E11. Scale Your Salon & Make More Without Working More (w/ Kate from KR Beauty Academy)

If you’re fully booked, working long hours in your salon, but still not making the money you thought you would… this episode is for you 💖

In this very special episode, I’m joined by our FIRST EVER guest speaker, Kate from KR Beauty Academy - a former beauty business owner who now helps salon owners and beauty professionals scale their income without burning themselves out.

We’re diving into:
✨ How to make more money without working more hours
✨ The biggest mistakes keeping beauty businesses stuck financially
✨ Strategic service packages that actually increase profit
✨ How to upsell without sounding pushy or salesy
✨ Simple ways to increase your average client spend

Whether you’re a nail tech, lash artist, brow artist or salon owner - this episode is packed with practical advice and mindset shifts to help you grow your income sustainably.

We also finish with a quick-fire Q+A covering some spicy beauty business opinions, scaling advice and the fastest ways to increase revenue in your salon 👀

You can find Kate + her program Beauty Business Breakthrough below ⬇️

Kate’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krbeautyacademy 

Kate’s Program: https://krlashesandbrows.com.au/pages/beauty-business-community 

Don’t forget to rate this podcast 5 stars ⭐️

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Have a topic you would like covered on the pod? 🌸

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to Glossomin Business, the podcast for beauty business owners who are ready to treat their business like a business, not just a hobby. My name is Monique and I'm a Melbourne-based salon owner and educator, and I'm here to help you grow your income, attract the right clients, and build a business that's actually sustainable. So if you're in the beauty industry and you're ready to level up your mindset, your marketing and the way that you run your business, this is the podcast for you. I hope you love this episode, and let's get into it. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. If you're fully booked, working long hours in your salon, but you're still not making the money that you thought you would, this is the episode for you. Because today we're talking about how to scale your salon and increase your income without working more hours. Today is a very special episode of the podcast because we actually have our very first guest speaker, and this is Kate from KR Beauty Academy. She actually used to be in the beauty industry herself, and now she helps beauty business owners make more money and scale. So welcome to the podcast, Kate. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. You're actually the very first guest on the podcast, which is like super exciting. Love that for you. So thank you. Thank you for joining me today. Um, so I know you have some amazing tips for everyone on the topic that we're gonna be talking about today, but I'd love for you to talk about kind of how you started and kind of what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, for sure. I guess my journey started a long time before I even got into the beauty industry, and I didn't even realize it. Uh, so I'm gonna go back a little bit to initially when I was 15 years old, um, and I started working at the local gym. I literally got like a part-time job there, was just working Fridays and Saturdays, um, and I was learning all things business that I did not know was not normal to learn. So inside of the gym, I was learning about sales, um, I was on a commission structure. So I was learning how to essentially drive more revenue and business or yeah, more revenue and more profit into the business and not just bring people in the door, um, which obviously brings me to today where I am. Fast forward, I think I stayed with that company for about six years, um, and I worked my way up through the ranks into head office, and I loved it until I got to head office. And I was just like, I am not an office corporate nine to five girly. I need to be yapping all day and talking to everyone, which is what I was doing in the gym as well. So kind of always been interested in beauty, and I was like, yeah, I think I want to do lashes. I was that weird client that would like research things when I got home after the client or after the lash tech would talk to me about it. So I felt like I knew a lot about lashes and I wanted to do it, but I was just like, no, it's not a good job. I have a really good job in the corporate world. I'm making so much money here. Why would I leave that? Um, and fast forward to COVID, which is the craziest time. Literally, so many people around me were getting stood down. I think three people in my team got stood down, and I was just like, like, I want to get stood down, like I don't want to be here anymore. Um, and that night I just decided I was just like, yeah, I'm not doing this anymore. So I did stay at my corporate job during COVID, but I also enrolled into online lash and brow courses that night. Could not afford them at all. Um, like I literally did on an afterpay and I knew the payments would decline. Um, but I signed up and yeah, the rest is history. I guess fast forward six years or seven years now, um, I yeah, I got into it. I within three months of the doors opening back up and like lockdown stopping, I left my full-time job and I got fully booked out that first month that I went full-time. Um, I it's so funny because I remember sitting there and I was like, all you need to do is just cover your bills in that first month. If you can do that, you're laughing, but don't put that much pressure on yourself either. Like you've got a year's worth of savings there. And I literally I remember I'd like worked it all out. I was like, okay, I need to make $6,000. It's gonna cover my business bills, it's going to cover like my personal expenses as well. I'll be laughing. I made $6,032 that first month. And I was like, okay, like I can do this. This is going to be so good. Um, and then from there, it was just awkward growth. And yeah, I mean, how much do you want to know?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

