Phorest FM Episode 307: Ross Loveland On Why Most Salons Make Money But Still Struggle To Survive

Episode Transcript

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Ross, thank you so much for joining us on PhorestFM. I appreciate the time we I feel have been meant to connect. Like Joe introduced us by email a little before Christmas, we actually met at the summit in person. I’m really, really happy that we were able to make the time today. So thanks for joining me.

Ross Loveland:
Thanks, Alex, I’m really happy to be here.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
I love it. So I’m going to kick off this conversation with perhaps getting you to go back in time. You spent years at this point helping salon owners figure out their finances. Was there ever a moment within that journey where you were like, yeah, this is it. This is why I do this.

Ross Loveland:
That’s a great question. That’s a great question. I think one of my early ones was when I was working with this, this wonderful salon beauty business. Uh, they were doing awesome things.

They had reached a great point in terms of their revenue and their growth, but they were just struggling so much to handle their cash and they actually reached a point where they had over a hundred thousand dollars in their credit cards alone. But they’re also like taking out square loans and like QuickBooks loans and all these things to like stay on top of payroll and try to keep things going. So, working with them, implementing different systems, like we even created, like a debt tracker together, we also use profit first, such a powerful framework for managing your cash. The day that they paid off their last credit card that was like the biggest high ever felt so amazing and I was so proud of them. Like obviously they put in the work, yeah, but to be part of that journey and to guide them through that, uh, that was. That was pretty monumental for me.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Amazing, how long did you work with them?

Ross Loveland:
So again, they did have like some really awesome things going in terms of revenue, which helped a lot. Like they were in the million, like I think they were around a million and a half in revenue about a year and a half. Oh, wow, that’s not that long, it’s really not. They truly laser focused on that goal and dedicated themselves to it, also through some pricing changes and some expansion, we increased profitability.

That’s the reality of business. If you want to pay down debt, you have to be profitable. If you’re not profitable, you can’t be paying down debt. Like that’s just the math. It just doesn’t work. And so doing those things and then just just pounding that extra money at that profitability, at those, they just knocked them out.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Amazing. Well, as we’re on the topic of transformation, let’s say, like you meet a salon owner who who’s just about reaching their breaking point, like what’s the first thing you do in the meeting that you have with them, like they’re for the first kind of call, because I’m like, whenever you’re talking about money, financials, like there’s a lot of emotions also that come into play. So I’m assuming I can only imagine conversations being quite heavy, even just like emotionally energy speaking yeah.

Ross Loveland:
So there’s two, two main things that I do. One brings a little bit of that light and the other actually is sinking into that hardness a bit. So that first, that first thing is really going back for them, like what has been your journey in this beauty industry? Like tell me about the things that you did, like usually there’s some amazing things that they did, and like this, like celebrity stylists that they worked under, or this incredible achievement they accomplished. And then why did you start your business? Like what? What was the dream, what was the vision?

What got you really excited, like why did you leave what’s like comfortable of working for someone else, uh, and made you like take that leap because that can be really scary yeah and so that usually like brings a little bit of of light and a little like kindling a little bit of that passion again.

Then the second thing that we do is again like this can actually be hard is we really deep dive and we review where they’re at right now. We shine a light on their business and it’s going to show the things that are going well, but, really importantly, it’s going to show the things that they’re not doing well, like why are they struggling? Why are they at the breaking point? There are reasons for that and there are five pillars to salon success that I teach, and the very first one is what we call financial clarity. So that’s what we’re doing: we’re bringing financial clarity.

It can be really hard for people to look at that, to see it, and sometimes it is a similar picture to what in that example I shared before, where they might see, like our revenue is pretty good, like we’re bringing in good money but we are just wasting it. It is just like, at the end of the day, we’re losing money, like we’re bringing all this money and we’re losing money. Yeah, and it can be really hard to face that, to face the music, but it’s also so important. Usually, the reason they’ve gotten to this point in their business is because they’ve been very reactionary, constantly putting out fires running from one thing to the next, and so we want to take that time to pause, to really look at things. Then we’re ready to work and take some action.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
So you mentioned one of the things that can happen as to why people would be reaching that breaking point. You know, running around putting out fires and stuff, not having the time to like just actually assess. I’m sure that there are some people who just there’s too much fear associated, like you know that something is like not going well and you’re like I I’ll deal with that another day, kind of thing. Are there other classic kind of buckets that people fall into when it comes to financial hardships when they come to you?

