Spa coach Steve Gomez provides his tips for helping spa professionals make their financial dreams come true.
As a technician in the spa industry, you work hard to build a full book of great people that you serve. You also work to retain them as long-term customers. For all the hard work, it is an interesting stigma that so many technicians must work way more years than their bodies (and brains!) want them to.
It is equally important to build a strong financial nest egg as it is to grow the business, yet most technicians fail to plan for retirement. From my perspective as a business coach, you can create an amazing lifestyle for yourself if you make the right moves. And it is never too late to start! Here are four steps you can take to make your financial dreams come true!
1. Save your tips. Learn to live without them. This can have a significant impact on your financial future. If you bring in $3,000 a week in service sales and an average of 20% in tips, that is $600 a week. This means that if you work a 50-week year that you can save a potential $30,000 annually. That’s $900,000 if you work 30 years! And that doesn’t take into account growth that will happen.
2. Save your retail commission. If you get paid a retail commission, then it behooves you to save 100% of it. If you are doing that same $3,000 a week in service sales and your retail to service percentage is 50%, that means you are selling $1,500 a week in retail. If you get 10% of that or if you work for yourself and choose to pay yourself, 10% that would be $150 a week. That adds up to $7,500 a year in retail commission saved.
3. Save your add-on income. Keep the commission you make from any add-on treatment that wasn’t scheduled on a given week. This is a win-win for the guest who gets an elevated experience from you that serves their health and image while supporting your financial growth. If you do that same $3,000 a week in service sales and add on an additional 10%, that’s $300 more each week, which is $15,000 more in sales volume over a 50-week work year. If you make or keep 35% of that, then you just added another $7,875 into your bank account.
4. Invest it. The next step is to make this money work for you! In our example, when we combine all three actions together, in this hypothetical scenario, you would have set aside $52,500 for yourself. Seek out and hire a financial advisor that can support you to open investment accounts and IRAs to help you make that money work for you long term.
What’s next? Do the math! Gather your data and see what your trends are so you can create goals based on your current data. Project for the next 12 months what you can expect to save based on the equations above. THINK BIG! Small steps today can make all the difference for your financial future. You can make this happen and take the steps today to create the type of abundance you deserve for a career of hard work serving your community! You owe it to yourself!
Steve Gomez will be teaching a class, "Financial Fitness: 6 Surefire Ways to Increase Profitability" on June 23, 2024 at the IECSC Las Vegas show. To attend Steve's class or any of the classes offered at IECSC Las Vegas, be sure to register here to attend IECSC Las Vegas from June 22-24, 2024. What's more, use code AMERICANSPA to get 20% off education classes.