We could probably go on forever, honestly. That's so good. Because I feel like everyone, unless they've come straight out of high school and no job, they've all had some sort of experience either in sales, like working retail or something like that, or they've worked in some sort of office job and they're like, ugh, I'm over it, overworking for someone else. And a lot of people have a full-time job and then realize, like, oh, I don't want to do this anymore. And then that's where they pivot into beauty. So I feel like that's like so relatable. Yeah, definitely. What would you say was like the biggest turning point for you when you realized you needed to shift how you first started running a business to kind of where you're at at the later stages of having your salon in order to earn more money?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Yeah, for sure. I guess the big thing for me was it's very common in the beauty industry, like that whole hustle culture. And it was like, get more clients in the door. The more clients you see, the more money you're going to make. And I was definitely one of those lash techs. Um, like I was doing like six or seven days a week, 12 hour days, and not having a lunch break. Um, and it got to the point where I was definitely starting to resent my business and what I had built. Like the money was fing awesome. But I was just like sitting there at the end of the day, and I was just like, Why am I doing this? Like, I haven't migraine again, I haven't eaten again, I've got to be up in six hours. Like, what am I doing? Um, and a big thing for me was I had got with my partner, this was three years into having my business, and we moved in, and he kind of said to me, he was like, Why do we live together if I don't see you? Um, like, what is the point of us like seeing each other and whatnot? And I was just like, Yeah, yeah, like whatever. I'm just I'm just building my business, it's how it is. And then a couple of weeks later, I came home from work one night. It was 10 o'clock. I hadn't eaten, God bless him, he cooked me dinner. Um, and I was like eating my dinner cold, having a shower, and I was like, Yep, see you tomorrow, gotta go to bed. And I just like sat there and I was just like, no, I'm not going to work tomorrow. I'm not doing this anymore. Um, and that was literally my biggest turning point. It was like that simple. I think I took the next three days off work. I had staff, so they covered me, which was amazing, thank God. Um, and I literally the following week, I was like, we're changing everything. I'm not doing this anymore. Uh so I went down to working three days a week. Um, and that's what allowed me to kind of actually like stop and slow down and start to look at my business. And it brought me back to my roots that I was talking about earlier in my career or other career, um, where I was just like, I know all of this valuable stuff. Why have I not applied it to this business? Like, why do I not even know my numbers? Like, I have no idea what my average service price is. I have no idea if I'm even profitable, let alone my staff members. Like, what the f am I doing? Um, so that was definitely my turning point.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, I feel like I kind of go through the same thing where I'm like, now that I'm educating now, I'm like telling like my students, like, you have to look at the numbers, you have to do this, you have to do that. And then I'm like, wait a 10 minute, when did I do that? Like, I was literally doing that today, which is crazy. But I feel like how you like first started and like how you got there is so relatable because I feel like people they see the money start to come in and then they start working more and more hours because they're making money, but they're not making enough, even when they're fully booked, and that's when they add so many more hours and they end up super burnt out. So obviously, you've experienced that before. So, is that kind of what shifted you to start educating and teaching?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah, definitely. I think when I first started educating, truth be told, I think I got into it for the wrong reason. Um, I think like many other beauty business owners as well, they've been in the game for a while, they're on their tools, they've mastered their craft, or they're doing quite well. And it's just like, of course, that's the natural next step. Everyone's doing it, of course I'm going to do it.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Um, but I had no game plan myself. I just thought, more income, this is going to be good. It's going to reduce my like work or my time on the tools. Had no idea what it was going to take to actually build my education and my like academy. But for me, I guess where I had my real turning point with education was once I had fixed up and cleaned up my own salon and my own backyard. It wasn't until a year or two after that that I was just like, rather than doing beginner courses and going that path with education like everyone else does, because I thought that's what I was meant to do. Why am I not sharing my skills and my experience that has actually just completely turned my business around and made me this success? Um, and I kind of at that point realized that I had a bit of a gift that wasn't very common because in the beauty industry we're always taught skills. We're always taught those beginner skills, but we're not taught how to run a business, which essentially is the most valuable asset when we're in the industry or with our businesses.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah, I feel like a lot of girls in beauty think that teaching is like the next step. And whenever they want like quick money, they're like, I'm just gonna start teaching. And like literally from like starting that myself, I'm like, I have been like had to cut down my hours to like even try to make some sort of course or anything. Like you actually make less when you're like still building it up. So it's definitely not like easy money. Like anyone watching that's like, I want to start teaching because I want money, it's definitely not easy money whatsoever. Um, but yeah, I feel like a lot of people think that they have to start teaching is like the only way to actually get more money from their business. So, what do you think are some of the more underrated ways that people can actually make money in their salon as someone that's like a soul trader?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

For sure. So I think number one is packages. I it baffles me how many people don't do packages or do not do it the correct way. Um so for me, with a package for it to be done the right way. It what I see in the industry a lot is a lot of people pair together services that they think people will use, but they're not services that can be done at the same time. Um, so for example, a package that does work really well and is really popular for a reason is that clean girl package, which is the lash lift and the brow lamination. And it's so successful and it's such a good package for your beauty business because you can do the two services at the same time. It does take a little bit of work and figuring out your timings, but you absolutely can do it, um, which literally just it increases your profit so much in that one-hour time slot because rather than sitting there and just doing a lash lift and you're kind of a little bit bored while you're waiting for the times to process as well, you can do the brown lemming. So even with a package, right? For me, in my salon, I used to have it was the clean girl package. And rather than charging just $120 for one of the services, I charged $200 for both of them. So from the client perspective, it was like, great, I'm really time poor. I can get two services done at once, I'm going to feel so good, and I'm getting a discount. And for me, it was like, well, rather than sitting there kind of twiddling my thumbs halfway through the service and only making $120, I can now make an extra $80 in that same appointment time slot, which is why packages are so effective.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I a lot of people think that when they have packages, just like bundling things together and making it cheaper, like just making a discount, and like it ends up not being any sort of benefit to us whatsoever. So obviously, as you mentioned, like making sure that it's like a smaller time frame or things like that. But what would you recommend for? I know I have a lot of nail techs that listen to the podcast. If it's something that they can't reduce the time, but they still want to package and upsell and things like that, what would be like your top recommendations?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Also, I have a lot of girls that I work with where they only offer one service or like nail techs where you can't really do a manicure and a pedicure at the same time, it just won't happen. Yeah. Um, so what I suggest for you guys is to create like a deluxe version of a service that you offer. Um, so for example, you could have rather than just a plain manicure, you could do like a deluxe version of it. It could include like a five-minute hand massage or like an aftercare package included, where they get a cuticle oil and so on. If you can even increase the value of that appointment and make it feel really like luxe and increase it by say $25, if you do that for 10 clients a week, which is very achievable, that's an extra $250 in your pocket for an extra five minutes maximum of work. And if you did that every single week for a full year, you're looking at an extra $12,000 in your pocket for next to no extra work.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah. And I feel like nails is probably one of the easiest services to upsell because we have like nail art.

unknown 12:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

It's like the easiest thing. Like obviously it's extra time, but when you price it properly, like nail art's like so easy to upsell because everyone wants nail art these days. How do you find the best way to kind of upsell without being salsy or pushy?