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, I think this is pretty common in this industry that we as salon owners are taught so little about business.

We don’t know about the finance side of things. We don’t even know very much know about the finance side of things. We don’t even know very much about the business management side of things. Everything we’re taught typically comes from the salon owners that we worked under, the things that we learned from them, and so there are actually a tremendous amount of mistruths or myths that get perpetuated in this industry, because that’s kind of how we’re learning. It’s just like through this word of mouth and through this, through the grapevine, and so these different ways of like how I should pay my team or how I should set up incentives it could be anything around my pricing Like that’s a really common one Like a lot of fears around how we do that and even our career paths that we make for our team, how we manage our cash, the things that are the most important in our business.

Like well, often we can be really really fixated on revenue, bringing in money, and a lot less fixated on I think this is actually just one of the biggest like loops that we get stuck in. It’s like if we just bring in more money, we’re going to be okay. Like if I can just hit 500,000, if I can just hit 600,000, if I can just hit 700,000. But if we’re not solving our profitability then really we’re just getting into the same issue.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Obviously you’ve shared the story of that first salon had, who had an amazing transformation. I’m sure you have come across so many of these amazing stories. Can you tell me about another one that maybe stuck out to you for perhaps different reasons? Like, yeah, I don’t know. Like and and if you were able to like, identify, like, why, actually like, the key factors for their success in that transformation along the way.

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, you bet, and there are a few that stand out. I feel like I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing salons and salon owners doing incredible things, so one salon that comes to mind is one that had actually been thriving and doing really well up until the pandemic, and this salon owner in particular just got so thrown by it like more than most. So a lot of things changed and this owner wasn’t sure how to address the reality and really had a hard time like adjusting back to changes, getting back to that profitability, literally losing hundreds of thousands of dollars over a couple of years like scary numbers.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah.

Ross Loveland:
But we started with the same process that you and I just talked about. We started with financial clarity and in her situation we found a couple of things. We found that during her slow months of the year, typically January February we’re seeing some changes in the industry and things. But traditionally January February is slower and by her spending and her support staff, um were continuing that the same levels throughout those months. There was no changes for the slow months and so those months were just destroying her and then the rest of the year was like trying to catch up, but then even just not even counting only those slow months. The support staff that was another area we were able to identify Like her support staff was really high right.

One of the highest I’d seen. So some of the things that we did she implemented Profit First. We talked about that framework just a little bit before she started working with me in the True Profit salon team. She made some staff and some schedule changes. Specifically, she created some more flexibility for the salon operations to expand during the busy months and then to condense during the slow months.

And really the salon owner showed up with tenacity, like that’s the word that comes to mind Like she worked hard, like she was very focused on developing as a business leader and not just as a as a stylist. And she’s like together we’ve been able to turn it around, like today her salon is thriving, very profitable, growing team stylists with real careers making great amounts of money. And so it really was again like facing the music, understanding where she was at, identifying the problems and then attacking them, and none of them are solved overnight. It was like here’s a small change that improves it. Here’s a small change that improves it. Here’s a small change, repeated, repeated, repeated, and those little successes build up and start to make a really big difference. Yeah.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
I’m really curious about one of the pieces that you mentioned there, just to, I guess, gain clarity around what that actually looks like. When you said create a system or you know a way for the operations to expand in the busier months and then to kind of condense in the slower months, what did that actually look like?

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, it’s a great question and it totally is a tailored approach. Like every salon is different, every geographic area is different, like their demographic, whether they’re like high-end, mid-end all of that comes into play here. But in general, we want to be following that principle, like the scaling, the expansion and then the contraction really. So it naturally happens in some parts of the business, like stylists that are on commission, like they’re going to get paid more during the busy months they’re going to get paid less. We need to be really mindful of our support staff. So that’s watching those hours. Like if we’ve got like in our slow months, like maybe our Tuesdays through Thursdays are just way slower, like do we need to be watching those hours?

