Nicole Holdaway / Salon Coach

Most hairdressers celebrate being fully booked.

I want to know what being fully booked is actually costing you.

$3,000 week. Sounds great. But after colour, products, rent, expenses and the hours you actually gave your business, not just the ones your hands were in someone's hair what's your hour actually worth?

Two hairdressers. Same turnover. One works 50 hours to get there. The other works 25. Completely different businesses.

The number that changes everything isn't your turnover. It's your hourly profitability.

Work that out first. Then we can talk about growth.

Do you know your hourly rate?? ⬇️⬇️

So a lot of hairdressers just keep their old salon prices when they go out on their own. Same colour, same price except now every single thing on that list is coming out of it, instead of sitting invisibly on someone else’s books.

If you were charging $100for that colour as an employee, covering everything yourself usually means that same service needs to sit closer to $150 Not because you got greedy. Because that’s what it actually costs to run it properly.

And the number was never really the hard part. The hard part is believing you’re allowed to charge it sitting in that new price without shrinking the second someone raises an eyebrow.

That gap, between what it costs and what you feel okay charging, is exactly where hairdressers panic, undercharge, and burn out in year one of being solo.

This is what we build properly in GO SOLO so you’re not finding any of this out the hard way six months in.

It’s 8pm and someone texts asking if you can “just squeeze them in” tomorrow.

You’re already fully booked and exhausted, and you say yes anyway because saying no still doesn’t feel like something you’re allowed to do in your own business.

That’s usually where it starts.

Say yes enough times with no plan behind it, and eventually your prices are still the ones you set on day one, your profit’s a mystery, and every week just happens to you instead of being built by you.

Most self-employed hairdressers didn’t design their business. They built it by accident one “yes” at a time.

Busy was never actually the goal. Money left over at the end of the week was.

You can be flat out, fully booked for a month straight, and still not have that.

More clients won’t fix a business that was never built on the right foundations. It’ll just make the accident bigger.

Which is exactly what BALANCED BOSS is for not adding more to a business that’s already maxed out, but making the one you’ve already built actually work, for your profit, your time, and your life outside the chair.

July Dump!! It's been an interesting July 🫣

We've had some of the most amazing weather 🌦️ ☀️

I've done some of my favourite colours this year ♥️

Had my first car crash EVER!! ( not my fault ha ha )

Renting a chair and running a Solo business has giving me so much freedom!! Im so freaking proud of the business model I built and grateful I now get to share that with other entrepreneurs 🫶

Bring on AUGUST!!!! Xx

Busy all week and still not making enough?

That's a pricing problem, not a booking problem. DM me SOLO and let's fix it.

For years I thought I was good at consultations.

Turns out I was good at taking orders.

Somewhere along the way, we were taught that a consultation is asking "What are we doing today?" and then trying to make it happen.

But that's not what professionals do.

A doctor doesn't ask you to choose your own treatment. ( well a good doctor 🤣)

They ask questions.

They investigate.

They make a diagnosis.

That's exactly how I approach every client who sits in my chair.

It starts before they even book.

If you're a solo hairdresser, you'll understand this. Your clients don't always have time to pop in for a consultation, and neither do you. So instead of refusing to consult over text, I use it as the first stage of my diagnosis.

Not to formulate colour.

Not to promise an exact result.

Simply to gather enough information to know whether I can confidently book the appointment, how much time I'll need, what investment range to expect, and whether I need to investigate further.

Then, when they arrive, the diagnosis continues.

Throughout the appointment I'm educating, observing, refining and recommending. By the time I suggest a product or talk about their next appointment, it doesn't feel like selling.

It feels like the next logical step in their treatment plan.

Looking back, I don't think the biggest thing that changed my business was my colour work.

It was changing the way I thought.

I stopped taking orders.

I started making diagnoses.

Do you think we're teaching consultations the wrong way?

Please note: Fear is expensive.

Not because it stops you from starting…

Because it quietly shapes every decision you make once you do.

The clients you say yes to.
The hours you work.
The prices you apologise for.

Most new solo stylists think they need better marketing.

They just need the confidence to stop letting fear make business decisions for them.

That’s exactly what Go Solo is built for.

Link in bio to book your clarity call.