Salon Rising

Your team won't sell retail. You've tried paying them more and dangling incentives, and the shelves still aren't moving. It's one of the most common frustrations in Australian salons, and it's rarely the team's fault.Tiana Baxter is back with her new company, SELLÁ, and this time she's talking about the thing she knows best. Sales. She has a hard truth for owners too. However you sell is exactly how your team will sell.Sam and Jen talk with Tiana about why selling got such a dirty name and how to recommend product from conviction instead of pressure. It's practical and honest, and it will change the way you walk onto your salon floor.What we coverWhy sales became a dirty word, and why being called a salesgirl is a complimentFrameworks over tactics, and why tactics make selling feel manipulativeWhy owners need to live on the sales floor instead of visiting it when numbers dipThe consult question that hands your client the whole problemAsking better questions so you know exactly what to recommendProduct, people and payoff, plus the three Rs for every clientA simple team training exercise to get retail moving this weekThe payoff of the payoff, and why you're selling confidence, not conditionerWhy the sale starts after the client paysYour money thermostat and why earning more can feel unsafeThe story behind the salesgirl name and building a business on faithSELLÁ® — Home of the Salesgirl™ is a sales education company founded by Tiana Baxter, teaching women how make more money in business without becoming more ‘salesy’.Through sales psychology, communication and self-mastery, SELLÁ teaches women how to get seriously good at selling without pushy tactics or awkward scripts.It’s about learning to sell in a way that feels like you, while building a business that makes a lot more money.Find Tiana and the world of SELLÁ on Instagram @tianarose.inc and @sella.incWhy won't my salon team sell retail?Most of the time, your team sells exactly the way you do. If you only step onto the sales floor when numbers dip, they learn that selling is something you visit rather than something you live.What should hairdressers ask instead of "What are we doing today?"Ask what your client is loving and not loving about her hair, and how she's finding it at home. Her answers show you what she wants and give you a real reason to recommend the right product later.How do you recommend retail products without being salesy?Use the three Rs, which are your recommendation, the reason why, and the result she'll get. Talk about the payoff instead of the ingredients, and only recommend products you genuinely use and believe in.Mentioned in this episode:https://www.salonrising.com💛 A Limited Time Offer From Our Amazing Sponsor, Timely 💛➡ Timely is the easy to use booking and payments system that puts salon owners in control of the whole client experience from the first booking to final payment.➡ Salon Rising listeners get a 14 day free trial plus 50% off their first 3 months.➡ And when you activate with Payments, you'll also get a free Touchscreen terminal, worth $349 + GST.Use the code SALONRISING at checkout or click the link below to get started. Once you're set up, your Timely contact will take care of the rest. 👇Timely💖 Celebrating Our Podcast Partner – Christophe Robin, proudly distributed by McM ImportsWe’ve partnered with Christophe Robin and MCM Imports to bring you something beautiful:➡ Experience the Christophe Robin Discovery Box — curated by pro ambassador Monique McMahon.➡ Inside, you’ll find her handpicked favourites — the hero products she swears by in the salon.It’s your invitation to explore the range and discover why Christophe Robin has become a quiet obsession among stylists who know their craft.Click the link below to request your FREE Christophe Robin Discovery Box, exclusively through McM Imports. 👇MCM

Monday hits and you are already behind. The phone has messages on it from Saturday, the book looks fine until you actually look at it, and you have no real idea what last week made. So you open the salon, get in the chair, and tell yourself you will sort the rest of it later. Later never comes, and by Thursday the whole week feels like it is running you.In this Mini Moment, Sam walks Jen through exactly what she does every Monday. Not a theory about admin days. The actual list. The appointments she moves, the confirmations she chases, the wages and bonuses, the accounts she gets down to the dollar, the inbox she empties, and the running to do list she keeps beside her the whole time. She does it in rounds through the day rather than one long block, and she has done it from a hospital bed.Jen adds the other half of it. She runs a lot of the same work through AI and her software so the