Like of course, we want our team members to be making money, but if it’s hurting our salon, we might need to make a choice there where that’s like not actually serving us. We can’t just be doing a favor for a friend when we’re running a business. That said, there’s things that we can do with our team to help them plan for those months. Like we can either do that on our business side or we can work with them in terms of setting aside some of their money to be ready for those slow months. We can provide education and we can provide systems that serve and help them, so we don’t have to be kicking them at the curb.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ross Loveland:
And then when it comes to our other operating expenses, using a system like Profit First is amazing, because Profit First is all about that exact principle that when we have a lot of money, then we can use it. When we have less money, we adapt to it and we can very easily see how much we’ve got, how much we have for those things, that maybe we have more control over more discretionary, and so that’s actually a huge piece of it as well.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
We have more control over more discretionary, and so that’s a huge that’s actually a huge piece of it as well. So, in your experience of helping salon owners transform the way they run their businesses, do you feel like the transformation comes from acquiring that knowledge with you? As they’re doing the work and, like you know, setting themselves up for success with like the literacy of things and like the clarity of things? Or do you feel like it’s mainly because something happens at some point in the five pillars where they have like a massive mindset shift?

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, and I would say I think it totally is that mindset, like we have to have our head in the right space and our emotions in the right space in order to achieve the success that we want. And we already talked about how. Like this is an industry that doesn’t have a lot of business knowledge, like we’re just not set up for success, like it’s not salon on our spot. I don’t see it that way at all.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ross Loveland:
That said, if we don’t have the mindset piece, like then the knowledge only gets us so far. So that’s actually one of our pillars that we preach, it’s one of those five pillars of salon success. It’s one that we call goals and mindset, because it is so crucial to success. Like I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago and one of the speakers said “‘Show me your habits and I will show you your future'”. I just really liked that, like it totally is true. Like our thoughts, we think about that chain. Like our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions and our actions become our habits. So those habits determine our future. And so if we don’t change and grow our mindset, then we run the risk of any transformation that we do achieve being short lived, being like a shooting star. You star that flies across the sky, but it’s bright, but it’s fleeting and it leaves us.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
So you mentioned the first pillar being clarity, financial clarity. One other of the pillars is mindset and goals.

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, like, at what point does that come in? That is the second.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
That is the second, yeah, so what is number three, four and five then?

Ross Loveland:
Number three is profit-fueled lifestyle.

This is where we’re really intentionally seeing lifestyle design and building a business that’s profitable and serving us. Too many business owners are stuck in this place of feeling trapped, tied to their business, feeling enslaved to their business. We want to reverse that. The fourth is systems and processes. This is really all about getting like those things in place so that anything we do achieve kind of like we just talked about mindset like anything that we achieve is going to be lasting. It’s not just a bright moment that we achieve and then lose again. And then the final is team success and culture, because salon owners like if we have not set up our team for success and if not created an amazing culture, then we are going to struggle our whole life. It’s such an important part of our business.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, yeah, no, truly All right. Okay, so now we’ve got the five pillars. Um, I’m gonna bridge us into a different section of uh, I’ve kind of like structured this to to kind of touch upon transformation. I called I called it mistakes in my outline, but I don’t even know if it’s like a mistake, you know, I just want it to be more positive. But just like things that like, maybe we perpetuate or do because of, like that, that lack of business education that we’re kind of offered and then money operations, so, on a scale of small mistake to you should probably sell the salon at this point. How bad is it when, like, an owner would set their prices based on just the competitor down the street without much more thought into it?

Ross Loveland:
I love that scale of how you ask the questions. It’s great. So it’s totally somewhere in the middle. I mean, getting our pricing wrong is not a small mistake, but fortunately it’s also a very correctable one.

