Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble. Today we're talking about how to make more money doing what you love. Hi Suzanne, how are you today? I am doing just fantastic, thanks. How about you? I'm doing really good. And I think our topic is going to resonate with everybody because who doesn't want to make more money? Right. Or, or you were in the, I hate to say this, but in the illusion that you were going to make it because that's why you chose the course and that's what they advertised and told you so. But, I think we all recognize that it's not quite like that. Not quite like that. So, if, you know, if you're looking at, I mean, today I think, and maybe, maybe people can share this with us and let us know your thoughts. Are you a service provider on your own or do you work for a business, like an actual establishment? Because it does make a difference a little bit, because if you're on your own, it's just you yourself that's bringing in the service, right? When you work for someone else, maybe it's structured differently. You know, how do you do that when you're under someone else's umbrella if you wish both ways, you can do it. That's for sure. But it's I think, you know, this is a lot of work in this industry to bring on and getting clients. So I'm not sure what I mean, let's let's go back to the times when we were in service and doing services during what did you feel about retail when we talked about retail and it's not only retail guys. Don't worry. Don't don't go away. We're just going to bring up the bad word of sales here. We'll get it over with. I guess this topic, because I think you mentioned retail, we were talking, and if you go online and you search ways to make more money as an esthetician or as a lash tech, whatever your service is one of the things that always pops up is. Retail sales. And when we were talking about it, I made the confession of how much I hated retailing as an esthetician. And it was because I felt like I couldn't, you know, I felt like anytime, I know it was about educating your client, but I felt like every time I was educating my client, in my mind, I sounded like a used car salesman. Right. And I always have. I always feel like somebody's gonna try to sell me something. So anytime somebody talks about something, I've already put up a guard and I'm like, no, I'm not buying, you know, and that's how I feel like other people are doing because I do that. And I, I think you and I had a really good talk about how phrasing it differently makes all the difference. It's kind of like what we talked about because then when we started chatting about this and then we're like, we need to share this, because I think the biggest thing is that we do look at it as sales and retail, like that. The poor use car sales and it's a terrible thing to say but everyone can relate to it they're not all terrible. But everyone gets that. Irony behind it, I guess you could say, but it's all about, okay, why did you get into this industry? You were, you wanted to give and, and provide and help and make people feel better and serve them. And right. Wasn't it all about that? Cause make them feel better, but yet. Then we think we're just selling to them. So what are we looking at? Like, are we looking at, you know, I think you mentioned like you'd ask, Hey, what are your concerns or, you know, whatever it may be, because we always reflect it to skincare is the sales aspect. What's not everything. Everything has something you can help them with, right? And we did a couple scenarios, and like I said, if you look at what are your goals, yes, you want to know what their concerns are, for sure, but do you have goals in mind? Right? So then, what is it? And then we, we think, Oh, but, you know, I know that this product line has the best post wax cream. Right? But why is it so good? What's different than lathering on aloe at home? What's different about the product? So when you, you're looking at the products and what you have and what you can help your clients with, is it serving them? What's the, what's the point of behind you even talking about that product for them? Is it because it's the pressure that you didn't sell enough this week and your employer's on you? Or your manager? Because you have goals to hit and now the pressure's on? So now you've changed your mindset to sales. But if you, if you try hard to just So I'm going to flip back. So let me give you a scenario what I used to do, and it was genuine. It was about my clients, always. So if you were my client coming in today, Doreen, I'd be in earlier, and I do my homework. Who are my clients today? What are they coming in for? Have they purchased before? What services are coming? So I'd look at their future services, if they were booked for anything. And I just wanted to round about what's their history, even if they were new clients. Have they been here before? What's their history? Who have they seen? Because I'm here to serve them. I'm going to give them the big wow service or product knowledge or, you know, home care. And I think that's important. And then we, we look at, you know, your promised PMU tech, right? Your permanent makeup artist is the classic ones. If you get into doing that, you're going to, you're going to pull in 150 grand a year. Well, I'm going to become a, a PMU tech, if that's the case, wouldn't you sign up if that's what you want? Yeah. They don't tell you how to do it and how to get there with that. Is it possible? Yes. There are beauty professionals out there doing six figures, but people just don't realize the work behind