The recent issues in the news have taken a massive toll on just about every industry. The beauty industry is perhaps seeing one of its most difficult times in history. Most salons have been forced to close their doors and countless others have voluntarily done so in an effort to practice social distancing.
As a beauty professional what are you supposed to do with this time? Rather than get depressed or sit at home catching up on that ever-building Netflix queue, we feel that there are several ways that you can be smart and use this downtime to further your career and set yourself up for success when this craziness finally ends. With the right focus, you can actually emerge from this time ready to grow your business aggressively. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to spend your time while your salon is closed.
Educate Yourself
The beauty industry we have chosen to work in is a craft and an art. The tools we use are only secondary to the techniques and skills we develop as artists. This time is perfect for you to not only brush up on your skills but to learn new ones. What better way to utilize this time than to expand your menu of services?
Constantly expanding upon your service offerings is a surefire way to open yourself up to a larger market. But more than just expanding your clientele or adding on yet another service to your menu, as you increase your knowledge and craft you can continue to raise your prices. The more areas of expertise you have under your belt, the more valuable you are as a beauty consultant for your clients.
At LashDip, we take education very seriously. We are constantly educating ourselves not only on techniques but on different chemical and manufacturing advances that might improve our products for LashDip artists. In an effort to help propel your career during this downtime we’ve actually put together a “Get Started” package. Our training and key tools and supplies have never been more affordable and if you have been on the fence about learning how to do custom lashing, now is your chance to get started and you can’t use the “I don’t have time” excuse anymore!
If you’re interested in learning more about our new “Get Started Package”, click here to watch sample video clips and see about what’s included.
Step Up Your Social Media Game
We get it, it’s hard to consistently post on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok, and whatever other new platform emerges. We know that you understand posting and being an active voice on all the online communities is integral to your business thriving but it’s just too much. Between taking care of your clients, keeping your schedule organized and having some semblance of a life who has time to update social channels?
But now, when salons are closed and your phone isn’t ringing with people scheduling and rescheduling their appointments you finally have time to get on top of your social media game.
Not only can you post regularly with your newfound free time, but you can also schedule the next 12 months of posts so that you are ahead of the curve for when things get back to normal. There are tons of tools online to help you schedule your posts effectively. Facebook creator studio has the ability to schedule posts on both Facebook and Instagram but you can also look at other services like Hootsuite which offers some more advance scheduling and organization tools for your feeds.
If you can spend just a couple hours a day scheduling fifty posts where one was dropped per day you could have nearly an entire calendar year scheduled in just a week. Using this method you’ll always have at least one post going on every single day of the year and you would be more active than 99.9% of beauty professionals in your area.
If you need help figuring out exactly what to post, just do a quick google search for “social media content calendar” and you’ll find tons of social media blogs that have prompts and holiday calendars that will make it super easy to get your calendar in order.
Don’t forget, while people aren’t going out during this crazy time we’re living through, they still want to look their best. If you are feeling up to it, now is the perfect time to make videos on how people can do their own hair, make-up, lashes at home. Giving people good advice will establish you as an authority figure in their minds and if you make the video fun and entertaining it’s sure to spread amongst friends and introduce you to potential new clients.
Build Your Online Network
One thing that people don’t tend to do enough of is outreach. When it comes to marketing on a shoe-string budget, nothing can be more powerful than having connections to social media influencers who have their own following. If you don’t have a dozen social media influencers you have a real connection with then it’s time to stretch out those networking muscles and start building those connections.
There is no shortage of influencers out there today. Everyone is trying to become an influencer so they can cash in on those lucrative endorsement deals. As a result, there are a ton of micro-influencers who might have a following of 10,000-30,000 followers who aren’t quite at the level where they’re being courted by big brands but still have an engaged and active audience.
These people are perfect for beauty artists trying to build their network. The way to reach out to them is to give them something first. So if you’re great at writing, offer to write them a blog for their followers, if you’re close enough to them to offer a free beauty service give that a try, if they’re big fans of brownies and you make a mean batch – try sending them a pan with a fun message written in icing on top. Keep in mind that they have what you want so you have to provide some kind of value to them to get their attention, but once you do you can build a relationship with them just like you would with any other friend.
When trying to build relationships from scratch it’s good to keep organized. We recommend keeping a google spreadsheet open with 20-30 influencers you are trying to get in touch with and keeping tabs on when you tried to contact them so that you don’t let any outreach efforts slip through the cracks.
Conclusion
Just because you don’t have a salon at your disposal doesn’t mean that your business has to stop. Using this downtime wisely can be like a forced boot camp for marketing your business. With a little focus, some smart planning, and some elbow grease you can come out of this time ready for your business to thrive in ways that would never be possible without having all this extra time on your hands.
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