How COVID Changed My Salon Company for the Better

Before you come for me, let me say this first.

COVID was terrifying.

It was hard on salon owners, hard on our teams, hard on families, and hard on small businesses everywhere. There were days where I genuinely did not know what was going to happen to Urban Betty.

But looking back now, there were also things that happened during that time that completely changed the way I run my salon company forever.

Honestly? Some of the systems we implemented during COVID are the exact systems that helped us grow into a stronger, healthier company afterward.

The Moment I Realized We Had a Problem

I think the exact moment everything shifted for me financially was when I realized what I thought was three months’ worth of savings was actually only one month.

At the time, I believed it cost around $60,000 a month to run our salon company. So when COVID hit, I thought we were prepared. We had around $120,000 saved.

Then within one month… it was basically gone.

Just fixed expenses alone burned through it.

That was one of the most sobering moments of my career.

And to make things even more intense, we had just opened our second location the year before. I had purchased the building, and all those expenses still had to be paid.

Rent didn’t stop. Utilities, insurance, payroll systems, and every other fixed expense kept moving whether our doors were open or not.

At that moment, I realized something had to fundamentally change about how I managed money.

And as if things were not stressful enough already, there was another layer to all of this.

Right before the pandemic, we had already secured plans, drawings, and financing to completely renovate our shampoo area. It was around a $70,000 renovation, and the project had already been scheduled before anyone knew the world was about to shut down.

So while we were closed during COVID, we went ahead and completely renovated the shampoo area.

I remember freaking out because I had just taken on this huge loan, we were closed, and I wasn’t making money.

Looking back now, it sounds completely insane.

But at the time, we were already committed, and there was no turning back.

PPP Funding Helped Save Us

Yes, we received PPP funding, and honestly, it helped save us.

Without it, I truly do not know what would have happened.

But people also forget how expensive reopening actually was.

PPP helped us survive payroll, but then we still had to reopen safely.

We purchased massive dividers to place between salon stations. We bought gloves, disinfectants, masks, cleaning supplies, laundry services, sanitation materials, and brought in extra people just to help clean and manage the new systems.

Everything became more expensive overnight.

And unlike a lot of industries, salons are extremely hands-on businesses. You cannot cut hair over Zoom.

We had 60 team members at the time across stylists, assistants, managers, and support staff. Keeping everyone working safely became one of the biggest operational challenges we had ever faced.

The Financial Wake-Up Call I Needed

One of the biggest things COVID exposed was how disconnected I had become from our actual financial reality.

Before COVID, I thought I knew my numbers.

But really, I was mostly downloading transactions into QuickBooks, checking them off, and trusting things were fine without deeply auditing what was actually happening.

I was not truly reviewing expenses consistently.

And once the world stopped, I had time to finally sit down and look at everything.

That process was eye-opening.

I remember discovering we had been paying for a coaching program for assistants for almost two years that cost $99 a month… and we weren’t even using it.

That may not sound huge by itself, but when you start stacking subscriptions, software, forgotten memberships, duplicate systems, and unnecessary expenses together, it adds up fast.

I think most business owners probably have far more money leaking out of their business than they realize.

COVID forced me to finally look.

Learning Profit First Changed Everything

During shutdown, I read the book Profit First.

And honestly, it completely changed how I think about business finances.

The biggest shift for me was learning to segment expenses into separate accounts so I could see in real time where money was actually going.

Before that, everything was just blended together.

Afterward, every category had visibility.

Taxes, profit, operating expenses, payroll, education, and benefits.

That one shift forever changed the way I run Urban Betty.

We still use Profit First systems today.

And if I’m being honest, if COVID had happened before 2014, before we implemented stronger systems and structures through Summit Salon Systems, I do not think we would have survived.

COVID exposed weaknesses fast.

I think a lot of salons were unfortunately already heading toward financial trouble, and COVID simply accelerated what was already happening.

Double Shifting Our Chairs Changed the Entire Business

One of the biggest operational changes we made during COVID was double shifting our salon chairs.

At the time, regulations required people to be spaced at least 6 feet apart, so every other station had to remain empty.

We had no choice but to rethink how we used our space.

