How to Spot Where Your Salon is Leaking Money (Even When You’re Flat Out)
Teréze Taber
One of the things we care deeply about at Behind the Brand is helping stylists and salon owners actually understand business, not in a university, MBA, spreadsheet heavy way, but in a way that makes sense when you’re standing on the floor with foils in your hands.
Lynden says all the time:
“Most salons don’t understand the key drivers of profitability and success.”
Which, coming from someone with all the business qualifications, years of study, and decades of multi site ownership experience, sounds… intimidating.
So I did what any practical female business partner would do, I sat him down and grilled him.
I asked him to forget the theory, forget the big words, and translate 15 years in the hairdressing industry and over 20 years of multi site business ownership into something stylists could actually use.
This is the distilled version.
Busy Isn’t the Goal. Profit Is.
First things first
Being busy is not a bad thing, it usually means you’re liked, trusted, and in demand.
But busy on its own doesn’t tell you if your salon is healthy.
We’ve seen plenty of salons that are booked solid, buzzing all day, and still quietly struggling. The owners are tired, the team feels stretched, and the numbers never quite do what they should.
That’s because busyness hides leaks.
Think of it like this: you can have the cutest pair of shoes on, but if there’s a split in the sole, you’re still going to end up with soggy socks. From the outside, everything looks fine. It’s only on the inside that you feel the damage.
Salons are the same.
The Real Drivers (In Stylist Language)
When Lynden talks about “key drivers of profitability”, he’s really talking about a few simple things:
– Are you charging properly for your time?
– Do you actually know what a service costs you to deliver?
– Are you focused on the services that make money, or scattered across everything?
Most salons are incredibly busy, but very scattered.
Lynden often explains it like this:
“Imagine selling one pair of shoes for 600 dollars instead of ten pairs for 60 dollars.”
Same effort. Same day. Totally different outcome.
Most salons already have a handful of services that genuinely make them money. But instead of building around those, they also offer lots of services that barely break even, or quietly lose money, and never stop to question why.
“Busy masks that problem for a long time.”
Treatments and Retail. Not Extras.
Another place salons leak money is in how they treat treatments and retail.
They’re often positioned as “extras”. Optional. Nice if they happen.
But in reality, treatments and retail are some of the biggest profit drivers in a salon when they’re done properly.
Your client is already in the chair.
They already trust you.
They actually want your advice.
Not selling. Expertise.
“You don’t need more clients,” Lynden says.
“You need to maximise the experience for the clients who are already there, without costing yourself money.”
That means talking about treatments and home care as part of the service, not an awkward add on at the end.
“You need to maximise the experience for the clients who are already there”
Fast or Slow Doesn’t Matter. Charging Does.
One thing Lynden is very clear on is that there’s no “right” speed.
Some stylists are fast and efficient.
Some are slow, meticulous, and highly technical.
Both can be profitable.
“I’ve worked with stylists who only saw two clients a day,” he says,
“but they charged properly for their time and precision. Their clients valued it, and the numbers worked.”
The problem isn’t taking longer.
The problem is taking longer and not charging for it.
If you’re using more colour, taking more time, or offering a more detailed service, that’s absolutely fine. But the pricing has to match the reality.
The Hidden Costs No One Factors In
Here’s a big one that most salons never fully calculate.
In a healthy salon:
– Colour costs usually sit around 10 to 15 percent of turnover.
– Rent often sits in a similar range.
So if colour isn’t being allocated properly, if staff are overmixing, being casual with usage, or not understanding cost, there’s a real chance the business isn’t even paying for its colour.
“If you’re not calculating colour properly,” Lynden says, “you could be giving it away for free without realising.”
That’s not about being tight or controlling. It’s about understanding where your money is actually going.
Where to Spot the Leaks
If your salon feels busy but still tight, look here first:
These are the small splits in the sole of the shoe.
They don’t look dramatic. But over time, they soak everything.
Why We Talk About This So Much
We’re not interested in making salons colder, harder, or more transactional.
We’re interested in helping stylists understand business well enough that they can:
- Work sustainably
- Feel confident charging properly
- Stop relying on exhaustion to make things work
- Busy is easy to chase.
- Healthy takes understanding.
And once you learn to spot the leaks, you can finally fix what’s happening under the surface instead of wondering why it still feels uncomfortable inside.
Final Thoughts
Lynden Mason is co founder of Behind the Brand and has owned and operated 85 salons across New Zealand. Today, he works alongside salon owners and stylists to build profitable, sustainable businesses grounded in real numbers, not guesswork.
To have a chat about your salon business, contact lynden@behindthebrand.co.nz.
Teréze Taber & Lynden Mason
Founders, Behind the Brand Agency