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So I guess the big thing with upselling is if you have that intention of like, oh my god, I need to upsell her and make more money from her, that comes across. Um, but if it's just a genuine conversation, that also comes across that way as well. So for you, if you know, I was talking to you and you were one of my clients, and I was saying doing your nails and I had a bit of extra time after, I would just ask you like an open-ended question, like, hey Monica, have you actually ever gotten any nail art before? Or do you have any nail art inspiration? Just get the conversation flowing. And then from there, once the conversation is flowing, just give two options. So I could be like, oh, cool, like show me some photos. Like, what do you like about this? What don't you like about it? Why haven't you got it before? And then when you start telling me that, I can probably nine times out of ten, not probably, I definitely can, um, counteract why you haven't got it and explain to you like the benefits of why you should get it or why it would suit you and your nail shape if that's what you were concerned about. And then from there, once you're like, okay, this actually sounds really good, maybe I should try it out sometime. All I'm gonna say is, so should we do it today, or do you want to do it at your next appointment?

unknown 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

And then nine times out of that ten, you're going to say today. And I'm gonna be like, perfect. It was that easy. And if you tell me next appointment, what am I gonna do when I rebook you in? I'm gonna say, okay, and we're doing that nail art too, right? And I've outsholded your next appointment.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Literally, I feel like it's a lot easier than people make it seem. Because even on my desk, I have like a full like nail art display. And new clients that come in that didn't even think to get nail art, they see it and they're like, Oh, I'm getting ideas next time, or even if you're rebooking them in salon, you can be like, Well, we're just booking you for a plain colour, would you like to add on some art or anything like that? Like, it's just so easy to just ask do they want art? Um, so I feel like you've worked with clients for a really long time and now you're working with other beauty business owners. What are some of the biggest, I guess, financial mistakes that you feel like are keeping bus beauty business owners stuck where they're at?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

There's a lot. Um, number one is definitely not knowing your numbers full stop. I think that often gets put in the too hard basket, or people get confused when they look at like price and for profit calculators and that kind of thing, and they're just like, whatever, I'll just charge what everyone else is charging around me, not realizing those people also aren't charging for profit, or they're not priced for profit as well. Um, so that's definitely number one. Um I find a lot of people, when it comes to their pricing as well, they're too scared to actually charge their worth or what they need to charge as well, for them to actually cover their bills, put money aside for tax, pay themselves a wage, and make a profit as well. So that's definitely a big mistake too.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yeah, I feel like I see this a lot in nails specifically. Like, I by the time this comes out, I would have already released this episode. But I'm doing a whole episode on like why in pricing in nails, like I don't know if you've noticed with nails, so controversial. Like the price of like a set of nails, like no one wants to pay a hundred dollars, but then like lashes and brows, everyone's like, oh, get a brow wax and die for a hundred dollars, it's fine. So I feel like nails, we're struggling. Like, I just that I feel like they just guess what the client thinks is like affordable, they don't price based on the numbers, they just price on what everyone else is charging or what seems expensive or not expensive and things like that. But I feel like just nails, like the price hasn't gone up, and we just undercharge so much. I feel like it's definitely a hard mindset to get out of when I feel like when you do and your clients realize like your higher pricing is actually worth it, and it's not even like high because it's expensive, it's high because that's just what your numbers say it has to be. But I feel like it's a hard mindset to get out of. So, what advice would you give to someone that needs to increase their prices based on the numbers, based on all the things, but is too scared to for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

So I guess it's really a matter of figuring out what they're scared of. Um, nine times out of ten, though, it is that they're scared that they're going to lose multiple clients. Um, so for me, I always encourage you once you have actually worked out your numbers and you know what they need to like go to, it really depends on how much they need to increase by, whether that's five dollars or fifty dollars, which by the way, a price rise of fifty dollars if you gotta do it, just just go do it. Just go do it. But what I will say is don't just go, okay, these are my new prices. I'm increasing them as of next Monday, and that's that. What we want to do is really position ourselves to our current clients and our potential new clients and show them all of like the value that we have to offer and all of the improvements that are coming. And we want to do that over a minimum of a four week period. So then in four weeks' time, rather than them being like, oh, you've upped your prices by five dollars. I don't know if I can come anymore, even though I spend $50 a week on coffee, they're going to be like, Do you know what, Monique? It's about time you up your prices. I've been waiting for you to. Um, so it's all it's all about perception. Perception is reality at the end of the day. The more that you can show the value and what you're pouring into your business, the more people will pay.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah. What advice would you give to people that they're in the process of like increasing their prices and they're fine to change it on their booking system, all the things, but when their existing clients come back in, they're so scared, they end up discounting it and doing all the things. What would you recommend for someone that's just heavily discounting, or maybe like for example, nails, like they book in art and they didn't they don't get art, or maybe they book a brow wax and die and they say, Oh, I just want them waxed today, like things like that, and you just end up discounting it.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