You can review your pricing, you can update it and you can roll it out in a very short period of time. Usually, actually, the more difficult part of this is the emotional side. As salon owners, we can feel that when we raise our prices, it’s really scary, it’s challenging. We can convince ourselves that all of our clients are going to go to that salon that’s down the street, they’re going to leave us, they’re going to be upset, we’re going to ruin friendships, and we really build this up in our minds. The reality that I have found is that the vast majority of clients come to you for a reason, and it’s not for your pricing. It’s because you, as a salon owner, have built something unique. It’s your atmosphere, it’s the safe space you’ve created, it’s the experience. Whatever it is, it comes from you and that’s something that can’t be replicated. So I’ve literally helped hundreds of salons raise their prices, do these price increases and guess what happens?

most of the time, people stay Most of the time nothing, yeah, nothing happens right yeah the prices go up.

They’re more profitable. Maybe one or two clients say something but honestly, most of the time don’t. And what I think is really funny is this with some of these salon owners. They’ll come back to me and say that some of their clients spoke to them and said I was wondering when you were going to do that. Like it’s about time. I was starting to feel bad, Like some of the comments that I get from these salon guests are like clients expect price increases.

It’s just part of life. If they love and value what you’ve created and I know they do then they want to pay. And there’s actually a level two of where they associate the price with the quality, and so by having that happen, they’re like okay, like I feel good about this, like this makes me feel good. I’m a person that pays this much for my hair because I know I’m getting great service. Yeah, so we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot when we think about pricing, so we want to be really mindful of that.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, and it’s interesting because when I think of my, my habits in terms of like where I go and why I go to the salon or the barbershop that I go to, and and pricing and stuff, and just even like past barbershops, like when I was living in Dublin, the guy that I used to go to was charging so little. Every time I would see him up his price I was like, oh my God, amazing, like finally, kind of thing.

But like if I’m a say, on a budget, for example, and, and, and the person that I go to raises their prices and it’s like out of my budget. It’s not a reflection of like, oh, he shouldn’t have raised his prices or anything like that. Right, it’s just like all of a sudden that is just no longer what I can afford per service. But if you do provide that experience and like that sense of belonging with to the business as a whole, you’ve got usually people who are up and coming or newer to the business, who might have a different price point, and you could also just start going to them for like a few, a few appointments or whatnot, like however long you need to, for you know.

Ross Loveland:
I don’t know, it’s just like to me.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
like that and that kind of that has happened in my personal experience before where I’ve like, not left a business but just changed stylist because that was more suitable to my financial situation at the time. But like I think it really comes down to you know you have to be able to create that culture and I think when you’ve got that stickiness.

Ross Loveland:
Right and that is an amazing achievement. Yeah, when I was a salon, you’ve hit that level. That’s powerful. And I’ll say, to speak to what you said before, this industry is often called recession resistant, like it can be affected, but usually when people have their budget tight then this is one of the last things they’re giving up, like when everything starts to feel bad. They want to still feel good about themselves and they do. When they come into your space and they get their hair done or their nails done or their color freshened up, whatever it might be, that means a lot. That’s powerful to people and so most of the time in my experience, if it stretches their budget, they adjust their budget in other places, they figure out how to make it work, but then, like you said, if you created a great culture and atmosphere, you can totally have a conversation with someone and be hey, I get it. That makes so much sense. Let me send you to yeah you know Jennifer.

She’s an amazing up-and-coming stylist. I think what you get for her pricing is like incredible value yeah why don’t you check her out and you can kind of guide them towards a lower level stylist.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, yeah. So in terms of other financial big pieces that you’re like, oh man, I wish people knew, knew, like the myth behind this essentially kind of thing, what’s one financial piece of advice that you find yourself you keep giving to people and they keep refusing to listen to you?

Ross Loveland:
yeah, you know, maybe this is like a little bit of a cop-out, I feel like it comes back to mindset and so, like, the success of a salon is not based off of one action, it’s not based off of one choice. It really comes back to when these salon owners are making these small choices. They’re continually refining and making these small adjustments. So I guess, if I was to boil it down to one piece of financial advice, it would be that, as a salon owner, you make sure you keep investing in yourself. Invest in yourself as a leader, invest in yourself as a business person, invest in yourself as a you know, a financial person in your business. Someone who’s wise to the money, as the owner of the salon is going to rise to your level, and so that is both terrifying but also empowering.

