up, Jodi Brown? How are you This is not legal advice. I am good. How are you?

I'm good. Thank you. Yeah. No, this isn't expert advice.

Anything I say here today, don't hold me liable, girl. It's not my problem. So let's start with profitability. Let's talk about increasing profitability in your business as one of those potential things once you hit a certain revenue.

Okay, so I think that when we look at our profit and loss, what we think about... And by the way, let me just, for, again, financial literacy, actually, let me just set some, uh, some definitions because not everybody knows. Like, so I'm gonna refer to gross income and I'm gonna refer to net income and I'm gonna refer to profits, okay? So gross income is, like, the amount of money that you're making before expenses, okay?

Net profit is what you are making after your expenses, and when I say profit, I'm basically referring to the same thing when it comes to your net income, okay? So again, gross income refers to the money that you make before your expenses, net income refers to after the expenses, and then profit is kind of mostly the same thing. And now a word from our sponsors. When I went out on my own as a hairstylist, I quickly realized that running your own business is more complex than most people anticipate, right?

There's no roadmap and honestly, the last thing you need is tools and technology that make it harder to figure out. That's why GlossGenius was the clear choice from day one. It made running and growing my business feel way more manageable. The platform is intuitive in a way that most aren't.

And I'm pretty tech savvy, but what I actually appreciate about it is that you don't have to be. Any owner or staff member can jump in, get up to speed fast and use everything the platform has to offer with no learning curve. The payment processing is worth calling out specifically. It's a consistent flat rate regardless of how a client pays and the fees are lower than other platforms.

That type of transparency has a real impact on your bottom line and the client facing experience is polished and modern. It positions you as a professional brand at every stage of your business to impress your ideal clientele. Every platform has trade-offs, but if you're tired of running everything in your business manually or you're over your current frustrating software, GlossGenius is worth a serious look. You can go to the link in my show notes and use "MODERN" to get 50% off your first two months of their gold or platinum plan to see for yourself.

And so when we look at a PnL, like your profit and loss statement, which again, like, you should have this organized, right? Like, you should have, like, a profit and loss document. Like, you should be able to easily, like, pull, like, "What is my profit and loss for this past quarter or for this past year?" Like, and that is the type of stuff that I'm kind of encouraging people at a revenue level of 100K plus to start to get together, like, and start to have readily available for them.

When we look at a profit and loss and we're looking at like, "Okay, I want to increase my profit. I wanna increase my net income," like the money that you're actually taking home after your expenses, we normally look at decreasing our expenses. That's like where can we save money, okay? At your revenue level, I don't believe that that's always the best place for us to look at because oftentimes a lot of that stuff that you're spending money on is technically necessary to get, to have gotten you to where you are now, right?

Like, you're investing in the business and that's probably what has made you the money thus far, right? And honestly, I look at my PnL all the time. I'm a freak about looking at my PnL, and honestly I look at a lot of my expenses and I really try really hard and I'm just like, there's just not much I can reduce or remove unless something magically approaches or I have a really opportune situation. Like for example, like software is one of my biggest expenses and recently, like, I'm creating my own software and so I'm able to really, like, lower my expense when it comes to that, right?

But that's like a really unique circumstance that, that type of thing doesn't really come to us often, you know? And so what I'd rather us focus on is how can we outpace the expenses? How can we actually make more money? And I think that the beautiful thing about our industry and the way that we normally are making money and acquiring new clients is that when you make more gross revenue, normally your expenses are not going up with that.

Traditionally, a lot of normal industries, normal companies, they're normally spending a lot of money to acquire a client that is very, like, standard business understanding and strategy and marketing is like you're spending a certain amount of money to be able to gain clients and customers and so there's a cost per your customer. And so basically the expenses and the profit may go up together and not necessarily change. Whereas with us, most of the time all we gotta do is just make more gross revenue and as long as our expenses aren't going up proportionally, then we should be good at the end of the day and we'll actually go home with more money. And so again, like, where I've talked about this a little bit in our previous episodes, like when a mastermind student comes onto, onboard with us and we do our, like, deep dive of, like, the data, the profit, the gross revenue, and also the missed opportunity for profit in exchange for time, it's really easy to, to, to increase that profit very quickly because we have so much opportunity normally when you're in this type of space to be able to raise the prices, make more revenue, and focus on services that are more profitable in exchange for your time.

So increasing profit is, at your level, in my opinion, it's less about saving money and it's more about making more money and I'd rather us focus on our efforts on that than the other way around Yeah, absolutely. I think it's so much more, it's so much easier to increase your earnings than it is to cut once you get to a certain level, 'cause like you said, a certain level of expense in business is just gonna be necessary. Yeah. A- a- again, especially at this level, you know, I, I think that maybe at a low, uh, uh, at a lower income level, I think that yes, like, you should probably be focusing on not over-investing, but the tea is, is that like in order for you to make more money or time you have to invest money and/or time.