For sure. So the big thing with discounting is it's such it's so sneaky, like people don't realize how much it affects us. Um, and I always relate it back to lashes, but let's relate it back to nails today. So, say if you do a French tip on someone and that's meant to be an extra $35, for example, but you decide not to charge them because you feel bad charging them, or they're a really long-term client, or you just had a really good appointment with them and it just feels really awkward, which I've definitely been guilty of doing in the past, um, that's $35 that you've lost there from that appointment. And a one-off, it doesn't sound that bad. But for us, I know that we fall into that trap because it doesn't sound that bad, that it's just $35 here or there, we end up doing it three or four times a week, which is over $100 lost. And then if we do that three or four times a week for a full month, we're looking at $420 that we're losing. So, like over a year, that's over $5,000 out of our pocket, which for many of us that is at least 50% of one month's worth of revenue, which that hurts when you put it like that. So we need to stop it.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yeah, I feel like in my salon, when I first started taking like now clients and they didn't know if they wanted art or not, like a month in advance, I'd be like, just book the art. Like, it doesn't matter if you don't get it on the day. But then now it comes to the point where the days come and they've got 40 minutes of now art booked in for like 40 something dollars, and they're like, Oh, I just want to play in color. So now I've kind of tried to like train my clients like just go online and change it, like just give me some notice because someone else can take that spot, or like you could even just charge them some of that time, like maybe have it into the policies as well, like as that like it's an actual cancellation, and yeah, I feel like that would deter clients from booking in art and then not wanting it and all of that kind of stuff. Um, so I'm definitely guilty of that as well. Um, what advice would you give to girls that have a salon, they're fully booked with clients, they don't want to work more hours, but they do want to actually earn more money?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yeah, for sure. So there's a couple of routes that you can go down as well. Obviously, you can go down the whole staffing route. Um, but a big thing that is really under-leveraged for me, or I find in beauty businesses is how effective or how fing selling retail is in your business when you sell it right. Um, so you know, I think the big thing with retail is a lot of people think again, they fall into that trap on that imposter syndrome of I don't want to come across as salesy, like it's really awkward, I don't want to do it, like I'm just pushy, and and they know that as well. But when you do it correctly, it's not the case at all, and it completely changes your numbers.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

How would you recommend actually upselling retail products into your song without giving off like that salesy, pushy kind of vibe?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Yeah, for sure. So what it comes down to again, number one is the intention, like I was saying with the add-ons. If you come into the appointment going, I'm gonna upsell her $100 worth of retail, they're going to know that, they're going to feel it, and they are not going to buy a thing off of you. Whereas if you come at it from a place of no, this is going to help the results, or it's going to help the longevity of the results, it's going to help them maintain it. So it benefits them and it just also helps my revenue, that comes across as well. So obviously, the good old example of brow oils after a brow lamination is a big one and it's very popular. Um, so say if you sell a brow oil for $75, if you sold just one, that's $75. But over a year, if you were selling three every single week for a full year, you can make an extra $11,000 a year. So how you're going to do it is at the end of an appointment. With you, I've just done your brow lemmy. I'm going to run you through your aftercare. The very last part of the aftercare, or the last thing I'm going to say to you, is so the last thing that you need to do is make sure that you are hydrating your brows with a specific brow oil every single day. This is just going to help your brows. Um this is just gonna treat your brows and make sure that they don't get dry or frizzly looking, and it's going to help maintain the results as well. You're going to be like, perfect, sounds good, okay, thanks for letting me know. I'm going to walk you over to the counter, take your payment, get you re-booked in. Now, for me, what I used to do in my salon is I had all my retail at eye level, and when I started talking about retail, I grabbed it off the shelf so it was physically in front of them. That is a big help as well. And I would grab that out, okay, Monique. So as I said, this is your aftercare. The most important thing that I want you to remember is all about that hydration. This is the oil that I recommend for you. It's going to last this long. Would you like to get it at this appointment or next appointment? So I've just given you two options again after explaining the benefits to you and as to why you should get it. And you're gonna go, of course I'm gonna get this appointment. I don't want crusty brows. So it's literally that simple.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah, and I feel like there's also like easy ways to implement it like during the service, especially with things like like a lash cleanser. You could be like when they lie down, like do like if they normally get lash extensions, you'd be like, Do you normally cleanse your lashes? And then you can easily segue into that, like before you even finish doing the lashes or even with nails. What I did when I first started is I'd kind of look at their skin and things like that, like, oh, do you use cuticle oil? Or if you have retention issues, you use cuticle oil like this, like all these things. I feel like you can even implement it into the service as well. Like, I feel like people like, oh, I have to wait until the very end and then start selling, but you can literally just ease into it, and especially when you have like mindset is like it's not just a sale, like it's actually going to help them. I feel like it doesn't come across as like that salesy kind of vibe. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

