Tim Belcher got into salon ownership almost by accident in the mid-80s and “made every mistake I think it’s possible to make.”
Over the years, learning things the hard way has been Belcher’s unique path to success.
Today, Belcher owns the award-winning WHOLE Aveda Salon Spas in Florida, and is an Aveda Business College PUREfessor and a one-on-one salon coach through his education platform, WHOLE Salon Consulting.
Belcher says his mission in life today is “to help other salon owners to not make those same mistakes I did.”
He will be one of the instructors at the International Beauty Show in New York March 23-25, where Belcher is teaching classes for salon and spa owners on leadership, team building, recruitment, and creating a revenue-driven culture.
Belcher met up with American Salon to reminisce about his personal path to salon business success — via the stressful avenues of salon business failure.
AS: What didn’t you know about becoming a salon owner when you started out?
TB: Do you know how I became a salon owner?
I was an incredibly busy hairdresser renting a booth in a little scrawny salon. And all of a sudden the building was condemned and we had a week to vacate.
I went around the corner into this little salon, just looking for a close place to transfer my clientele. I told her I was looking for a job or a chair to rent and she said, “I have to be transparent and tell you the salon is for sale.”
I had zero knowledge or consideration for having my own salon. It never even crossed my mind. I said naïvely, “How much is the salon?”
Now this was 39 years ago. She says, “It's $35,000,” and I said — “oh, well that leaves me out. I only have $6,200 in my savings account.”
And she said, “I'll take it.”
Swear to God.
I had zero business sense. I had zero business plan. And I didn't have a dollar. She took my last dollar, right? I'm opening up a business with $0.00.
And so when you ask the question, what didn't you know? … I didn’t know anything. I didn't know what I didn't know, that’s for sure.
Within the first month, almost every hydraulic chair broke. The air conditioner broke. I'm blow drying one of my early-morning clients, it’s is just me and my client, and the wallpaper literally fell off the wall and landed on top of us.
So looking back, I had to learn everything. I had to learn how to how to keep books, how to do taxes. My learning was organic and hard. Definitely hard knocks. I went bankrupt.
I think it took me 20 years to figure it out. And then it took me 10 years to grow. Now I feel like we're on nearly autopilot for the last 10. It’s like night and day from what it used to be.
And so my purpose is to help other salon owners to not go through years of hell like I did.
AS: What’s the biggest problem salon owners come to you with?
TB: Every single person who inquires about my coaching has an issue, and typically it's money.
So we spend the first couple months trying to figure out how to squeeze some more dollars out so that they can get on their feet. And once they’re on their feet, then we start to perfect things. You know, work-life balance.
But ultimately, whatever their question is superficially, the real underlying question they're asking is: How do I get people to do what they're supposed to do, when they're supposed to do it?
Period. Because once you figure that out, it all flows.
And so we come back to culture and leadership. All those operational questions can be answered in a good way when you figure out how to get people behind you. How to get people behind your mission and to have your back. People who are aligned with your values.
AS: What’s a common mistake you see salon owners making?
TB: I never forget the lesson I learned from Susan Scott in Fierce Conversations. Culture is everything and it can all go so wrong so fast.
Even experienced salon owners still make the mistake of not valuing their culture over the revenue generated by a hairdresser or spa therapist. They still wait too long to make the decision to end the relationship.
Slowly, then suddenly … it seems like everything is going along great, and then boom, the rug gets pulled out.
Well, it really wasn't that way. It was building up and there was this little nick in the armor and it just kept eating away — and then it all fell apart. It wasn't sudden. It was always there.
AS: You talk a lot about things you’ve done wrong. What have you done right from the beginning?
TB: Well, failure is the best teacher. Falling down is a really great way to learn how to understand. And I do learn from my mistakes.
Then there’s that old adage about necessity being the mother of invention. Let me tell you: When your back's against the wall and the rent is due and payroll's on Friday, you're gonna make it happen. Because you don't want to lose your business and your livelihood and your team. You just make it happen.
I don't think a mentor taught me that. I think I just learned that.
And there’s execution. You know, we as salon owners are good at taking the class and buying the book and watching the webinar. But, execution and implementation — it just doesn't seem to happen for most salon owners. They just don't do it. They've got a great library and they've got a great knowledge of what they need to do, but they just don't do it.
It's the execution piece that I think that I'm good at. And after you execute it, the sustainability of that piece is what matters, because otherwise it all fades away. Everybody goes back to whatever was easiest.
I do succeed at leaning into the change until it becomes the norm.
AS: Who do you turn to for business help?
TB: I have a mentor. I hired someone.
I tell everybody they need a coach. Everybody needs someone to hold them to account. You need someone to critique you and give you honest feedback.
And then I realized a few years ago, why am I telling everyone they need a coach — and I don't have a coach? Freaking Serena Williams has a coach. Why don’t I?
So I hired this coach. And yeah, he taught me what I needed.
AS: What was it you needed?
