Welcome to the Smart Wealthy Stylist Podcast. I'm your host, Emily Carden. Over here, we are dedicated to helping hair stylists manage their finances, stay organized, healthy, and manage their time and mental wellbeing. We focus on staying healthy in all areas of life and maximizing productivity. If you're a hair stylist looking for these, This is the podcast for you.
Together we'll avoid burnout and step into being the smartest, wealthiest stylist that we can be. Hello and welcome back to the Smart Wealthy Stylist Podcast. You guys are in for a treat today. I have my friend Merriman here from Indie Salon and um, we are gonna go over. No spend budgeting all sorts of things that will help us move forward in our financial, uh, situation.
So how are you today? I'm good. How are you? Good morning. I'm so good. It's so exciting for you to be here. Yeah. Uh, Alysia actually my first podcast guest, so, which I didn't know till just now. Yeah, no pressure. I'm just, So tell me a little bit about yourself, um, salon ownership, you know, your life, whatever you wanna share with us.
What, what's going on in your world? Okay. So I just opened my, I say just, it's been almost four years now. So it's been four years. Yeah. October, 2019 we opened. So, um, it's amazing. After it, I feel like just open because I spent so long as a booth renter. Yes. I've been doing hair since 2007. So, um, just renting stations at different salons.
Cool. And then, um, about a year before I opened, started the journey to salon ownership, I guess. Very cool. So, yeah, if you're ever in Joplin, you gotta stop by Indy. The aesthetic in there is Aw, thanks. Phenomenal. Like, I love it. And all the girls there are so sweet. Mm-hmm. And she has, Alicia has the best, um, Retail selection in town for sure.
So, oh yay. Thanks for mentioning that. Absolutely. It's, it's great. I, all the time when I'm outta stuff I'm like, Hey, yeah, go down to India and she'll have what you need. Hey. Yeah. I love that. I love you've sent people in. We've had a couple other stylists around here. That's my favorite thing when other stylists who like, don't maybe carry retails, send them our way.
Yes, yes. I just love that. So, well some something funny. Uh. Interviewing another girl from her salon named Jasmine, and we're doing community over competition. Oh nice. Is what our things in. And so it does take a whole village Yeah. To, you know, take care of all of our clients and For sure. Um, so on this, uh, a few, it was probably a year ago, maybe two years ago.
I saw you did a really long No spend. Mm, it was a whole year. A whole year, yeah. Yeah. The year, the whole year of 2021. Yes. Mm-hmm. And I remember seeing that and being impacted and inspired by that. Mm-hmm. I was just like, oh my gosh, that's revolutionary. You know, like I've never seen that done before. I'd never heard of it.
Right. And um, so can you tell me a little bit of about like what is a no spend and how did you discover. Like what, how, why did you decide to do that? Um, so it's kind of a weird story. We were on our way back from Ohio. My son got married and we were in the car. So I was watching YouTube videos, just trying to pass the time.
And I came across this girl who, it was like a video series, my no spend year. And so I was like intrigued, like, what does that mean? No spend year? And I watched her whole series of videos on the way home from Ohio and she literal. Took a year off of spending money on herself for things. She had a set of rules, you know, she didn't wanna, her, her big thing was makeup.
Um, but it kind of made me think like, what would I not spend money on if I could? And so I just kind of came up with a set of rules for my no spend and. That was in October. So it took me a couple months to commit. Yes. And whenever I told people, they were like, you're crazy. I could never, but I'm kind of like one of those all in people.
Like same, either I'm gonna really do this or I'm not. Yes. So I was like, well, I think it might be kind of fun. Yeah. Abso like, why not? Right. This is something different. Right. Yeah. And I had noticed. Because I am making more money because I do have like more disposable income. It was just like flying out the window and on what I was like, right, what do I have to show for it?
So I looked at like where I could reign things in and I came up with, I wasn't gonna buy any clothes, shoes, anything like that for myself. Skincare, makeup. Home decor, that's like a big one for me. Mm-hmm. Like, oh, I'm tired of those Brooks pillows looks great. Let me, yeah. Yeah. I definitely in my nose, Spiner would like, uh, shop for indie.
