Embracing the New Year: Setting Your Solo Spa Success in Motion for 2025
Welcome to the Spa Business Building Podcast, where we're diving in and having real conversations about all the things that are helping us attract clients and build thriving businesses as solo beauty and wellness professionals. I'm your host, Tiffany Nodolny. I'm a licensed esthetician, massage therapist, and spa business mentor to solo spa bosses who are ready to take their business from surviving to thriving.
So whether you're a new solo spa boss or seasoned, this podcast is for you.
Welcome back, solo spa bosses to the Spa Business Building Podcast. I'm Tiffany, your host, and when this episode is airing, it will be January 1st, 2025. So I would like to wish you a very happy new year.
I thought that this would be the perfect time to reflect on 2024, give my predictions for 2025, and some tips on setting up your new year for a great one. So I'm going to start with 2024, and it was one heck of a year. I feel like I saw a lot of businesses, beauty and wellness service providers, solo spa bosses who were really struggling this year.
The conversations that I had with other solo spa bosses, seeing conversations in Facebook groups, just people who are struggling to attract clients, retain clients, make ends meet. It was a slower year for a lot of businesses, even my own business. Now, I have been in business for 10 years, and 2024 was the slowest year that I have had on record.
I don't have the numbers with me. I haven't ran any of my numbers yet. I should have came prepared with that, but I didn't.
I just know what it felt like. My summer schedule was a lot slower than it has ever been. Typically, I am booked solid.
Now, I will say that in 2023, I made the decision to stop accepting new massage clients and to focus solely on my aesthetics business. For personal and health reasons, massage was really starting to get to my body. So I decided to step back from doing massage.
I was taking just a few clients but no new clients, and it opened up my schedule for new facial clients. And so I think that had a lot to do with why I was a lot slower. And I know that a lot of estheticians do slow down in the summer, especially here in Wisconsin, when our summer is so short.
Most people want to get outside and enjoy the summertime. They have things planned. So I knew it was going to be a little bit slower, but I have to keep reminding myself that's one of the reasons why my business felt slower.
But I was hearing from a lot of service providers that they were slower than usual. Now, 2024, the cost of living is higher than it's ever been. The interest rates were super high, and it was an election year.
And I think that things contribute considerably to customers' spending. Like, the spending habits of clients were different in 2024. Now, obviously, in COVID, like, things shut down.
People couldn't get services. And then once things opened up, I feel like people really valued their self-care. So they were coming back for massages.
They really wanted that self-care and that connection with people because they were shut down for so long. So then we had this little bit of an influx. But then in 2024, it started slowing down.
I think that rising costs of living, the election year, not to bring politics in it, but historically, people are more conservative with their money when it comes to election year. So I think people were being very choosy on how they were spending their money, and self-care took that backseat. It wasn't viewed as a necessity.
People wanted to spend their money on things that were a necessity for them. So I think that really had a contributing factor into why we were seeing a slowdown. But here's another reason why I think solo spa bosses were struggling.
And this may not be something that you might not agree with me, and you might not want to hear it, but I think that in 2021 to 2024, we saw this influx of people who wanted to be their own bosses, right? They really valued their time freedom and not being victim to that mentality of this hustle life culture for someone else. They wanted to experience that for themselves.
And I did. That's why I wanted to go out on my own ten years ago, is because I valued my time freedom, and you did a schedule that worked for me, not my employer, and I wanted more control over my income and make more money for myself and decide on what services I wanted to provide and not have to provide things that I really didn't enjoy doing. So we saw this influx of people who went out on their own.
But I think that with the lack of training and knowledge and resources available to solo service providers, when it comes to running a business, marketing your business, and branding, and let's be honest, when you go and work for yourself, you're starting with a very limited budget. So usually those kinds of training and education, that takes a backseat, right? Because usually you're focused on your skills, which is very, very important.
If you are not good at what you do, people are not going to come back. But you also need to be good at running your business and know how to run your business and the profits and systems and marketing. How are you attracting clients?
