Frends Beauty Blog

Goal Setting

Today we are going to talk about goal setting, because it may be the difference between you getting stuff done and having a successful business, and you sitting around doing nothing while the world passes you by. The toughest part of being a freelancer for many people, is NOT having a leader to guide you to success and keep you on track. And tragically, many good leaders are not good at leading themselves. I'm the non-commissioned officer in charge of my unit (when I'm playing weekend military guy) and I do a pretty good job. But I am pretty terrible at getting things done for myself to be honest.

The focus of this Freelance Makeup Business 101 post will be a little different than the rest. Today we are going to talk about personal security. This is a subject matter that I'm intimately knowledgeable about having spent 8 years in the military, and having rather extensive military and civilian law enforcement training.

Yelp most certainly is a blessing and a curse. Never has there been a better platform for showcasing your love or hate for a business to the masses, than Yelp. Yelp has made it as easy as a couple clicks of the mouse to tell the world about the great meal you had, or the horrible customer service you had. Businesses who do the right thing receive praise, and businesses who are shady are rightfully exposed.

We're fortunate at Frends Beauty to hold the highest overall rating (4.5 stars as of writing this) between all of our local competition. We have achieved this result because we believe that if we do not service our customers, someone else will. And while we always try to do our best, we don't have a perfect record. We are human. I know, it's hard to believe. And as humans we have our bad days. Sometimes those bad days end up on Yelp. When they do, we see them, and I always reach out to the customers who have had a legitimate bad experience. It's my honest concern to make things right. And 80% of the time, we can. From time to time though, there are false claims made, but that is just something you have to deal with as a business owner. We let our high ratings drown out the fake low ones.

Let's get this straight...I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. No, this is more of a logical suggestion. And you are not a lawyer either. But if you are, then I guess you can just stop reading this and bring me some tacos and beer. Please. Please...

But for those of you who are not lawyers, you need to consult with one who practices commercial law to discuss the proper setup of your contract / services agreement. The issue at the center of many discussions between makeup artists is exactly how to charge a retainer or deposit, and how one can legally claim the rights to those funds once a client breaches the contract. The fact is, it is not always a black and white issue and if challenged in court, more often than not you will be on the losing end if your contracts are not rock solid.

This should be a no-brainer, but for some reason it isn't. You need to invest in your education if you want to make it as a Freelance Makeup Artist. And I know you are saying "Well, duh Matt, I did...I went to the Awesome School of Makeup and got a certificate as an Awesome Makeup Artist, I could even make YOU look attractive. Ok, maybe not...but still, I'm an awesome makeup artist". And for that I commend you, it is likely to be something that will help you through your career.

But the education that we are talking about today, is an education in business and marketing. Tens of thousands of makeup artists spend tens of thousands of dollars investing in an education that teaches them the ins and outs of makeup, but too many future (and current) artists neglect learning the fundamentals of business. Upon graduation, they are armed with every tool needed to be an excellent artist, but have little to no business skills. And the ripple effect of this is much larger than you would expect, and the waves it causes are detrimental to the industry as a whole.

Having a look on Craigslist as I write this post, here is what I see:

- Professional head shots 3 looks Pro makeup artist, pro photographer, professional film studio with several creative backdrops one LOW PRICE $300.
- I can come to you or you can come to me $35.00 special for first time clients.
- Prices are reasonable from $50+.

This post will be short and sweet. You should be blogging, on your freelance makeup website, for several reasons. Blogging is one of the #1 ways to keep fresh, new, relevant content on your website. This is extremely important when it comes to Google rankings. Search engine algorithms routinely rate content freshness and relevancy high when choosing what to display, and where, in the rankings. Composing a static website does you no good if you are looking to capture traffic from people in your area of influence who are looking for your services, unless you are the only makeup artist in the area.

Your expectations, however, need to be realistic. Blogging on a service oriented business's website will not automatically equal hoards of new business. Though, it will work in your favor on the search engines as mentioned before. Furthermore it will make it obvious that your business is progressing nicely when a prospect visits your website. There are millions of websites floating around in cyberspace that have not been updated in years, calling into question whether or not the businesses even exist any more. Don't be one of them.

I'll preface this one. This is mainly opinion. It's subjective. But I think the logic follows. Keep it simple, stupid. Today we are talking about business cards, communication collateral, email signatures, email addresses, website URL's, the look and feel of your site...you name it. Keep it simple. There are a lot of things that you can do to make yourself memorable to people who you meet, and intend to gain business from either immediately or down the road. Having a super flashy business card, a creative but unimaginabley complex URL, or an email signature that contains 6,500 flower emoji's aren't any of them.

The good thing about having websites like VistaPrint is that you have dozens or hundreds of pre-made design templates to use for your business card and communication collateral. The bad thing about having websites like VistaPrint that has dozens or hundreds of pre-made design templates to use for your business card and communication collateral, is that there are tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of makeup artists. This means that your business cards and collateral will be identical to that of hundreds or thousands of makeup artists. As an artist, your uniqueness is your calling card.

Branding is tricky. A lot of people use the words branding, marketing, and advertising interchangeably when in reality, they are all different. So we're going to dig into branding today and why marketing and advertising is entirely pointless before you've built your brand identity.

So what is branding? Your brand is your business's personal story. It's the whole of what makes your business, your business. It encompasses all visual and mental queues that a prospective client takes away from your business. It's your logo, your type font, your website layout, your business card, your email footer, your story, your services, etc. It is, in essence, the conveyance of everything having to do with your business and how it is perceived by the world in general.

"Oh, wow...I didn't know you were going to be so expensive. I don't think I have room in my budget for that."

This is a cop out. It's a lie. The chance of your fees actually being out of reach of your clients is slim to none. For some reason, it's become normal in American culture that the fees for any service which does not have a physical price tag stuck to it are up for debate. I don't know who popularized this, but I would love to meet them one moonless evening in a back alley. Nothing about freelancing is more annoying and sometimes disrespectful than someone who feels entitled to receiving your services for 1/3rd of your rate.

Let's talk about terrible websites, and how taking the steps to create a good website will make you stand out in the crowd. And I'm notstanding on a soapbox, because when I came to Frends Beauty in 2011...our website was pretty bad. It wasn't terrible, but it was not intuitive, it certainly was not pretty, and it was built on some really old and unstable architecture.

So far I've talked about how makeup artists can book more jobs by responding to inbound inquiries faster, and also present a better and more professional initial impression by fixing their website URL. Today we are going to talk about the initial phone call or meeting. I'll make it known that I am not a makeup artist. I'm a business guy who started out in sales before I took over sales, marketing, and business development at Frends Beauty. I could not apply eyeliner without making someone painfully blind, but I could sell a hamburger to a vegan...please believe.