What Marketing Actually Costs a Toronto Salon (Agency vs. DIY vs. AI)

A few years into running Sarang Nails & Beauty, I did what every overwhelmed owner does: I went shopping for marketing help. I came back with quotes, a headache, and eventually a whole second business — but that's the end of the story. Here's the beginning: the actual numbers.

The going rates, roughly

• Agency, content only: commonly $1,000–$3,000 a month — before you spend a dollar on ads.
• Freelancer or virtual assistant: usually $500–$2,000 a month, quality varies wildly with who you find.
• DIY with scheduling tools: $15–$100 a month in software — plus the part nobody prices in, which is your evenings.

None of these are scams. What you're buying in every case is the same thing: someone's hours. Agencies bundle a strategist, a writer, and a designer; freelancers bundle one person; DIY bundles you. The price tracks the hours.

The math that changed my mind

Count what your marketing actually costs now. Mine was roughly six hours a week — captions, review replies, posting, promo texts. My chair earns real money per hour; six hours of it is a four-figure monthly cost that never appeared on any invoice. The 'free' DIY option was my most expensive quote.

Where AI moved the line

Most of those six hours weren't judgment — they were typing. Drafting the caption, wording the review reply, formatting the promo. AI does the typing now; I do the deciding, which takes minutes. That's the honest reason automating it costs a fraction of an agency retainer: the hours being sold are machine hours, with a human checking the work.

Whatever you choose, ask these first

• Do I own my accounts and content if we part ways?
• Is this month-to-month, or am I signing a year?
• Who actually writes the words — and will it sound like me?
• What will the monthly report show me in plain numbers?

Anyone worth paying answers all four without flinching. (And yes — I built Front Ave AI to be the answer I wished I'd gotten. Month-to-month, your accounts stay yours, and it sounds like you because it's trained on you.)