Hey there! Welcome back to our monthly blog post on your finances. 

Last month, our blog post was about your money mindset (you can access that link here).  

This month, let’s dive into why and how you can ensure your beauty business and personal finances are in sync. 

What I’ve seen for my clients is that when we have visibility into both sets of finances it makes it so much easier to hit your financial goals with your beauty business doing all the heavy lifting for you. I promise it can usually take less time than ordering an iced coffee from your favorite coffee shop!

After all, I’d love for you to think about your creative work as something you’re passionate about, but it also fuels your bank account well. 

 

WHY THINK ABOUT PERSONAL FINANCES AND BUSINESS FINANCES TOGETHER 

Why start with those personal finances? 

Doesn’t that seem kind of backward? 

Yep. 🎯   

Our goal is for us to know what you need and what you want to live off of so that you have an easy number to target when you’re planning out client bookings and filling your schedule strategically. 

What I find with my clients is that when we have visibility into how much money is needed each week, it is so much easier to focus on getting into action mode to book clients to ensure they’re managing their take-home pay well. No scrambling at the last minute or feeling stressed. Doesn’t that feel easier?!?! 

 

YOUR PERSONAL FINANCES 

A great resource is the Money Habits program (sign up here for the program) to work on budgeting and getting to know what you need from a personal finance side.  

There are two parts at a minimum that you’ll want to know about your personal finances.  

One, how much do you need each week or each month? 

Two, when do you need that money? 

We’ll discuss both of these down below. 

 

Let’s start with how much you need first. 

You might already know down to the penny what you need each week or each month. 

If you don’t, that is totally fine! However, I’d highly recommend doing a rough calculation of your personal finance bills to start. Or, use the Life Expense Calculator inside the Prosper U Pro App. We can guess now and refine later.  

I find that most people tend to underestimate how much they actually spend or need from a personal finance perspective. We want to make sure the personal finance budget includes things like debt payoff, savings, and setting aside money for retirement. Be sure to factor in things like vacations, car repairs, and gifts that can sometimes throw off the budget too. 

I know this seems like a lot – but it will make a big difference in making sure you’re covered financially! 

Starting here gives us an approachable, rough estimate to ensure that whatever path you use is enough to make the paycheck you want actually happen. 

Got your number? 

Good! 

For illustration purposes, let’s say that you decide that you’d love to bring home $6,000 monthly or $1,500 a week, which is about 6-figures a year in business income. 

 

USE THIS EQUATION FOR YOUR BEAUTY BUSINESS GOALS 

Now that we’ve got your personal finance goals, let’s go back into HOW to do it in your beauty business.  

Knowing that your goal is to bring in $6,000, I think a common assumption is that we need to book roughly $1,500 approximately in services each week. 

But we actually need more than that. 

One of the biggest mistakes I see with business owners is focusing on that $1,500 and not leaving enough money for taxes, expenses, and other expenses. 

We want to be setting sales goals higher than our personal finance number because we still have taxes, products to purchase, and maybe other expenses (especially if you’re pursuing the booth rental business) or commissions. 

Using the percentages from the Profit First book by Mike Michalowicz (a highly recommended read, btw!), think about approaching your business finances in this way. 

In that book, for a 6-figure income, you’ll want to split your business revenue up this way: 

5% profit (more on this below) 

40-50% salary (take-home pay for you)

15% taxes 

30-40% expenses – this for things like: 

Booth/suite rent payment or Commission 

Utilities, if any 

Licenses 

Continuing education/training/classes

Purchasing your color, product, retail, and tools 

Marketing/ads 

Accountant 

Hiring someone to handle your calendar and appointment confirmations 

Bank/merchant/credit card processing fees 

Insurance 

Software 

Note that I’m referring to your business revenue regardless if you’re in a commission-based salon or working for yourself in a booth rental. 

Now, you may want to adjust the percentages based on your business. 

Approaching your small business finances this way and getting into a routine (lookout for next month’s blog post on routines) will give you peace of mind that you know you’re saving for taxes every week (no April IRS surprises!) and you aren’t stressing about buying color on your credit card. 

 

Here’s how to approach this: 

If we want to take home $1,500 a week on average, our top-line sales number must be around $3,000 a week. 

Working five days a week, you’ll want to shoot for about $600 a day in booked services, upsells, tips, and products sold. Depending on the mix of services offered between haircuts, trims, and color, this might mean filling your calendar with 3-8 people per day. 

I highly recommend the Financial Tracker and the Income Calculator tools inside the free Prosper U PRO App to play around with these numbers more. 

What I love most about this system and setting daily goals is that instead of feeling short on cash, we can get proactive about how to fill your calendar, work on social media, contact clients to remind them of upcoming appointments and deepen your relationships with your clients in a way that allows you to make great money doing what you love. 

 

Running a Profitable Business

Oh, remember when I mentioned setting aside 5% for profit?  

Well, let’s start with this exercise … please say aloud with me: “I run a profitable business.” 

Seriously, I hope you take a second to say that out loud to yourself. 

How did that feel? 

Probably felt really good. 

That’s why we start with profit. 

Every time you pay yourself, sweep that dedicated profit aside, and at the end of the quarter (or every 90 days or so), use that money to pay off debt, save for a new car, a spa day, reinvest for new clients, or whatever feels fun. 

The thing about owning a business is that you should feel like you’re treating your company’s best asset – ahem, you – well. Doing it this way allows you to give your best back to your amazing clients. In turn, they become long-term clients and further help stabilize your income. Isn’t that neat how that works? So, profit first always. 

 

HOMEWORK

As a Beauty Professional, you have an incredible opportunity to earn a wonderful income working your preferred hours and with amazing clients. 

I hope today’s blog helps make this whole finance thing feel fun and clear and provides a path for seriously helping you reliably hit your financial goals like debt payoff, getting those taxes paid, and savings for time off.  

Please take a moment to jot down what you need from a personal finance perspective. Again, aim high to include things like vacation savings, debt payoff, and retirement savings. 

From there, whip out your phone’s calculator or use the Prosper U PRO App to see what those percentages might look like for what you need each day, week, or month to hit your personal finance goals. Then, review your calendar and planned bookings to see how you can proactively work on hitting those goals, knowing that you have a clear, easy system between those business and personal finances. 

Don’t forget you can get more of the step-by-step videos, templates, and checklists inside the Money Habits program. Also, check out the amazing calculators on the Prosper U PRO App too. 

 

ABOUT Darcie

Darcie Milfeld of Green Bites Project® is a financial wellness coach helping women hit their biggest financial goals, from small business finances to personal finances. She is a former SVP at Bank of America and holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She used her love of numbers to map out her family’s own financial independence journey, which they hit in their late 30s. Darcie created Money Habits inside Prosper U.