sorting is done before she sits down. Two salon owners in Australia, two different setups, the same rule underneath. If Monday is messy, the week is messy.What we coverThe Monday non negotiables Sam has never skipped, no matter whatHow to read your appointment book properly and find a full hour of wasted spaceChasing confirmations and working the cancellation list before you post to socialsWages, super, bonuses and getting every account down to the dollarPaying credit cards off weekly instead of waiting for the monthClearing the inbox to zero and keeping a live to do list while you do itWhy Sam refuses to touch any of it on a weekendPutting your projected numbers on the board on a Tuesday morningUsing AI and your software to do the sorting before you startGoing back over Instagram messages to make sure nothing got missedStart with a real Monday and the other four days stop feeling like a fight.FAQsWhat admin should a salon owner do every Monday?Check and rework the appointment book, confirm every unconfirmed booking, work the cancellation list, then do wages, bills and accounts. Finish by clearing the inbox and writing down anything left over so nothing is carried in your head.How do I find more appointments without getting more clients?Look at the gaps in your existing book. Fifteen minutes here and there across a day can be shuffled into a full extra appointment, which is why Sam moves clients up and down before she does anything else on a Monday.Should salon owners do admin on the weekend?Sam says no and treats it as a hard boundary. Jen replies when she genuinely has capacity, but flags anything that needs proper thought and leaves it until she is back in work mode.Mentioned in this episode:💛 A Limited Time Offer From Our Amazing Sponsor, Timely 💛➡ Timely is the easy to use booking and payments system that puts salon owners in control of the whole client experience from the first booking to final payment.➡ Salon Rising listeners get a 14 day free trial plus 50% off their first 3 months.➡ And when you activate with Payments, you'll also get a free Touchscreen terminal, worth $349 + GST.Use the code SALONRISING at checkout or click the link below to get started. Once you're set up, your Timely contact will take care of the rest. 👇Timelyhttps://www.salonrising.com💖 Celebrating Our Podcast Partner – Christophe Robin, proudly distributed by McM ImportsWe’ve partnered with Christophe Robin and MCM Imports to bring you something beautiful:➡ Experience the Christophe Robin Discovery Box — curated by pro ambassador Monique McMahon.➡ Inside, you’ll find her handpicked favourites — the hero products she swears by in the salon.It’s your invitation to explore the range and discover why Christophe Robin has become a quiet obsession among stylists who know their craft.Click the link below to request your FREE Christophe Robin Discovery Box, exclusively through McM Imports. 👇MCM

There is a version of salon ownership where you grow the team, fill the chairs, take the whole space, and still lie awake on a Sunday night doing sums in your head. Siobhan from Siobhan Hair Artistry lived in that version for four years. She started mobile with a plastic basin and a bag of colour, moved into a home salon, rented a chair, then ended up renting the entire hair space at Cliff Newport with an apprentice, her mum and a team around her. And in her own words, she had no clue what she was doing. No break evens. No idea what the business had to make in an hour just to stand still.Then last June she smashed into the back of a car on the motorway, fractured her sternum, and was back on the floor two weeks later doing foils with a broken chest because the bills did not stop. That was the moment the maths stopped being about the business and started being about her.Six months ago she made the decision she had been avoiding. She let go of the apprentice she loved and went back to just her and her mum. She is busier now than she has ever been. She is also less tired, she knows exactly what she needs to make every week, and her clients keep telling her she seems like herself again. This is a conversation about what it actually costs to hold a team together when the numbers underneath are not working, and what happens when you finally stop.What we coverBuilding from mobile hairdressing to a home salon to renting a whole salon spaceEmploying a team with no break even figures and no idea what the business had to makeA senior stylist who quit on her first dayWhy your team will never be invested in your business the way you areThe car accident, the fractured sternum, and going back to work after two weeksLetting go of an apprentice she loved and finding her a job with a friendKnowing your weekly numbers before you employ another personIncome protection and super when you are a sole traderFair Work, hard conversations, and why so many Australian salon owners have stopped hiringBeing busier on her own and less tired than she was with a teamWhy you have the right to change your business, whenever you wantShe did not go backwards. She went back to the thing that was working all along.How do I know if my salon is in fight or flight?If your body is braced every time your phone lights up, if you check the schedule five times a day, and if you cannot remember the last week that felt calm, you are in it. Siobhan spent four years there and only recognised it once she was out.Should I let staff go if my salon is not making enough money?There is no single right answer, but the starting point is knowing whether each week is profitable before you decide anything. Siobhan let her apprentice go because the business could not hit its numbers consistently once anyone was sick or on leave, and she found her a job with a friend rather than leaving her without one.Mentioned in this episode:💛 A Limited Time Offer From Our Amazing Sponsor, Timely 💛➡ Timely is the easy to use booking and payments system that puts salon owners in control of the whole client experience from the first booking to final payment.➡ Salon Rising listeners get a 14 day free trial plus 50% off their first 3 months.➡ And when you activate with Payments, you'll also get a free Touchscreen terminal, worth $349 + GST.Use the code SALONRISING at checkout or click the link below to get started. Once you're set up, your Timely contact will take care of the rest. 👇Timelyhttps://www.salonrising.com💖 Celebrating Our Podcast Partner – Christophe Robin, proudly distributed by McM ImportsWe’ve partnered with Christophe Robin and MCM Imports to bring you something beautiful:➡ Experience the Christophe Robin Discovery Box — curated by pro ambassador Monique McMahon.➡ Inside, you’ll find her handpicked favourites — the hero products she swears by in the salon.It’s your invitation to explore the range and discover why Christophe Robin has become a quiet obsession among stylists who know their craft.Click the link below to request your FREE Christophe Robin Discovery Box, exclusively through McM Imports. 👇MCM

There is usually one part of your business you avoid looking at. The numbers, the ads, the software, the thing you pay someone else to handle. You are not avoiding it because you are lazy. You are avoiding it because you do not understand it, and it has been easier to hope than to learn.That gap is where most owners get stuck. Not in the work they are brilliant at. In the bit they handed over and never checked.Simone from Apotecari has nine years of this behind her. Staff who left and set up down the road. A house on the line to fund something she had no business running. Agencies on big monthly retainers doing work she had no way of judging. The turn came when she admitted she was the weakest link in her own business, and then did something about it. She is more profitable now than she was when she was paying other people to do all of it.What we coverThe highs and lows of nine years in business, said out loudWhy every industry loses people to the person they trained, not just salonsWhat it actually feels like to put your own house on the lineThe part of the business you have been avoiding, and what that avoidance is costingWhy you should never hand over something you do not understand yetKnowing enough to ask the right questions, without becoming the expertBuilding the skill inside your team instead of renting it every monthWhere the growth came from once she stopped guessingYou do not have to know how to do it. You do have to know what good looks like.Frequently asked questionsShould salon owners outsource their marketing?Yes, once you understand the basics of what you are handing over. Plenty of Australian salon owners pay a monthly retainer for a long time before anyone checks whether the work is bringing people through the door.How do you know if the person doing your marketing is any good?You have to know enough to ask a real question and understand the answer. If you cannot tell the difference between a good month and a bad one, you cannot manage the relationship.What do you do when a staff member leaves and opens up nearby?It happens in every industry, and it is not a sign you did something wrong. Some people are there to build with you and some are there to build off you, and you rarely know which until they go.Mentioned in this episode:https://www.salonrising.com💛 A Limited Time Offer From Our Amazing Sponsor, Timely 💛➡ Timely is the easy to use booking and payments system that puts salon owners in control of the whole client experience from the first booking to final payment.