The Reality of Suite Ownership - Thoughts, Warnings & Predictions

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. So, I don't know about you, if you're an independent person listening to this. Or, I'm sorry, not an independent person, but, like, an independent beauty professional listening to this.

I don't know if you can relate to this at all, but prior to opening up my own suite, I had only been an employee up until that point, right? So, it was my first time getting into being an independent business owner. And I just remember being so nervous and scared about, like, all the different moving parts, right? And I remember completely not knowing where to start, who to trust, hearing so many different things from so many different people, and it was super overwhelming.

And I got into it, and I started in the suite, and it kind of was, like, a little bit more simple than I thought it would be, as far as, like, the setting up of the business and how it all runs. But at the same time, like, simultaneously, as it kind of was less scary than I thought it would be, at the same time, it was really freaking overwhelming and very, very, very hard in different ways, right? So, I don't know if you can relate to me in any way, shape, or form, but today, I don't really have an outline for today's episode. I just kind of want to share with you my thoughts and what I've been seeing and what expectations you should have if you're going into a suite or thinking about going into a suite.

Um, and also see if you can relate with me or if you agree with me on some of my thoughts that I've been seeing around suite ownership in the past three years with this massive boom that we've had after the pandemic. Um, I think there's a lot of things to take in consideration. I think that there's some, like, messaging and marketing out there that can oftentimes lead to a little bit of disaster and lead people down the wrong path and also end up screwing over the people, those of them who are marketing to stylists to become suite owners as well too. And so, I hope that you don't mind that I'm going to be going, like, a little bit off script today, and that I'm just going to be, you know, thought dumping on you.

But I'm excited to have a conversation with you, and I would love if you DMed me on Instagram after you listen to this episode and told me what your thoughts were. But I'm excited to get into it with you. Let's go. What's the tea, friend?

My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair. So, if you're ready to get into it, welcome to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Okay, so as you may know, I started my entire education because I was feeling the burnout of being in a suite, right?

And I ended up making a lot of changes, shifts, systems, automations within my suite, within my behind-the-chair business, to be able to dig myself out of that burnout, right, and to be able to run a business sustainably as an independent stylist, because I just didn't understand. Like, a couple months in, I didn't understand how I would be able to maintain the same level of success that I had hit in my suite business without burning myself out. I just had no idea how this could possibly be a sustainable long-term career choice for myself if I had to keep up with all of the things all the time by myself, right? And yes, I think there's truth in, you know, short-term sacrifice for long-term gain and being able to, like, work your ass off for a little bit.

And, you know, eventually, maybe I could raise my prices and only work, like, three days a week or four days a week and be able to have that whole extra day to be able to keep up with all the other things. But honestly, I think that, you know, even when I was working three days behind the chair in the suite, all of the responsibilities that piled up, um, on top of that, like, being in my own suite, was, was 100% really, really heavy and intense. Thus, why I ended up automating, streamlining, systematizing as much as I possibly could, because it took a lot of that stuff off of my plate to allow me to have a sustainable workload, you know? And I think that, you know, a big reason why I wanted to make this episode today is because I want people to, number one, understand what they're getting themselves into when they are opening up their own suite or going independent.

Um, not to mention, you know, opening up a salon, and that's a whole other episode. But I just think that it's marketed to us by a lot of suite franchises, and I'm not talking about any of them in particular, um, but it's marketed to us like it's going to be, like, this very easy, magical, beautiful, sexy thing, or that you're gonna make more money, or that it's gonna be super easy to be a business owner And the reality is, you know, there's a whole lot of pros, right? There's a whole lot of pros to being a suite owner and being independent, of course, but I don't think that, you know, running a business, being m- in, by yourself and making it easy or that you're gonna make more money are by far, um, pros. I don't think that those are things that actually really exist, right?

I think that, yes, you can make more money as an independent solely because you have m- control over, um, your business and how you make and how you distribute your money and, um, and, and having complete control over your marketing and how you grow and what your plan is for growing, right? That's why you make more money. It's not because of the p- the difference in pay split the majority of the time. It's because you now get to decide how you distribute that coin and, um, and how much you pay yourself and how much you sacrifice and what your budget is, et cetera, et cetera.

