Ep. 53 - Why Your Spa Is Making Money and You're Not
You wake up early. You get to the spa before anyone else. You check the schedule, respond to missed messages, maybe squeeze in a treatment before your team starts filing in. By noon you've already handled a scheduling conflict, placed a supply order, and talked someone off a ledge. By the end of the day you're exhausted... and confused. Because the books looked full. Clients spent money. And yet when you sit down to run payroll there's barely anything left for you.
This is not a cash flow problem. It's a structure problem. And it is so much more common than anyone talks about.
Where Is the Money Actually Going?
Here's the breakdown I walk my clients through when we first start working together. Labor for your team should run somewhere between 35 and 40% of your revenue. Rent, overhead, products, supplies, and utilities together take up another 20% or so. Taxes are another 20%. When you add it all up, somewhere between 75 and 80% of your revenue is already spoken for before you ever write yourself a check.
That leaves 15 to 20%. And what most spa owners do with that remaining percentage is let it sit in the business account and wait to see what happens. There's no line item for the owner. No non-negotiable number set aside before anything else goes out. Just... whatever is left.
And "whatever is left" is not a pay structure. It's a habit that is quietly costing you.
You Are Paying Everyone Else First
Your team gets paid every single week. Your landlord gets paid every single month. Your software, your suppliers, your insurance... all automatically pulled from your account. But you? You're waiting. Telling yourself next month will be better. Telling yourself you're close to a breakthrough.
I know because I did the exact same thing for years. I did not pay myself a single penny from my business for multiple years. And I am not ashamed of it because it brought me here. But I also know exactly how long that story can go on if nobody stops you and shows you what's actually happening.
The Fix Starts With One Number
You need to decide what you want to take home and treat it like a non-negotiable expense. Not what's left over. Not what feels comfortable to pull out. A real, specific number that your business is structured to produce.
From there you reverse engineer everything. How booked does your team need to be? What does your average service rate need to be? What is your profit percentage and where are the gaps?
I built a calculator called the Pay Yourself More Calculator specifically for this. You enter four things... your desired monthly pay, your profit margin goal, your team's available client hours, and your average cost of service per hour. It tells you exactly what booking percentage your team needs to hit for you to bring home that number. It tells you your total monthly revenue target. And if the numbers don't work yet, it tells you exactly which lever to pull.
It is not a magic wand. It will not do the work for you. But it will show you clearly where to focus so you stop wasting energy on things that aren't actually the problem.
One of my clients came to me with a profit margin of less than 1%. Within six months of working together she was above 8%. We are now in our second round and working toward 17 to 18%. That is what happens when you stop guessing and start looking at the actual numbers.
Grab the Pay Yourself More Calculator at amandaluisaconsulting.com/more and run your numbers. It takes less than two minutes if you already track your numbers monthly. And it might be the most important two minutes of your year.
You built something beautiful. It is time to build a paycheck that matches it.
Ready to finally figure out why the money isn't making it home to you?
Fill out this intake form to book a discovery call with me. Increasing profit margin by maximizing your team is honestly one of my favorite things to work on with clients. Let's look at your numbers together and figure out exactly what needs to change.