➡ Salon Rising listeners get a 14 day free trial plus 50% off their first 3 months.➡ And when you activate with Payments, you'll also get a free Touchscreen terminal, worth $349 + GST.Use the code SALONRISING at checkout or click the link below to get started. Once you're set up, your Timely contact will take care of the rest. 👇Timely💖 Celebrating Our Podcast Partner – Christophe Robin, proudly distributed by McM ImportsWe’ve partnered with Christophe Robin and MCM Imports to bring you something beautiful:➡ Experience the Christophe Robin Discovery Box — curated by pro ambassador Monique McMahon.➡ Inside, you’ll find her handpicked favourites — the hero products she swears by in the salon.It’s your invitation to explore the range and discover why Christophe Robin has become a quiet obsession among stylists who know their craft.Click the link below to request your FREE Christophe Robin Discovery Box, exclusively through McM Imports. 👇MCM

Some seasons you do not get through gracefully. You just get through them. And then one day it is over, and you are standing on the other side wondering why it feels so quiet.This one is just Sam and Jen. No guest, no plan, no idea where it was going to go. Sam opens up about the end of a chapter that ran almost three years and cost a quarter of a million dollars, and what it actually took to come out the other side of it still standing. Not the tell all version. The honest one, from a woman who is finally regulated enough to talk about it.It is also a conversation about what a business has to do for you when everything else is falling over. Sam is blunt about it. If she had not known how to work her numbers, she would not have lasted. Seventeen years in, booked out, still not sure about hiring again, and finally choosing stillness over the chase. Jen brings the other half of the picture, a first six months of the year that tipped everything upside down, a business that has been genuinely hard, and why the changes she has made were measured ones rather than panicked ones.What we coverWhy knowing your numbers is what actually carries you through a hard seasonThe real cost of a long legal chapter and how a salon absorbed itBuilding a team of people around you who tell you the truth, not what you want to hearSeventeen years in business and why staying still is a decision, not a lack of ambitionBeing booked out and still unsure whether to hire againThe Monday spent filling the book and what it does to your nervous systemProtecting your peace online, and knowing when it is safe to open back upMaking measured changes in a hard six months instead of erratic onesWhy no relationship, personal or professional, is a failureScars not wounds, and why the timing of your story mattersThere is hope on the other side. Sometimes it just arrives quieter than you expected.Do you need to be good with numbers to survive a hard season in business?You need to know your numbers well enough to see what your business can carry. Sam is clear that her financial literacy is the only reason her salon supported her family through three years of legal costs.Is it a bad sign if you do not want to grow your salon right now?No. Choosing to stay still, keep your book tight and protect your energy is a legitimate business decision, not a step backwards.How do you make big business decisions when everything feels uncertain?Make them slowly and on the information you actually have, not on fear. Measured changes you have sat with beat reactive ones every time.Mentioned in this episode:https://www.salonrising.com💖 Celebrating Our Podcast Partner – Christophe Robin, proudly distributed by McM ImportsWe’ve partnered with Christophe Robin and MCM Imports to bring you something beautiful:➡ Experience the Christophe Robin Discovery Box — curated by pro ambassador Monique McMahon.➡ Inside, you’ll find her handpicked favourites — the hero products she swears by in the salon.It’s your invitation to explore the range and discover why Christophe Robin has become a quiet obsession among stylists who know their craft.Click the link below to request your FREE Christophe Robin Discovery Box, exclusively through McM Imports. 👇MCM💛 A Limited Time Offer From Our Amazing Sponsor, Timely 💛➡ Timely is the easy to use booking and payments system that puts salon owners in control of the whole client experience from the first booking to final payment.➡ Salon Rising listeners get a 14 day free trial plus 50% off their first 3 months.➡ And when you activate with Payments, you'll also get a free Touchscreen terminal, worth $349 + GST.Use the code SALONRISING at checkout or click the link below to get started. Once you're set up, your Timely contact will take care of the rest. 👇Timely