it. It's not that simple to just, you know, I'm here today to serve my clients for a pedicure and then a facial, and then I'm going to do a browse and it's okay, bye. That's your base level. That's you're just hitting your base level. So how do you improve with that? And yes, it could be, we think, retail, but what about a different service even? And if it is retail, like a lot of people say, well, I don't want to do that. How am I going to really make more money? It's only 10 percent if you work for someone else, right? I literally said that. Yeah. What's that? I said, I literally said that to you. You did say that. And it's quite common and I get it, but if you look at it and I'm just going to dive it, I wrote a couple of numbers so we can go through it quick. So not wasting people's time, but if you were doing a facial and I don't know the average cost out there, let's say 120 and I know it's, it goes higher than that and lower than that. So just. Just throwing numbers and you are working for someone you're making that 50%. Okay, so that 50 percent in that 60 minutes 75 minutes. I'm not too sure. Let's just make it easy for the hour for numbers sake that's 60 for the hour, right? If you were to I'll pick on a cream an average cream probably is anywhere from you know Anywhere from 80 to 100 dollars these days like professional products. So let's say the 80 cream You sell that and you're getting 10 percent because it's kind of that going number. I think some might be higher based on what you sell. So now you're, you're actually going to make 68 for that hour just to put in perspective, really simple and fast. If you were doing a brow wax, say brow wax is 20, you're going to get 10. How long does it take you to do that? 15 minutes. Would you say? Yeah. So 10 bucks. Yep. So if you did four bracks brow wax in an hour, that's only 40. Mm. Put that in perspective. Yeah. So how do you get that 60? So if you think post wax care, a lot of people are sensitive or break out, whatever it may be. So if you did that, that product is roughly almost 70. I'm using some of the things that we have, like Baradun has an amazing post wax systems. And you're going to get about 7. So now you've went from seven, 10 to 17. So now what are you making in an hour? I'm terrible with math. I'm pulling out my calculator. Are you? Okay, Times four, that's 68. Look at that! But that's, but in fairness, that's your four brow wax is selling each one a product. It doesn't work that way. That's not how this world works. In anything salesy. I hate to use that word, but we're going to say it. In the service industry, you are selling them a pedicure, a brow wax, a whatever it may be. I think something you said though is true. is about getting into this industry is about you wanted to help people and You, when we were talking and the way you were phrasing it, the way you talked about products really sounded like you were talking in, in the way to help. So I think if, try to explain myself instead of approaching it as I need to sell product, approaching it as. How can I help my client? Cause they're not going to be coming for a facial. I'm using facial as example, every day or every week. Right. And what you do at home is really, I think I read somewhere like 80 percent of the impact that you have on your skincare or whatever. So if you really wanted to help somebody, you would guide them in what they would do when they leave your service room. And yes, it's going to cost more money to buy professional product, but I think if you explain the benefit of professional product, how much it lasts, how it lasts longer, because you need to use less of it. I think that is all part of the education of it. And more of the, you know, better ingredients, less fillers, that type of thing. And today people are looking for all that. Yeah. Right. Vegan, like you name it, it's all there. And that's the other side of why. Educating yourself on your products is so important. Even if it's just the professional, like, do you know what your wax is made of and why you choose the wax you have? Why is a can of wax 10 over 40? Well, I'm telling you there's a reason behind that, but why don't you find out why, right? So I think sometimes when we look at it. Like in a day, like I said, what I would do to prepare and I mean, I had a, I had a program set up. It was easy to follow and figure out because I had staff and it just made sense for communication. But a lot of people are on their own now. So how do you do this? I mean, everything costs money. Everything is costing. You want an app? It's going to cost you. You want to buy that? It's going to cost you. Everything costs you something. So we did a little searching to figure out, are there free apps out there? Just to get people a little more organized so they can. Can do it. So if you're on your own, you should check out on just even on your phone. Is there an app that you can start tracking your clients? Do you actually track your client's information? Meaning what services do they have? What results were they given? What were their goals that time? If they've been waxing, had ingrowns really bad this time, like whatever it may be is to help that client, right? Cause that's what it's about is the best experience that you can give them, not just in the treatment room. I think just to clarify on that point is the point is whether you're working for somebody or not is like to take ownership of your customer service with your client. And we are not going to remember what we talked about. We're not going to remember what we saw. And back