Like you do have so much control, but it’s when the salon owner so I guess this is the frustration on my side is, when I’m working with someone, I really want them to succeed and to get to these new levels, but there’s so much like head down and they are like, so like putting out all those fires and we talked about before, and they’re not able to look up and touch that vision again and get aligned with what their goals are, then that can be really frustrating, because then they’re not making progress. They’re really just running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah. So I want to move us into like that money operations kind of bucket, because, as you said, you know there’s no one financial action that is going to change everything but say, okay, I guess it’s going to be like a either like quick fire kind of thing or like a little game, but if, if you have one business move to suggest to that you’re able to identify, that tells you this person gets it, what would be that business move?

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, for me, that’s when I see a salon owner that’s working to get out from behind the chair, or they’re working to at least like minimize their time behind the chair, because that says to me that they’re building a business, they’re not just interested in having a job, they want something that is growing and scaling, and that also shows to me that they’re working on the business, not just in the business. So there’s a level of, again, that business acumen that they’re building up and this desire to lead, and that one action tells me a lot about that salon owner.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
I guess this brings us into that operational pillar as well. Aside from a known or stepping out from behind the chair, what are other fundamentals to that operational side or that operational pillar that you feel are key to success?

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, there are a lot of areas where we’ve got to really nail our systems and on the operations side. So we’ve talked about profit first. I think that’s an incredible operational system for helping you manage your cash better. We want to have an amazing bookkeeping system, accounting system, whatever we want to call it, something like a QuickBooks, where we’re tracking and being able to report and see things. We need to have amazing salon software. I hype Phorest to everybody I talk to. Phorest doesn’t like it. You need to have a system like that because it allows you to see what’s happening in your salon, to make changes again. Just be plugged in and when you have that financial clarity, then you can make really informed business decisions and you can start making a difference and getting more profitable. So, related to that, we want to have a solid inventory tracking system, and that’s not just having software. That’s what our process is like. Are we actually like it when the product comes into the salon? What are we doing with it?

When we use product or pull it off the shelf it comes into the salon. What are we doing with it? When we use product or pull it off the shelf, how are we marking or tracking that? We’ve got to make sure those steps are there. You want to have an amazing career path for our team. That’s a huge operational necessity. What is the system that we’ve put into place? That’s inspiring. It also needs to be easy to understand. It can’t be so confusing and convoluted that they just have no idea what’s on their paycheck. I think those ones cover it. Those are foundational pieces like there’s always other things, but I think those ones are really core to your success.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
All right. So I guess, like, after all this, like I’m curious, like I know that the process of operating a sustainable and profitable business are the same, no matter what your goal is. However, I’m sure that there are moments or milestones that require key insights at the right time kind of thing to burst that plateau, for example. So if someone was trying to reach their first six-figure year they’re close but they’re not getting there and, like they’ve been at it for the past two years, they just can’t crack the code what would you look at maybe first and or what kind of like piece of advice you feel would be like one of the pieces that they’re missing?

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, that’s a great question at this stage of your business. This is like we talked before about how getting out from behind the chair is amazing as you grow as a salon owner and as a salon. That said, your business comes in stages, and so in this stage of a business, it really is all about maximizing your time, like you’re looking at your dollars for hours. So this is the time to focus on your pricing.

This is a time to start using an assistant. If you’re starting to use an assistant, if you’re not using an assistant, maximize your efforts. Have two or three chairs going at a time. You want to learn how to do those things. And it’s also a time where maybe you’re going to start thinking about and preparing for having a stylist. Maybe, as you work through an assistant, maybe that assistant graduates and you want to have a stylist on the floor with you. So you got to start thinking about that career path. But that’s even secondary, I would say, to focusing on your own pricing, using an assistant, thinking about all those ways of maximizing your time, getting the most dollars for your hour.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Okay, and then what about someone who’s at a plateau, like has reached that six figure but is at a plateau and trying to break that seven figure piece?

