You lost half a million dollars or so you invested in this and then it shut down. I had essentially half a million dollars taken from me. And so then I had to wake up every day and just be like, OK, do I just give up? Like this this dream that I have and reality is so different. And I just kept pushing through and I knew there was no other option. I just had to keep going. Tara Dominguez is a visionary beauty industry powerhouse and the founder of 303 Salon Lohi and Five Star Beauty Coach. Her work reflects a bold commitment to excellence, empowering beauty professionals to build thriving businesses rooted in service, confidence and lasting impact. I feel like so many men and women are going to school to do hair, but we don't really know what to do when we get out. We don't know how to build a clientele. We don't know how to make the six figures. I could show you as a new stylist how to make six figures in 12 months. And I can show any salon owner that has drive and has a vision how to hit seven figures in 12 months. So if someone's listening, they have a local business or sort of a client-based business like this or their hair stylists, what are a few business tips you've got for them over the years? I would say... It spans the globe like a super high school. Internet elders. Ready. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the ball. It's not over until I win. The Living Your Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy. That's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. Open. Chicago with the lead. You said ball is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. hello and welcome back to another episode i'm sat here today with tara and we're going to talk about hair but not just about my red hair or her hair about her hair empire that she's building she went from losing it all to uh building a big hair salon of herself and now she's teaching other people the entrepreneurial business side of that industry uh which is what i love i started in fitness, made a fitness business. And then I started teaching other people how to grow a business. So very similar path. So excited. Welcome to the show. Thank you. And Rudy, you have the best hair. Thank you. I'm like literally thinking about turning my hair bright pink and copying you and buzzing the sides. As you know, it's a lot to maintain. The red washes out. So I just re-dyed it. Yeah. Do you think I should buzz my sides and go hot pink? You should be pink or I like color, you know, I'm very, you know, colorful. Well, you have great hair. Thank you. So let's talk about it. So tell us, let's start from the ground up, You know, I mentioned you lost it all. You've now got the hair salon and you're educating. What's the backstory? Yeah, so I didn't lose it all. I definitely lost some of it. I lost a lot of money. You know, we all want to scale and go bigger. And I did all that during COVID. So I was born in Guam, raised in a small town in Colorado. My dad was in the Air Force and went to a small town, was totally checked out. I actually didn't find out that I was graduating until the day of graduation. Totally checked out. I always say if I could go back now, I'd probably do better if I was more interested. But and then I moved to L.A. right after hair school when I was 18, went to makeup artist school there and then came back to Denver, worked at a JCPenney. So that's where I started my career. OK. And yeah, I just I knew I had a bigger vision. I was one of those. I don't know if, you know, I think you always knew you wanted to kind of be an entrepreneur. Yeah. But I knew I wanted to lead people. So started at JCPenney's, moved to a little booth where I just rented a chair and then cashed all in with a little bit of savings that I had and opened up a 900 square foot salon. No clue what an LOI was. I had to Google what that meant. And it, yeah, it did really well. And then I right before COVID I purchased a real estate building where my new salon is and everything kind of went downhill Yeah Because like everybody right during COVID Sure And just cashed all in on myself and building a great team So let's stay on that. So, you know, because I know that's the part of the, you know, Nelly lost it all is a better way to say it. But you lost half a million dollars or so. You invested in this and then it shut down. Talk us, how did you get through that? What did you think at the time? Yeah. So I purchased this huge building and then, which is a story for a different day, but I had essentially half a million dollars taken from me. And so then I had to wake up every day and just be like, OK, do I just give up because I owe a lot of money back or do I keep going? And I mean, I remember and I know I've heard your story, but I remember waking up so many mornings just like, I'm just going to give up. I'm just going to stop like this, this dream that I have and reality is so different. And I just kept pushing through and I knew there was no other option. I just had to keep going. Yeah, good. And then fast forward to today. Let's talk about the success now and then the, you know, the education part. Yes. So we have, we just launched our hair extension line, which is super exciting. But what I'm super passionate about is taking hairstylists who are fresh out of school because this industry is so big right now. I feel like so many men and women are going to school to do hair, but we don't really know what to do when we get out. We don't know how to build the clientele. We don't know how to make the six figures as salon owners. I mean, even seven figures in this industry is so hard to do and so hard to make any money. Well, I think to go, you know, to seven figures in these sort of industries, you have to lose the