And then furthermore, you, you can fully lean into your own marketing strategy and create real great magic for yourself if you are strategic and you work hard for it. So, a lot of people, you know, have this misconception that they open up this suite or they go independent and that they're gonna make all the coin, when in reality, it, y- you know, you may just end up getting the same commission split as you used to before, right, or, like, the, the same profit margin as you, as you would have if you were in a W-2 situation with a commission split, you know? Like, it truly may even outAnd when I went into my suite, yes, I made more money, but it was because I was raising my prices, it was because I had a lot of people coming in through the door, and it was because I was able to budget in the way that I wanted to budget that made sense for me. And, you know, a profit margin between 40%, 45%, up to 60%, you know, is pretty average for any of us in the industry, whether you are a salon owner, or I'm sorry, a salon employee, or a solo independent salon owner, right?

That is, like, a healthy profit margin, it's an average profit margin, anywhere between 40 to 60%. And expecting anything more than that is qu- quite honestly, it's- it's- it's- it's- it's really difficult to even achieve above 50% profitability within this business if you are properly investing in the things that you need to invest into to create longevity, to make more profit at the end of the day. Like, you have to invest a lot of things upfront, right? It is what it is.

And if you want to make sure that you're offering a really high-quality service to your clients, then you're gonna have to pay for a little bit more, right? The amenities that you're gonna wanna have in your suite should be next level, you know, not just like little cute coffee, tea, and water. Like, we got the soda up in there, we got the different coffee flavors, we got the wine, we got the seltzers. Like, I was not playing around when I was in my suite, and that's why I was able to be so successful within it and why I was able to raise my prices to a point where I was- I was working less, right, but making the same if not a little bit more, right?

Uh, so I just think that it's important that we understand and people understand, going into a suite, it's not to make more money. It should never, that should never be the why. The why should be either I'm going to be able to create a better, more successful business for myself within this space because I know that I'm gonna have full control. Um, furthermore, I got into my own suite because at the time, I felt really dragged down with my energy with having coworkers.

And it wasn't because my coworkers were bad or annoying or drama, whatever it may be, that was not the case. It was just that I spent my entire energy on every single one of my clients throughout my day, and then my energy was completely depleted just from that. But then furthermore, I was also putting so much energy into my coworkers and the team and the people around me 'cause I'm not just small-talking with my clients all day, I'm small-talking with my coworkers. And we are putting so much, uh, there's so much emphasis on teamwork, collaboration, and- and culture, which I think is so important and great, but for me, it was exhausting as an employee.

And to be able to just focus on my clients throughout the day, not have to worry about if I'm making a mess and if other people are bothered by the things that I'm doing besides w- I only had to care about what my clients thought about me, right? That was really freeing for me, and I loved being able to be in a suite just for that reason, very much so. At this time, and I haven't really talked about this that much yet, but at this time, I'm actually working back in a commission salon environment, the one that I started at when I was, like, 16 years old. I'm working one day behind the chair as of right now just to keep my finger on the pulse of things, and the majority of my time is spent in education doing this with you right now, which is what I absolutely love.

But I love being behind the chair still at least once a week to be able to keep my finger on the pulse, to be able to relate with you, to be able to be walking my talk, test things out before I roll it out to you, and to, you know, connect with my people and to be doing hair and get to be creative Like, it's so fun for me. But I will say, I didn't realize how much I would actually really love going back and being with other people again. Like, I really am enjoying, um, being able to, like, formulate with- with other people at the salon and, like, talk about, like, you know, the- the craft, do shop talk, you know, with all those people. Um, when I was in the suite, I was somebody who, like, I did not want to talk to anybody.

Like, do not talk to me throughout my day, I have too much to handle and I'm already exuding- exerting all of my energy into taking care of my suite throughout the day and then all of the responsibilities with that and then my clients. So then I was like, I was very, um, firm with not making relationships with the other suite owners within my space. Nothing personal or against them, I just, the whole point of me being in that suite was to not have to deal with other people besides my clients throughout the day, right? But for some reason, like, going back to this commission space, I think that because I'm not exerting so much energy on all of the other little things throughout the day, I have a little bit more time and space and energy to talk with my coworkers and be with hairstylists again, right?

And I'm also, granted, working, like, one day a week behind the chair, you know, as a commission stylist right now, and so that could probably have a massive, you know, big, big part of my- why I'm feeling how I'm feeling and why I'm enjoying it so much. Because otherwise, I'm working from home, right? I'm- the majority of the time, I'm working from home. I'm traveling and doing education in other places sometimes, but the majority of the time, I'm actually here recording podcasts, doing classes for you guys, um, in pre-visit pathway, or, um, doing summits or whatever it may be, you know And being able to get out of the house and being around people, um, and being around other fellow hairstylists in person is so nice and so refreshing.

And that's not to say that suites- You can 100% have a great community, and I know that there are great suites, especially great, um, managers and, uh, franchise owners who are absolute- franchisees, right, who create massive, beautiful community, right, in those suite spaces. You just have to, you know, know what you're getting yourself into if that's what you're looking for, and make sure that you're inquiring and, like, maybe shadowing maybe for a day with somebody and seeing what the dynamic is, um, to make sure that you are, you're getting into a space where you're gonna have a lot of community if that's what you want. But if you don't want to, you know, have a lot of community in your suite space, it's gonna be up to you to hold those boundaries, right? I actually got to a point where- And this might- you know, I might sound like an asshole, right, but I had to protect my own energy, and you guys know I'm all about boundaries and I think that every single person, including yourself listening to this, you should- you have permission to kind of come up- uh, come off as an asshole to protect your own energyFor me personally, I would so much rather protect my own energy, seem like an asshole, and not have a conversation with somebody, rather than have a fake conversation with somebody that I feel kind of forced into, right?

Like, that's just, like, u- that's not cool. I wouldn't want somebody to feel like they had to have a conversation with me just 'cause it was an obligation, right? Like, that's not great for either party. And so I got to a point where I put a sign up on my door and I said, like, "In a meeting, please, like, come back later," or, like, "Please don't disturb," or something like that.

'Cause people would, like, open up my suite door while I'm with my client and, like, try to chat with me, and I was like, "No," like, "We can't do this." You know, I'm in here because I wanna focus on my clients 100%, focus on my business 100%, and that was me. But if you're somebody who loves community, then there's 100% solos and other franchises out there that create those beautiful communities within those suite buildings. You just need to ask your, uh, the person that you're working with and make sure that you are getting yourself into that hype of, type of space, you know?

So anyways, I'm ranting. Like I said, this is off script today. My ADHD is fully taking over. But I, I think that the other thing that happens is, you know, these franchises, right, and I'm not talking about anything in particular, and you know, we're all businesses at the end of the day.

We all have to put our marketing out there just as you do to get clients into your chair, right? You know, I think a lot of franchises kind of sell suite ownership, or even booth rental salons sell independence, or somebody, whoever sells independence, uh, business ownership as really sexy and as really easy, and it's not. It's, it's really, really not easy. Yes, it can be sexy because there are so many beautiful pros to it, but it also comes with a whole lot of work and a whole lot of responsibility.

And with this massive boom that we've had over the past, you know, couple years, like, the two, three years with this massive boom, what I'm seeing is, you know, people getting into this, doing really well within their suites, and, but, but then getting really burnt out, and, um, you know, having to ride this hamster wheel. Um, or they don't have the business tools, knowledge, or, uh, I mean, even courage, right, even courage that they need to be a CEO and to be analytical, look at their numbers, see what's going, um, in and out of their business, and to raise their prices to be able to sustain themselves w- for the inflation, for rent increases, um, all of that stuff. And that's why I'm so passionate about what I do, because I know that there are people out there who would never give up their suite, right, um, because of how much they love it. However, you know, there might become, there might come a point where suite owners, they might not be able to keep their suite open because it's just burning them s- out so much, or it's taking away so much time from their, from their family and their friends.