when I was doing services, we had papers. But honestly, sometimes they. Disappeared or you know they got spilled something on or sometimes I would forget to file it or whatever it may be and I think you were rushed right because I mean I know that there was places that you know when you were back to back and you didn't have time because you once and then if the client was late oh my god there's no time I don't got time for that. But having like your phone, so you can have it, I don't know if this is going to be popular, I'm going to say it anyways, but you can have it with you. And when your client is masking, maybe after you do your hand massage, or you do take a couple of minutes and just quickly jot down a couple of things in your app what you saw, what you're going to, what you talked about. And then that way you can, I had it happen with a service provider actually recently where after the service, she was, she pulled out her phone, and she's like, hey, this is what I saw, and this is, like, she was, she, I could tell, she may, and I asked her about it, and she's like, yeah, while you were, like, in the masking portion, I was taking notes on my phone, and I'm like, Yeah, now here's the other thing though, if you, so people keep in mind before you go download this app, understand everything If you are on your own and you're a service provider, your contract, you have your own place, you rent it, whatever it may be, you can do all that information, right? If you work for someone else, they are not your clients. They're technically under the hub of who owns that business. So be mindful when you leave. That you're not taking the clients because you can avoid a lawsuit then that's right but but that's something you have to be talking to your manager right and say, hey, there's no paper trail, I have no way of tracking this Do you mind if I do this, I am only going to have their name in it, I can show you. That's right. Don't take their info, but you know what, the flip side of that is like, maybe there is a system in your, in the spa that you work at, but I know for me, I have the memory of a gnat, so I would want me to jot a couple things down and then at the end of the day, I can do all my entry or whatever, like, however you organize. Exactly, like you said, maybe they're not tracking to that degree and you don't have paper anymore. Yeah. Like maybe that's something to talk to the owner about, say, Hey, could we have a universal tablet in the back so that we can share it or write it? Or I mean, I like the idea of my own phone. I could write my own Cajarine was in on this day, had this waxing service experience breakouts last time I recommended, you know, bubble cream and purchased. And then the other thing I think is lacking is we don't follow up. Yeah. So, and that's the other thing with the man who will lay out. Absolutely. And it's all part of all of it, right? Like I, and then people say, Oh my God, I have time for them. So, cause you get worked up with your day, but this is part of your day. So maybe you have to break down your day and look at it client by client instead of looking at the whole day and say, okay, I've got a client coming in at 10 a. m. Okay. It's Doreen. She's coming in for her waxing. I'm just going to pay attention to Doreen. It's all about Doreen right now. When I'm finished with her, I know Sally's coming. Okay. With Sally again, I got to look at this. And it's the homework. And I said, you need to be prepared. It's, you know, I think that the worst thing is, is when you have like, we've talked about this before developing rapport is part of building your clientele. You don't do the rapport. You're not going to build a clientele. So if you don't take that time, how are you building rapport? Like I mentioned to you, when I said to you about how I would approach it. Because I just to reflect back what we talked about and asked Doreen, what was the hardest thing to sell? She said, cleansers. I said, okay, let's do it. So I just gave her a quick scenario about cleansers. And, you know, she, she did a hard job, like, to get me to, you know, she was saying no. I was being very stern. She was, she was, she was fighting that. And it was good, it was good. But in the end After talking to Doreen about it, did you feel as selling a product, or did you feel, Oh, wow, she actually cares about me. This is about me, not her and selling me a product. Because you flip the switch into, it's the rapport. She's thinking about me and what's best for me. So, I mean, that comes with. Practice people you gotta not everyone can talk. Not everyone's good at it. And I think in today's world It's getting worse because we're all about the technology and we don't do this chatting So it might not go very well to start with if you're new at this But don't give up keep the focus on who the client is and why you did this. Why did you get into doing lashes? Mm hmm Right. And how do you help your clients? I mean, I've seen some pictures of lashes and why they had to be refused. I was like, Oh my God, do they even know this? What's built up in their lashes. So why aren't you helping them with that solution? What can you help them with at home? If you know, I did this, I had clients who didn't use what I told them to use ingrown hairs for bikinis. Told him the process. Do you not think I followed up within a week? Hey Doreen, checking in. Did you remember to exfoliate today and cream? Just FYI. Bye! And I would just do a quick call. And I think, yes, that all takes time, but that's How much do you want to get? How much do you want