The mission of Stylist Brokers is to “Empower Stylists to do what they love”!  This means we want to help stylists be the best they can be regardless of the path they’ve chosen.  Having done booth rental and not liking it, we help stylist find a great job with a full-service, upscale salon where they can just do hair and get paid.  If, however; a stylist wants to continue doing booth rental, but now realize they need help, Stylist Brokers provides the necessary business training they need in order to grow and manage their business.

The idea of “empowering stylists to do what they love” was conceived by a successful salon owner as he watched a number of his stylists take the “leap of faith” into business ownership by renting a booth or suite.  He knew that some of the stylists were doomed to failure because they didn’t possess the drive, motivation and skills necessary to operate a small ‘booth rental’ business.

They were, however; bound and determined because they had been slowly wooed over the months by a continual onslaught of postcards and propaganda sent from the owners of the booth rental companies.  These companies sold the dream of business ownership, work when you want to work, keep all the money for yourself (except rent) and freedom from the tyranny of a boss!  What they didn’t do was appraise the stylists of the cost, expenses, time, energy and commitment required of them to be in business for themselves.

Without a doubt, these stylists decided to go into business for themselves without doing any of the typical things an entrepreneur would do before leaving the comfort of a decent job.  Things like writing a business plan, basic knowledge of balance sheets and P&L’s, forecasts and projections, bookkeeping and accounting, marketing and demographics, capital expenditures, not to mention life, health and business insurance costs!  The list of “things you do before starting a business” sounds like a downer, but what it does is force you to look at the facts about your business model and the industry.  You ‘count the costs’!

So when a stylist chooses to open their own booth rental business they’re really going in with little to no preparation.  It’s exciting, fun and liberating at first – being your own boss, working when you feel like working, coming and going as you please – but without the proper preparation, knowledge and discipline the probability of success is slim.  So they bump along enjoying the “dream” not realizing that they’re losing clients, that revenue is decreasing and that taxes haven’t been paid.  After about a year, their dream becomes a nightmare!  Running their booth rental business takes a lot more time, energy and effort than they ever imagined.  The icing on the cake is when they do their taxes and discover what they owe in federal, state, local AND THE BIGGEST OF ALL, self employment tax!  Booth rental is no longer fun and exciting.  Instead it’s a pain.


So Stylist Brokers helps the stylist “do what they love” by helping them succeed regardless of whether they just want to do hair as a commission employee in a full service salon, or continue with booth rental and get the “boot camp” business training they need in order to not only survive, but thrive in the small business world!