How do I go independent as a hairstylist? The 8-step plan.

Going independent was the scariest decision of my career, and it was also the best one. Since then, I’ve built the eight-step plan I teach in my Beauty Empire Blueprint course, and you’ll find all eight steps below, in the same order I teach them.

Who this is for, and who should wait

This plan is for a beauty pro with a real clientele who’s ready to run their own book. If you’re just starting out, it can wait, and I say so plainly in my course: “When you’re first leaving school, you probably don’t need to go independent. You need to go to commission.”

And if you’d rather work on your own, I say that too: “If you like a lot of alone time and don’t want the community of a salon, maybe a suite is right for you. We’re not for everyone, and we don’t want to be.”

You’d be in good company, since 48% of American hairdressers and cosmetologists already work for themselves, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s half the profession, and you get to join them with a plan.

If staying put still feels safer, I wrote about that in is a salon job really safer than being self-employed.

How much do I need to earn to make this work?

Run the math before you tour a single space, because that number changes every conversation you have after it. In Module 3 of my course, I teach my students to know three numbers cold before they sign anything: their current hourly rate, their monthly income and their monthly expenses.

From there, it’s simple division.

Take what you need to earn, divide it by your average ticket, and that’s how many visits you need. I walked through the fuller worksheet, with real market numbers plugged in, in how many clients do you actually need.

Which shape of independence fits me?

Independence comes in three shapes, and the right one is whichever matches how you like to work. In Module 1 of my course, I ask students whether they do their best work in a private, closed-door setup or an open, collaborative one. I also remind them that luxury open salons often command higher service prices, so the choice touches your pricing too.

You can rent a booth in someone’s salon, lease a private suite behind your own door, or take a membership at a Shared Workspace Salon™, which is the category I built. Here’s how I usually explain it: “There was either commission or there was booth rent. So I built a third category, a Shared Workspace Salon™. It brings people together, it creates community and collaboration, and it supports stylists the way I needed to be supported.”

All three are real businesses, and good people thrive in each one. They’re very different jobs day to day, though, and a fair comparison takes more than a paragraph, so I gave it a whole article: booth rent vs commission, with the actual math. And if the term’s new to you, here’s what a Shared Workspace Salon™ is.

What does the whole thing actually cost?

Price every line, because the space itself is rarely the biggest one.

In Module 1 of my course, I hand my students a list to take to every salon owner before they sign. It covers weekly rental rates (in the course, I quote an Austin range of $150 to $1,000 a week), a security deposit of $500 to $2,000, backbar, towels, cleaning, and whether the payment collection process leaves you in control of your own money.

That checklist is its own lesson in my course, "Important Questions to Ask Salon Owners." For outside sources on every line item, read the real cost of going independent, and bring both lists on your tours.

What do I need to make it legal?

The legal side is lighter than most stylists expect, and my course turns it into a simple checklist. In Texas, TDLR licenses the space rather than the arrangement, so a station inside a licensed salon needs nothing beyond the license you already hold, while a private room adds a mini-establishment license at $70 for two years.

In Module 1 of my course, I recommend starting as a sole proprietor and adding an LLC once you’ve got some traction, which costs about $300 to file with the Texas Secretary of State. Every state runs its own version of all this, though.

Give your board’s site ten minutes before you sign anything.

How do I protect myself?

Get insured and get your tax ID before you take your first booking. Liability insurance built for beauty pros runs $149 to $179 a year at Elite Beauty Society, and several competitors price in the same range.

Your tax ID is your EIN, and in Module 1 of my course, I list getting it as one of the first action steps in setting up your business structure. It’s free from the IRS and takes minutes online, and once you have it, you can stop handing your Social Security number to every supplier and platform that asks for one.

How do I set up booking and payments?

Get your books and your bank account open before your chair is.

In Module 1 of my course, I have my students open a dedicated business bank account and link their payment processing to it, Square and Venmo, before day one.

For booking, I point them to platforms built for our industry, like Vagaro, StyleSeat and Square Appointments. As for what it costs, GlossGenius runs about $28 a month and Square charges 2.6% plus 15 cents a swipe, per their published pricing pages.

While you’re at the bank, start the tax habit I teach in Module 3: open a separate tax savings account, move 10 to 20 percent of your gross income into it every quarter, and never touch it for anything else. The 15.3% self-employment tax is real, but it’s painless when the money’s already sitting there on the day it’s due.

How do I tell my clients I’m leaving?

The best way is to tell them yourself, one client at a time, and make it easy for them to follow you. The odds are on your side, too, since 84% of Americans said they’d likely follow their favorite stylist to a new location in a Phorest consumer survey reported by Salon Today.

Here’s the exact order I teach in Module 2 of my course...

Collect your clients’ contact info before you leave. Then contact them one by one, in the order of their upcoming appointments, and reach out to everyone you’ve seen in the past year, too. Keep the same schedule and prices to start so nothing else changes for them, and pre-book their next visit before they leave your chair.

I wrote out the full scripts and timing in will my clients follow me.

Do I have to figure this out alone?

You don’t, and finding support is the step I got wrong the first time. When I went independent, there was nobody to ask about pricing, taxes, or what to do when a no-show ghosted a Saturday slot.

That’s why Module 4 of my course is about building community on purpose. I teach new independents to join industry networks, find a mentor, and share their wins and struggles, because isolation is one of the fastest ways a new business owner burns out.

So when you tour, ask what comes with the space. Is business education included, or are you Googling at midnight? Does anyone market to bring new guests into the building, and do you get a profile on a site people actually find?

Some places hand you keys and wish you luck.

That gap is the whole reason bex+Co. exists, and I say it to every stylist who joins: “At bex+Co., you are running your own business, but you’re not alone. You’re totally supported.” Whether you land with us or somewhere else entirely, refuse to choose between owning your business and having help.

And here’s one more thing I tell every stylist circling this decision, because it’s true of every step above: “It’s okay to do things before you’re ready. My advice is not to wait until you’re ready. Be a little scared, let us help you, and do it anyway.”

The whole list, on one screen

Print it, or screenshot it. Then start with step one this week, because it costs nothing and it makes every other step easier.

★★★★★

The energy at bex+Co.^® is something you can't explain until you feel it. I've worked in salons that claimed to be 'family' but it never felt like that. Here, there's no competition. Everyone wants to see you succeed.