COSMO Beauty Business Blog

The Beauty Student Experience

2008-09-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

What an amazing event for me last week! I was able to teach two classes on business here in Vegas at a great school, the G Skin/Beauty Institute. The students were interested, engaged and so fresh minded, excited about their new career. It inspired me to write an article which you can find at
http://www.bizcovering.com/Business/The-Top-Five-Traits-of-a-Successful-Cosmetology-Student.238501

Please read the article and let's comment about what's happening with the industry - I see you all on salonchannel and the Redken blogs - let's really talk about what you face across the country in spas and salons, with owners good and bad -This is a place to discuss without judgement!

Should Beauty Schools Teach Business Skills?

2008-08-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

I posed this question on several beauty sites - Should the schools be teaching business skills such as budgeting, marketing, money management,general business entrepreneurship to beauty students so that they are prepared for the business of beauty? I am excited to have responses such as what follows here from Stella:

Hello there,
The question is whether the beauty schools are teaching enough for students to learn techniques and be ready for work after graduating..I don't think they do, so adding marketing and business as subjects, will be waste of time. Beauty schools here in this country are a joke, a way for anybody to obtain a license and hang it on a wall so they can work. Business marketing is a subject that should be followed from the ones that they really want to become business/women. It takes endless studies and years of performance to become an actual expert esthetician and then a business woman.
Thanks
Stella Rousou
Dollys Beauty and Nails

Is Stella right? Are the schools a disappointment to all the many professionals who work in the field and look back at the schools thinking of how much they didn't learn? I can't wait for your response!

Do you Use these 4 Secrets in your successful Beauty Professional Career?

2008-08-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

In order for me to remember important tools I like to use a phrase or work as a trigger so here is:

C.I.R.V. (curve!)

C. = CONSISTENCY Know your craft so well that every time your customer visits you provide equal or greater VALUE for your price!

I. = INTEGRITY Always put your customer’s best interest and needs first before you up sell them on product. Be sure its of great VALUE to your customer as well as profit to you.

R. = RELATIONSHIPS Build a relationship with your customer. Their personal grooming is that, personal and your relationship must be personal

V. = VISITS $$ This all turns into a loyal customer with referral opportunities and more visits to you wherever you are. Build a relationship and visits turn into A Customer For Life

These are important to your business success. Oh, you might not consider that you are in business for yourself - maybe you are on commission at a spa or salon or on salary or still a student. YOU ARE IN BUSINESS TODAY -

You are in the business of making yourself successful. Along the way you might also make your salon or spa owner successful, sell product, make a fellow beauty professional successful by sharing referrals across the aisle, such as manicurist to stylist to spa therapist. You might help another student by working together on ideas for getting clients as soon as you leave school. You might even share the idea of using Client Keeper and earn yourself commissions as an outside rep or just a $50 referral fee (see the web site www.cksystemz.com).

No matter what you are responsible today for your success. Apply these principles and persist until you succeed!

Beauty Professionals: Marketing Yourself can be Fun!

2008-08-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Its ME time! Sounds selfish or conceded? No its not! Its business, its marketing, its income $$. Its cash to pay your rent, car payment and have money left over for a rainy day.

Well, guess what; some would say it’s raining pretty hard out there, outside of the Beauty Profession of course!

Gas price increases lead the way of every news story. The media is telling the average American how bad our economy is. Well here is the catch…. I still have my nails done every two weeks and my hair color, highlights and cut every six weeks. That fact has not changed, even with the price of gasoline skyrocketing out of control.

In this economy families may be having dinner at home more often, taking shorter vacations, buying a few less new pieces of clothes or spending less time at the mall. Those families are still getting products and service from their Beauty Professionals. That is why NOW is the best time to improve your marketing skills and have fun while you do it!

Today, I want to take a moment to move you AWAY from taking client appointments (WAIT, you just told me things were good for the beauty profession!) YES, I did, but I still want to move you AWAY from TAKING client appointments to move you to CREATING client appointments!

The first: taking client appointments is REACTIVE, while the second: creating client appointments is PROACTIVE. Do you see the difference?

We are learning to reach out and take what we need to grow our business. The way we grow our business is to grow our ability to bring business to us:

Ø Do you know: Who calls you to schedule and appointment and when, and how far in advance?
Ø Do you know: Who always forgets to Pre-Book?
Ø Do you know: Who can’t make plans in advance because of their work or travel schedule?

Ø Do you know the profile of your clients?

Ø Is this something you keep in your head and not on paper?

Ø Is this something that you keep in your big black book?

The time has come to take all that great information and put it in a place where you can sort, see and sell from – your Client Management System.

Now let’s talk about your appointments: how is your calendar book these days? Is it full for the next few months? Is it spotty, many marks where you erased appointments, crossed out the no-shows, wrote nasty notes about the lady who keeps coming in 20minutes late and messes up the rest of your day?

What if your calendar recorded history and the future so you could know all about your clients, who came, who didn’t, how often, how much they spent, how many were late, how many were big tippers!

All of that information is somewhere in your records. Today you can only guess how well you are doing. The KEY to success in marketing yourself in this $60Billion Cosmetology Industry is to have Wisdom about your clients. A Beauty/Business Professional knows who buys product and who doesn’t, what makes them happy and what doesn’t. Wisdom is the key to creating more appointments, up-sell of products and a full schedule.

If you were able to communicate on a regular basis with email newsletters, special deals, “tell a friend” specials, product specials and so much more, would you think your clients would remember to make an appointment? The answer, by proof from those who do and those you are financially successful says YES!

Ask any salon owner who goes to seminar after conference, convention after class on business ‘What are you learning and not teaching me?” They will say, “Its business knowledge, not technical skill, doesn’t worry about that.”

It’s time for all beauty professionals to be business professionals. Find your answer in the world of automation, from hand held devices to desktop and laptop software to online programs. This is the future and right now is when your market is best ready for you to deliver the message to them via the electronic age!

My preference is, of course, Client Keeper for the Beauty Profession, because it was written for the individual and not the salon owner.

You, the individual beauty professional, with Client Keeper, have the only automated (works by itself), interactive (between your client and your computer,) email, schedule, calendar system in the world! No salon owner can purchase this for their shop. Your client does not have to log into the internet to find you, you find them! Clients reply to email – it’s as easy as that!

Market yourself – today the financial success is there for you to take if you have the tools and wisdom to take these action steps. Watch the Client Keeper demo at www.cksystemz.com and see for yourself what the buzz is about these days.

Oh, and do you want great marketing ideas and business/budget/financial goals education? Get to www.cosmosuccesskit.com and see what tools are available for you, the beauty professional, to expand your ability to create great financial success in this crazy economy.

Should we worry about gas prices? No, what matters your income outreaching your former income in today’s economy. Go for it! The Beauty Professional of today is the Business Professional of tomorrow.