TS: In the past, I would call my employees on the carpet for not living up to their commitments. Now, they do it themselves.
For example. If I ask you, Why are you late? … you're going to give me all these excuses and honestly, I don't really care why. So now I'm going to ask, How important do you think it is that you be on time?
And you're going to say, oh, it's very important because of a, b, and c. And then I'm going to ask, How do you think it looks to the other staff that you get to be late?
Well, at that point they start seeing it through your lens. They're starting to figure it out. And then I say, What do we need to do so that I never have to have this talk with you again? Because I hate this. And typically they start crying by that point.
And then I ask for their commitment, and they always give it. I ask, if we do have this conversation again, what should happen? What should be the consequences?
And guess what? They always choose a punishment much harsher than I would have chosen. Always.
It happened not long ago with one of my veterans. I adore her; she's amazing. She was on time for like 12 years, and then she got a new boyfriend. All of a sudden, she's starting to be late.
So we had this entire conversation and she said through her tears, I think if I’m late again you should cancel my day and send me home. Well, I'm like — oh my God, I don’t want to do that. But I had to. I went with it.
A few months later, she was late and guess what we did? We honored her commitment. She said, you're going to send me home, aren't you? And I said yes and she left. And she's never been late again.
That was a giant lesson for me that she's not mad at me. She's mad at herself, and she's just following her commitment and the standards that she set and agreed to.
So I’m never the bad guy anymore.
AS: What is a concept that’s new for most salon owners you work with?
TB: We've always talked about how "the customer’s always right," and we have to do anything they want. No, the customer is not always right. I'm always fighting for my staff, and they know that.
I think the guest is the customer of the hairdresser or the spa therapist. And that the hairdresser and spa therapist are MY customers.
So I'm doing everything I can to make their life better, and to teach them and coach them into a more successful work day. Where they can make more money and they'll be happier at work.
AS: And what is the end result of that approach?
TS: They fully understand that with our clients, it's not just about the money, but the way we make them feel.
My primary market are women who are professional, or married to a professional, or who are on their way to being in that bracket. And they appreciate service.
So let me back up just a minute. I work my ass off, still, as an old guy. And at the end of the week, one of my rituals is, I reward myself.
I go to a really nice bar and order an expensive Scotch or bourbon. And it's got to be in a great, heavy glass, right? It's got to be in a beautiful atmosphere. The bartender has to either know me or want to. He has to make me feel good about giving him money.
That’s my thing, right? It's my thing. And what I've come to realize over the years is that we — and the service that we provide — we are so many women's thing.
Even the ones that maybe shouldn't be able to afford us … they make it work. Because we are really important to them.
My team knows this very well and they hold themselves to the standard of meeting that need for the client.
AS: How do salon owners tend to get in their own way as leaders?
TB: I'm often comparing our business model with restaurants and hotels, because we're all kind of after that same guest.
But so many owners, especially restaurant, but secondary are salons — we get so full of ourselves. We have to remember that we're in the service business. For God's sake, we're washing people's hair. We're cleaning the gunk out from under somebody's toenails. I don't know how you elevate that to such status, but we need to calm down about that and realize we are in service to others.
I'm in service to my team. My team is in service to our guests.
We get in our own way by overthinking everything. By making it way harder than it needs to be when it comes to developing a team and supporting them. I think of them first, I think of the guest second.
And that's a little antithetical to what most people say. But I've got a really strong culture. I've had one walkout in 40 years and that was the big slap in my face that I needed to change. That was almost 20 years ago.
AS: How many stylists walked out?
TB: Seven. It wasn’t my whole team, but it was the best of them. All the big hitters. And it's always the ones that you would never suspect.
AS: What changes did you make after that?
TB: I came to understand I have one role, and it's to change my team’s thinking. But boy, is it tough.
It takes real effort and real strategy because, to change your thinking, I have to first earn your trust.
I have to speak to your emotion. You need to like me. And then you need to respect me. And then you need to think that I know what I'm talking about.
And so, I have to earn your trust. I have to have to get you on my side, and then I have to start explaining things through your lens.
So I need to be good at seeing things how you see them, and you can then start to see things how I see them. I had to learn how to do all that.
AS: If you had to generalize, what would be the biggest difference between a salon owner who’s successful and one who’s not?
TB: Well, you're either a hard worker and going to focus, or you’re not. You either understand what focus is or you don't.
This is hard for people. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
I remember someone asked Van Council why he was so open about achieving success in his salons. “Why are you giving away your secret sauce?” And in his Southern drawl he said, “well I don’t care, ‘cause they ain’t doing it.”
And he’s right. No other Van Michael chains popped up. Nobody put him out of business.
Tim Belcher will be at the International Beauty Show in New York on March 23-25, teaching “From First Visit to Lifelong Guest – Retention Strategies for a Successful Business” and “Create a Revenue-Driven Culture.” He will be one of the featured speakers at the 2025 Beauty Business Seminar: An Interactive Growth Workshop for Salon & Spa Owners and Managers . Register for the show here.