Yes. When I couldn't shop for myself because, but yeah, so I, I committed to it. I was like, I'm gonna do this. Uh, I had a goal, you know, when you do something like that, you have to have a why, like, why am I doing this? It's a big why. Yeah. And I wanted to pay my car off. I had bought my car, I think like the year before.
Mm-hmm. And the car payment was just like, ugh. Every time I made it, I was like, oh my gosh, I just hate this car payment. Yes. So I was like, if I just quit buying a bunch of BS that I don't need, maybe I could pay my car off. Yeah. And so, um, I made it, I made it through the year and honestly, it wasn't as bad as what anyone would think.
Right. There was a lot of benefits to it. I mean, would I do it again? No, but I'm glad I did it. Yeah. So, and now you still do practice a no spend every once in a while. Like I saw you did a month long one not too long ago. I, uh, I tried to do, I tried to do, uh, no spend January. Yes. This is just proof that you have to be in the right frame of mind.
Yes. For something to work, because I did an entire year. I'm telling you, I didn't buy myself a candle. A pair of socks. Nothing. Nothing. Unless I ran out of something. Like I let myself, if you run outta mascara, you can buy MAs. Sure, yeah. But like, I went a whole year, but this snow been January. A couple months ago I failed.
It was two weeks in and I was like, oh. Well, maybe this, maybe that. I just wasn't in the mind in the mindset. Mm-hmm. And I didn't have like a real reason why I was doing it. Yeah. That's how I was getting ready to say you didn't have a big why. Right, exactly. Yeah. I was just doing it to do it. Yeah. And that's why it didn't work.
So. That is really interesting. Mm-hmm. So did you have a financial situation come up that really made you want to do this? Or like, I saw that you also do budgeting quite a bit too. Mm-hmm. Um, are, is, was there any certain point in your career as a stylist that you felt like you were sinking or that you needed to implement a budget and really needed to change your life around in that, in that matter?
Um, yeah, I mean, I could, we could have a whole other podcast on, on that. I, uh, just, let's just say like within the last 10 years, um, since I've been doing hair, cause I've been doing hair since 2007, um, we've been through a bankruptcy. Mm-hmm. A home foreclosure, aari repossession. Mm. $60,000 in debt. Mm-hmm.
And dug ourselves out. That's amazing. Slowly but surely. Yeah. Cause I was not, by no means was I like what I call myself like a successful hairstylist back then. Sure. But that was like what made me think, I, you have to do something. Right. Like, my husband's only gonna get paid what he gets paid. Mm-hmm.
He's gonna make his 3% raises. But if somebody's gonna do something about this, it's gotta be. Awesome. So yeah, like we did that, um, you know, to just get ourselves back in a place where we could breathe again. Yeah. Um, and then from there, and I'm not saying we never got ourselves back into debt, but like we, we just knew we didn't wanna live like that anymore.
Absolutely. It was a super stressful time. Yeah. So, but on the flip side of that, I now know what that's like. Mm-hmm. And I know that I don't wanna go back there. Yeah. So, and like you should feel so much pride in knowing that you overcame that situation. Yeah. And, and I'm, it was, it was completely our fault.
I'm not saying it. Yeah. Well, it was, I've been, I, I'm digging out right now, I completely understand like $45,000 in credit card debt. Yeah. Floated myself through covid. Mm-hmm. And like, I, I made stupid decisions. Oh yeah. And now I'm having to deal with that. Right. But I'm on my way. Yeah. And, I actually, last Monday I paid off my salon loan two years early.
Oh, nice. Yes. So that is such a when accomplishment. Yeah. And so now I'm gonna take that 500 a month mm-hmm. That I was paying on my salon loan and roll that onto other debt, you know, roll it in. Yeah. That's how, that's what we did. I don't Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask you. Yeah. So what was like the actionable steps, if you could tell someone that is in the situations that we used to be in, How would you recommend that they make this happen for themselves?
Um, which I loved your podcast on, untangling your finances. Like that is the number one thing, like it is knowing your numbers. It's a good two hours. You're gonna have to sit down and figure out like, what have I been spending money on? What can I cut out? Which sounds so much easier said than done. And at the end of the day, back then for us, um, You know, the bankruptcy got us kind of a clean slate.
Yes. But we still had like our two car payments. Yes. We still had, it was still paycheck to paycheck for sure back then. Mm-hmm. And so at the end of the day, it was like, you just need to make more money. Yeah. And so that's when I started just like looking into like how to grow my business. Mm-hmm. Um, the right way.
And um, I slowly did that and just dug us out. And then once like. Once the idea of salon ownership came about, you know, we had a little bit, we, you know, you get yourself back into a little bit of debt here and there. Yes. And so we were like, let's clean that up. And we did pretty quickly just because we had a y Yes.
You know, again, yes. Opening the salon. Um, and so, We did that just so we could, we could open the salon. That's cool. Yeah. And so whenever you were setting your budget, um, did you set a budget in your personal life and in your salon? Mm-hmm. Like did you have two separate budgets? Yeah, we definitely did. Um, and we aren't like the type to like deprive ourselves of a whole lot.
Yeah. We still went on vacation. We just budgeted for it. Yeah. Um, we still went out to eat. We just didn't, everything was super intentional. Yes. I like that word. Intentional. Yeah. You're just very intentional. Mm-hmm. Eyes wide open, making sure that you know exactly what you're doing. Right. Yeah. Because I, I know us and if I deprived myself too much, we were just gonna say scared, vomit.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So we just made sure we were really intentional about the money that we were putting where, um, and then as far as my own, you know, booth renter budget. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like I really. Just got bare bones with it. Mm-hmm. And bought what I needed. You know, it's so easy, especially now, we're all like, oh, I have to raise my prices because of inflation.
And if you just take a step back, like I was wasting so much money. Dumping color down the drain. Yes. Buying $30 boxes of cute foils. Yep. Yes. Guilty. Um, I was just like, okay. Like, yeah, maybe eventually I'm gonna need to raise my prices because everything's gone. Crazy pants. Mm-hmm. But, We, uh, I wanted to start with me first and like, what can I, what waste can I cut out?
Because there was a lot Yes. There was for Yeah. That is, that is very, being intentional in your business. Mm-hmm. Right, because you know, what I would do is, Uh, my state rep would come in and I'd be like, oh, that's cool. Mm-hmm. Oh, I think I wanna try that. That's a good deal. That's a good deal. I wanna try that product.
Right. You know, or they have those like salon intro kits mm-hmm. And they're thinking, oh, like during the holiday season, all the holiday kits, you just think of all those things. Oh, I have big opinions on holiday kits. Yeah. I, I don't do that anymore, but, um, I just, It was so excessive and so mm-hmm. Much money going down the drain.
Yeah. Or just sitting on yourself. Yes. Not, not, not selling. Right. Collecting dust, you know? Exactly. And I just, I just really think that that's so imperative to mm-hmm. Cut out excess spending. Right. Um, so whenever you're figuring your budget, do you work off of a percentage or just dollar amounts or like, like when you niche down on your categories?
Mm. Um, do you do your business budget first, then use what you have left over for your personal budget? Um, so, or how do you figure, now that I've done this long enough, I pretty much know like, this is what you spend in color, this is what you spend on Just like monthly averages basically. Yeah. Yeah. I just have a number that I know, like let's keep it under that.
Yeah. Um, and I do a monthly profit and loss statement mm-hmm. For myself and for the salon. Mm-hmm. So monthly I know. If it's getting close to the end of month, I'm usually like, ah, wait till like February 1st to place another order. Yeah. Just because I'm trying to keep that number under a certain amount Yeah.
