We’ve been incredibly grateful for all the Young Nails love and loyalty.
So we wanted to pay things forward in our special family of
professional nail techs. This new Biz Talk Live Call is our way of
reaching out and offering some fresh ideas to slay your salon business
demons. We look forward to hearing directly our customers, about what
you really need in real life. We’re confident that the issues tackled
in this space are universal speed bumps on a nail pro’s journey. Look to
us as a friendly resource and as a way to connect with our wonderfully
like-minded nail artist community.
BACK STORY
Taylor is a beauty pro with a nail and brow business. She graduated in
2014 from a cosmetology school in Las Vegas that she adored. At the age
of 19, she was a dedicated student but after an unexpected medical
issue; she had to take a small break. Ready and armed with her license,
she admitted that at first starting out in the Salon Industry was not as
easy as she thought it would be. Taylor noticed the divide in the Las
Vegas nail market between the quality of the work she wanted to offer
her clients and what was available at the competition, your typical
walk-in nail salon. She was able to run an OK nail business through her
friends and family network. Taylor called in from Spokane, Washington;
her new home base and is having a hard time setting up shop in a new
town.
RELOCATION & REAL WORLD PROBLEMS
Taylor says it’s pretty hard to find new clients in Spokane. In her
experience, the biggest problem is that the local client/customer is
relatively uneducated about nails and buy into false fads. As a former
Sally Beauty Supply manager, she has a ton of product knowledge and is
often frustrated when clients think they “know better than you, the
trained nail professional when she offers to explain nuances of nail
product. In her first six months after relocating, Taylor started in a
salon, working on commission. Then she decided to try out booth renting.
Disappointingly, neither set ups worked out and she wasn’t able to
justify the cost. The Spokane area is basically two communities in one: a
college town or a retirement community. Trying to specialize and be
more resourceful, Taylor reached out to her State Board of Cosmetology
in order to obtain a traveling business license and set up a
mini-treatment room to service her older clientele with mobility and
health issues. She’s managed to have 5 clients a week. It’s a pretty
minimal number. So where does she go from here building on six months in
a new city? What can she do to drum up more business?
[YN]:
First thing we like to do is look at your nails (on social media) to see
what’s going on. You do good nails. Your work is solid. Your brow game
is on point. You do acrylics. What else do you offer? With this kind of
work, we’d expect you to average 10-20 clients.
TAYLOR:
Spokane is an odd town. Some clients live in adjacent, Idaho, fifty
minutes out. So a lot I won’t see except once a month. My bread and
butter is hard gel. It’s what I’m most comfortable with. I try to get
some of my clients who are hairdressers, with them being in water into
gel that would hold up. But a lot of clients are old school and don’t
want to switch.
[YN]:
But you have both skill sets. You can offer what your clients what they need. How many hours are you dedicating to the salon?
TAYLOR:
However much I need to. And I really mean that. I spend a lot of time in
the salon. I’m in the nail suite for a long time. If I have one client
coming in to see me that day, I will hang out in my nail suite all day
and do nothing but practice my nail art or concentrate on my sculpting
which is easier to do that a tip. So a lot of the time I am practicing
working with tips or
[YN]:
So we’ve narrowed it down. It’s not your skill. Your putting in time at
the salon. You have the technical part down. You do very nice work and
continue to build up your skill level. Be honest with yourself. How much
time are you actually spending on building your business, the
distribution and exposure of your work? For example at YN, we are create
a lot of content. The content needs to go out beyond our feed. We use
facebook advertising. It requires money. What would we be doing to
build? We would be on Instagram focusing on the distribution on your
brand. We would be hustling getting to know our community. We’d be
networking with other businesses in your community and social media.
TAYLOR:
Sure. I know that I don’t post a lot but I am out of my house everyday. I
have my Instagram handle on the card. I am not afraid to walk up to
people at a store, tell them they’re awesome and try to maybe work out a
discount.
[YN]:
If we were you? We would hit up 100 people a week. Set up a target;
hitting up as many people as possible. And this would maybe result in
getting one client. Where do you go after you give them a card? Tell
them to check out our work on social media. It’s kind of required. What
if you tried this for the next 6 months for your nail and brow work? You
have multiple skills (gel and acrylic) and talents. There would be no
reason why you shouldn’t be crushing it in the salon in Spokane.
TAYLOR:
I’m in the nail suite, an actual room in the back of my house. A place
were my clients can be more comfortable especially since they are
older. It’s approved by the Licensed State Board of Cosmetology. I just
wasn’t making it enough money on booth rent. I thought I would do
better on commission walking in and out. I agree that I could benefit by
walking up to those 100 people. I’ve maybe approached 60 people and
had them call me.
[YN]:
It’s a volume game. Your skill is not an issue. You sound very
confident. For you, it’s a numbers game...hustle and move. You’re full
of energy and enthusiasm. For four hours, hit the road and spend time on
the distribution (of your work/brand). Maybe spend an hour on Instagram
advertising. Remember, it’s quite uncommon to have a home salon and
harder to build a clientele there. It can be off-putting for some people
to come to your house. So try to surround yourself with other
hairdressers and nail techs. It’s encouraging, first of all. It’s
important. You can feed off them, be seen right there as you practice,
and be their nail person or brows. There is so much money to be made in
nails and brows especially in a salon atmosphere. You’ll be able to grow
there. Another thing is, what are you doing for pricing? Sometimes we
can price ourselves out of the market and not charge as much working
from home. People can ask maybe she’s too cheap? Maybe she is not that
good?
TAYLOR:
Usually for a full set is $55 hard gel/acrylic. And my Fills are about $40.
[YN]:
Pricing is good. You are not doing standard work, ombres and marbling.
If you could find that perfect opportunity, the perfect marriage with a
salon would really help. Looking for that perfect spot, you have time.
You’re not desperate while you have the home salon. Take advantage of
that. For example, if Tracey was dropped anywhere in the US; 99% of the
locations may have some random spot. Every single day, she would go get
it, really go after it. It sounds simple but it’s not. It can be
discouraging after hitting up 100 prospects a week, (or what that magic
number is for you). You have to hustle until you convert clients. One
last questions, so what is your (client) retention?
TAYLOR:
Once they are in the door, they stay. I’ve only lost clients when I moved and even now they stick with me until I come back.
[YN]:
That is huge. You are so close. Keep knocking on doors. We’d love to
talk to you again in another 6 months. Create a strategy around your
ground game and social media. Target 100+ prospective clients a week. Go
big. Just don’t stop until you are booked solid. We really appreciate
you calling in. It’s going to help a lot of people. What a great session
that was! A lot of times it comes down to the simple things. Taylor’s
got it all. Nails and brows is huge right now. We know a lot of people
say we sound like we’re always money hungry. We’re not. We’re about
supporting a family. We’re about running a good business.
*This is an adapted version of the Live Call. The dialogue by Habib and
Tracey has been abbreviated and rolled into one voice shown here as
[YN]. Watch it here:
12 June 2019