I think a big thing as well for lash techs in particular, which or who is I mostly work with, they feel that because they've never sold retail before or they've never spoken to their regular clients about it, that how are they going to possibly do it now? And it's as simple as what you said. You lay on the bed with me, and I'm just going to ask you how your lashes have been, as I always would. How are they lasting? And then from there I can just I could ask a simple question like, hey, what are you washing your lashes with? And my clients used to be so guilty of trying to tell me a lash cleanser, but they were laughing at the same time. So then from there, I could be like, Listen, I know you're not using a lash cleanser. I can tell because of X, Y, and Z. If you use a proper lash cleanser, this is going to help your lashes last longer and you won't have to come back so often for infils. When you explain the explain it to them and then just give them the benefit, they're going to go, I should probably get that lash cleanser. So then when you go over to the couch at the end, you're going to grab that lash cleanser and say, Okay, are you going to get the lash cleanser today and we can push your infill out another week? Or do you want to keep coming back every week and a half because your lashes aren't lasting?

unknown 25:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

The benefit to them is of course to get the lash cleanser because over time they're going to save so much more money and have such better results.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Yeah. So if someone's fully booked right now, but they're still like broke, they're still struggling financially. What are kind of the most common things that they're probably doing wrong?

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Number one is definitely pricing for profit. I can nearly guarantee straight off the bat, they are probably not pricing for profit. Um, but number two is their money leaks. They are probably leaking out just as much money as they are bringing in. And every time they add a client to their diary, they're just pushing more money out rather than retaining it. So you need to get really clear on your money leaks, where they are, and how to plug them before you do anything else.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

So this seems like something that I know you help your students with a lot. So if you'd love to touch on how exactly you support your students going through this kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Yeah, so I have what is known as Beauty Business Breakthrough, and that is my Sal and Success program. Um, there's different levels of support depending on where you're at and where you need to go or how quickly you would like to get there. But what we do is, you know that mobile game that we used to play as kids, and you'd like swing the blocks and then they would drop, and you would have this building that just looks like this. We we restart that game and we build your blocks one by one in your business so that you are price for profit, so that you don't have money leaking out when you start adding or bringing more profits and more revenue into your business so that you can actually hold on to that money as well, rather than just wondering like, where the f has all my money gone at the end of the month after I've just worked like 30 hour weeks. Um, and then we also set you up to scale. So if you would like to open a commercial space, we help you do that. If you would like to bring staff on so that you can work even less, we help you do that as well. Essentially, what we do is just bring you to your goals so that you can actually be highly profitable whilst working only three or four days a week.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Perfect. I love that. So you're like working on the foundation, and then once you've secured that, you're like, where can I branch off from here? That's so good. So if people are listening right now and they're like, I'm keen, I want to do this, what can they expect inside the program?