For the month. And, um, that's been working out for me, but, you know, I've been doing hair for a long time. Yeah. So I know my income is pretty predictable at this point. Mm-hmm. And my, my out goes is pretty predictable for someone just getting started, you know, you're gonna have to track that for Yes. Three, three months.
I would say. One month isn't enough. You know, something weird could happen. You have to do like a, a good chunk of time. Two to three months. Yes, I agree. Um, so track it, see what you're spending, see what you could cut out, and then come up with that number. Yes. But yeah. And, um, in your personal budget, um, once again, you're just using, you know what your take home is on average.
Mm-hmm. And then you just. You know what your personal expenses are. Mm-hmm. And so that's just, that's how you figure that, like just a monthly average of what you're doing? Yeah, basically. Um, and now it's just me. My husband quit his job in October. Mm-hmm. Which if you would've told us that a few years ago, I would've laughed at you.
But it's, um, it's really working out. And so we just have my paycheck now, which used to would've scared me because it was so irregular. Yeah. But now that it's more steady mm-hmm. It's doable. So we just work off of that. So in, in your salon ownership, do you feel like you're going to be the talent for a long time or do you, have you reduced your hours behind the chair in order to fill in your, you know, ceo mm-hmm.
Position, you know, as the owner? Yeah. So I keep those two things completely separate. They have their separate bank accounts, my hair business from the salon. Oh, nice. Um, so no. Yeah. Yeah. If the salon went away today, Honestly, my, it wouldn't change a whole lot. I would go find some murder it and Yeah, still continue The income would be the same.
Same business, same. Yeah. No, you don't get rich owning a boother at salon. I'll just say that. It's paying my taxes. Yeah. Uh, that's, that's what it's doing. I saw like max profits, like owners pay for salon rental, like the very most, like if you're doing great mm-hmm. You're, look, you're taking 30% home. Yeah.
That's a, that's a big number too. Yeah. That's like, yeah. Very, very best of the best. Right. Yeah, I went into it, not, I went into it because I wanted a place to work that I could charge what I wanted to charge. Um, you know, the, I just wanted a more upscale environment to charge what I wanted to charge and provide like the client experience that I wanted to provide.
Yeah. So I went in it, into it for that. Um, and I saw a need. Other stylists were telling me that that's what they wanted. So, um, I. That's where that was born from, so, okay. Yeah. So, but I keep them separate. I noticed like in your salon, uh, when a Alexa was working there, I went in and got my hair extensions done.
Mm-hmm. And the first thing I noticed that when I go, when I went in there was just how. Welcoming. It felt it was beautiful, aesthetically pleasing. Mm-hmm. It looked very luxurious. Your coffee bar and amenities are like so good. All the snacks. I totally felt like I could take two if I wanted to. Yes. You know, you could take one in your purse on the way home.
Yeah. It was seriously. So awesome. So can we touch, we have time. Okay. So can we touch a little bit on like salon culture and um, how you. What was the vision for like, making this salon, like you said, luxurious and welcoming? Like what, what was your vision? How did you plan that out? Yeah, so, um, I just basically took what I didn't love about maybe salon experience I'd had in the past.
Mm-hmm. And just went out of my way to try to make it different. Mm-hmm. Um, from the very beginning, you know, yes. Community over competition, but what does that mean? Right. It means we're all uplifting each other in the salon. Yes. Um, if someone wants to take a reel for their Instagram marketing, no one's gonna, you know, you're not gonna have the stylist in the corner being like, what is she doing?
Yeah. It's gonna be like, Hey, here, let me film that for you. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And that goes on. I'm not kidding you. That goes on daily at our salon where someone's helping somebody out with, uh, a piece of content or sharing a little tip or trick with. Extensions. Mm-hmm. It's just we, I really try to put like our money where our mouth is there.
So yeah. It shows, it definitely shows. I love that. So how do you, like, how do you find those people? How do you, how do you build up that salon culture and find the right fitting people? Well, it's been, I'm, that's probably been the hardest thing about owning a salon. It is finding those people, it's making it really clear what we're about and then just hoping the right people come along.