What does it take? So I think that because there was this lack of knowledge and know how, people were really struggling. They didn't know how to find those clients.
They didn't understand how to retain those clients. So their businesses were struggling. That's not everyone.
That's just this portion of people that I'm seeing. Some people were really seeing a slowdown in their business for other reasons. And I think that came down to the economy, what we were seeing in the economy.
So that's kind of what I saw for 2024. So my predictions for 2020. I think that service providers are going to start putting their money into educating themselves on running their business or their understanding the importance of taking care of their business and not just the skill set of their trade, but actually focusing on marketing and branding their business.
I also predict that businesses are going to start getting off of social media. They're not going to focus all their time and efforts on social media because I feel like there's just this burnout when it comes to social media. I mean, it is hard running your business, and it was a struggle for many, not just the service industry.
So many small businesses were suffering this year. We're struggling this year. Boutiques, restaurants, a lot of closures, a lot of struggle.
But the burnout of just running a business in itself, that is real. And then adding social media on top of it, you feel like you're putting so much ever effort into social media and not getting this return of paying customers, that people are going to start exiting social media for business and putting their efforts, time, money, energy into other avenues of marketing themselves. So that is my prediction for 2025.
But let's talk about setting intentions for 2025. What can you do to set your business up for success this year? It starts with creating a plan, my friend.
What do you need to do to make 2025 the best year for you? So take a look at your business goals and your personal goals. If you have a personal goal of buying a new car, buying a new house, what do you need to do in your business to help you reach that goal?
So is it more time freedom? Is it more money that you're seeking? What can you do in your business so that you can make more money or give yourself more time?
So if it comes to setting a goal for making more money, how much more do you need to make a day, a month, a week to reach that goal? And what can you do so that you are making more money? Does it mean increasing your rates?
Does it mean selling more product? Does it mean maybe delegating some tasks so that you can free up more of your CEO time to make more money? So if you're the one doing the marketing and you're just not finding time to do it, where can you free up other tasks that you can delegate out?
Maybe you have a friend who has a child who's old enough to do laundry, and you can pay them to do your laundry for you, or pay them to come in and clean your space for you. Or maybe it means hiring a virtual assistant to help you with emails and scheduling, and social media tasks. Like maybe they can create some graphics for you or write some captions for you so that you, maybe they can post things for you, but freeing up your time so you can focus on planning for your business and doing tasks that make you more money.
Now, that doesn't mean increasing your hours, especially if your goal is to spend more time with your family. You're not going to increase your hands-on service hours. So if that's the case, then what can you delegate out so that you're not spending all your time doing your laundry and cleaning your space and doing social media, and that takes up all of your time.
Can you find money in your business to pay to do these tasks, or do a trade, barter something, whatever it is. How are you going to reach those goals and creating that plan for yourself so that you can reach those goals? Now, if you need help creating that vision, knowing what it is that you need to do, creating that plan, I am here to help.
You can head to my website, spabusinessbuilding.com, and schedule a call with me, and we will go over your plan, go over your goals, and I will help you create that step-by-step for you, so you know exactly what you need to do, so that you can reach the goals that you set for yourself in 2025. So when it comes to setting your goals, the easiest way to do that when you decide what you want to do, but you want to make sure that you're setting goals that are smart goals, that specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So a specific goal.
I want to make 10,000 more dollars. I need to make $5,000 more a month. That's your specific goal.
You're measurable, but you want to make sure that it's measurable. Like how are you measuring that you've made more money? Like typically that's in your like revenue.
So if you have your statements, your bank statements, you can take a look at your sales statements. If you're using any sort of platform like Square or anything like that. So that's how you're measuring your goal.
Irrelevant. Does it relate to business, to your personal life? Achievable.
So a goal that isn't so far out of reach, right? Something that you know that you can actually achieve. But time bound.
How long is it going to take? So if you have this six months goal, this one year goal, don't just tell yourself that, oh, I want to increase my revenue by $10,000. $10,000 by when?
