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Today’s episode is with Amanda Riley who is a stylist, salon owner, and educator in L.A. She also founded Glow Social, which is for beauty pros!
They are going to talk about their 3 top things to make an independent stylists SUCCESSFUL, WEALTHY, and HAPPY!
As you are all well aware, Stylists have been through hell this year. She has had to take everything day by day. Salons in L.A. were closed, and then they were allowed to open to outdoor salons, and most recently they gave salons permission to open up indoors with limited capacity. During this time, Amanda has opened up an outdoor salon, and worked with whatever she possibly could!
3:30 WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO CUT HAIR OUTSIDE?
Although it wasn’t the most idea conditions (it was actually 110 outside some of the days, AND there were major fires throughout L.A.)
Amanda asked her stylists what they wanted to do, and they decided after 2 weeks they were ready to work. Amanda created an outdoor salon in 3 days, and they went to work!
There were many stylists who were very angry with California’s new laws, but she realized that as a salon owner, she wanted to step up for both her client’s and stylist’s and provide a fun environment to continue working.
Her and her husband also started a coffee beans business during quarantine! You can check out everything about it here.
They also decided to open a new salon! TALK ABOUT A PIVOT!
10:15 WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON PIVOTING
Pivoting is one of the hardest things for Amanda. She lives and dies by a checklist. She’s always taking notes and staying organized, and the hardest thing for her to learn this year was to NOT make plans in advance.
She has had to learn to “go with the flow.” It’s forced her to take a step back and learn to let things go, and surrender to whatever is going to come and go.
Surrendering is HARD! Many of us started out with big goals in 2020 and have had to re-evaluate those goals and pivot and change and BE OK with that change.
At the end of the day, Elizabeth and Amanda have realized the importance of relationships and boundaries. 2020 has helped them realize some bad habits they had created in their lives, especially when it comes to taking breaks from work, and have made the changes to live a better live!
16:00 TOP 3 THINGS TO BE A SUCCESSFUL STYLIST
Boundaries
Creating boundaries with your client’s and yourself are CRUCIAL. Covid has had a huge impact on this. Since many salons were closed down for so long, and many stylists were out of work, as they have been getting back into work, it’s very easy to over work and try to make back that money that was not being earned in a very short amount of time.
One mistake she made as she was moving salons was that she was OVERSHARING her personal info. She gave out her personal number, which then turned into her client’s texting her at all hours of the day (and her responding as quickly as possible).
She learned that creating these boundaries of communication while you are not working is CRUCIAL! She implemented responses for when she was not working. If someone texted her when she was not at the salon, she would send them a message that said something like “Hey! I’m not working today, but I will reply as soon as I am back in the salon, and we will get you scheduled during business hours.”
This way, your client knows it’s not appropriate to message her outside of her business hours.
She also changed her number for her clients to a Google Voice Phone Number, and she does NOT look at that number unless she is in the salon. It’s free to use, and very simple to set up!
She has also set up boundaries for DMs. This is a little bit harder to control because sometimes your client’s are just responding to a story, but you want to make sure you’re not coming off as being rude!
Your verbiage is SO important! You can still communicate with your client’s, AND create boundaries.
Client intake forms
Anytime Amanda is taking on new clients, she has a client intake form. She used to do in person interviews, but since COVID happened she has change it to an online form.
She has this on her website and asks questions like:
– What service are you looking for?
– What were your services the last 2-3 years?
After they fill out the form, it goes directly to her email, where she is able to contact them and ask a few more follow up questions. From there, she ALWAYS asks for her clients to send a picture of their hair IN NATURAL LIGHT, and then to send an inspo pics!
Your client’s will appreciate this because it shows you care, and it can take some of the nerves out of the first appointment because you’ve already talked about what they want and what they are expecting in their service.
You can even learn a little bit about your client based on the photo they send! Some of them really show their personalities!
If you don’t have a website, you can use a Google Form (totally free and easy to use!)
Any website service you use will have these forms.
You can also use Survey Monkey (these you’ll have to pay for).
We also have WEBSITE SCHOOL! We collabed with Haley Davis Designs to create these beautiful websites. You can check it out here.
This will be a more affordable way of creating a website than hiring someone.
Email Marketing
You can get your client’s email’s when they fill out your intake form, or when they have an appointment with you.
From there, you want your emails to be SPECIFIC. It can be about a new service you offer, online booking, new product, etc.
You always want to make sure that you are CLEARLY communicating with your clients, especially with everyone that is going on this year.
It’s also beneficial to continue to be in contact with them because you can still sell to your client’s online! Retail has changed Amanda’s life. While all of this was going down, Amanda was still able to pay her rent with her salon because of retail and email marketing!
Amanda always loved talking about products to her client’s, but has learned this year how valuable retail is as a salon owner.
The trick is always creating VALUE!!
She didn’t just email her clients about buying a product. She EDUCATED them about products that could help their (sad) hair during COVID.
Email Marketing Resources:
-WIX has email marketing and forms! We use that in Website School
–Schedulicity is the BEST online booking app, AND it has email marketing! You can get 3 months free by using code: HAIRLOVE3
–Flodesk is the cheapest for email marketing! (it isn’t as customizable, but ver simple, and easy to use!)
-More advance is ConvertKit! (It’s not as pretty, BUT is great for growing your list.)
HOT TIP
Consistency is important, BUT!!! You always want to make sure you’re providing value.
If you’re sending a weekly email just to send a weekly email, but not providing an substance.. you need to re-evaluate what you’re doing! You’re going to get burnt out very quickly, and take a step back and know who you are, and always make sure you are maintaining your boundaries.
46:38 LET’S WRAP IT UP
3 Nuggets from the episode:
#1: CREATE BOUNDARIES WITH YOUR CLIENTS
#2: CREATE INTAKE FORMS FOR NEW CLIENTS
#3: EMAIL MARKETING FOR THE WIN!
Start now. Start with what you have. Start easy and go from there!
Thank you for listening.
We Hair Love you!