And I'm not gonna lie, there's been four people who don't work with us anymore because it just, what they had going on didn't align with that. Yeah. Um, and that's okay. You know, we have just a few roles in the salon where we don't. Bash other women, number one. Absolutely. We don't want to, um, it's just we don't want that toxic typical so salon environment.
Absolutely. Yes. So if I see that going on, I'm gonna coach you. Yeah. Like, you know, let's, let's do this instead. Yeah. Let's, this is what we're about. Um, and then if it's not working out, you know, I've had to ask people to leave. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. Because what they're doing isn't necessarily. It's just not right for our business.
Right. So they can go somewhere else and do that, and it's not anything. And that's, that's just having like a clear mission statement of who you are. And then those, the right people come and then if they don't fall in line with your mission statement, they can mm-hmm. Then go somewhere else. Yeah. And I'll say clients, we get a lot of client feedback about that, uh, specific.
Uh, thing about our salon, you know, you don't hear the cattiness, right? Yeah. We get a lot of feedback about that. When that doesn't go on, we hear about it. When it does go on, we hear about it. Yeah. And so that's why that just can't happen. And people come, you know, they're there. Especially for an extension appointment.
I have clients there for five hours. Yes. They're spending a good chunk of their time and money with us. And so we want it to be a positive, uplifting experience. Yes. Not where they leave feeling drained because they heard gossip or negativity. Yes. Um, or felt judged. Um, we want them to leave, you know, filling.
Filling uplifted. Absolutely. Yeah. So what's your favorite part about salon ownership? Um, I like all the nerdy business. The nerdy business stuff. I'm really into like the numbers. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm into, like right now I'm kind of redoing some stuff with our retail that's like, kind of got me fired up. Mm-hmm.
What I don't love is the, is the people aspect, the hiring and firing. Yes. The um, if there is an issue, I will literally. S a week of sleep over that. Mm-hmm. Um, because these are people, you know. Yeah. And this is their lives, this is their dealing with. And so I don't take that lightly at all. Mm-hmm. Um, it, so what I've done is I've, my daughter works with me.
She's does hair too, and. When I expressed to her like, this is just so much like I don't know about, I don't know if I can do this. At one point I was like, here, you need to buy the salon. I'm not doing this anymore. And she was like, okay, well no, no thank you. She's like, that's not the, she was like, let me take that part of it over.
So she took that part of it over just here recently. Mm-hmm. Huge weight off my shoulders. Oh, how nice. Yeah, because, and at this point we have a great group of girls. Mm-hmm. And everyone's really clear. Expectations and everything's just, I mean, I couldn't ask for a better group of girls, and so she. She's just gonna take that over.
So if a problem does arise, or if someone does need to move away or stay home with their kids and we have to bring somebody else in, she's in charge of managing like how nice all of that. She's my HR person now. That is so awesome. Yeah, and I think that's also a very important part about business ownership is delegating where things need to be delegated.
Mm-hmm. Like making sure that you're, because once you get to a certain point, if you. Playing every single part in the business, it be, can become extremely overwhelming. Yeah, for sure. I just, um, that was the one thing that I was like, I, I need to outsource this and how nice that you can totally trust her since she's like your blood.
Oh yeah. And she's just shares the same vision. So she's, that's she knows like what's cool, what's not cool. Yeah. Um, and, and she has no problem talking to the girls if there's an issue. Um, whereas. I mean, it just, when I tell you I l I lose sleep over that stuff. I'm not kidding. So, so yeah. So is there anything that you would like to share with us that, um, you know, you, you, when you were going through our outline and stuff that stuck out to you or any actionable points that, to wrap this up, just to, you know, on budgeting mm-hmm.
Or business owner? Um, just about like on the no spend, you know, if you, that's a major thing to take on. Yeah. Um, if you do wanna do that, great. But there's ways to budget without doing a harsh no spend. Mm-hmm. Um, you just have to look at, are you tired of the. Work spend cycle. Yeah. Because that's what I was doing.