So we expanded our operating hours and started double shifting stations.

One stylist might work the morning shift.
Another stylist would work the evening shift.

And honestly? It completely changed the way we thought about salon capacity.

Once COVID restrictions ended, we kept the system.

Because it worked.

We realized we had been massively underutilizing our space before.

A salon chair is real estate.

And most salon owners are not maximizing the real estate they already have.

It Also Helped Us Create Better Work-Life Balance

Ironically, double shifting also helped us create a better work-life balance.

Our full-time work week is only around 30 hours.

I personally could never work 12-hour shifts consistently, and I would never expect everyone else to either.

But because we expanded hours overall, individual team members could still work shorter schedules while the salon itself stayed open longer.

That flexibility became a huge advantage.

We Shortened Our Apprenticeship Program

COVID also forced us to rethink our apprenticeship timeline.

At one point, our training program was about a year long.

After COVID, we shortened it to six months.

That helped us get stylists onto the floor faster, create more staffing opportunities, and build careers quicker.

It also completely changed earning potential for newer stylists.

Most stylists in this industry are lucky to make $50,000 after several years behind the chair.

At Urban Betty, we can have newer stylists earning over $40,000 much earlier because we built systems that allow them to grow faster.

The $1,000 Bonuses Meant More Than Money

When we reopened after shutdown, I gave all 60 team members a $1,000 bonus.

Was it expensive?

Absolutely.

But I knew everyone had been living through one of the darkest, most uncertain periods of their lives. Most people had filed for unemployment, and for many of them, it still wasn’t enough.

I wanted our team to know they mattered.

I wanted them to feel appreciated.

And honestly, after what everyone had emotionally been through, I knew coming back to work was going to be a shock to the system.

So we tried to meet that moment with generosity.

We also held a huge Zoom call with the entire company before reopening so we could walk everyone through exactly how things would work.

We were transparent about everything.

The new safety systems, the scheduling changes, the double shifts, and the service charges.

Transparency became one of the most important leadership tools we had.

Why We Implemented Service Charges

One of the other major changes we made after reopening was implementing service charges.

The additional costs of operating during COVID were massive.

Extra cleaning, extra staffing, extra laundry, PPE, disinfectants, and additional operational management.

And the reality is salon margins are already incredibly small.

Most salons operate on profit margins between 3% and 5% if they are even profitable at all.

So we implemented service charges ranging from $5 to $25 depending on the service.

We also paid a retail percentage to our stylists on those charges, which helped increase their RTS numbers and helped many of them level up faster and make more money.

Did everyone love the service charges?

Of course not.

But honestly, about 1% of people push back on everything.

Price increases.
Policies.
Service charges.
All of it.

And the truth is, 99% of kind and reasonable guests understood that the costs of operating a business had changed dramatically.

Restaurants have service charges all the time, and most people don’t blink an eye.

At the end of the day, if someone cannot understand the reality of what it takes to run a healthy salon company that provides education, benefits, coaching, and opportunity for its team, then we may simply not be the right fit for them.

COVID Changed My Relationship With Fear

One of the biggest personal changes COVID created for me was this:

I stopped being afraid that one catastrophic event could destroy everything.

Because if we could survive that, we could survive almost anything.

That experience changed my confidence as a business owner forever.

I think before COVID, I still carried a fear that everything could disappear overnight.

Now I know we can adapt.

We can pivot.

We can figure things out.

And honestly, that mindset shift alone changed me as a leader.

My Lowest Emotional Point

I honestly don’t know if I fully stopped moving long enough to fall apart.

I just kept working.

I kept trying to solve problems, stay busy, and trust it would all work out.

And like a lot of people during that time, I leaned into creative things too. Tie-dyeing. Art projects. Little things that kept my brain from spiraling into doom and gloom.

I had no choice but to trust we would find a way through.

What COVID Should Have Taught Every Salon Owner

If COVID taught salon owners one thing, it should have been this:

You must know your numbers.

You must know your fixed costs.
You must know your budget.
You must know where your money is going.

And you absolutely need reserves set aside in case something unexpected happens.

Because eventually, something always happens.

COVID changed my salon company forever.

But honestly?

It changed me more.