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Salon owners, this is your last call. The Next Level Salon workshop starts today. And if you're an employee based salon owner who is tired of shrinking margins, tired of trying to motivate your team, tired of bending over backwards to increase demand, today is the very last day to secure your seat. Over the next three days, I'm handing over the exact system that salons are using right now to generate half a million dollars or more annually, pay uncapped emissions to their entire team, and have stylists lining up to work for them and CL lining up to get into the salon. This is all starting today. The doors closed today. Get registered right now@ thriving stylist.com next level salon and I'll see you in there. Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick ass career as a hairstylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen. Maybe you're struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe, you know, social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren't seeing any results. Maybe you've already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you're ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer. Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you're ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists. I'm Brit Siva, social media and marketing strategist, just for hairstylists. And this is the Thriving Stylist podcast. What is up and welcome? Welcome back to the Thriving Stylist podcast. I'm your host, Britt Siva and this is a bonus episode for everybody. So you already got an episode this week. You're getting this as a second episode. This was not an episode that we planned. This is an episode that came out of necessity. And I'll give you a little bit of context. So on July 1, 2026, my team and I made an Instagram post and you can still find it on the feed. The graphic says uncapped commissions will be the salon standard within three years. I do believe that to be true based on actually the conversations we're seeing with salon owners right now over the past two weeks. I think it'll be faster than that. But I think three years is, is, you know, close enough. Within the next three years, we're going to see a radical shift. I think within the next 18 months as well. So that post we made, there's no way we could have predicted what would have happened with it. We couldn't have designed it, we couldn't have wished for it. It took on a life of its own. To date, at the time of this recording, it has 260 shares, 461 comments. We got hundreds of DMS and emails on the back of that post with people wanting to understand more people questioning how that would work. I completely understand why that post created such a buzz. It's a combination of exciting and quite frankly, scary. Because what we did is probably for the first time ever, in a very bold, very transparent way, we put a label to this feeling that's kind of going on in the industry. The ground is shaking underneath us. If you're a salon owner, you know what I'm talking about. A lot of salons, I mean coast to coast, you can look at other educators, pages, not even my own, are reporting salon closures all over the us, Canada, beyond. I mean, the UK is experiencing it at scale too. When you look at the pressure on salon owners, it is mounting. And when you look at why that's happening, I think it's a combination of things. People are blaming the economy. You are looking the wrong direction, friends. Is the economy harder than it was three, four, five, six years ago? Yes and no. I mean, we've been going through economic ups and downs for quite a while here at this point. But the reason why salons are closing and the reason why salon owners are struggling is not to do with the economy. What is actually happening is there's been an elevation in the industry. And what's ironic is it's something that we've all asked for, we've all begged for. We want our industry to be more respected, we want to all make more money. We want to be seen as professionals, we want our clients to treat us properly. We want to be able to provide a living, we want to be profitable. Salon owners want to be able to sell their salon one day. Like we want to do all the things that other small businesses are doing. And that is fair. That's what I'm all about too. And I think most coaches in this industry are all about. We can't have that, but then do all the silly, wonky things in the back end that have been normalized in this industry. Like you can't just pick and choose what we're willing to change to get the outcome that we want to have. When you look at the way most salons Operate in the back end. It is so weird in comparison to how any other business, any other industry runs, whether it be a trade, whether it be, you know, a more traditional job, commission based roles like, like, when you look at anything else, nothing on the back end operates like a salon. And we're like, I know, that's what makes us special. No, that's what makes us slow. Like, no, that's what makes us small. We've glorified it, but it's unusual and it's a huge part of why this industry struggles so hard. And when we made that post, we're challenging an industry norm. The industry norm is sliding scale commissions capped at anywhere between 45 and like, it's nice, you'll go up to 50, 55% and then old school coaching, old school mentality says, and that's it, there's nothing more to give except for that for years we've coached to an alternative and seen profit margins soar, seen salon owners be able to do things that weren't even possible before. So it's not the truth that we've seen or we've experienced or the salon owners