In this episode, we sat down with Jasmine from @Beautyandthenetwork to discuss how you can start to build your clientele even if you’re still in beauty school, steps you can take to be proactive and make connections when you move to another city and things you can do to kick off your career in bridal hair and makeup. 

We also got into the nitty gritty of niching down, how to find your ideal client, why you need one and how this will affect your marketing messages, beauty branding and mental peace going forward. 

Episode Notes

What can I do to start growing my makeup clients and build my portfolio while I’m in beauty school or just graduated?

• Don’t underestimate business cards. Leave them around like a trail of glitter wherever you go when your trying to grow your business: gyms, coffee shops, wherever you think your ideal client may walk by
  
• Places like facebook groups, kijiji and craigslist can be a great place for you to get models and work on faces for free while you’re building up your portfolio if you don’t know a lot of people
  
• volunteering at fashion shows, school shows, just anywhere where you can get makeup onto someone’s face and take a picture.
  
• You have to put a little bit of legwork into it just topractice and get comfortable. And then once you get comfortable, then you can start charging
  
• If you’re strategic about it, the people you did for free to build your portfolio will turn into brides, bridesmaids or referrals. 

What can help your bridal hair and makeup career kick off?

• freelancing for other people’s businesses who also do bridal hair and makeup to gain confidence 
• investing time and energy social media courses that teach you how to utilitize instagram for your beauty business, how to use pinterest and how to use SEO so you can get ranked higher on Google. 
• start promoting yourself in wedding Facebook groups, showing up on instagram and posting to your website consistently.  
• Meet people and hand out business cards at industry specific networking events so you can build relationships and collaborate on styled shoots with other people in the bridal industry in your city.
  
  Make sure you nurture these relationships, not just give out your card and never talk to them again. Comment on their post on Instagram and Facebook, tag these vendors when brides are looking for recommendations in bridal facebook groups. 

What can you do if you’re starting your bridal makeup business over again, in a new city?  How can I network and get more clients?

• networking with people in that area way before you even move. 
  
• send some goodies over to Wedding venues, special notes and cards to planners, photographers, florists, or bridal shops in the area to introduce yourself.  

Holiday Specific things you can add to your beauty marketing calendar: 

• Jasmine teamed up with a baker and a photographer and spent a few hours walking downtown. Everyone contributed something to the goodie bag (cards, lollipops, brochures) and gave out little gift baskets to everyone walking by!
  
• grab a bunch of flower bouquets from Costco or the grocery store and grab your label maker. You can just put “Happy Valentines Day” from @yourinstagramhandle and drop off a bouquet like at your gym, the bridal boutique stores, wherever your ideal client is hanging out and is going to have a lot of traffic 
  
• Building a bridal makeup business around people that can refer you makes marketing 10x easier 

How do we know where our ideal bride is hanging out? 

Think about who that person is. 

For example, Jasmine’s ideal brides don’t wear makeup on the regular. They always say, “I just want to look like myself, but you know, 2.0” so you know that they’re probably not going to be in a place where somebody is going to be buying high luxury skincare products.

They might go to the yoga studio. They might do pilates they might be a teacher. They might be a nurse. A lot of Jasmine’s clients have the same exact job title: lawyers, attorneys, registered nurses, girl bosses, teachers. 

Knowing this, Jasmine sometimes offers discounted makeup sessions for the teachers because eventually one of those teachers will get married. She’ll drop off a few chocolates in a clear wrap bag with a coupon to get their hair and makeup one to the schools. Some of the teachers will use it to get their hair and makeup done for their engagement sessions and some of those will convert into bridal bookings. 

Why do we need an ideal client and how do we start to figure out who that person is?

• Learning who your ideal bride is will help you with your marketing messages and setting up your website
  
• Using the natural glam bride for example, some of the messages you’ll use to connect to her maybe: “Hey, have you ever gotten your makeup done? And you felt like you were talking to a brick wall because the look was nothing like what you actually stated. This is how we can help you create a look that’s customizable to your authentic self.” 
  
• Your ideal bride will look at your website and feel like your talking directly to her.
  
• Ask yourself what kind of clients light you up, what type of makeup sets your soul on fire? 
  
• talking about one specific client does not mean your disqualifying yourself from other people that may want to work with you. If they like your style, they’ll still reach out and ask you to do different types of looks. 
  
• when you really kind of hone in on who you specifically want to service, your posting, email creating, booking and nurturing clients all becomes easier. 
  
• if you don’t already have an ideal client in your mind right now, start to  ask yourself “who do I really vibe with? Who do I want to attract more of? Who’s not going to drain my energy” 

LINKS:

More of Jasmine:

https://www.instagram.com/beautyandthenetwork
https://anchor.fm/beautyandthenetwork

FREE TRIAL | The Total Beauty Planner | Organize your bridal makeup consults, clients and appointment details:
www.totalbeautyplanner.com

Continue the conversation inside the Bridal Beauty Business Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebridalbeautybusiness/