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kelly11

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2019
Messages
15
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2
Location
essex
Hey guys

so I have just qualified in my level 2 beauty therapy , I’m doing my level 3 March this year and I’m also thinking of going in to acrylics and eyelash extensions , I have just bought a home salon in the garden and I need help , I don’t even know where to begin , I’ve moved to a new area where I don’t really know anyone and I’ve just started Instagram with a few followers , I don’t have any price lists yet and still need to buy all my products and bits and bobs , can anyone give me some advice on starting out and the best thing to do to build my clientele and my business, I’m stuck and it’s kind of making me feel scared and stress out about making money and growing myself as a therapist etc , any advice would be welcome thanks Kelly x
 
Hey lovely,
Didn’t want to read and run.

I’d love to know how to get started up too.
Hopefully I can bump you up the posts for a few more replies ☺️
X x
 
I opened my business in February 2020 and by August 2020 I was fully booked 2-3 weeks in advance, this is what worked for me.
-Regular posting. Try pictures of your work, videos, pictures of qualifications, room tour!!!!, anything that you think will get attention. Once you've posted a fair bit, you can check your insights on Facebook and Instagram to see which post styles and times work best for you. When I first started, every single set of nails, eyebrows, even underarm waxes, I got pictures of. People tend to skip through words and need a picture to grab their attention. Short videos work great too.
-Get your name out there. Make sure you post on both platforms as you get completely different clients from both. I also share my work into those neighbourhood groups you find on Facebook, so the local area can't miss you. We also team up with other small businesses and work on a mutual basis. Our salon is opposite a garage and a chip shop, so we always recommend them and they do the same for us. The one thing that has brought in so much business in Facebook Marketplace, watch out for time wasters though. You have to be careful when posting your advert as technically small business cannot advertise on there. I've found that instead of posting "waxing" and I just put "wax". This tricks Facebook into thinking you're selling a product rather than a service.
-Ask friends and family to help. Every time I post, I have a small group of people that are happy to like, comment and share. Me and my mum go out handing price lists door to door in the local area (include address, working hours, phone number etc). I know this is a bit old-fashioned but this works really well because of the potential clients in my area. I have quite a few older clients, that don't use social media, so old-fashioned is what they like. You'll also find that they are on-time, tend to have more disposable income for services and will have friends that they'll recommend you to.
-Find your niche. Our salon is quite close to two other salons, yet we all have regular business. One offers mostly acrylics, one offers mostly spa type services like facials and massages, so there was no point specialising in these areas as I wouldn't have a unique selling point. So find what your area is missing and start there. Say if it's lashes, great start with that. And then branch out onto a different service once your business has grown. Your existing lash clients will be more likely to try out your acrylics for example, as they already have that relationship with you.

As I say, I haven't even been open a year yet, so I can't offer as much knowledge as some of the other people in this group, but this is what worked for personally so I hope at least some of it helps you. Good luck!!
 
I bought my salon off my boss (last year in November) so fortunately I knew all of my clients and my colleagues clients too. What I would say is what I felt helped is share/publish on your own personal account to allow your followers to follow your business page as this will get more followers and likes and potentially new clients. I also found if you do an offer for a certain month for example we had one in November "Gel Manicure and Gel pedicure for £43.00 which was saving over £7.00; this was very popular in November. When doing an offer make sure you have an expiry date as some people will try and use it in another month.

The lash game is a very high game so my advice to you is to be the best you can possible be, be on courses to improve your skills and knowledge but I'd stick to one treatment to start off with once you have built up your skills then you can have a look at other treatments. The best way that I found to find out what course I can do next is by asking my clients what they would like to see from me next.
Another good way of getting noticed is by setting up a google advert or promote your business on facebook or instagram.
 
Congratulations on passing! The best thing you can do is have regular social media content, it takes time but it works. There are also beauty pages that do engagement groups where you like, comment and save their posts and they will do the same. It helps boost up follows and activity on your page so people see it. You can connect your Facebook and Instagram so you don’t need to apply separately. If you haven’t done this before, it will take a lot of learning and researching but it’s all a part of the process! Feel free to follow me when you start up and I can shout you out and maybe add you to some engagement groups if you like! @ajinnocentbeauty
Another really good idea I saw, is advertising through groupon and wowcher initially to build your confidence and on mum groups.
But most of all, believe in yourself. You have got here through hard work. People will see that and will build trusting relationships with you, they are the loyal clients! Good luck Xx
 
Hi I owed my first salon when I was 19 that's along time ago about 20years now and it was before social media and well I didn't even have an email anyway it is stressful but rewarding when you work for yourself and build your clients. There is alot to do so couple of tips from me would be, to start of course make sure you are registered with your local council for permission to trade and health and safety, before you start to advertise and put your hands on the paying public, if you haven't got all that done yet you could talk about your new business coming and practice on friends and family but get them to pay for their treatments at discount but that covers your costs, have a look at you competition and what they charge and offer don't go to high with your prices as you don't have years of experience and you will be compared to other therapists in your area, the key I found is to work on as many clients as you can to make money, but you must keep the quality, but don't worry if you are slow at treatments at first that is normal a client won't mind if they have to wait as long as the job is done perfect, I found that if I offered treatments a 20 percent off it was very competitive, I didn't make any money for a long time but I got clients in the door, you need to budget everything while you have the time sit and work out costs all your stock running costs, work for example how much wax you use in a leg wax for example, how many wax strips sounds odd but all these things are extremely important, as we are in lock down you could get chatting on local gossip groups ask people if they are looking for a new beauty therapist or a new treatment, when you have a new client in the door do your absolute best to not let them leave without another appointment talk to them as much as possible, when I started I didn't talk to my clients 🤣I was so busy making sure the job was perfect but when I did clients loved it, when I first opened it didn't know what days would be busy so I offered 9am to 9pm on week days 9am to 5pm Saturday and 10am to 4pm Sunday s I did this for a few weeks to get a rythum then set the times around the most popular, the best time is evenings they are your workers and the most keen clients people don't like to give up their weekends, that's alot sorry about that, but remember think about you too your health, family don't become a slave start off ever giving then review, always review you will have many hats working for yourself, I wish you all the luck in the world I hope you have great success keep us posted on your progress ☺️
 

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