Or, um, they can't afford to have the suite anymore because they're not having the courage or the business education to be able to sustainably raise their prices, not lose clients, et cetera, et cetera. And it takes a real strong marketing strategy, it takes a lot of being analytical, making strategic decisions, having a community, having a mentor to be able to continue on and be smart. Like, before somebody gets into suite ownership, you have somebody, and you, maybe you're an employee, right? You have somebody who is, you know, looking at all the numbers, right, and who is responsible for the financial success of the salon in one way or another.

So they're gonna raise the prices if they're smart, right? I mean, I mean, the majority of, of the industry isn't educated enough, nearly enough yet. However, there is somebody else telling you what to do to stay successful, right? Um, keeping track of your numbers and, and pushing you and giving you incentives and, um, marketing the salon themselves f- sometimes and making sure that, you know, the prices are matching what they need to be and the profitability is all still good.

But when you lose that, you as the independent, you are, you ha- you are solely the one who is responsible. You are the one who has to take on all those tasks and responsibility. This is no longer just doing the hair and going home. This is doing the hair, communicating with your clients, making sure that you're creating an excellent client experience, making sure it's consistent, keeping up with changes, trends, and the times, um, managing your prices, looking at economics, evaluating the demand on your time, your profit margin, the cleaning, the cleaning of the suite, the maintenance of it, dealing with the inventory, the ordering Like, it's a lot.

It's a lot. And I just think it's super important that when people get into it, that people understand that they are signing up to be a freaking whole ass business owner with no help... like zero help, right? Like you are the one who is responsible for your business' success and all the operations that happen within it as an independent business owner, right?

And I think that we as, because of how our industry has always traditionally been, like, we've always just thought of ourselves as hairstylists. When we get into this, we're like, oh yeah, we're just gonna do hair in this space and we're just gonna have to do a little bit more extra work. But it's like, no, like, you are running a whole business and it is up to you to put in the effort and educate yourself to make sure that this is something that can sustain you in the long term. And that was my whole thing for myself, was I was so burnt out in my suite and I just didn't, I couldn't, I was looking into the future and I was like, do I really wanna, like, be on this hamster wheel for so freaking long?

But once I put in the boundaries, all the automation, and once I started to really educate myself about how to, you know, strategically run this space and to get as many things off my place as po- plate as possible, um, you know, wasn't f- afraid of raising my prices, doing what I needed to do to stay sustainable, I then saw a long-term vision for myself. I was like, okay, maybe I can make this work for, you know, uh, many, many, many, many, many years. And the reason why I'm not in a suite anymore is not because of all this responsibility. I got to a point where I genuinely felt very, very happy with how everything was running behind the chair.

It was just the fact that I was only working one day a week behind the chair at the suite. It didn't make any sense for me to still be in a suite, right? Like, I might as well just be an employee at that point, just w- come into the salon and then leave, you know? Truly, like, it, that, it just made more sense for me at this time, at my point of my career as being an educator.

But if I wasn't getting into education, I mean, I would really have it made right now, you know? I truly would. And it's because of all the effort and the business knowledge that I have and all of the systems and automations and, and how I've leaned into technology and how I've set up my boundaries and all the things, like, that really, really, really set me up for a lot of scalability and success. And if it wasn't for me getting into education, I could have created a freaking crazy insane business for myself behind the chair, but I'm way more passionate about teaching you how to do that for yourself because I think that it is 100% completely possible for you to create such a beautiful, badass, sustainable business for yourself, whether it be in a suite or independent as a booth rental stylist, even as an employee stylist, right?

Like, you can make beautiful things happen for yourself if you have the knowledge, if you have the tools, and if you understand the responsibility that you're taking on. And so, I just think it's super important for all of us as an industry to be very conscious of the differences of these roles and these, um, things that you're stepping into and to not allow, like, the sexiness or like the glam or what you see on Instagram or marketing messaging to s- persuade you that this is going to be easy and that, um, there's not gonna be work that is going to have to go into it, especially if you want to do it really well. Like, it's one thing to go into something and like, it, and it just kind of works and it's kind of okay and it's sustainable and it's whatever, but it's another thing to create a business that is badass and is giving you everything that you want and what you need to sustain yourself, your family, and your friends with true wealth, like wealth where you can take vacations, where you don't have to be working behind the chair all the freaking time to make a living, um, where you can work like four days a week, three days a week only doing the services that you love It's completely possible, but it takes work. And I think that the reason why I wanted to talk about all this stuff today is because I've just seen such a boom in independent ownership and in suites and I coach hundreds of independent stylists and I just can see how we have gotten into something that we didn't realize was gonna be this big monster, and I am very passionate and I'm excited to be continuously sharing with you the knowledge and the experience that I have in creating this to be a sustainable thing, right?