we've coached to have experienced. So there has to be another way. And the irony is too, when we made that post and as we coach in thriving leadership, we are pushing back against a model that is starting to fail in real time. I want you to ask yourself, do you think our industry right now is thriving or struggling? You know, I think that there's some amazing salons that are doing really, really well. And that's wonderful, you know, more of that, please. But when you look at the industry at scale, and if you look at even some of the comments on that post, the average salon today is struggling with a profit margin of 5% or less. So how can we in one moment say, well, you can't change the compensation method. This is the best there is. But then on the flip side, look around at our industry and watch it like struggle and sink and watch salons close and owners complaining that they have no margin and this wasn't even worth it in the first place. Like, at what point are we going to challenge the system? At what point are we going to stop blaming the stylists? At what point are we going to stop blaming the clients? At what point we're going to stop blaming the economy and say, maybe the call is coming from inside the house. Maybe there is something wrong with my structure here because not all salons are struggling. And I'm not saying changing compensation is the only way to find success. Sure, you could radically increase demand. I don't think that you'll find the profit margin with that, but you could certainly increase revenue without a shadow of a doubt. What I'm saying is, structurally, salons running away, that no business advisor would come in off the street and be like, oh, my gosh, you know what you should do? This is an amazing way to run a business. When you look at the nuts and bolts of it and the way that we pay our people and the way that we fill our chairs and the way that things operate start to finish, it is so bizarre. And what we're trying to do in thriving leadership is like, normalize and run salons like successful, scalable businesses run. But because we've been such a special snowflake industry for so long, when we talk like that, it starts to sound uncomfortable. So what I want to do with this episode is do things a little bit differently. This is not going to be a usual podcast. Usually you come on here, you hear only my voice. That's not what's going to happen today. I have a couple of thriving leadership members who have been using our profit priority compensation method. You're going to hear audio clips from them. They'll share what it's been like and how it's shaken out and all the things you're going to hear from them in just a moment. I'm also going to share with you a clip from the Bootcamp Day 3 lesson that actually dropped today for our members explaining our theory behind this method and why we decided to do this. I'm going to be fully candid with you. I did not set out as a business coach to create a new way of paying stylists. This was created out of necessity. I have gotten to look at the back end p. LS of thousands of salons at this point. I have watched salons scale. I have watched salons close. I have looked at the different paths and seen why these things happen. And I've noticed the patterns. And what we found is if we can shift compensation to a model that protects profit for the owner and still pays stylists in ways that they've never been compensated before, everybody wins. And when everybody wins, the business explodes and it works. So I didn't say, okay, let's create some kind of new compensation method. This was built out of necessity because it was like a way in real time, we were able to watch salons, like, turn a corner. That's how this was born. So I'm gonna share with you the logic behind it. And how we got here. In this little clip, I'm gonna share what I can't do well on this podcast and it's kind of why I've not done it before. We did another episode on Uncapped Commissions a few weeks back and people were left with a lot of questions. To show you how we do this visual is super important. We pull up a budget and a spreadsheet and you look at what the compensation calculator does and how it works and what the paychart looks like. I can try to explain all those numbers verbally. It is one of those things that's easier to understand when you can see it. And I will continue to try to translate as best as I can just through words without you looking at real numbers or me rattling off, you know, 25 numbers and you trying to memorize and keep along with me. I think that's a kind of a confusing way to explain the visual helps a ton. Bootcamp for this season is closed, so you can't jump in now and re register. However, we do have another free 90 minute training. There's a couple sessions of it scheduled and they're coming up in the next few weeks. So if you want to sign up for that, you can head to thriving stylist.com salonblueprint and save a seat. For there we have a few dates a few times, so find the one that works for you. In that free class we will show you visuals and a breakdown and I'll show you a side by side comparison of paying, you know, a stylist a traditional sliding scale versus using our profit priority method. We showed the full breakdown and full visual so if you want to be able to see it, you can head there thrivingstylist.com forward/salonblueprint and save your seat. What I want to do as best as I can through this podcast share with you some real salon owners stories, voices. You can hear it from them so you're not hearing it from me. I am going to share with you that clip from the boot camp to give some context as to why we created this method. And then