Ross Loveland:
Now we’re flipping it. Yeah, Now we’re getting out from behind the chair. And the reason I say that piece is because I think that allows you better to do this next part, which is all about growing and supporting your team. I’ve seen some incredible independent stylists. I have never worked with an independent stylist that makes a million dollars a year. I’ve had some that are doing hundreds of thousands of dollars. They’re incredible. But if you want to get to that level, you’ve got to have an amazing team. You’ve got to be growing and supporting your team. You’ve got to be creating win-wins where your stylists are feeling like they’re successful and, again, they’ve got that clear path, that clear pay structure and they feel that and they’re inspired, but then also that it’s benefiting your salon and it’s profitable for you. You absolutely can create those win-wins and that’s the only way you really can succeed in the industry creating those win-wins where your team wins and you win yeah so that’s like the big focus, as you’re getting to a seven figure year like this.

All these other pieces, like all these other pillars that we talk about, are important and they’re foundational. Um, but that’s kind of the reason that this is our fifth pillar is like team success and culture, because, like that, what’s pushing you to the next level, like that’s, that’s the pinnacle and so so important to really be focused on that and nailing that.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
So my last two kind of hypothetical scenarios is like someone who’s looking to franchise. Where should the focus go? Essentially, does franchising go back to the processes, or more of the culture and still the team?

Ross Loveland:
yeah, piece, totally. Uh, systems and processes are tremendously important for franchising. It’s like all about systems and processes. Really, like you, you need to create something that’s so dialed in that the experience is the same no matter who on the floor is doing it, but also no matter who is running the salon. Like you basically have to have a model that’s so detailed that you can hand it to someone else and they can go open a salon on the next state over and it’s going to operate the same way people will be able to walk into it and be like okay, this is that same salon. I can feel that it’s the same.

Process and documentation are absolutely critical for that. And the process and documentation, of course, encompass the other things. Like, we talked about the five pillars, but it’s not linear in the sense that we just climb to the top and then we’re done. Yeah, we’re constantly refreshing and as we evolve as a company, we need to be. You know what’s our biggest need at the moment? Like, what do we need to be focused on? So the systems of processes absolutely have to incorporate our team. Like, what are the systems of processes? Like, what’s the pay structure? What’s the incentives? What do we pay our support staff, how do we like what are the roles and responsibilities we give them and how do we empower them? So yeah, it’s all really important and I just feel like when we want to franchise, we’ve got to be at that level where we are like so we’ve got it so figured out that we’re ready to hand it to someone else and they can duplicate it.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, do you feel like it’s similar when, when an owner is trying to open, say, a second or a third location, or does it kind of vary a little bit? Because there’s a piece of that that’s like very? Similar right but like often, what you’ll find with like two, three, four locations that aren’t necessarily franchisees is that they’ll also have a little bit of their own culture, you know Right.

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, I think you can take the same approach, like if you are truly, it can be done in a way that is essentially franchising. We’re internally franchising, but we can also do it in a way that’s a little bit different. It doesn’t have to be the same. I would say. What we really need to start with is making sure that our first location is very profitable. We really want to nail our profitability. When we’re talking about multiple locations, we want to get to that 15%, 20% profitability or more, depending on your mix of services.

And then I also think it’s amazing if you’ve been growing a wonderful team and maybe you’ve got someone on your team that’s got big ownership desires, you can go into the second location with that person and and now you’ve got someone who’s so committed to making it succeed, like they’ve got ownership, so psychologically, like they’re all in, but then they’ve also got the monetary rewards, like talk about stickiness, like that person’s not going to leave you, like they’re literally tied to you at this point. And if it’s someone that you love and value, then that you know they’re going to do a great job and you’re and you’ll be in it together and you’ll share your experiences and your successes. I think that can be an amazing way to do multiple locations. It doesn’t mean you have to give away majority ownership. Yeah, yeah, like you can explore that with your team member and find the right fit and it can still be a very profitable thing for you as the owner too, can still be a very profitable thing for you as the owner too.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
And it’s a really great look and testimony to your commitment to growing people who come in and work for you, right? Because if they see, say if I’m an apprentice starting to work for you and I see that like, oh, actually I can work all the way up to maybe becoming an owner of a second or third or fourth location.