from this industry? Like, what do you expect? When you talk money, I used to have that. People say, well, I need to make more money. Well, let's chat about that. How are you going to make more money? What is it? What can you do? And you can't throw that back at someone else. No, I think the key here and that like to connect the two thoughts because there's a thought ahead nobody can knows about but you saying that in my head I'm saying yeah, but you owned your own business and you had a different ownership of. Those relationships, however, and because, and because I've worked with people who, who were like this in the sense that they came in, they did their clients, they did their services, complained about not making enough money, and went on their day, they never gave any extra. Because they weren't getting paid to do the extra, but we as service providers, you're really in the business of building relationships, because that's how you build loyalty and how you build long term client base, because, I mean, you can make money now, or you can put a little extra effort to make more money down the road, if you're focusing on actually building relationships, and to come from a place of caring, like, that's what you're in this for. And I think that's where we kind of went into looking at the app because it's easy to say, well, I work for somebody and they don't have this system and that's why I'm not making money is because they don't do, but you have to take that ownership. I want to make more money so I am going to track what I'm telling my clients. If there's no system in the spa I'm just going to take some notes about don't take their information just use their name and make some notes for yourself. And that's how you can fall, continue your client care with your, with your clients. Yeah. And that is how you in the longterm make more money. And the other thing on that, I'm going to add, you learn so much from that because then you go, Oh, we had a breakthrough. She's not breaking out anymore. Okay. That's been three, three treatments now. Wait a minute. What did we change? What did we do? You keep track of it. Yeah. I love that. So then people don't realize like when you track what else comes from that, because you can't expect yourself to remember all the details and it's kind of like, you know, I mean, I've done a lot of teaching over the years and more and more people are not taking notes. Oh yeah. I know. More and more not. I teach my daughter how to take notes. Don't tell me you remember this stuff because I'll throw an exam at you and you will not remember this. Tomorrow. And the act of writing something down though, I know we're saying you can put it in your phone, but even that, like the act of writing, it helps you remember it better down the road too. And that's why I say like, you, you, You know, maybe that's not your, you know, as a listener out there, we would love to hear your point of view. Like if you have something that's really challenging and you're trying to figure it out, reach out to us. Like this is exactly what we want to do is try to help everyone in the industry to overcome these things. And it's how we learn together. I mean, it's not just, you know, my little secrets that I've had all these years. I mean, I've, I've talked openly about this. I'm not going to do it for you. There's a difference. I think that's part of it. It's like, like you said, there was people and yes, there's many. I'm not making money. I'm just going to come and do my services and I'm out of here. Yeah, that won't change. That's been a common statement. All the 30 years or so I've been in this industry. It doesn't matter which profession it is, you're still going to have people with that same attitude. Absolutely. And it's okay. But those that want to succeed. And I guess you need to define what success is for you for this industry. Is it the clientele? The repeat of clientele? Is it money? And most of the time, people are like, I'm trying to build my clientele, I've got more people coming, I'm so excited. Because then after you think the money. So when you go to think money, I know it's hard to think this way sometimes, or we don't want to face the facts, but if you look at and say, I want to make, you know, right now I'm averaging 40, 000 a year. How do I make 50 next year? Or I don't know, a hundred, you name your number, take it to the beginning of the year. How many days do you actually work number one and how many hours do you put in a day because most people are not putting in an eight hour day and that's okay because that's the beauty of this industry. If you have your own thing most people switch their life around because they want the flexibility. So how many clients you're really getting in a day. I would guess that people are doing two to four a day, max, what the listeners think, tell me now, if you're on your own, how many people are you doing in a day, because you want the flexibility to drop the kids off at school. Maybe go on a field trip, come home after school, maybe come back out to do with clients, go back in, and that's okay. But then how are you going to hit the numbers you want if you're not looking how much time you actually put in your day of servicing clients. So there's a lot of number things to do. If anyone has a scenario and wants to come on and chat it through with us, we'd love to have you on, and then we can break it down with you live. Right. And then you have your, your questions answered, like we can't give you like business strategies and stuff like that, but we can help you kind of guide