I'm going to go into some FAQs and answer some of the most commonly asked questions. So here I'm going to cut to a clip of today's lesson in the bootcamp that gives a little context to how our compensation method came to be. Here we go. What is up salon owners? Welcome back to our most important day of Bootcamp Day 3, the Motivation Engine Uncapped commissions designed for profit. After our week Together, you should already be very well aware that if you're still waiting for your stylist to fill their own books, paying sliding scale commissions of 35 to 49%, stressed about what to post on Instagram to get more clients and stylist applications, it is time for a new plan. And we are going to show you the crux of that plan today. Now, as a reminder, the framework and the methodology that we're using this week in boot camp and that I coach to always for salons that I'm working with is our thriving leadership iceberg. Now, because we're digging into compensation, you'll see that this hits a huge chunk of the iceberg dream team opportunity, hiring, competitive advantage, growth paths and plans, and financial foundations. Here's the reality that most salons have never been shown, shared or realized. Most salons are operating on a nonprofit compensation plan. Most salon owners offer 35% to 50% tiered commissions because that's what everybody else is doing. So if everybody else is doing it, stylists aren't going to be able to find anything better. So, good enough. These structures overpay underperformers, which gives the feeling of drowning month after month. But the owner doesn't realize why that's happening, so they can't put their finger on it. With tiered commission structures, when top talent leaves the salon, the owner ends up in a financial bind. I want you to think about your salon and imagine what would happen if your two highest performers walked away tomorrow. And if you're one of the top performers, I want you to imagine what would happen if you stopped doing hair tomorrow and your other top performer stopped doing hair tomorrow. How would the salon finances look? Probably pretty scary. Owners end up in a loop of needing to hire but not being able to afford to build the team profitably. I want to show you a really powerful visual of why that happens. Here's where your profit really goes in the traditional commission profit trap. So we know instinctually that the hourly and new team members operate at a loss. They're critical to growth, but there's no profit being generated. So this is going to be your newest stylists, your assistants, and for a new stylist, you're probably filling their chair or hoping that they at some point do, but you're supporting them with an hourly wage. And then for a assistant, yes, they're supporting usually a high performing stylist. And we say, well, it increases that stylist capacity, but usually the increase is enough to compensate that stylist, cover the overhead and then potentially pay the wage of this new assistant. So even then, there's no real profit margin. It's just successful to the growth forward in the company. So it's going to be a loss to you. Then we have our low producers. This is a really sneaky category. So when we look at low producing stylists, it's usually the stylists who are doing anywhere from a thousand to $3,500 a month in services. In any salon team, generally, there is no profit generated. I'm going to show you a visual on that. That's going to be really shocking. Then we have our mid producers. In most salons, this represents the largest group of stylists on the team by volume, not necessarily by revenue, but by bodies behind the chair. Most stylists in the average salon are more like mid producers. So they're doing more than $3,500 a month in services, but less than six figures. So there's somewhere between $3,500 and $10,000 a month in services. Most of these stylists are generating at around a 4 to 7% profit margin. Then we have our last category, which is the high producers. If you're a salon owner still behind the chair, you fall into this category. Your stylists who are approaching six figures or are already at or above six figures in annual production, are at this level as well. You can turn a 30% plus profit margin on this person, sometimes a 40 or 50 or 60% profit margin on this person. Like, the money really grows. And so when you look at traditional salon commission models, that's the money shot, because you need those high producers to cover everybody else's payroll. So what happens is that your best stylist subsidize your lowest stylists, but not enough to turn a meaningful profit. Your top producers end up in a loop where they're funding the rest of the team. It doesn't make up for the overall minimal margin. So margins stay slim, and the salon always feels fragile. Here at Thrivers, we believe that the highest performers with the most impact in the most scaled schedule should be rewarded at an endlessly high rate. This is what we call the performance impact compensation method. Okay, so right after that part of the bootcamp lesson, we really got into the visuals and the comparison and the breakdown, and we ran the numbers, and I pulled up a budget calculator, and we look at how the pay chart shakes out, which, again, little tough to do on a podcast episode. So I'm going to shift gears here, and I want you to Hear stories from two salon owners who run Profit Priority Compensation Method and what it's looked and felt like for them. So first we're going to hear from Kimber Chapman. Kimber is the owner of Tone Salon in Indiana. She's been running Profit priority method since 2024 and she says she's had nothing but success ever since. Here's Kimber.
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My name is Kimber Chapman and I own Tone Salon in Fortville, Indiana. We introduced Profit Priority compensation method in 2024 in full and have had nothing but success ever since with this method. We love this way of compensation because stylists have full transparency in knowing that they only have one KPI tied to their commission compensation. And we have an easy to interpret chart so that they know exactly the revenue they need to hit to get to their wealthy life. A lot of our stylists have trauma from level systems and never being able to quite level up due to not having all of the confusing metrics line up just perfectly. Because of this, stylists end up falling off because they don't know where to focus. With just one metric to focus on, they are able to go further faster because they're not constantly chasing cheese at the end of a maze. But they know exactly where to find the cheese and how.
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Thank you so much, Kimber. And if y' all aren't following Tone Salon on Instagram, you are absolutely missing out. So go give a follow. She's amazing. Next we have Nikita Merrell. Nikita is actually a nail salon owner out of Michigan. Nail salons run on notorious low margins. I want you to hear her explain how the Profit Priority Compensation Method was one of the best things she's ever done for the growth of her company. So here's Nikita.
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Hello, my name is Nikita and I own Nail Addicts in Clinton Township, Michigan. My experience rolling out the Profit Compensation method has honestly been one of the best things that I've ever done for the growth of my company and my team. Working with Britt and her team and having a structured plan that holds me accountable to prioritizing profit and budgeting has been huge for us. It's crazy to say, but it was almost easy because of the level of support that you get if you show up for your business. You follow the systems and the structure that they give you. You're getting data driven tactical implementation that changes how you run your business. As a nail salon owner, I brought these systems into my industry and watching them work just as powerfully in my space has been incredible. I've always run a profitable business. But now I'm not just profitable, I'm intentional. I know exactly what each chair needs to produce, what my budgets are, and where every dollar goes before the month starts. I've always believed I was a great business owner, but after implementing these systems, I can say that I'm a great leader now. And that's the difference. The way this has impacted me and my team really comes down to accountability and transparency. Prioritizing profit and growth actually holds myself accountable in a different way than it has been before. And it's been a game changer for me. But the biggest impact has been for my team. When a team member comes to me and they say that, for example, they want to make more money, we can now sit down, we can tie in their actual numbers in their funnels, and we can show them where they need to be to hit the results that they want. My salon's been open for nine years and I knew that I had to change something about how I showed up for my business and how I supported my team. And thriving leadership was exactly what I needed. Another thing that I really love about it is that you show up and you have a real community of people to learn from that have been where you are and at one time or another we're struggling with the same things and they're there to support you and the coaches who are there to hold you accountable, they're going to hold you accountable instead of telling you what you want. So at the end of all this, I'd love to say thank you British to you and your team because being part of this community has been life changing.