And that's just the rule, right? And so if you're investing a certain amount of money to be able to have a great client experience, to be able to have great marketing or whatever it may be, or even have great education and great mentorship, right? Like if that's a necessary expense and you're, you're genuinely getting a return on investment on, then I wouldn't suggest that you cut it, you know? Now, if we're irresponsibly spending and if we're unnecessarily spending, such as, girl, do not complain to me about your profit when you have the pretty Framar foils unless you got them on sale.

Like, I don't want to hear it. I, and I, and here's, I, I see it, okay? I literally, and the reason I bring this up, and you know, no judgment to people. Like for real, like, I'm not trying to judge you for how you spend your money.

Like, you get to make whatever decision that you make in your life and your business about how you spend your money, how you manage your finances, whatever it may be. But if you're going to come to me and you're going to ask me about like, "I need to be more profitable. I need to take more money home," and then I see on your Instagram that you're using the pretty Framar foils, is that truly, like, a necessary expense? Are you getting a return on your investment for this expense?

And no, right? I mean, your clients may think it's pretty, but that's not what's keeping your clients coming back and paying more. I think that's, like, whenever you look at an expense, it's like it, would I be making more money or would I make the same money with a lesser version of this or what, like a less expensive version? And at the end of the day you can do highlights with any type of foil.

With fucking Costco foils. Yeah. Absolutely. And like low key here's the tea.

Okay, so, so I, you know, I've been in a little, in a lot of different salon structures, right? And so in this moment in time, I'm not in control of the, the, the, the shit that I'm using every single day unless I get it myself, right? And I'm telling you dude, like when I've had to adapt to whatever I'm given, it sucks at first, but I can fucking make it work, you know? Or I can learn how to make it work.

So like if you're used to the pretty Framar foils that have all the little indentations in it, I, um, uh, I promise you my friend, you can probably get the same result, work as efficiently with a shittier foil that doesn't have rainbows all over it or whatever it may be. Although I love pride, like we love pride over here, girl, but like-Are the rainbows really necessary or whatever it may be. And trust, believe, like, I love aesthetic, like, I'm totally here for that, and we get to make that decision of if we ... if that's worth it for us, if we want to.

Like, you're allowed to have fun in the way that you're investing in your business, like, there's nothing wrong with that. But again, if saving money is a priority, then we should probably re-evaluate that decision. Now, going back to making more money, again, there's so many ways that we can do that, and that's what we focus on in the podcast, in my business, mastermind, all that good stuff. And that's what I'd rather us be focusing on.

Now going back to the amount of people where I will ask them for like, let's say, a P&L, and I want to know what the profit is, like, the amount of people who have no fucking clue. It is really upsetting to me. And I'm not going to judge you here, my friend, because like, I, for the first couple years of my business, like, I was not able to just, like, pull this really quickly. And what helps you pull this quickly is by having somebody else do it for you.

It's, uh, it's by having a bookkeeper who is reconciling all of your expenses and keeping track of this stuff for you throughout the year, so that way you can very easily pull what your expenses are, what you're actually profiting. That way you have a clear understanding of what's going on with your money. And bookkeeping, paying for a bookkeeper is actually a lot less ex- uh, uh, uh, now, you know, finding a good one is one thing, but, but paying for a bookkeeper is actually not as expensive as you think it needs to be No. This is a really rough number.

I probably shouldn't even give you guidance or an idea of a number, low-knee, because everything's gonna vary, and, you know, you never know who you're working with and all that stuff. But, but, but low-key, like, you could probably find a great bookkeeper for like $150 to like $200 a month, like, in my, in my experience, okay? Okay. And again, a bookkeeper is different than, like, a CPA or an accountant, who's giving you, like, tax advice and, like, filing all this stuff for you, right?

And so maybe sometimes accountants will have, like, bookkeeping services alongside their tax services and whatever may be otherwise, right? But hiring just a bookkeeper just to have a clear understanding of your numbers and keep things solid and clear for you may even save you money when you bring those reports in to your accountant because they don't have to do so much backend shit to get it all cleaned up. That has been my experience, for sure. Right?

And also, it allows you as the business owner to be able to keep better, harder track of your expenses and the cash that you may be able to spend. And also, of course, the traditional big, big, big, big, big thing that we all don't understand as business owners is how much can we pay ourselves? You're never going to be able to make any sense of that or any decisions about it if you do not have a clear understanding of what your profit is. And so having a bookkeeper just do that for you, I would rather ...

Here's the thing. Let's say that you're spending $200 on a bookkeeper a month. I would rather you take one extra client that e- in a- in a month, spend like an extra three hours doing a $200 service or two hours doing a $200 service to, uh, sacrifice that two hours to be able to pay for that. Okay?

Okay. That's what I'd rather you be spending your time doing versus you taking two hours each month to- Yeah. do your fucking shit, to, to, to doing your bookkeeping yourself. Honestly, as a business owner, like, I am someone who I know the importance of numbers.

I look at the numbers. I d- all of the things. I actually like looking at them now, but it is something that I avoided for a really long time in the beginning because I don't enjoy it and I didn't understand it at the beginning super well. And hiring a bookkeeper honestly feels like self-care to me.

