A Beauty Business Can Be Your Dream Business

The beauty world is one of the largest industries that is still growing with no sign of slowing down anytime soon. You have likely seen beauty ads online and walked down the aisle stuffed with beauty products in box big box stores. The rapid rise of the Internet has only pushed the beauty community further as more people learn what the beauty world encompasses, thanks to a slew of tutorials and innovative beauty businesses. 

Momentum is coming for the beauty industry. The lockdowns might have forced people to do treatments at home; and this only made them missing their beauty expert even more!

Yeah… The balayage hair they loved from Pinterest … That won’t be the same if they try to do it at home.

If you’re a beauty entrepreneur, you might want to take advantage of the momentum that the beauty industry is gaining. 

There are so few limits on beauty businesses in our modern world so that anyone can turn their passion for beauty into a profitable business. However, just because there are opportunities and many different avenues you can take does not mean starting a new beauty business is easy or stress-free. 

Whether you decide to start a traveling makeup business that caters to events, open a formal salon with all-in-one services including micro-blading and manicures, or use your beauty knowledge to work as an image consultant, there are many steps to consider before your beauty business is truly off the ground. 

I’m here to give you some clarity so you can give your beauty business a great start.

Let’s roll! 

How To Start

Since you’re reading this, I’m assuming that you’re passionate about the beauty industry. You have a great taste for style. Maybe you see yourself as a beauty influencer! Or maybe that’s too much… But you get my point! You are passionate and that gives you a great advantage.

Life is short. If you find a way to mix your passion with your way to make money, that’s your golden ticket. 

I can already see you drinking your raspberry iced tea with a smile 😃 after reading this. Yes!

It would be great if starting a business was a simple and straightforward process, but many things add up to your first day officially open. 

The key to set your beauty business for success since day one is to treat your passion-based business like a business. 

Most of our beauty entrepreneurs that we help, come with a beautiful brand. They are on point with colors, fonts, and style. However, when it comes to business, they don’t take the time to prepare a roadmap to get clients for their beauty business. No wonder the question “how to create a marketing plan for my beauty business” is so popular. 

So where to start your marketing plan? The short answer: Google! 

Google is a fantastic starting place as you can learn the essential things you need to know to get started. 

You’ll need a website, so customers have a central place to find your information, book appointments, and potentially pay for services online.  

Thankfully, a range of different website builders are sure to leave you with a professional and functional website. Some of the most popular website builders include SquareSpace, WordPress, Kartra, and Wix, but there are many more options if the popular services do not appeal to you. 

Most people can honestly say that a business’s website affects their judgment of the company. Don’t you automatically have doubts when a website loads, and it looks like it was thrown together in an afternoon in 2001? You want your business to instill confidence and reflect your brand’s personality. Your company’s personality is part of what sets you apart, so show it off and highlight what makes your brand special. Wouldn’t you instead go to a hair salon that has funny puns on their website or show off insane old beauty commercials over another website that contains the essential information and nothing else? 

Google doesn’t really care that much where you build your website. However, your website must have essential and critical information such as your business name, location, contact information, and hours of operation. If your business is mobile or you will travel for events, be sure to include a clear service area, so customers do not have to guess if you will come to their address. Sounds obvious, but we see beautiful websites without technical settings, which means that Google doesn’t know that they exist. 

Once customers can find your business, you can truly start to grow. A great Local SEO strategy will help your business tremendously!

Systems To Take Appointments For Your Beauty Business 

If your business involves appointment times or reserved slots, you will need a system to manage customer requests. No customer will come back if the appointment system doesn’t work or requires too many hoops to jump through. 

Programs like Vcita keep the management mess in one place so you can keep an eye on all your systems at once. You do not want to miss a beat, but you need tools to help manage appointments coming in from Google, Facebook, your website, and inquiries from Twitter.

I love recommending Vcita as the best automatic scheduler because it manages your calendar, your payments, and customer service tasks as well. It’s all in one.

Simplicity is key. You want to make it very easy for your future customers. If they can book their treatments online, easily, they will keep coming back! And that’s the same rule for payments. Make it easy for them!

Many website builders also include payment methods with options to add more payment methods down the line. You will likely start by accepting most credit and debit payment methods along with popular online methods like PayPal. However, there are many more payment methods out there that customers would like to use. You do not need to take every currency or payment under the sun, but you can expand your range, so you do not lose sales because of limited payment options. 

Appointments and payments are relatively easy. Now let’s talk about the non glamorous part: accounting! 😤 

You don’t want to skip this part! Invest in a bookkeeping system to ensure every payment is appropriately recorded. Quickbooks is one of the most popular bookkeeping programs for small businesses and comes with all the features you need to keep your records in line. 

Social Media For Your Beauty Business 

You can spread your reach by creating a Facebook Business Page and setting up social media accounts on the major platforms. How many times have you found a new business just by looking around online? I personally found my go-to makeup brand on social media, and so do millions of other customers that could be your customers. 

Not sure which social media platform is best for your beauty business? 

Start with the platform you know! The one you feel comfortable with. And plan to leverage someone else’s expertise, time, and audience. 

Instagram marketing is very effective for the beauty industry. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only one. For this reason, all of your accounts on other sites should include a link back to your main website or contain the same basic information so your brand information is consistent. 

Scale Your Beauty Business

Once you have the foundation of your business setup, it is time to grow and scale up. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to give your business a boost to bring in more sales and expand your reach. Whether you want to widen your audience or raise your visibility, there are plenty of options and paths businesses, particularly beauty businesses, can take. 

One of the most prolific ways to grow a beauty business is social media and influencer marketing. The beauty community is massive online, with millions of fans ready to buy products their favorite vlogger recommends. Think about your favorite influencers and the products they promote or partner with. The endorsement from a personality you know makes the recommendation more powerful and likely to resonate with customers. Start looking for influencers in your local area or market niche before you target the globally known influencers. While more prominent influencers might reach a bigger audience, they also charge more per deal, and you might be overwhelmed by the attention your new business receives. 

If you are a niche traveling lash and brow service, you should try partnering with local wedding organizers or makeup artists. As you grow your business, you can reach out to more people for a partnership. If you are an online beauty store, beauty influencers on YouTube could be a godsend. It is worth reaching out to send products to an influencer if only for honest feedback from someone deep in the market and a marketing boost at best. 

Social media is the best place to scout out influencers or potential partner brands regardless of your industry, as so much happens on social media these days. You will find a large percentage of the beauty community is on social media, with massive accounts dedicated to makeup looks, hair dyes, nail art tutorials, and so much more. If you want your beauty business to take off, you must play the game to find success. All of the steps and factors described above are part of the game, but you also must use SEO and other marketing methods for long-term results. 

Have Marketing Questions? We Already Read Your Mind

We are a boutique firm that focuses on helping small businesses grow with specific tracked metrics that address your individual “pain points” so we can build a solution that improves your business both now and for the long term. We use your unique business numbers in conjunction with Forensic Marketing methods to create a strategy that servers your unique goals. 

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