you into an idea. So then you can help others learn from this too. I think because I'm not money oriented, I like to spend it, but calculating it is a little harder, I think just to break it down a little bit, cause for me And sad as this may be, given my age, it was like a light bulb went off when it was looking at how much you want to make a year. So any job that I've had, if I was paid a yearly salary, the way I understood it was I had to break it down to understand how much I'm making an hour because that's how my brain works. And that's fine. Maybe that's some of our listeners, that's how their brain works. So in. It's hard to when you're starting out on your own or whatever the case may be to figure out, okay, well, how much do I need instead of starting with figuring how much you need to make an hour to start with your yearly amount and say, maybe, maybe you want to set a big number. Maybe, I don't know, I do for myself and if sometimes I may not reach it, but at least I have a big goal. And if you just for ease sake, like, let's say you want to make 120, 000 a year. If you divide that by 12, that's 10, 000 a month, which seems like a lot of money, right? But if you divide that by 4, so every week you have to make 2, 500, that's, and you're only working 5 days a week, that's 500 a day. Or you're only working three days a week. Or you're only, right, so then you figure out how much do I need to make a day. Maybe 120 is too much, so use a different number, like 80, 000 or 70, 000, whatever the case may be. Yes. And then break it down that way, and you'll actually see that it is achievable. You start with this big number, but when you bring it back down to your basic, it's achievable. Yeah, and then if you look at the day Yeah, you can look and say, Oh, you know what I needed to make? I don't say 300 a day. Oh, today I did 450 today only did two, but it's averaging out. It will never be that consistent if it is Bravo to you, but it's being okay with it. But again, to achieve things you've got to, you do need to think like a business owner, even if you're working for someone else, because you're the one building the clientele, you know, and, and this industry is small, no matter where you live, they'll find you. They will. And I mean, and depending who you work for, people would ask me if someone left where they went. Mm hmm. Oh, they're over there at blah, blah, blah. Right? I mean, it depends on what people, and people say, you did? I can't believe you told them where to go. It's like, well, I think that shows more of what we represent. Mm hmm. Right? I said, it's okay. And honestly, a lot of times clients would come back. Mm hmm. To be honest. And that's why I'm like, oh, isn't that interesting? So there's Suzanne analyzing and checking. I'm like, what's the percentage of that? I wonder. You know, so I'd look and say, actually, it's very interesting. They really enjoyed Doreen for waxing, but they really enjoyed Sally for facials. Isn't that fair that they now I put the client comfortable to go and to come back. So that's, that's a whole other topic, but just giving you an idea, right. Yeah. And I think part of that is you're an employee now, but what do you want to do in the future? And so setting those goals and those habits early, but I don't think they teach you this stuff in school or whatever. No, there's no time. Yeah. No. And people say, well, how did you learn? I took a lot of courses like you wouldn't believe. Like one day, I remember years ago, I had to put a resume together and I, I asked my one son to say, Hey, would you Just type it out. I don't have time for this. Like, cause, I mean, you know how old I am, right? Like, I remember when Google came out. Anyways, and he, I mean, they're so good at it. Young, like Jesus, they're not even talking. They could run a damn computer. Anyway, so he did it up. What is that? I go, I took that at that university, blah, blah, blah. Oh my God. Have you ever added up what you took? You probably have a degree. Probably. Because I knew I needed to learn more. And you can't expect that just to come to you. That's not how it works. Like you, if you want to learn more. It's up to you and then it kind of guides you into a niche as well of what you like to do. And then that's how I discovered over the years that I love teaching and helping and coaching people. That's who I am. I love teaching fitness classes. I love doing personal training. I love teaching new instructors how to be instructors. I love teaching estheticians to do their, maybe they're brand new to whatever. It's just, and I didn't know that. Didn't know that about myself. I was way too young to know. I knew I cared about people and I enjoyed, I wanted to serve and give and make them feel good because that was why I got in the industry, right? I wanted them to feel good, but I always educated my clients. I always told them why it would be good for them. Why should you do electrolysis over waxing? Vice versa. You know, or why if I had to say no, I would explain why the know what happened, but here's an alternative, right? So it's always giving them something but I mean it comes with time I mean a very small percentage of people I've met have said I'm in this because I'm gonna make money that was their focus I said nothing wrong with that. You can be goals. I know people who have business degrees that got into this industry, right? Nothing wrong with that. Usually not the answer you get though Which is, which is what, what the downfall because a lot of people don't have that business oriented mind. And so you don't connect the two. And it's taking the ownership. I think, especially as a new esthetician, like you're not going to start off with your own business. So setting these good habits for yourself right off the bat, because you want to work towards. Maybe a lot of will be on your own. Maybe you won't. Maybe that's not your goal. Well, and the other thing is a lot of places now are when it comes to education side of it, and that's going to be another topic. They're setting you up. So you want to be last check here for this amount of money. We'll teach you how here's all the equipment. Here's what you need. You're ready to go. You are now your own employer. You're self employed, right? Who do you have to help you with this mentorship and help you get going? Where do you learn and grow? And I mean, sitting in that treatment room by yourself every day, trying to figure it out on your own and you're following someone on social media, trying to mimic it, but there's so much more behind it that people aren't recognizing. And I think that's part of the missing puzzle pieces is that there's so much more behind that Instagram posts that people. Or TikTok, whatever it may be. And people don't recognize that. So number one is, like we talked about, you've got, probably, mostly, got into this industry because you care and want to help people feel better and look better in a sense, because then they feel better about themselves. Yes, it's still a job. You probably want the flexibility. But then look at, you know, I had a conversation with one, she was a young mom, and I said, it's just timing. You won't make that money now because unless you want to work at night. Right. When the kids go to bed, when are you going to do this? You're busy with your kids. That's okay. When you look at how many years that is, how many years is that really in your life? It's not a lot. So just do what you can. And maybe your, your partner needs to understand that too, though. Right. Cause that's the flexibility behind it. And I think, too, like, because we started off talking about, like, how to make more money, because eventually down the road, like, even if you get into it for the helping people, as you age, your responsibilities increase, you will need to make more money. So, in kind of connecting the dots, like, we had, we had talked about in a previous episode about, like, reflecting back on your year. And, you know, your successes and your challenges. And today, we're talking about how to make more money. I think you offered lots of great tips. But maybe, you know, kind of inviting our listeners to think about it. How much money do you want to make in 2024? Have that number and go through the math. Like, break it down per month, per week, however it works for you. We are going to do an episode about Setting goals for your business in 2024, like the first week of January, hopefully that'll, that'll be up, but kind of in steps, you know, reflect now, think about the money because you know, yes, we all, you know, want to help people, but you need to pay your bills and you'd be a lot happier helping your clients if you're not financially struggling. So yeah. Thinking about how much you want to make and have that kind of in the back of your mind. So when we do our goal setting, it's, you've already done two steps. Yeah. And the other side of that is take a look at yourself in the day. Are you that person that just comes in, does the service and leaves? That's okay too. I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just that, you know, maybe you need to look in the mirror and see, Hey, what can I do to change a bit? Yeah, take ownership all the way around, because it's not just dividing up the money and figuring it out, like, I think a lot of people will be surprised when they break that down, what they want to make, and then what is actually happening. And don't let that bring you down, please. There's, there is success to this, but first is that truth that has to come out. That reality of it all. It's like, Oh my God, I had that. I did that with someone. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm never going to make that. I said, well, wait a second. Yeah. Not today. Yeah, exactly. So don't get disappointed. If you see something in that reality check goes, Oh my God, like, I'm so far from that, but don't worry about that. Let's just look at yeah, yeah, it's putting it down on paper and examining it is a big is a step, you know, and it's okay to have a big number, but then you that gives you the reality check in and of itself. We also have like all included in the show notes the form, like if somebody wants to, if you have a, we usually we save like topics or whatever, but if you have a question related to this topic or a particular challenge, let us know. We'd like to you know, take it on or we can even reach out to you or whatever the case may be. Yeah. And I mean, it doesn't mean you have to come on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. We would love you to come on. No, it doesn't. We would definitely be happy to reach out. That's the whole point of why we, we started this, right. It's to, to dive in and, and build up this profession and scale it high. Absolutely. And just have like, you know, like you said, sometimes you're on your own and you don't have anyone to talk to. So we can be your person you talk to. Yes. We would love that. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, I think we're, we'll wrap up our episode for today. Thanks so much for listening and we'll be back with another episode next week. ​