Here's the big question: How can hair stylists go beyond the chair and create multiple streams of income? As a hairstylist and business owner myself, I've discovered a goldmine of overlooked opportunities just waiting to be exploited. I've tapped into the power of retail affiliate programs, commissions, and even QR code stickers to unlock a wealth of passive income. From navigating online retail, mastering the art of affiliate links, to sharing my personal experience with Goldilocks products, I'm unpacking all the secrets in this insightful episode.
But the treasure hunt doesn't end there! I'm also shining a light on how Amazon Storefronts, manufacturer-specific affiliate codes, and commission-based affiliate programs can become your steady cash cows. Let's not forget about the potential of online courses, webinars, and limited-time memberships as well. Plus, I'll guide you on how to offer subscription services to clients and how to leverage your expertise to provide specialized styling tutorials. It's time to level up your game and become not just the smartest, but the wealthiest stylist out there! Let's embark on this journey together and redefine what it means to be a successful hairstylist.
Here's the big question: How can hair stylists go beyond the chair and create multiple streams of income? As a hairstylist and business owner myself, I've discovered a goldmine of overlooked opportunities just waiting to be exploited. I've tapped into the power of retail affiliate programs, commissions, and even QR code stickers to unlock a wealth of passive income. From navigating online retail, mastering the art of affiliate links, to sharing my personal experience with Goldilocks products, I'm unpacking all the secrets in this insightful episode.
But the treasure hunt doesn't end there! I'm also shining a light on how Amazon Storefronts, manufacturer-specific affiliate codes, and commission-based affiliate programs can become your steady cash cows. Let's not forget about the potential of online courses, webinars, and limited-time memberships as well. Plus, I'll guide you on how to offer subscription services to clients and how to leverage your expertise to provide specialized styling tutorials. It's time to level up your game and become not just the smartest, but the wealthiest stylist out there! Let's embark on this journey together and redefine what it means to be a successful hairstylist.
Welcome to the smart, wealthy stylist podcast. I'm your host, emily Cardin. Over here. We're dedicated to helping hairstylists manage their finances, stay organized, healthy and manage their time and mental well-being. We focus on staying healthy in all areas of life and maximizing productivity. If you're a hairstylist looking for these things, then this is the podcast for you. Together, we'll avoid burnout and step into being the smartest, wealthiest and, the most important thing, we're going to be a stylist that we can be. What is up? smart, wealthy stylist family? I am so excited to be back on here again.
Speaker 1:
This episode is going to be over passive income. I really think that in the beauty industry, there are so many great opportunities for us to make extra money and not just working behind the chair. That's what I wanted today's episode to be over. What is passive income and how can you do it? Passive income is making income that's earned, that is not traded for hours. When you're working behind the chair, that's not considered passive income, because you're trading hours for dollars. Passive income is something that you do once and it continues to make you money over and over and over. Some examples of that could be commissions or retail affiliate programs, interest from investments, real estate, property. There's so many opportunities to earn passive income. Like I said, i really think that passive income is majorly overlooked in the beauty industry because a stylist were not taught about that. It's just something that we just kind of glance over.
Speaker 1:
What options do you have as a hair stylist and how can you do them? One of the most obvious is retail. I think that there's a ton of stylists that don't do retail sales and you're missing out on a huge chunk of money. However, i know for myself I don't like to keep a whole retail in stock because it's just me. I own my own salon, but I am a mini salon. It is just me in there. I don't have any other workers and it doesn't make sense for me to have a full retail line or it's just too much of an investment for me right now And I like to use all different kinds of products from all different kinds of places. So for me it would be such a huge waste of money because I don't use one single line and I don't use every single product in that line.
Speaker 1:
What I do is Ceylon Service Group out of Springfield, missouri, will actually make you an online store and you make 30% commission off anything that your clients buy off of your online store and then they have two day shipping available for them. So I have like a little QR code sticker that I made that goes on the back of these cards that they send you, and so on that card I will write my clients what they need. So you know, hair sprays or texture paste or shampoos, conditioners, whatever. I write what they need, i scan that little QR code and it takes them right to my website and then they just type the name of the product in the search bar and then it pops up, they add it to their cart, check out and it ships right to their house.
Speaker 1:
But what I also like to do is I do have my like top 10 products that I use all the time. I do have those in stock at the salon. I am a retailer of Goldilocks hair products and I absolutely love them. They're some of my very, very favorite of all time products And I keep the shampoo conditioner, dry shampoo, their hair serum, their leave-in spray, their smoothing paste, fly away stick and their supplements And then the other products that I carry. I also like Amica Percup Dry Shampoo and then I like Matrix Length Goals and Kendra Blow Dry Spray and Guts, root Boosting, moose. So those are a few things that are from very different brands, but I still like to have those in stock for my clients because those are what I use on the daily. I also sell wet brushes.
Speaker 1:
So you know, whenever you're selling retail to your clients, you're making 50%. So that's great, you know. But anytime you do an online, typically you're gonna make less of a percentage on your commission. So you're gonna make probably anywhere from 20 to 30% if you're doing something online. But the nice thing is is you don't have that upfront cost. And, like with the Salon Service Group page, you don't have any upfront cost. I think it's like $60 a year for them to do your website. So that's just amazing.
Speaker 1:
And then also Goldilocks, since I am a salon retail partner. Through them I don't have to keep their stuff in stock, just unless I want to, because I also have like an affiliate link. So the way that works is people go on to Goldilocks site, they shop under my affiliate code and then once a month I get a commission payout, so anyone that buys off of the Goldilocks website. Then the commissions are stored in a little bank account, essentially for me, and then at the end of every month, they just deposit that right into my PayPal account. So that is an awesome way to make some passive income.
Speaker 1:
And if you're posting regularly on social media your links to these things and then like, if you're using a product, tag the product you know and post that link to your page into that direct product, people are so much more likely to buy when they see you using it, trusting it, when your clients see you using it and trusting it, definitely don't sleep on selling retail. The only downside to selling online is people are more likely to purchase products from you when you have them at the store because they're like oh, my gosh, what did you use on me today That smells so good? And you're like oh, here it is, this is the serum that I used on you. It's great for blah blah, blah, blah, you know whatever. And they're like can I just go ahead and grab that from you? So impulse buying is definitely in your favor if you have retail in stock in your salon at all times. So you just kind of have to weigh your pros and cons. You don't have the upfront cost of, you know, keeping retail in your salon if you're shopping or if you're selling online. But if you're selling in store, yes, you do have that upfront cost, but your profit margins are greater and people are more likely to buy. So it's still just something to think about. And then you know the business side of that.
Speaker 1:
Just make sure that for your taxes, check your state and their laws. For Missouri, i have a merchant ID and a tax ID number and I track my products in my Vagaro app and I pay my sales tax quarterly along with my regular taxes. Your regular state sales tax and federal taxes do not cover your sales tax, so make sure that you are tracking your income from your retail sales separately from your actual income earned behind the chair. Okay, so moving on, this kind of goes hand in hand with this, because I talked a little bit about affiliate codes. So affiliate codes are where you are using a product or a brand that you love and the company gives you an affiliate code. Anytime someone uses your affiliate code to purchase those products, you make a commission off of that product. So, for example, i actually just today became an affiliate for Power Fit, which is the workout program I have done since 2019.
Speaker 1:
I love Power Fit. I love that. The founder, randa Caraba. She is so empowering towards women and she has an awesome podcast. All of her programs are focused around women empowering them, building them up with their self consciousness and their body. It's just so much gold information. And there's so many programs. There's, like I want to say, almost 15 workout programs and the cool thing about them is they have easy, intermediate and hard, and you also have at home or gym options So literally the sky's the limit. There's something for everyone. There's a program to do while you're pregnant, a postpartum healing program, there's some pretty hardcore like cardio ones. She has done some collaborations with nutritionists and other fitness influencers and I love all of her programs. I never get bored.
Speaker 1:
Like I said, i've been a member since 2019 and I still have not completed all of the programs and like all the levels and it's sky's the limit. So, but anyways, i became an affiliate through them and so, like, if you sign up for a yearly membership with small group coaching, you get all the nutrition stuff like the all inclusive, best of the best. Yearly membership for PowerFit It's $899. It is worth every single penny, trust me. And she also has an app now which is stellar. Timers are built in, so it makes your workouts super easy, but anyway. So you go into PowerFit and you purchase the yearly membership under my name. I earned 30% commission off of you buying that membership because you use my code. You are supporting me as well. So it's such a cool opportunity because people are going to be influenced by what you're doing and they want to partake in what you're doing too, especially if they're seeing results or you're showing off these products or whatever you're doing. People love it. They want to be a part of what you're doing, and so if you have an affiliate code, it makes them feel good, too, knowing that they're helping you out.
Speaker 1:
Another affiliate program that I was a part of is Bellamy. They have some hot tools that I really love. They have a beach waiver hot tool And I have a code through Bellamy, and so anytime people want to purchase hot tools through Bellamy, they can use my code and I earned 15% commission on those. You can do Amazon storefronts and you earn a percentage off of those And say, like that online store that you set up through Salon's service group, they don't have, they don't carry matrix, and I use a lot of matrix products I that's what I use when I went to cosmetology school. I love their color. I love their styling products, shampoos and conditioners. I love, like so silver shampoo. It's just an oldie but a goodie. They also, through those large manufacturers like L'Oreal, redken, matrix, all of those places offer affiliate codes So you can actually go in and sign up to be an affiliate And anytime someone shops a matrix product on matrix website you get a commission. So don't sleep on affiliate codes.
Speaker 1:
And you know, regularly posting what you love, why you love it, what your affiliate code is, people have to be reminded like 10 times what you're doing, what your codes are. You know people forget. I'm one of those people too. Like I just did a social media class online And I'm so glad that she was posting frequently about her class, because then it was like the day before the class and she was getting ready to raise the rate on the last day And I was like, oh my gosh, i gotta, i gotta buy that because you know I've talked about, like my debt journey and stuff. I don't have any of my card information saved on my phone for the reason of not impulse buying, so I didn't have my purse handy and I was like, okay, i'll do it later. You know well, i forget, and so I'm glad she posted again, because then I got my butt up off the chair and I went in there and got my card and enter my information and took my class.
Speaker 1:
But posting regularly about the things you love, sharing those links, letting people know what your codes are, is super, super helpful And people will purchase your products and you will get commission. So that is a great form of passive income, another one that is something that is just amazing and something that can add value to the community. If You are a hairstylist that likes to educate others, you might look into creating online courses. So through online courses and education or even webinars, like there's literally so many Opportunities that you can do online, you can do limited time memberships or you know, just create one online course and then Sell it inevitably. But having those online courses, people can purchase your online course, go through it at their own pace, and then you just create like a community Facebook page or something, and that passive income is serious. So Something I've done, like with smart, wealthy stylist I Am writing a book and I actually wrote the book, finished it and then sent it to a creative editor and after her input, i decided to completely restructure the book.
Speaker 1:
So stupid broke stylist is still majorly in the works and it is getting a major overhaul And I'm basically doubling the length of the book. So it may still be a while before I get that published out to you guys, but I'm doing the work. Once I will publish it on Amazon, amazon and then anytime someone purchases the book, that passive income comes into me. So it's nice because you're doing the work once or in my case, twice And then you're earning passive income off of that product. I created a budgeting tool for stylus and it's a budgeting tool and expense tracker and it is also published on Amazon. So I created that. People go on to Amazon, purchase it and then I get the passive income off that. I'm also creating a six-week course and there's a workbook that comes with it and you get the budgeting tracker. So when people purchase that I, it's it's reoccurring income, so they purchase it and then they're put into a support group page and they work through this class. So I created all this stuff once and then get to continue to get income off of those every time a new person purchases the course.
Speaker 1:
If you're not into educating stylus, you could also do something similar for your clients. You could do like a monthly subscription to you know, styling tutorials or I mean there's there's a lot of different things and You know finding something that you're really good at that people praise you for that. Your clients are like, oh my gosh, i've never had anyone do my hair. You know, do this or that. Capitalize on that. You know, offer people your insight or your information around something that you're really really good at, because there are There is so much free education, you know, on YouTube and all those places. So by having something that is, you know, really special, you can prioritize that and Create that into an online course or an online source for education For your clients. Even. I've also heard of stylists who are building their clientele do like monthly subscription services and They can do like, you know, for $50 a month. They get to blow dry styles a month or you know whatever, and they just drop by Whenever they're ready for their blow dry style, or they can book online when they have online booking capabilities, and so that's an awesome way to get past them and come rolling in too. You can do color packages. You could do all sorts of stuff within that monthly subscription. So that's also something to think about if you're building your books, because I know whenever you're established, that could get really tricky.
Speaker 1:
Another one could be brand partnerships. So this isn't necessarily passive income, but it's greatly reducing your cost behind the chair, which you know affects your bottom line essentially anyway. So with brand partnership, by posting on social media the products that you're using, a lot of times brands will pick you up and say, hey, i will send you free foils and bleach if you post 10 times a month about our products or whatever. So brand partnership doesn't pay you to do their products or to post their products or use their products, but they will give you their products for free in exchange for you publicly posting about how much you love their products, how you use their products regularly.
Speaker 1:
People trust people. People want to see other stylists doing what they're doing or what they're wanting to do. They trust a stylist will trust another stylist before they trust you know some random person or something they read online Like. They want to see other stylists using a product, loving the product, how to use the product, how to implement it. You know They want to see the nitty gritty behind the scenes How are you using this product? And then, whenever they see you using it and loving it, they're gonna say, oh, i want that product too. I love those foils. Oh my gosh, those are so cute. Or you know, that is the Bollayage board for me. That is perfect. So brand partnerships are a really great opportunity to greatly reduce the amount of money that you're spending behind the chair And like hair extension artists. There's a lot of extension companies that are all about you know, wanting to give you free hair in exchange for you using their products. So that would be a huge money saver for hairstylists and especially extension specialists. And last but not least is investment interest in rental properties. So even as a hairstylist, you can have savings in your business accounts.
Speaker 1:
I implement Profit First and I have a savings account for my business. I call it Profit Hold, and anything that I put in that Profit Hold account right now I'm using to pay off debt. So every quarter, whenever I pay my taxes, i have this set aside in my Profit Hold account. I take my Profit Hold account and I sock all that money on debt And then 1% of that I treat myself. Usually it's just enough to buy myself a cup of coffee, but needless to say, it is still something that I'm doing for myself. It's a little thank you gift to myself for putting money into savings.
Speaker 1:
But once all my debt is paid off which we are well on our way I'm so proud of my husband and I for how far we've come. Which a little update since October of 2022, we have almost paid off $45,000 in debt, so I am just so thrilled and happy. Right now we're working on some of his debt that he has, and then I still have two credit cards left in his tractor and then we will be debt free. So we're on a five year path to being debt free, including our home, and it's just really exciting stuff. So once we get our consumer debt all paid for, we are gonna focus on getting six months worth of savings into our savings account. So like back to my business. So just had to share that with you guys because I want you to know you can do it too. It's possible, we're doing it And I wanna encourage you. So, anyway, moving on.
Speaker 1:
So in my Profit Hold account, once we're done paying off debt, i will use a high yield savings account through my Edward Jones guy, who I do like my Roth IRA through. They have a 5.1% interest rate account. So what would happen is I would put all the money that I'm putting into my Profit Hold account into that account and it just sits there and builds interest So they pay me for keeping my money in there. So say you have six months worth of savings in your Profit Hold account and for you and your family it costs you $12,000 a month to live. So that's your mortgage, car payments, whatever it is, your business expenses. It's good to have about six months of living expenses in savings, just in case of an emergency. So say it's $12,000 a month for you to live six months, that's $72,000. So say you had $72,000 in the bank and they're paying you 5.1% interest. That is $3,672 a year that they pay you just for having your money in savings there And when that money is paid out monthly, that will pay you $306 a month.
Speaker 1:
So think if you had like $250,000 in an interest accruing savings account, that is some serious passive income You can make bank off of having money in an interest accruing savings account, or a money market account is another name for those. So if you have money just sitting in the bank, even if it's $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, find you an Edward Jones person or somebody or you know any high yield savings account there's. You know PayPal has one that's like 4.3%, i think. No minimums, no fees, check all that stuff. But having an interest accruing or a money market account is a great way to make monthly income off of just your money sitting there. And another one would be like rental properties.
Speaker 1:
So anytime you go into salon ownership, it should not be for profit. When you go into salon ownership, you should think about creating a space where stylists can thrive and live their best lives and really give them a beautiful place to live and grow and just have their best craft in mind. So by saying that you can make 30% profit to profit, so that's like very best of the best. Or say you could save up enough money to pay cash for a place or you know, even half down or whatever, and then do booth rental. Just having a beautiful place for stylists to come and really enjoy working there is crazy. So there's so many people that I've been following recently that have totally up the salon ownership game. There's a lady named Erin for Z and she owns Heyday Collective Salons. You'll have to go look them up. The place is just absolutely beautiful. I love what she's doing. I love what she stands for And you know, if you created a salon space like that, it would just be amazing for the stylists and for the clients and you would be able to charge more for your rent.
Speaker 1:
So if you had a booth rental situation and say your rent or mortgage for that salon is $3,000 a month and you have 10 spaces available and let's say these spaces are just really nice sized, maybe even big enough for two people, and you're charging, let's say, a hundred a month, so that's $8,000. Then you subtract out what you spent for your mortgage and utilities, so that's $3,000. So you're left with $5,000 a month in income. That's if you're doing booth rental. So you know the profit potential there is pretty significant. So having that ability to spot a good investment opportunity when you can utilizing your money to grow for you, utilizing it in the right places and spaces, can be huge for you.
Speaker 1:
And you know I really enjoy this episode because it's so eye-opening to kind of see all the opportunities in every aspect. You know in salon ownership and you know affiliate marketing and retail. It's there's so many opportunities in this industry and I'm just so glad to be a part of this industry because there's so many amazing people, opportunities, places to go, things to see in this career And it's just exciting to me. I feel like you know I've already done this for 13 years, but I feel like I'm just getting started, so I hope that this episode was enlightening and gave you some ideas on how you could ramp up your income by utilizing passive income. So let me know on social media, send me a DM, share this episode to your stories.
Speaker 1:
I would love to see that you guys are listening and that you're enjoying what you're hearing. And if you think of any podcast topic that you want covered, send me a message on Instagram. I would absolutely love to answer whatever questions that you guys have And if I don't know the answer, i'll find someone who does. So I hope you guys have a great day and I will talk to you next week. 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. Be a stranger.