One year, six months. Make sure that you have a time stamp on an expiration date for when that goal ends. One more thing that I want you to think about in this episode is your word of the year.
Now, having a word of the year, it just helps me stay on track for the year, so I know specifically what my intentions are. It just helps me get there, right? If you need a little bit of help for choosing a word of the year, you can put it into ChatGPT, see what some words that it spits out for you.
I do have a few here if you need help deciding. So a few words, growth, resilience, balance, abundance, authenticity, community, innovation, self-care, intention. Those are just a few words that I came up with, but you can find your own word.
Maybe it's pivot. Maybe this is the year that you are going to know that you need pivoting in your business. My words for 2025, I actually chose two and the first word that I chose is authenticity.
I want to remind myself that I want to stay true to who I am in my business, what my goals are, not be afraid to be myself when it comes to putting myself out there, because I'm in so many different places where I'm putting myself out there. Doing this podcast on social media, I do events, networking events, I do tutoring, I do workshops, I'm working on a membership, but I want to stay true to who I am and just be authentically myself, not being afraid of what others are going to think of me, because it's scary. And I know you probably get it because if you're putting yourself out on social media and you're just hiding and shy about it because you're afraid of what others think of you, you probably get it as well.
But I don't want to care anymore. I just want to be me and be able to share my knowledge and do it, not in fear. I'm also choosing community because what I am trying to build in this space is community.
I want to create a place for connection, for support, and inspiration for other solo beauty and wellness professionals. So I want to remind myself that this is the year for community, this is the year for authenticity, and I'm stepping into it and I'm owning it. So I invite you to do the same, choose your words, own it, and step into it and do it all without fear, my friend.
And that's how you create a fantastic 2025. So that is it for today's episode. I truly hope that you found this episode valuable and that you go right now and reflect on 2024.
What were your positives? What were your negatives? What can you improve on?
And I want you to set your goals. I want to create your intention. And I want you to manifest all of that for yourself.
Set those affirmations. Now, before I leave this episode, I am reminding you that my membership is opening very, very soon. It actually, it opens on January 8th.
So if you want to know more about this membership, you can find out more on my website at spabusinessbuilding.com. But my first weekly live chat with members is going to be on January 15th, and we are going to do a goal setting session. So if you are part of this membership, if you sign up in the first week that it's open, from the 8th to the 11th, I have this small window of anyone who signs up will become a founding member.
And that founding member status, if you are locked in to that price value for the lifetime that you are a member, and it is a low price, you can get it for $19 a month if you sign up and pay that annual price up front. And it's something like $24 a month if you sign up month to month. So I highly recommend it.
This membership, I've put so much of my heart and soul into trying to create this. I've been working on it for a year. But it's a space for community.
It's a space for learning how to grow your business, attract clients, learn everything that you need. I'm taking all of my education, my know-how, my experience, and I've put it all into this membership. We're going to do weekly coaching calls.
I am teaching you my framework on how to set your business up for success and grow it and have a sustainable business that gives you time, freedom, and profitability. So, like I said, January 15th is the first live group coaching call that I'm doing. And we are talking about goal setting, manifesting what you want for 2025.
So I hope that you will sign up. Doors open on January 8th. You can join my waitlist on my website so that you're one of the first to know when my membership does launch and you can be a founding member.
So that is it for today, my friend. Until next time, stay inspired, stay fabulous, and happy business building.
Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Spa Business Building Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show and don't want to miss another episode, you can follow on Spotify or subscribe wherever you usually listen. If you haven't done so already, I would really appreciate it if you leave a rating and review to let me know what you think and to help others find the Spa Business Building Podcast.
If you have a specific question that you would like answered on the next episode, send an email to thrive. That's thrive at spabusinessbuilding.com. And if you want to learn more about my offerings, head to my website at spabusinessbuilding.com, or check me out on Instagram at solo.spa.bosses.
Until next time, friend.
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