Same. Yeah. Work spend. Work spend. You couldn't even enjoy the thing that you had because you were looking forward to the next thing you were gonna buy. Mm-hmm. You were getting packages in the mail that you didn't like. You forgot what did I order? Yeah. And it just got to a point where it's like, oh, how sad.
And it's such a catch 22 with us. As hair stylists. I feel like we were the first like influencers. Yeah. You know, before that was a thing on Instagram, clients would come to the salon and be like, oh, what is she wearing? What is she? Yeah. What is this? Absolutely. So now I just feel like, um, it's gotten so out of control.
Yeah. Like Instagram, tick, you know, there's a TikTok trend that girl, if you wanna be that girl, you have to make this aesthetically pleasing. House and breakfast and have this perfectly curated everything. And that is just, you think you have to stop and think like, is this who I am? Is this where I wanna be spending my money?
Yeah. Um, it's like you almost maybe like lose yourself a little bit in that. Absolutely. Because you're just worried about being. Like, oh, this girl on TikTok has her life together and I want that to be me so bad. But you have to look inside and see like, who, what do I like? Yes. Do I like my house the way it is?
Or is Instagram telling me, no, you need to buy all new furniture and all knew this. Yes. So, and it is hard with us because we put our lives out there in order to get clients. Yeah. So it's like, Okay. I need to make myself look cool so people wanna come to me. Yeah. But it's, and it is a whole other lev level of pressure.
Yeah. Like as if it wasn't hard enough to get clients. Mm-hmm. Now we have everyone and their dog, literally there's like dog accounts, which is fine. Whatever. Like no judgment, you know, I follow a few. I do too. But you know, it does make it super stressful. I, I think that, that's a great point. Like figuring out who you are in your true self.
Mm-hmm. And really what, what is your why? Coming back to that Right. You know, your main point. What is your why? Mm-hmm. Figuring out what your why is, and then diving in from there, like in my last episode I did one over budgeting, or not budgeting, um, but it was, it was one of those deals that, you know, there's so many people who are operating in the red.
Mm-hmm. To do a no spend or you know, you have to figure out what your Y is. And so my countertops are green. Like yeah, this is the 90 special house. It is not aesthetically pleasing. Right. I need new flooring. Mm-hmm. There's all sorts of things. My house is clean, it's put together. Right. It's cute, you know it's home.
Do I want granite countertops and hardwood? Absolutely. Yeah. Does that line up with my why right now? Absolutely not. Yeah. You're looking at $20,000. Mm-hmm. In flooring countertops and just cuz it doesn't line up right now, I mean, you're in a stage of life. Yeah. So doesn't mean it's not gonna line up eventually.
Yeah. And that's on my goal list. Right. You know that right now. I'm paying off our debt. Mm-hmm. You know, I have to get out of this situation. Like your husband not having a job. Like my husband has a great job. We are so thankful for the job that he has, you know, but, If he was able to quit his job and do something mm-hmm.
That he loved, that would be the ultimate gift for me. Yeah. To Oh yeah. To see him not stressed out. Exactly like that was my husband mean daily. I would just, at that, that's my goal. Mm-hmm. You know, the whole reason behind all of this, my why is so that we can get out of debt, live a fuller, happier, more stress-free life.
Mm-hmm. It, I just can't even imagine what that's gonna be like. Like, I'm just so excited. Be great. I'll tell you. Yeah. You're like, trust me. Yeah. And like we ha I'm not saying we don't have more that we could do. We're kind of in a holding pattern right now as far as like, sure. Goals, you know? Yeah. I paid my car off, but then we bought my husband a truck recently.
Yeah. I'm not trying to hurry up and pay that off. Yeah. But that's not to say next year I'm not gonna kick it into gear and be like, sure, let's get this truck paid off. Yeah. Now we're just kind of enjoying, you know, he just put his job in October. Mm-hmm. So we're still getting the hang of him being home.
