Scott’s Beauty Business Sense

My 600-hour adventure in esthetics school. Click here to read about the project, or catch up with Weeks 1-5.

Tonight we’re summoned over to the cosmetology classroom to find out exactly what Simon Scott was up to the other night when he promised that we could earn $100,000 a year — if only we had the necessary business skills. Turns out:

Starting in January, Beauty U will be offering the 16-week Scott Beauty Business Sense Program to all Beauty U students. We’ll tackle it 90 minutes at a time on Wednesday nights, in between working on clients and studying the rest of the Beauty U curriculum. All we have to do is sign up by the end of the week and agree to pay $100 for the Scott’s Beauty Business Sense textbook.

It’s clear that Beauty U’s owner, Mr. G (which stands for Gary) is expecting merriment and rejoicing as he stands before us, smile bright with hope for our starry, well-compensated futures. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it was necessary,” he says, reminding us that he used to be an auto mechanic. “Girls, I worked as a shampoo boy for two years when I started out in beauty. I lived at home with my mother. Eventually, as you know, I became successful. But it took a long time and it could have happened a lot faster if I had the Scott’s Beauty Business Sense knowledge.”

It’s a ringing endorsement, and I think an honest one at that, but it goes over like a lead balloon. Blanche wants to know what we’ll do during those 90 minutes if we don’t sign up.

“You won’t be sitting by yourself in an empty classroom, I promise!” Mr. G. doesn’t want this to look like extortion, after all. “You’ll work on all the people skills and business skills we already teach here. That’s the funny thing about Mr. Scott’s program — when I was reading through it, I kept thinking, hey, we already teach that. It’s just that the information is presented in a bit better of a way.”

Oops. $100 more for information we would have learned anyway? Side conversations spring up around the room. The general student consensus is that $100 may not sound like a lot, but you try coming up with an extra $100 at the holidays, and anyway, aren’t we paying Beauty U a lot of money already? We are, in case you’re wondering. The esthetics program I’m taking costs $8500 and cosmetology is over $12,000. Recent high school grads can qualify for education grants, but most of the older students are doing it on a mix of loans and out-of-pocket spending.

Mr. G understands all of that. He’s standing next to one of the cosmetology student’s plastic mannequin heads, which is speared on a pole to make it the height of a seated client. He starts stroking the mannequin’s shiny locks as he reasons with us. “Look, I don’t want you to give me $100 if you need to buy your kid a Christmas present,” he says. “Pay us in installments. Pay us just $5 a week if you want, I don’t care.” He also tells us that the Scott’s Beauty Business Sense book costs over $350 retail and Beauty U is picking up the difference. “I wouldn’t even charge you the hundred bucks, but I’ve got over 200 students here and I can’t afford to pay for everyone.”

There’s an awkward silence. “Thank you Mr. G,” says one of the cosmetology girls after a minute. “That’s a lot of money.”

“It is a lot of money,” Mr. G. agrees, patting the mannequin’s head with more authority now. “And I’ll be honest with you, tuition is going up next year and those students are going to pay the $350. You’re getting a big discount here.”

“And it’s not just one book you’re getting,” Miss Susan, the school’s director, jumps in. “It’s actually four textbooks, one for each cornerstone of the program, plus four CDs.”

“That’s right, it comes with CDS!” Mr. G. is thrilled about the CDs and begins to twirl a curl on the mannequin’s head. “You can listen to those in your car, you can download them to your computer, you can put them on your iPod what’s-it, whatever you want.”

Four textbooks, four CDs, 16 weeks of classes (over $350 in value) — all ours for 20 easy payments of just $5? “If they throw in a free ShamWow, we’ll all be sold,” murmurs Meg.

For me, a more profound endorsement comes from Miss Stacy, after we’ve dispersed back to the esthetics classroom. She graduated from Beauty U two years ago and now works at a local spa when she’s not teaching here at night. “I’m only booking maybe three appointments a week because I still haven’t built up a clientele,” she says. “They didn’t teach us how to do that here at all.” She doesn’t offer specifics, but since estheticians work on commission (and tips), I’m guessing Miss Stacy is clearing less than $200 a week at her spa.

“I don’t know if this new program will really be any better,” she adds. “But it can’t be worse.” It’s the first time I’ve heard one of the instructors admit that her post-beauty-school career isn’t everything she hoped it would be.

So what do you guys think? Should I cough up the extra $100 so I can report back on whether Scott’s Beauty Business Sense makes any sense at all?

[Photo: As Seen On TV]