Like, it's like financial wellness in a way, and I think that, you know, just having that, like, knowledge and having that security that, like, someone is looking after this and I can look at the reports whenever I want to and I can ... It, honestly, it was ... It's such a supportive feeling for those of us who maybe don't quite, like, love it as much. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. And again, like, you've earned it at this point, and it's kind of, like, I would say it's almost irresponsible for you to not at least have, like, the organization and understanding and having, like, a expert or somebody else doing it for you to consolidate it all for you. It would ... It's almost irresponsible at a certain point, again, once you're making like the 75 to a 100k plus.

Totally. Like, at that point, there's so much money going in and out of the business, and it's so easy for you to, like, mix up where that's going in and where that's going out. Like, just have somebody else do it for you. The, the small expense for a good bookkeeper is absolutely worth it.

Now, there's other packages that you'll have where, like, you have the CPA and the CPA does the bookkeeping for you, and that gets a little bit more expensive, but that's like year-round, like, CPA tax stuff and, like, uh, advice and, like, all that stuff. So there's that, th- the ... All that shit and even financial advisement, like ... Yeah.

It is all so separate and so nuanced, and a lot of people don't understand that, and that's just, like, one thing I wanna make really clear here, y'all. Like, there's bookkeeping, there is an accountant, and then there's like a financial advisor, and a lot of the time, it's really rare to get all three in one person. Like normally, like, you have one person doing each or, like, one service doing two of them. Yeah.

But normally not all three, and people expect a lot out of their accountant, when in reality, like, an accountant's job may be ... or what they're promising upfront may be very different than what you actually need. And so i- i- it took me years to understand this, and what we did in our mastermind program and what we've done in, in A Modern Status Movement too is we bring, like, experts and CPAs that, like, I trust, like Michelle Cook, to, like, come in and break down these differences and, like, tell you, like, who's the best fit, fit for this circumstance and, like, how much should you be investing, who is a good accountant and who's not a good accountant or bookkeeper, whatever it may be. And it's been really, really helpful, and it's ...

I know that I've learned so much myself. Yeah. And it's been really great to empower people with this knowledge 'cause normally you don't have it, and I don't want you to feel ashamed for not having it or feel like it's so foreign because, uh, a- every single time I think that I fully get it, Michelle is like, "No, girl. Like, you got it wrong."

And I'm like, "Oh, okay." And there's- Well, and it's- ... always more to understand and learn. Absolutely.

I think it's a very empowering feeling. Like, if you're someone who, especially if you're someone who naturally tends to avoid it, like, it absolutely is one of the things that I think is the most, like, empowering knowledge, is just understanding your money and being able to make decisions from a place of, like, knowledge, and from a place of, like, wisdom versus reactivity. Yeah. Knowledge destroys fear, right?

And, like, facing, facing it is also such a huge thing with money because money can be so scary to face, or maybe you don't have as much profit as you wish that you would have. And so, like, looking at it can feel like really icky or scary or not fun. And I'm telling you, just, like, having s- having, being able to just pull it very easily, first off takes so much friction out of that, that, out of the scary, you know, process of doing it. But then also actually being able to look at it and face it, it becomes so much less scary because then you get to make decisions because of it.

You can't make any strong decisions or plot anything out if you don't have the understanding of it first, right? So, understanding the numbers, having it all clean and organized for you I think is very important. A well worth it investment, and something that we should be prioritizing when we get to a point where we're grossing that much income. And so, now that you have this knowledge, what will end up happening is, is like, if you talk to an expert, if you talk to an accountant, or maybe even if you just talk to me, like, I've had mastermind people come to me and I'm like noticing, like, "Hey, like, you're making this much in profit.

Like, you know you can elect as an S corp now probably." Again, this is not official advice. I'm always like, "Sh- double check this with your accountant. Like, they're gonna actually know the real tea."

But, like, I've been able to, like, save people a lot of money in taxes indirectly by being like, "Hey, dude. You're, you could probably elect as an S corp." And people are able to save, like, thousands of dollars in taxes because of making this much revenue. And again, this is where it's like, at this revenue level, there is much more opportunity for you to actually start to use your money in different ways and do tax things in different ways that actually do make a difference.

Normally, under this cash level, like under 75K, like normally there's not much you can do. And electing as an S corp is not going to, it's not gonna be possible for you honestly. Like, it, it'll actually cost you more money than otherwise. So again, like, there's more opportunities that you just don't understand if you don't have a good grasp on your numbers, and once you hit this point, that's when it starts to become more relevant.

And again, I just wanna be very clear. I am not an expert here. I'm just speaking from my own experience, and so you wanna run all of this by a real professional who knows what the fuck they're talking about. But hopefully this was some sort of enlightening to you, my friend.

But, money sucks. Money's not something that's fun. It's always gonna be scary and it's always confusing and crazy. And so, don't feel a lot of shame for not fully understanding it or not being able to have a grasp and handle on it yourself.

Again, hire an expert to help you figure it out, you know? And that's exactly what I've done, and I have zero regrets. And I pay a whole lot of motherfucking money. Trust, believe, and it is like the, it's like the investment I would never give up.

I'll pay the amount that I am told to pay. So, so much love to you. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Peace out, girl scout.

End of transcript. © 2026 Hunter Donia LLC.