What Should I Look for
in a Salon Business Coach?

If you're thinking about hiring a salon business coach, you're probably at a point where you know something needs to change. Maybe you're exhausted. Maybe the numbers aren't working. Maybe you've been doing the same things for years and getting the same results. Whatever brought you here, the decision to invest in coaching is a significant one, and it's worth taking a moment to think carefully about what you're actually looking for before you spend your money.

I've been coaching salon owners for nearly a decade, and I had my own salon for over twenty years before that. I've seen what works and what doesn't, both in salons and in the coaching industry itself. So here's my honest take on how to find the right coach for your business.

They should be willing to say things that are uncomfortable

This is probably the most important thing on this list, and it's the one that gets skipped over most often.

A coach's job is not to make you feel good about decisions you've already made. Their job is to help you see your business clearly, including the parts you'd rather not look at. In my experience, the reason a lot of coaching relationships fail isn't because the coach lacks knowledge. It's because they're too careful with a client's feelings to say the things that actually need saying.

I've worked with salon owners who came to me after working with other coaches, and a pattern comes up regularly. The fundamental problems in their business — whether that's the location, the pricing structure, the service menu, or the business model itself — were never properly addressed. The previous coach had danced around them. They'd offered encouragement and accountability and action steps, but nobody had looked the salon owner in the eye and said: this part of your business isn't working, and here's why.

One of the most striking examples from my own coaching work involved a business called The Eyelash Queen. When we sat down and properly looked at the numbers, we realised that lashes were actually the least profitable part of the business. The name, the brand, the entire identity of the salon was built around a service that wasn't driving meaningful profit. That was a difficult conversation to have. But the result was a complete restructure, a rebrand, and a rename — and the business came out of it in a far stronger position. That kind of outcome doesn't happen if a coach is too nervous to challenge what's already there.

A good coach should feel slightly uncomfortable to work with. If every session leaves you feeling validated and nothing changes, you're probably not getting value for your money.

They should have actually run a salon

There are a lot of business coaches in the world. There are far fewer who have spent years behind the chair, managed a team of stylists and apprentices, dealt with a quiet January, or had to tell a long-standing employee that things aren't working out. Those experiences matter enormously when you're trying to help someone run a salon.

I ran my own salon for over twenty years. At different points, my team was just me, my partner, and a Saturday girl. At other points, it was a much larger operation with front of house staff, apprentices, and a full team of stylists. I know what it feels like to be in the middle of it, not watching from the outside.

I've never wanted to be the kind of coach who sits on a hill somewhere dispensing wisdom they've never had to test in the real world. The advice I give is grounded in experience I actually had, mistakes I actually made, and problems I genuinely had to solve. When you're talking to a salon business coach, it's worth asking: have you actually run a salon? And if so, what did that look like?

They should specialise, not generalise

A coach who tries to serve everyone tends to serve nobody particularly well. If you see a salon business coach whose content and messaging is aimed equally at solo nail technicians working two days a week and multi-site salon groups with fifty employees, that's worth questioning. Those are completely different businesses with completely different challenges, and the advice that works for one often doesn't apply to the other at all.

The same is true of coaches who work across industries. A general small business coach might be perfectly competent, but they won't know the specific dynamics of the salon industry: the service pricing pressures, the staff retention challenges, the particular economics of renting chairs versus employing staff, or what a healthy retail-to-service ratio actually looks like. The more specific a coach's focus, the more useful their experience is likely to be for you.

Coaching should be their actual business

This one sounds blunt, but I think it matters. If a coach can't sustain themselves through coaching alone, that tells you something. It might be that they're just starting out, which is fair enough. But if someone has been coaching for several years and still needs to run a second or third business alongside it to pay the bills, it's worth asking why. Are they getting results for their clients? Are those clients coming back, referring others, and recommending the coach to their peers?

A coach who is genuinely delivering value tends to build a business that sustains itself. That's not a universal rule, and there are exceptions, but it's a reasonable question to have in the back of your mind when you're evaluating someone.

Be honest about what you actually want from coaching

There's a version of shopping for a coach that is really just shopping for someone to agree with you. You know what you want to do, and you're looking for a coach who will tell you it's a great idea. I've seen this more than once, and it never ends well.

If you want different results from your salon, you have to be genuinely open to doing things differently. That sounds obvious, but in practice it means being willing to hear that your pricing is wrong, or your team structure isn't working, or that a service you love isn't worth the space it takes on your menu. A good coach will tell you those things. Your job is to be willing to listen.

The coaching relationship only works if both people are being honest. The coach needs to be brave enough to say difficult things, and the client needs to be open enough to hear them.

One more thing worth saying

I'm going to say something that most coaches in this industry won't, because it makes people uncomfortable. There are too many salon businesses for the number of customers available. The market is saturated in most towns and cities, and that means some salons will always struggle regardless of how hard the owner works or how good the coaching is. Some businesses genuinely need to change direction, restructure entirely, or in some cases close — so that the owners who remain can build something profitable and sustainable.

A good coach won't pretend otherwise. Part of the value of working with someone who knows this industry properly is that they'll give you an honest assessment of where your business sits and what your realistic options are. That honesty might be the most valuable thing they offer you.

Phil Jackson

Phil Jackson is a salon business coach and the founder of Build Your Salon. He spent over twenty years running his own salon before moving into coaching, and works with salon owners across the UK and beyond through his programmes Salon Spark, AI By Your Side, and the Evil Genius Retreat.