Taylor Rebagliati, also known as The Good Esthetician, recently asked a very important question in one of our Facebook Groups, The Skin Games Esthetician Forum. She asked “What’s something you wished you knew when you were starting out in the industry? What advice do you have for newbies who are trying to get established in our industry?”
As such, lots of answers came in from some of our very active members and we are excited to share their answers with you. The answers below will definitely show you how to grow your Esthetics business.
Melissa Mercardo
You need to work at building your clientele. It’s not going to be handed to you on a silver platter and it will not happen overnight. Slow and steady wins the race 🐢
Patience. Hand written cards. Referral coupons. But don’t forget I started before the times of social media! I wish I had these platforms!
Lacey Salas
-You need to create your niche, something you are very good at and no one else is doing it as much? Looking into specialty brands/ services popular in other regions. White space… a need in the market you have thought of and that you can’t find. Just a few starting places!
-Build a portfolio always
-Always be learning
I have 15 years in the beauty industry and have a background in every department of the beauty industry. Lots of hard work and behind the scenes knowledge with massive brands.
Not the average scenario of most…
So I personally used my belief in beauty, what is needed and missing in the industry and an approach that has the most potential for me to scale. Plus lots of techniques and expertise from all of those arenas.
Skylee Edmiston
It’s next to impossible to open your own space with no clientele. You also should start small. You can always go bigger.
Zen Miller
Only offer services you enjoy doing. . . Then do them really well.
Holly D’Allessandro Brown
Reach for the sky. You can do anything you put your mind to. Think outside of the box.
The Spa Butler
Don’t over commit with equipment purchases and neglect your marketing budget. It pays to hire a reputable / professional company!
Nicole Cocuzza
Avoid over investing in expensive machines, modalities and technologies out of the gate…Slow and steady wins the race. Start with your heart ❤️ your head 🧠 and your hands🤲
Jason Miedema-Dobb
Find and surround yourself with other Estheticians who see you as friends, family and support – NOT competition!
Lift each other up and help each other grow 💚
Jo Ann Irwin Diaz
Always provide over-the-top customer service. Utilize what you already have to create innovative services. Use consultative selling when suggesting retail products – you can make good money selling homecare but it is easy to lose a client if you are pushy. Did I mention customer service???
Darcy Debernarde
Invest in a beauty business coach from the get go.
Decide what client base you want and price accordingly. People shop within their means
Don’t ever decide what your clients are willing to pay for based on what you yourself are willing to pay for. Set your pricing based on the client base you want to attract.
Consultations do All the selling for you. Learn to do a great consult (and charge for it not only to pay yourself for your time but to weed out the non committed) including needs based selling and you will never have to “sell” products again.
Clients come to us because they have a problem that they want us to fix. simply give them the solution, which is typically treatments and a complete skin care regimen and present them with the skin fix. Let them decide if they want to utilize our solution to their problem. Don’t bat an eye at the price tag, be confident, and looked them straight in the eye.
KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid
Sales 101:
don’t talk yourself out of a sale with too much information. One or two sentences regarding each product and why they need it and that’s it.
Learn to fix skin conditions. Spa services are luxury when the economy tanks. People will find a way to fix their skin conditions no matter what.
Trisha Kindermann
If you have a budget, be mindful of where you spend your money! My first location was built to suite for me and that cost me a lot plus my rent was outrageous and while I made my rent every month, I was essentially working for free to pay for all the things.
Take a business course so that you learn how to pay yourself and staff should you decide to build a team
In the beginning work, work, work! I worked 70 hours a week my first year open all while being pregnant and yes a lot suffered, but I had a dream and I was going to build it so I did, even with kids at work at times.
Be careful what marketing you spend money on, the wrong one will be worthless and expensive but the right one may be very expensive as well. Hard to know the difference without experience. IMO Best to focus on being the best in your area and letting word of mouth do the work.
Robin Lee
I reached out to a local TV celebrity. Treated her complimentary, six week microcurrent series. That’s all it really took. She was so happy with it, she did a news story on it. Got several people interested from that story. They all did the series, got amazing results, and then their friends came, and then their friends friends came, and so on and so forth. Social media of the 90’s. 😂As Zen said, do what you do really well and it will all fall into place.
Angel Marie Flener
I would have to say don’t feel intimidated by the industry gods and goddesses… Find opportunities to Learn from them a put that knowledge back into your practice.
There are so many people for years that I kind of “fan girled” and when I got to know them or was in their circle it was amazing how much more I learned from them and how my practice benefited!!
Just don’t forget to turn around and help those who are coming up as well! Someone might be fan Girling you too!! Let’s success run full circle!!!
Jarratt Haviland
Relationships are what last. Service experience matters the most. Want to last through a recession or pandemic? Provide a connection that can’t be forgotten or forfeited. Almost anyone can provide a service start to finish. And there are a lot of great service providers out there. The experience you provide will make the difference.