Um, The amount of money we're saving with him being home though is crazy. Like, he makes dinner every night, so we're not getting takeout because I'm tired after work. Yeah. Um, he does a ton of stuff that I was pre paying people to do previously. Yeah. Um, and so really, I mean, didn't really, it didn't really, it probably was a ended up being a wash.
Yeah. It kind of, it was close to it. Yeah. But not only that, your quality of lives have improved drastically. Exactly. That's the, that to me is. I mean, if we had to cut back a little bit, it was worth it, so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, um, in my last episode I was talking about how important it is whenever you're first starting your budget, if you are operating in the red.
Mm-hmm. A no spend can be a huge catalyst mm-hmm. To get you out of the red. Right. Because you. Like we said, you have to have a big why. If you don't have a big why, you're gonna fail. Right. You know? So if, if you are operating in the red, if you are in total debt, you cannot pay your bills. A no spend is a fantastic mm-hmm.
Tool to fix that problem. It takes discipline. Oh yeah. And so it's kind of hard to get used to, I'm sure. Mm-hmm. But also a relief, you know? Yes. The time I wasted shopping, scrolling, looking for things to buy. Yeah. Um, it allows you. Take the focus off of that like that. It's not a coincidence that 2021 was also a year that my business grew a lot.
Mm-hmm. I think it was because I took the distraction of shopping away and I wasn't even like a shopaholic. Yeah. Like I just was mindlessly buying things. Yeah. So taking that distraction away allowed me to focus on my business, and that was the year that I raised my prices. That was the year. Took an extension training.
Mm-hmm. Um, which, that's, you know, I also did extension training. Mm-hmm. And don't you think that that has just skyrocketed your business? Like, have, do you feel like it has helped substantially? Yeah. That, that. Double my income. Same. Yes. Me too. Extensions alone. Yeah. So maybe even nicheing down and finding mm-hmm.
Your true passion or finding an add-on like that to do in the salon. Yeah. Like that's a great opportunity too. Yes. It is a small investment at the beginning. Mm-hmm. Like how much did you pay for your extension training? Like 1500. Yeah. I, I get for people who are living paycheck to paycheck, that is a ton of money.
That's a stretch. That's a yes, but. I think I paid 4,200 for ibe. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. But worth it, I literally made it back within a month. Right. After doing my training. Exactly. And then doubled my income. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So if you're, if you are in a position to where you're like, I don't know how I'm gonna get these bills paid, investing in an extension training to.
Could turn everything around in a matter of a couple of months. Way faster. Yeah. Yeah. Like and it does, extensions aren't, they don't have to be your passion. Right. You just have to get good at 'em. It's taken me two years before I can really say like, okay, I, I think I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Your work.
You know what I'm doing. Beautiful. It's really beautiful. Yeah. Now it is. I just posted a picture the other day of my stitching when I started versus now, and I was like, I can't believe I had clients pay me to put these extensions in. Oh, that's hilarious. I firmly believe that, uh, extensions are what changed everything for me.
Yeah. So I think that would be, you know, we're really lucky because we're not dependent on a boss to give us a raise. Yes. We're not, depending on these outside things, we can literally go do it ourselves. It just takes a leap of faith. Yes. And I'm like, no, don't get yourself into a bunch of debt. But when it comes to that, if you are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you have to throw that extension training on a credit, Do it.
Just take everything you make from them. Yeah. And pay it off. They're smart debt and dumb debt. Right. You know? Yeah, for sure. And I'm like, do what you have to do. Yeah. Because Absolutely. Yeah. It did. It doubled my income. That, and I raised my prices that needed Yes. To be raised. Um, which I, I got with you.
Do you remember when I was in the middle of that and I was literally having like a freaking panic attack? Meltdown Uhhuh, because I just, that is such a hard, emotional thing. Mm-hmm. To like, it is. You know, and I lost like 50 people Right. But I gained mm-hmm. Some of the most amazing clients and they have absolutely no problem paying the price that I'm paying.