hairdresser identity. And you have to be like, I'm a business owner that owns multiple branches and locations and products. And then it's like, you know, in most industries, it's hard to make that transition because 90 percent of your industry, they start because they love hair. We're creatives, right? We're artists, essentially. Like we didn't sign up to be therapists and business builders and all of these things. Yeah. Yeah. And very similar in a way to personal training because, you know, you like fitness. So you're like, well, this would be fun to be in a gym all day. Yeah. And then you get clients and they tell you their life story and, you know, how they hate their spouse. You go home and you're like, you should have paid me a lot more money for that. And then you have to learn the business side, you know, getting clients and filing taxes and advertising. And so it's a very similar journey. But how do you say how? Well, I'd love to ask two parts. What were some things you found when growing your local salon to the success it had? Let's start there. Yeah. So what I found is, you know, I feel like so we all want to go big, but starting small is kind of like you have to you have to build a foundation. And so you have to build, you know, you have to do the day to days. You have to figure out the books and, you know, clean the bathrooms and do all of these things and build the right team. And I always say like reality versus a dream are two totally different things. And so starting small is awesome. Like we built, I think we're at almost 1600 five-star reviews on Google. Wow. Which for a salon, I'm like, I literally challenge you to go find another salon in the world that has that. That's a lot. And so we just, we started just really caring for our clients, one person at a time, one set of hair at a time and building our brand. And, you know, leading a team is a totally different thing. You know, you have a ton of employees and they look up to you and they at the end of the day, it's up to you, right? Yeah, yeah. To take it to the next level. So I think just looking at our small space that we had, I knew I could duplicate that. And we were just just serving people and making them feel a certain way was so important to me. Like I was like, I don't I don't care if you I would probably do hair for free all day if I could. But I can't do that. But I just the way that you make people feel from the inside out is everything. Good. And then let's transition now. How are you helping other hairstylists? You know are you helping them find the locations and start the business on that side or just learning how to get clients or both So I think the number one thing that I hear from women and men that have been in the industry or fresh out of school is how do I get clients And so I help them really figure out how do we gain the confidence, first of all, to be able to be an artist who now has to go out and have conversations with people and then for like two to four hours in your chair. And so I really transformed them of how can we personal brand you and how can we get you out there? What do we do to get you? That's the stuff they don't teach you. That's the stuff they don't teach you. Same on the personal training course. They didn't teach one thing about the business of like getting any clients. But you know this too of how to get them to come back. Your first impression is everything. Like you're red hair. That's one of the reasons that I wanted to be on this. I'm like, I got to meet the guy with the red hair. And so I think, you know, just creating that personal brand and just asking yourself, how can I get that person? Because if they spend money with you one time and they don't come back, then what was the point? Yeah, yeah. And so just getting stylists out of their comfort zones and learning how to really get them back in and build that clientele. Good. So if someone's listening, they have a local business or sort of a client based business like this or their hairstylist, what are a few business tips you've got for them over the years? I would say lead by example. Okay. That is huge. There's nothing that my staff knows that I wouldn't do. And you're here now. Now your staff are running. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They're all running the show. They do better when I'm not there. But I just I'm not afraid to do what I'm asking them to do. Sure. And so obviously, you know, you get to a point where you can't do everything, but they know that I'm not afraid to do what I'm asking them to do. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So lead by example. Any other tips? I would say always trust your gut. Definitely. And, you know, when you are building a team, don't be afraid to fire fast and fire slow. really understand that especially in my industry if you just start hiring anybody to fill chairs and to grow your brand that can well the reputation so yeah i can see i've hired fast before just to fill chairs you know i have a 15 chair salon yeah and then it has one of the things that can be like the worst nightmare if it's wrong right you're dealing with a whole bunch of personalities in a very small space well and just the clients too like i i remember i've had one bad haircut in my life and it was like made me nervous for like 10 more years to find a hairstylist did you tell your hair then every time you had a new hairstylist you tell them yeah that's what i mean so you have this like trauma right so it's like um you know i wasn't paying attention i just moved to america i was trying a couple of new places and i'm like on my phone and you know i wanted it short on the sides and then i it wasn't as long as this back then it was like half the length but then like i look up and she's like keeps taking the razor into the more like middle years and you know i was just to college it wasn't the end of the world what it was but to me at the time it was very upsetting but it's just like you you realize how important hair is to people what do they say if you have a good experience you tell one person if you have a bad experience well you're still probably telling you're telling me on your podcast yeah yeah yeah and then it was just funny because like you know them from ever in i would be like i would show hairdressers like i want this exact style and then i'd be like watching them like you know the whole time to make sure they didn't go go too high so well real quick who does your red hair did you find somebody that has mastered it because it's not easy not the red side so i just you know when i moved to miami i uh just looked for you know hairstylists that would had done a lot of cool highlights and colors and then paid that person yeah because i'm looking at your hair i'm like okay you got natural black yeah so i don't know if you know this but we got to strip it to a real high level in order for that red to be vibrant it takes a few hours so i would be peeing my pants if i was doing it but it looks great. No, it looks good. Thank you. So let's talk about the hairdressers now. Someone's listening to this and they are, you know, maybe they're in a, they're just qualified or they're in a salon, but they not really fulfilled and they want to maybe go out and do their own thing What some tips you give them i would say make sure that first off you you doing it with um integrity yes you want to make sure when you leaving that that owner who has just poured into you i've seen this a lot yeah it's tough remember like leave with integrity and ask them let them know that you're going to do your own thing because a lot of the times like i have a bunch of stylists that have left and have started their own salon yeah yeah and i look at it as like okay I helped them do that. And it would also be keep going, keep showing up, like kind of learn the business side, what you learn as you go to. And when you have a hard day, like just keep showing up for yourself, because I think that's super important. Keep serving people. And what's the, you know, the time frame, right? If someone's, you know, trying to start their own gig, should they look at this? It's going to be a year to take off six months, two years. What's a good expectation? I think it all depends. It took me a while because I didn't know anything. I didn't have a business background. I had no clue what I was doing. I just knew that I love to serve people and I love to do hair. But I would say if I were to go back right now, I could show you as a new stylist how to make six figures in 12 months. And I can show any salon owner that has it has drive and has a vision how to hit seven figures in 12 months. Great. And last couple of questions more as you are the entrepreneur, you know, you had these ups and downs, this building and problem. What's a couple of lessons or tips from the mindset business side you would teach or wish you had known? I think when you're ready to scale and go bigger, just really ask yourself, am I doing it because we can do this and we're really growing out of the space? Or am I doing this just because you know, a bigger space is better, cooler. When I go to franchise and do different things like smaller is always better for me, you know, in the salon industry, like a bunch of small space salons is the way to go. Yeah, good. What about anything around handling failure? I mean it's part of it there's there I don't go a day without failing sure I don't go a day without disappointment failing putting buyers out like I'm sure you do all day yeah but I think it's just now it's like bring it on so there's been things I've been through that I never thought I could get over yeah yeah asked or that I'm still in business and it's like it's what happens yeah you get used to it eventually yeah yeah it's part of it good so last question someone's listening they want to learn more about you or maybe you know engage in your services to help them grow or even if they're in town check out the salon where tell them how they find you where do they go from here so you can go to www.5starbeautycoach.com which is my coaching and mentoring website where they can i have a podcast at the tara danielle show and my instagram which i'm pretty active is tara danielle great and best place to start if they're a hairstylist they want to learn more right do you have any content podcasts anything else oh i have it also have a freebie that's like how to go six figures as a new stylist in 12 months how to go seven figures as a salon owner in 12 months and it's all free all you have to do is go to my website um at www.fistarbeautycoach.com and they can get all of it for free love it yeah well that's a wrap guys i hope you enjoyed this episode learning uh you know this whole story and the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and And, you know, building, you know, a great business. A lot of people, they get stuck as the creative, like you said, and then maybe some of them create, you know, the salon eventually. And but they've, you know, often struggled to get it off the ground. And now you've got that where it's kind of running without you almost. And now you're empowering other people in your industry. So it's truly awesome to go through those three steps. So I hope that inspired you. And obviously, if you're listening in the hair space, then obviously check out all the services and coaching and support. and keep working hard to build your own legacy. And I'll see you guys soon. Take care.