That’s an amazing future goal to have, and like to see how much your employer is committed to you succeeding as well. It’s just there’s not a whole lot of things that are possibly more powerful than that in terms of creating stickiness with your staff, you know.

Ross Loveland:
No, I agree, Exactly, that’s 100% true. Like you’ve created an amazing opportunity for that stylist that you’re opening that location with, creating stickiness with your staff. You know, no, I agree, exactly, that’s 100% true. Like they’re like you’ve created an amazing opportunity for that stylist that you’re opening that location with, but all your other stylists that are looking and seeing that you’re like oh, that’s really cool that you do that. Like that’s something like just what you said, something you can work towards and be inspired by yeah.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
So I want to flip the question on to you like, what are your kind of goals for 2025? Like, what are your aspirations? And, yeah, how do you see the year going?

Ross Loveland:
I guess, yeah, 2025 for me is all about getting even more into this industry. So I mean that’s one of the reasons I’m talking to you today and being on more podcasts and doing more speaking. I really believe in our mission as a company and really the reason I founded this is I have a really strong belief that beauty businesses salons do good, like they’re pillars in their communities. They’re creating jobs for people, raising their local economies, creating safe spaces for people.

Like the amount of therapy work, creating safe spaces for people, like the amount of therapy work stylists do. Seriously, I truly believe in the good that they do, but the problem is that too many salon owners are not getting the rewards that match the good that they’re doing. So that’s our mission, that’s what we feel we can bring to salon owners. Like we want them to be profitable, like to have that profit fueled lifestyle. That’s one of our pillars and so that’s my goal for this year is to spread that message more, to keep growing as a team like we’ve. We just hired two more CFOs. That’s what we call this role internally to help take care of clients as we grow and continue to work with more folks. Like we are so proud of the results that our clients get working with us. Like last year, we do this every year. Like we really track our clients profitably closely. Last year our clients, on average, increased their profits Like each salon, again, on average, $46,000.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Wow and that’s after paying for us because of our business expenses.

Ross Loveland:
So like we’re so proud of that. That’s amazing. We’re proud of the work that they did, yeah.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Absolutely so. We want to do more of that to help more people build these lives that are fulfilling and like, achieve the dream that they had for their salon when they first opened it.

Ross Loveland:
Yeah.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
So, yeah, I feel, I feel very driven to keep spreading that message, and so that’s 2025 for me. I’m going to go to more events than ever before. I’m going to speak more than ever before. I’m going to do more podcasts than ever before. That’s what it’s all about.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
I’m loving it. I will be, I’ll be keeping an eye out and spreading the good word, for sure. But, yeah, yeah, looking forward to, to seeing you pop up in different, different spaces in the industry and maybe not even just in the states, um, there you go listen, I I feel like this was so jam-packed with information that people are just going to be like so excited to to like at least reach out, have a conversation. Um, where can people find you online?

Ross Loveland:
yeah, we’re a true profit salon, so that’s where you can find us pretty much everywhere trueprofitsalons.com. Our handle on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. True Profit Salons.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Making it easy for the folks to remember.

Ross Loveland:
Absolutely.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
I’ll have everything linked in the show notes as well, anyways, but, ross, thank you so much for spending the time. This is like, honestly, 40 minutes is just like gone by in a snap.

Ross Loveland:
It’s wild, it’s so true, yeah.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
I really, really appreciate the generosity also in the insights and the shares. You know, I think that like we can do so much good in the industry just by sharing knowledge

Yes, gatekeeping days are over. Like we just, together, we can do much bigger, much better things.

Ross Loveland:
Agreed.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, I really appreciate it.

Ross Loveland:
Thank you, Alex, it’s been so wonderful to talk with you, love the great questions. I always like to say when I speak or just I’m sharing together we’re going to raise this industry, and so I totally believe that mindset, like let’s do that, let’s keep sharing, let’s keep open dialogue and let’s end some of those myths that we talked about before, these false ideas. I think together we can correct those and we can turn this into an industry that is powerful and a great place to work and have a career.

Alex Bélisle-Springer:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Ross. I really appreciate the time.

Ross Loveland:
Yeah, good to be here, Alex, thank you.