Exactly. I lost people too. Yeah. But I replace them. Yeah. Like, like people who like, uh, respect my time mm-hmm. And my prices. Yeah. And value me and Exactly. It's just crazy. Yeah. When you take that initiative, Of what can happen. Mm-hmm. But it is scary. I get that every time I do it. It's scary. Yeah. And I never wanna take that lightly because it is people's money and Absolutely.
Um, I always kind of look at what, what would I pay to get my hair done? Yeah. And I try to keep it around there. Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, that's the talk about kind of scary. Yeah. Well, and I was gonna say one more thing. So, you know how you were talking about how you like to shop a lot. Mm-hmm. Um, when before you did your nose spin and stuff.
Uh, I ended up doing a online boutique and it's drop shipping. Mm-hmm. And I was a major shopaholic. Right. And it has been so much fun because basically every morning they release new items and stuff. I'm basically like scrolling and shopping, but I'm adding them to my store. Oh, nice. Store instead of to my cart.
Yeah. And so that's another great doing the shopping high. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm getting the shopping high. Yeah. But I'm getting to offer it to other people. Nice. And that's also, it's only 1999 a month, um, for the Shopify account. Mm-hmm. And the drop shipping company that I'm using is free. So you don't have to invest in company.
There's no invest investments. There's no inventory that you have to keep. So if. Uh, shopaholic and you really enjoy that, but you're trying to like not spend. Mm-hmm. That's a fantastic option for some people to earn some passive income because Yes, you're adding it, you know, you're creating your store and then you're adding the items to your store.
Mm-hmm. But then you just collect the passive income off that. Yeah. You're not trading dollars for hours. So that's another really great tool, um, to get a little extra income coming in. Yeah. You just reminded me. We another tool that you could use if, you know, you're just trying to climb out of something.
Mm-hmm. It's kind of the same thing with hair products, you know? Yeah. Salon Service Group has, like, that's who runs our website for our retail at the salon. Mm-hmm. Um, it's basically the equivalent of drop shipping, you know? Oh, that's so cool. They make it look like. They put our logo on it, Uhhuh and everything, but clients are actually ordering from our distributor, having it shipped through our distributor.
We don't have to invest in anything that's so smart. And we make 30%. It's not the 50% you make whenever you've, you carry it, but you don't have to invest thousands and thousands in retail. And does that cost you anything a month? It cost me $60 a year. It's nothing. That's amazing. Yeah. And we have a little QR code and clients just scan it.
So if you're looking for a way to get some extra income Yeah. You know, find a salon service group rep or you know, I think most of the brands have their own affiliate links. Yes. And that way you can just passively That is genius. Yeah. I just need just, yeah. I'm like, cuz I sell some Kevin Murphy and stuff, which I'm all out and everyone's like, Hey, you got any of that Uhhuh, Kevin Murphy stuff?
And I'm like, you're gonna have to go to Andy. But you can do that too. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Get it like, it's so easy. Get a QR code, they scan it while they're here and it's at their house. SSG has two day shipping, so. Oh my gosh. Like Amazon's so awesome. They're gonna order online anyway. Yeah, yeah. They might, as you might as well, give them an, an outlet to shop, earn passive income off of it.
Yeah. Awesome. Well, I have enjoyed today so much. You too. And I feel like I learned so much myself, so I'm excited to like, go back and listen to this and like take notes. Yeah. Good. I could talk about this stuff all day. Well, I think it's great. You'll have to come back again. So. Cool. Um, I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode and I hope you guys also learned some actionable steps.
Uh, go follow Indie Salon and Alysia Merriman on Instagram. Can you tell us your handle on I. It's just Alicia Merryman. Okay, perfect. And then Indie Salon Joplin. Awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming today. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was just really great. So we'll see you guys later. Thank you for listening in today.
If you have a burning question or a topic you want me to cover, leave a review and ask the question in the review. This is the best way to get your questions answered. Just remember, you are a smart, wealthy stylist and you are capable of anything you set your mind to. I'll catch you later. Don't be a stranger.
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