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Thank you so much, Nikita and I wanted to share with you her story because A she's an inspiration but B to showcase that this method simply works. It's not just special snowflake for a salon. Any service based business would easily put this into play and see real amazing results with it. It simply works. It's based on math, it's based on profitability, it's smart business sense. So now I want to get into some of the FAQs so this first one is publicly commented. On that post that I was referencing, the salon owner says, I've seen this mentioned but I wonder how it's different from old school salons that would offer 60% plus commission but deduct cost of business from the pay offering. High commissions is a dream, but I want to make sure it's all on the up and up. This is legal, it's on the up and up. There is no product cost deduction. There's no back bar usage deduction, there's no deduction at all. So if a stylist signs their compensation agreement, which just a tip there, all stylists should be on a compensation agreement. And anytime you change a stylist compensation, their commission split goes up, their commission split goes down, they shift from hourly to commission, whatever, they have to sign a new compensation agreement. So we'd have them sign their compensation agreement. Let's say a stylist was promised 52% commissions. That's what they're getting paid. So if they do $100 in services, they make $52 on it. It's just clean math. It's not tricky. There's no backend deduction, there's no funky stuff happening. If the stylist was making 68% commission on the hundred dollar service, they would take 68 bucks and the salon would keep what does that end up being? $32. So it's not tricky math, it's simple math. I don't like that either. The whole product cost thing, the back bar deduction thing, whether it be legal or not, it's just misleading. And anytime you have a compensation method that's misleading, it's like asking for resentment, asking for frustration, asking for stylist to leave, to be totally candid. So no, there's no funny stuff like that. Now another owner says on this same post, you can see this one publicly too. Have you factored in employer paid health benefits, PTO 401k with a match, advanced education, staff gifts, et cetera, all with the extra client amenities that are expected now? If so, how do the numbers make sense? With the high rent, luxury product lines, increasing employer costs, credit card fees, et cetera, are you coaching to certain pricing increases, structure while increasing commissions to and have all these other expenses. So going to the first part of that question, have we factor in employee paid health benefits, PTO 401k with a match, advanced education, staff gifts, amenities, blah blah, blah?
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Yes.
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Yep. Before we get into compensation, what we do is we create a balanced budget. When you look at payroll cost, the budget allocation is 45% of expenses or less. So it's balanced. Like pretty much a traditional salons. Accounting is generally balanced. We still follow all of the same fairly standardized guidelines. That part's not off. You factor in the benefits that you're offering. Every salon does a different benefits packages. It's not a cookie cutter compensation method. And I think that's also why it works. I think you work with a lot of coaching companies where it's like perfect. Everybody does this. It's plug and play. Just works for everyone. But how could that possibly be true when to this salon owner's point, rents are different in all different parts of the country. Payroll laws are different in all different parts of the countries. Retail lines, benefits, it's all different. So how could it just be one standardized method that works for all? It can't possibly be. Our method is not to say every single person does it like this. This is the commission range. This is the scale, this is the slide. These are the KPIs the stylist has to hit. Well, no, we take a look at the salon we're coaching and the services that they're offering and the price points that they're working at, and we create the model that fits them. But commissions are always uncapped. The things that stay the same and standardize are. A stylist always starts at an hourly wage. There's a tipping point where they shift to commission and then we don't have to cap those commissions. If somebody's a super high producer doing a quarter of a million dollars a year in services, why would they be capped at 47% commission? There's just this logical piece that doesn't make sense. And that only has to happen if, kind of like we shared in that Bootcamp audio clip, there's other financial issues going on in the business. Then this owner says, are you coaching to a certain pricing increase structure while increasing commissions too? No, we look at pricing increases different than commission increases. I want you to zoom out for a second and think of any other business. So if you're selling a product or selling a service, how much you charge the market, or how much the market is willing to bear, or how much the target client is willing to pay, or what the perception of what the investment should be. However, you want me to say that what the client is willing to pay for a service versus what a stylist should be paid for that service are two totally different conversations. They're not related. I understand that if so much money doesn't come in from a client, you can't just pay more than you've received. That part I understand, but that's the profit. That's the math. We work all of that part out. But charging the client and paying the stylist are two totally different conversations. And so no, those