More clients! Need advice!

[rosenails]

I just started my business two months ago. Last week, I have 3 clients and Im happy. I put my ad to local newspaper and offer cheap full set of acrylic nails. I used ezflow which is not cheap and I feel like they only pay for the product not my service. I also put my ad in the local supermarket but did not get any clients. What else would you do get more clients? Any suggestion, please help.

 

[IllumeGirl]

hi rose, its still early days. building your clients does take a long time unfortunatley, its all patience, which i know is a pain especially when you need the money. if you feel advertising in the paper is making you ahve to lower your prices, i would definitely not advertise in there as i have found personally it wasn't worth the bill or the type of clients i was getting( they were all looking for the cheapest price). theres nothing worse than putting so much time into your work, not to mention using good quality products, for little gain. do you have a proffessional looking sign& cards up at the shops? are your cards being taken? i am always amazed about how my cards always dissappear within the week, but sometimes dont get a call, then the next fortnight a new client calls most days, which often leads to their friend being referred by them. being at home is great but the downfall is it does take much longer than 2 months to build your clients, i think most at home geeks would agree. i dont want to tell you how long it took me for fear of scaring you rose! always keep your nails eyecatching, be confident and market yourself at the smallest hint of an opportunity, and most of all be patient.

 

[Deb379]

Hi

They do say it takes about a year to really get going. It's early days yet as said previously, plus for some it has been a bit quiet at the mo.

If I were you I'd encourage the 3 clients you already have to recommend others and give them an incentive such as a discount or free mini treatment to do this. Perhaps suggest a pamper party which you can comfortably manage.

I would also tell all your friends and family and give them your pricelists and get them to tell their friends/family about you. You do need to keep on though as people live such busy hectic lives they tend to forget sometimes.

Visit local nurserys, child activity groups you'll catch a lot of ladies at these sorts of places.

Once word gets about it will pick up, but you can't rush these things it takes time.

Deb379

 

[rosenails]

Thank you for your professional help. I really dont have a professional business card at the moment so I only use a leaftlets. I will probably drive around my suburd if I could find a hairdresser and ask them if I could leave my leaftlets. I quite shy but I could try. What is the best thing to say to the hairdresser salon, do I have to offer them a free full set of acrylic nails just to let me leave my leaftlets? I really need professional help here.... What do you think guys? Please help!

 

[Deb379]

Hi

You could ask the hairdresser if they have any business cards/leaflets that you could take as you will return their favour and promote their business to your clients. Works both ways then

deb379

 

[rosenails]

Hi

You could ask the hairdresser if they have any business cards/leaflets that you could take as you will return their favour and promote their business to your clients. Works both ways then

deb379

Good idea! Thanks for your help, never thought of it.

 

[Marilyn]

You can contact Yellow pages and ask them to put a FREE ad (one line) in the next issue (probably next years) and also ask them to put an advert on Yell.com (you can use a landline and mobile number on there) which they can do immediately for you. This again is FREE.
I have found that about 80% of my clients come to me via Yell.com, which is great as I do not have to pay for this.:biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[Marilyn]

If you have a car see my thread on the main forum re magnetic car sign as this could be a really good and cheap way of advertising:green:

 

[islandnails]

I know exactly what you're going through.
I started out from my home, which wasn't built for a salon. Now, i'm renting a room at a beauty salon. I've sent out flyers to almost all the hotels, have ads in local paper.
So now, i'm just waiting to see if they clients would come. It's driving me crazy. And you don't want to know how much i've spent to set up, lordy.
Oh dear, i'm not trying to get you down, just letting youknow, that you're not alone & to hang in there.
Best of luck to you.

 

[Buggy]

i'm 8 months in and these last two weeks have been really quiet, but i have some regulars now and some that come and go as they please. advertising is expensive and i'm only keeping my newspaper ad until after xmas, i've got an ad on yell.com and i'm putting one in yellow pages next year which will equal a quarter of the cost of newspaper advertising for the whole year. i've been told by a lot of nail techs that yellow pages is best.

 

[Marilyn]

i'm 8 months in and these last two weeks have been really quiet, but i have some regulars now and some that come and go as they please. advertising is expensive and i'm only keeping my newspaper ad until after xmas, i've got an ad on yell.com and i'm putting one in yellow pages next year which will equal a quarter of the cost of newspaper advertising for the whole year. i've been told by a lot of nail techs that yellow pages is best.

Have you actually agreed to a box? Another nail tech in my area paid for a box in yellow pages and she had just 2 phone calls in a year from it and said it was not worth the cost and she wished she had stuck to just the free line, she advised me to just have the free line which is what I did. I have had a couple of calls from that, so was glad that I didnt pay extra for the box.

 

[insette23vhf]

hi
i have rent a room above a sun bed shop and have been opened for over 12 months it as been hard work and still doesn't pay, it only pays for my rent at the moment, at one point i was considering in packing it all in, as i wasn't getting any customers, now i have over 110 clients and they still keep coming back, i spent just £40 on leaflets for obver 1000 and i get my busisness cards from vistaprint which are free and you choose your design all you pay is for the postage which isn't much i think its around £3.00.
i posters and adverts stuckin my window and on the walls down stairs and i also have loyaly cards which they pay for so many treatments and they get one free, this seems to do ok.
best of luck to you for the future.
people say it takes over 2 years to get established properly

 

[Buggy]

Have you actually agreed to a box? Another nail tech in my area paid for a box in yellow pages and she had just 2 phone calls in a year from it and said it was not worth the cost and she wished she had stuck to just the free line, she advised me to just have the free line which is what I did. I have had a couple of calls from that, so was glad that I didnt pay extra for the box.

yea, i have. a nail tech i keep in touch with said most of her business that comes from advertising comes through yellow pages. they gave me a 30% discount too (she told me to ask for it). i think it depends on the area you live in. i get on really well with this nail tech, she lives out of my area so i'm not competition and i really trust her advice.

the only other way of me advertising at the moment is through my local paper, which is four (!) times the cost. my clients tell me they tried to look in yellow pages first so i think it will work for me.

also, i did a quick survey around people i know and said, if you were going to look for a nail tech, where's the first place you'd look? they all said yellow pages.

 

[rosenails]

Thank you for everyone who help me with this probs...lol... Im getting crazy to think, what else could I do...but yeah I guess it's takes time to build up. I have only one customer today and Im quite happy with that maybe more clients next time. And she make an appointment with me for refill in 3 weeks time. Thanks everyone, I will try yellowpages for next year cause yellowpages in Melbourne Australia is out already. Thanks again!​