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Absolutely. So it definitely depends on how much support and how you best work. Uh, we have what is called the Inner Circle, which is a 12-month community program, and I love it. You get masterclasses every single month. We have guest speakers come in who also do masterclasses. You get our full mentorship course, which is literally decked out with all of my mistakes and all of my learnings and all of my success, so that you can bypass all my ups and you can just implement the strategies that you know work. Um, and you also get access to my resource bolt. And I drop three or four new resources into that every single month as well. So that's our inner circle. If you want more fast-tracked results and you want to get to your goals quicker and you want your journey to be a bit more customized and very specific to you and your salon, you can also work with me in a one-to-one capacity.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

I feel like a program like that is such a really good offer, especially because a lot of people are struggling right now, especially with cost of living. That's when they've really got to check in on their prices and make sure that they're retaining clients and doing all the things, and I feel like they could absolutely benefit from all of your guidance. So before we close off the call, I do want to do like a little quick fire QA. I did compile some questions myself, and I did get some off Instagram. So we're gonna do a quick fire QA. Out of your recommendations on how to scale in the salon, so like your retail, your upselling packages, all those things. If you had to pick just one for people to focus on first, like their first step, what would you pick?

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Packages any day of the week.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah, love that. So you've mentioned that you had staff when you had your salon. How do you know that you're ready to take on your first staff member?

SPEAKER_01 28:52

So hiring staff is definitely one of those things that I did absolutely backwards. I just hired someone, hoped for the best, and learnt as I went. Um, definitely not the way to do it. For you, if you're looking at getting staff in your business, what I want you to check is how busy are you? If you are at 80% capacity and you're working more than four days a week, it's probably time to look into getting a staff member. If you have all of your numbers in a row, you don't have profit leaks, and you have actually looked into the numbers side of business, you're ready to get a staff member. Um, the big thing for me that a lot of people skip, that I wish I didn't skip, and I see a lot of people still do it, is before you get a staff member, learn how to be a good leader, not a good boss.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Yeah, I love that. I haven't even thought of getting staffed. I feel like it's just not for me. I feel like I just like being by myself. So I but I feel like especially with nail techs, there's not a lot that end up going into that salon kind of route. So I feel like it would be really good to see more people with nails, especially go into that. Definitely. What would you say is the fastest way to increase your income without trying to attract new clients?

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Definitely again, packages or retail any day of the week.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

I love that. What's one thing that a lot of beauty business owners tend to just blame the industry for? But it's actually something that they could change themselves.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Do you want to get me cancelled? Definitely the quiet periods or the quiet seasons. Um, don't get me wrong, any industry does have waves. I'm not saying that there isn't waves, but blaming you not making money or not profiting that month because of a quiet period. Something needs to change. Yeah, definitely. You can we know when they are. We can counteract them and we can make sure that they don't happen. If you are genuinely feeling like a massive dip in that quiet period, it's because you didn't prepare for it and you don't have that momentum in your business.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people like complain when it happens, but they don't actually think about how could I have prevented this from happening in the first place. And I feel like even some of the biggest businesses, like, yes, they still experience, may experience some loss of clients, but they've priced themselves in a way that that small quiet period does not actually affect them in the long term. So I feel like it's just like preparation, planning, all of the things. Love that. I feel like this conversation has been so valuable, and I'm sure so many people listening, they're like, oh my gosh, I don't even know about all these things, and they're probably having so many light bulb moments right now. If you're ready to make more money in your business and in your salon without burning out, I'm gonna leave all the details for Kate's beauty business breakthrough in the description, all of her programs, all of that stuff, it's all gonna be in the description of this episode. Thank you so much for coming on and being my first ever guest speaker. I was so nervous, but I love that so well. Um, so where can everyone find you on socials and your website and all of that stuff?

SPEAKER_01 31:43

For sure. So you can find me on Instagram at KRBeauty Academy, also the same on TikTok, or you can head over to my website, which is www.krlashesandbrows.com dot au.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Amazing! Perfect. So I hope you have a good rest of your day. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you, bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of Blossom in Business. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love if you could give the video a thumbs up on YouTube or rate the podcast five stars on Spotify and Apple. If you don't want to miss an episode, make sure to hit the notification bell so you get notified every single time a new episode drops. If you want to follow along on my journey, I've put the links to all of my socials in the description. If there's any topics you'd like covered on the podcast or you'd like to apply to be a guest speaker, you can find the links in my description. Stay tuned for the next episode.