Beauty Professionals: Marketing Yourself can be Fun

Yes, marketing yourself can be fun and can create great income. 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:

1. Do you know: Who calls you to schedule and appointment and when, and how far in advance?
2. Do you know: Who always forgets to Pre-Book?
3. Do you know: Who can't make plans in advance because of their work or travel schedule?
4. Do you know the profile of your clients?
5. Is this something you keep in your head and not on paper?
6. 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.

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.