To build a self-care business that can succeed without you, you’ll need a solid financial plan and a well-trained staff

If you love your self-care business, you should eventually let it go. You could sell the shop to earn some money for your next venture. You could even hand things over to a trusted employee or family member when it’s time to retire. Whatever your goal, the bottom line is the same: Your business needs to be bigger than you.

In my time as a self-care entrepreneur, I’ve learned how to build a business that you can comfortably step away from. As the owner of The Beauty Lounge salons in Texas and host of The 7 Figure Salon Podcast, I’ve spent my career building successful shops, then placing them in capable hands. Before you pursue bigger and better things, you’ll need a realistic financial plan, a knowledgeable staff, and a willingness to be honest — with both your team and yourself.

Running a business like a business

I’ve spent almost two decades in the beauty business, doing everything from cleaning floors to styling hair to managing entire salons. I also hold workshops and retreats to empower women in the self-care industry, including my Babes in Business Mastermind sessions. The primary reason I’ve been able to grow my business is because I’ve treated it like a business.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard ‘I’m not a numbers person,’ I would be a billionaire. That’s the most common sentence I hear from anyone, especially when I first meet them. They laugh it off like it’s cute — but it’s not. Managing finances has become the bottleneck in their business. They’re simply scared of learning a new skill.

My husband Drew and I often help salon owners turn their failing businesses around, and this kind of stubbornness is the most common issue I come across. While owners are often skilled, hardworking, and creative specialists, they think that simply providing great service will keep their businesses afloat. It won’t.

There’s a huge lack of education in beauty schools and in the industry in general. We don’t see any business education, anywhere. Even at trade shows, it’s all surface-level, social media-focused stuff. But looking cool on Instagram isn’t the same thing as having a profitable business.

The pivot from self-care skills to financial skills is so important. But most of the time, an owner won’t pivot until everything is hanging by a thread. 

A scalable strategy

Building a business around yourself is not scalable.

It’s a hard truth, but it’s the difference between building toward something better and simply maintaining the status quo. No matter how talented or charismatic they are, a single owner can’t grow a business by themselves. Running a one-person show isn’t a sign of strength; it’s just a failure to delegate.

Building a business bigger than you means involving your team members and giving them the opportunity to rise. Let them be amazing artists and take on clients you’ve been seeing forever. That’s scalable.

If you’re a queen bee stylist, booked eight weeks out, and can’t even go to the bathroom because you’re so busy, that’s not a badge of honor. I used to think that it was, but over time, I’ve realized that it’s just exhausting. You’re not creating a sustainable business; you’re entering yourself in a rat race.

Empowering your employees comes with a tradeoff, however. To become professional role models, owners need to keep some distance from their staff members. That can be tough in an industry where clients and coworkers can feel like friends and family. But if your employees get the sense that you’re just another worker on the job, they may not understand or appreciate the full scope of your work.

Once you stop trying to be everyone’s friend and start working toward being a leader, you may encounter some employees who react negatively. Just remember that they’re not purposely trying to be defiant. They’re simply testing where your boundaries are. Once you make it clear where you stand, they’ll follow your lead more often than not. Whether they admit it or not, people thrive on structure.

Once your staff sees you in a position of authority, you can teach them what they need to know.

Transparency and trust

The biggest mistake I made in my first year of running a salon was that I made it look too easy. I wasn’t candid with my staff about just how much work I had to do behind the scenes. I was afraid to talk about my struggles because I didn’t want people to think I was complaining. But if I had just opened up, I would have found that they were willing to help — and willing to learn.

My husband is fond of saying that sometimes you have to slow down to go faster. Owners in the self-care industry may feel like they have to shoulder every burden and grow at a breakneck pace. But the truth is that transparency and steady progress will get you further than secrecy and recklessness. Learn your business basics. Share them with your staff. And when you’re ready to go, you’ll have a reliable successor waiting in the wings.