two things don't go hand in hand for us at any point in the coaching. They're evaluated differently and earned completely differently as well. Here's another comment also from that same post, this owner says, if anyone has done this successfully, I generally love to hear how it works because the math doesn't make sense to me at all. Especially as a salon owner with five stylists, two of whom are still building a clientele and eight chairs. I absolutely believe stylists should be paid well. And I offer a multi tiered commission structure that rewards higher sales. However, I also know lots of salons barely making 5% profit and a heartbreaking amount are running at a loss and racking up debt. Completely agreeing on that part. If I only had 30% to cover expenses, we would be toast. Our rent alone is 12 to 15%. I could see this working if you have a huge salon, but what about us little guys? No, this works. It doesn't matter the salon size. The salon size is irrelevant. The compensation models that work best with large salons are the multi tiered sliding scale commissions because of the reasons that we shared in that bootcamp clip. So, no, this method works great for a small salon, medium sized salon, a big salon, the size doesn't actually matter. And I think this is where a lot of the misunderstanding comes from. In no way are we suggesting that 70% of the revenue gets paid out to the stylist. We didn't say increase your payroll margin to be 70%. What we said was commissions can be earned uncapped. And a stylist who's just starting out, of course, is not going to make a commission of 50, 55, 60, 65, 70%. Of course not. I'm not suggesting that either. But what I'm saying is when you look at salons with fragility and the fact that most salons are always scared that their highest producer is going to go or wonder when their, you know, two top stylists are going to go open up a booth rental salon somewhere, or, you know, the salon owner stays working behind the chair for decades because if they step away, the salon collapses. That is fragile. And that's how most salon financial structures are set up. That's what we are undoing. We're taking a look at a healthier way to run the business and all the parts and pieces of doing that. And when that structure is in place, uncapped commissions do become possible. And I want to read you the end of that comment because I think it's really important. This owner says, I would love to offer more to my girls, and I can't see how you keep the doors open with that model. That's the piece that for me always comes through and if stylists are listening to this, I want you to hear this part. Most salon owners I talk to are already bleeding out for their team. They want to give their team as much as they possibly can. They really care for the people who work for them, but they are at their wit's end. They are maxed out. They're overwhelmed. The bookkeeping is bonkers. They feel like they're drowning. And they. It does not feel like there is more to give. I understand that part. And that's why, when you join thriving leadership, step one is not let's change your compensation model. We have 12 different modules that we go through in Thriving Leadership. And one of the things we talk about in Bootcamp is the implementation. So in Implementation, we do a freeze, thaw, shift, cadence. So we take a look at the foundations of your business and your structure. First, we evaluate what we have. We talk to the team, we understand where your finances are at today. Then we go into the thaw, which is like. Think of it as like a melt. We start to slowly implement some things that will take the business in a positive direction. Once we have that forward momentum, that's when we make the shift and the structure comes into play. But your team is ready. They're not scared. Like, when you talk about changing somebody's money, even if it's like, but you could make more when you change somebody's money, it's scary. Even when I'm talking about you changing your compensation structure, it's scary. So we're already feeling the fear by the time we get to shift. You're not scared. You're super educated. We've run the numbers. You have the framework, the structures there. We know it's going to work and you're confident and it works. So the reason I share this is I don't like when the industry is living in a state of fear. I don't like when fear mongering is happening out there. I think that because this is new and because we're challenging the norm, there's a lot of voices out there who are saying it's impossible, but it's not possible because we have hundreds of leaders who are doing it. And one of the things I share in the Bootcamp, I show a post that Modern Salon made some, you know, a salon paid Modern Salon to advertise openings for them, offering 70% commissions. Like, it's just coming. So if we don't talk about the fact that the industry is pivoting this way, owners will be left behind. We can't just stick our head in the sand and say well this is how we've always done it. This industry has always been one of struggle. At some point we have to say what can we do different? How can we challenge the norms? What can we do to put an end to this industry's most common problems so that salon teams can grow and thrive for decades and become successful, viable, profitable businesses? So just a little bit of food for thought. I'm certainly still have more questions. My team and I are always here to help. If this is a conversation you're not ready for, that's totally okay. That's totally okay. Wait and see what happens. I'll be here. My team will be here. We're ready to support however we can. We can always find me in the DMs and Instagram. I'll leave this one by just saying so much love. Happy business building and I'll see you on the next one. Sam.