Um, so just know, like, I'm not talking, I'm not trying to tell anybody to not get into suite ownership if that's, if you truly believe that's the path. I just want you to make sure that you're getting into it becau- for the right reasons, right? And not thinking that you're gonna make more money. And also, you know, it's great that you can make your own hours, right?

Um, it's fantastic. You're completely in control of that, but you know, if you're not working, you're not making money. So are you going to make sure that you have a great marketing plan in place and that your prices can be justifiably high enough to sustain yourself with not g- going ahead and, uh, uh, not working evenings, not working weekends, right? You can't take those things away unless you have the business strategy, right?

So as lon- a- as long as you are willing to learn, get educated, implement systems, uh, lean into modern day, uh, strategies such as all the things that I teach in my programs and, um, you're willing to take on that responsibility, you can create magical things for yourself as an independent suite owner behind the chair Just know what you're getting yourself into. That's all I ask. And if you are a- already a suite owner listening to this right now, you know, if anybody ever asks you about your experience, just make sure that you tell them more than, "Oh my God, I love it so much." Make sure that you tell them what they're getting themselves into.

Like, be fully transparent because I think it's doing a disservice to people to not be fully transparent about what they're getting themselves into. And if you are a suite franchise listening to this, if you are a franchisee, um, if you own some, uh, uh, suites, whatever it may be, right, um, I think it's important for you to make sure that you are very transparent, although you want renters, right, and although you want to market and get those renters in and tell them what they want to hear to make this a good decision for them and make it something that they really want to do, you know, you have to think about the longevity of your business too. So like, I'm seeing this through my circles and being asked to educate in places. I'm seeing this happen where, you know, these independent people are getting marketed to and, and getting signed on and signing a lease, but then they're not the right renters.

They're not the right people because they didn't realize what they're getting themselves into. They're too afraid to raise their prices. They don't understand the business side of things and they are not getting the mentorship and community that they need to continuously sustain your rent increases, right? Like that, like that's the thing.

It's like, would you rather have high quality people who you know you can rely on for a long time or you could have a shit ton of renters that ju- and this goes for booth rental salon owners too. Like, you could have a bunch of renters who aren't really that motivated to be able to continuously afford to pay your rent, especially when you need to raise your rent because I understand how profitability works and how inflation works and how the economy works, you know, as you do Like, if you, if you want to have long term sustainability and predictability f- with your renters, then you should be very upfront and transparent with them as to what they should be, uh... Doing and what they can expect and what the standards are to make this a sustainable career for themselves, right? So that's my rant.

That's my big, like, crazy thoughts about suite ownership nowadays. And I have a predic- I have a prediction, you know, in the next couple years, team salons are gonna make a massive comeback because people are gonna start to get really burnt out, right? People are going to not understand how to raise their prices and how to do it sustainably, to be able to do it all by themselves, right? And I hope that's not the case.

I hope that the people who love independence are able to stick with it and make it sustainable, but I hope that they're able to do that with mentorship, guidance, business knowledge, and that they're able to create the career of their dreams in that specific structure. And I'm here to help you do so, my friends. So I hope that you enjoyed listening to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Um, if you enjoyed listening to this episode, or if you agree with me at all, you can shoot me a DM, post this on your stories that you enjoyed the episode, or you can leave a five-star testimonial wherever you're listening to this, and that's just gonna help us reach more and more and more people.

If there's somebody out there who's, like, looking to get into a suite, we, we want to make sure that they know what they're getting themselves into, right? If you're passionate about that, as passionate about it as I am, then it would really help me reach more people if you left a five-star testimonial. So I appreciate you for doing that in advance, and I'll catch you on the next episode of the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Peace out, girl scout.

Bye bye.

End of transcript. © 2023 Hunter Donia LLC.