5 Tips to Grow Your Mindset Around Your Business

I have worked in beauty salons, hair salons, rented space and have gone on to buy my own salon. It’s safe to say, I have a lot of experience in building up beauty businesses. If I had to ask myself what my main goal and passion was within my business, it would be, the capacity to earn money for my family whilst doing something I enjoyed, but not work myself to the bone and to have that flexibility when they needed me.

I also have a huge passion for you and every other woman out there, wanting this for herself but perhaps unsure of where to start or how to grow her business.

It is this goal and passion, that has lead me to build Jessicakidner.net. A hub with resources site to help you grow without feeling alone. 

I left a lot of the nail and beauty forums many years ago because I felt, there were just too many nasty comments and I never felt they were a safe space to really ask the questions that I had and needed answering in order to help me grow my business. too many different options and I would just feel overwhelmed with options of others that were all over the place.

I felt like I was in this alone and no one really understood my business and where I wanted to take it. Plus keeping my eye on the goal, I knew I needed to prioritise my time. I didn't have the luxury of spare time to search the web and different forums for the 1 piece of advice that would help me. I was elbow deep in clients, staff and trying to keep my head above water. So I pulled back from the beauty side of it and started talking to business-minded people trying to transition their advice to the world of beauty and salon business. Which of course, took me longer than I would have liked. A huge reason for why I have started this blog, is to help you get to where you want to be quicker and with proven results from an established leader in the industry.

I’ve recently found myself in a few really nice spaces and groups on Facebook, where women are supporting each other, not only with their skill level but encouragement too. After spending a few weeks at the heart of these groups, there were 2 main issues that really stuck out and saddened me over many, many posts.

I found the issues the majority of people were having, could be wrapped up in the following main areas: 

1. Doubt in their ability as a beauty professional

2. Boundaries around how they run their business

I found myself wanting to yell down at my phone telling them to stop, to take a step back and think about how any other business would be running their appointment book.

The no-shows, the late night text, Facebook messages or the “oh this client was such a good friend, I taught her everything I know and now she is doing $10 nails from home.”

As a business owner and a human being like you, I can’t understand why anyone would want to work themselves into the ground for a few extra dollars a week. I truly feel, a wake up call needs to hit a whole generation of beauty and nail technician’ in regards to how to build a real and sustainable business. After all this IS a business, even if you love painting nails all day or making people feel amazing you still need to be able to make money from it to pay the bills and at the very least, buy more polishes,tan, wax, facial products.

Even from the early days, charging $20 per set or $10 for a leg wax,is no way to run a sustainable business or encourage people to use your service. I understand, that at the start you want to be able to get people in the door and that’s fine, but make sure it’s very clear that you are doing an introductory price or offer and that it won’t be forever. It’s no good for anyone and that includes you at home or the professional salon. You will only work yourself into the ground, end up resenting your time in the business and be doing a disservice to your clients in the long term

If we take a deeper look into these 2 issues, I believe the backbone to both is fundamentally about MINDSET. We need to understand that our mindset is the key to how we show up in this world and how the world will see us. Mindset is something that you have to work on everyday. I too, still work on my mindset every single day.

We can’t control how people treat us but how we respond is up to us. We set the boundaries in both our personal lives and our business.

If we allow people to treat us in a certain way, it becomes a habit for them.

My 5 Top Tips To Improve Mindset Within Your Business:  

1. Walking the Walk.

If you don’t feel that your skill level is up to scratch for a particular service then reach out and get that extra training. You need to be able to invest in your career to be able to grow. Just like every other professional out there paying to go to uni or college. 1 on 1 training for a skill or business advice was a great boost for myself and of course my business. The more training I’ve done over the years, the more confident I became in my ability and in turn, felt I could raise my prices.

2. It Can Take A Village.

Have you ever heard of the term mastermind? A mastermind, is a group of like minded people who can share experience and advice on business. Get a mastermind of inspiring and positive women together where you can ask for real advice from people that have been in your shoes. I found talking with others in a business sense really helped me to grow my mindset around what I wanted to build and what I could achieve. If you want to connect with me and others just like me, then jump over to my Facebook group where I can support you every day.

3. Have A Plan On How You Want To Conduct Business.

You need to set the rules for your business. Things like times and days you will work, how far you will travel for mobile, how much you will charge for each service and how you will take appointments. Yes, you will always get people asking you to do them a favour and change an appointment just for them but it will only make you resentful and upset if they cancel or it will open the door to them expecting favours again, and why wouldn’t they if you have done it once they will expect you to do it again. Sitting down and thinking about business case scenarios that could come up and then deciding how to answer, will save you time and money in the long run. You will then have a reference to refer back to anytime you want.

4. Not Every Client Is Your Client.

Pick and choose who you want to work with. It’s worth sitting down and thinking about who your dream client is. There’s nothing worse, than worrying and stressing because someone you don’t gel with is due to come in for a service today. Not every client is going to be a great fit for your business. If you narrow down your dream client it will pay off in the long run. You will know the types of services that they want, where they socialise and the types of shops they spend time in for you to advertise and get in front of them, ultimately you will know what they like so you can build a real lasting relationship with them.  If you don’t offer Gel nails don’t do them, If you don’t like doing perms don’t offer them. You will enjoy your work more and you will start to be an expert in the chosen service and field that you prefer AND can charge a higher price for it because you are the go-to woman for that service. Now that is winning!!!

5. Announcing Price Changes.

Now this is something I hate! When I see an Instagram or Facebook post on why and how much a price has changed for a service it screams “ I’m scared to make this change please don’t yell at me” I personally don’t make such big public announcements. First of all, it puts a bad taste in the mouth of someone that hasn’t tried you yet. The new people will never know they are being charged a higher amount and will accept whatever the price is when they ask, if not then they weren’t your client to begin with.  *This comes back to remembering your ideal client.*

There is no need to advertise this change, of course, let people know in salon that next time the price will be X amount of dollars but don’t over complicate it by going on and on about why it has to happen. Trust in yourself and stand in the decision. If you’re looking for permission to put them up, I’m giving that to you here.

I don’t see McDonalds, Myer or even my suppliers announcing a price change! They just do it and I find out when I’m paying for it.

Clients should expect a price rise at least once a year and if not, then you are doing it wrong. Big call I know but I stand by it, and for good reason. Every year prices go up, from petrol to wages to insurance and rent. Everything! Which means, if you’re not updating your prices you are cutting into the profit of your business which means taking food and school excursions away from your children…this is a whole blog in itself which I will come back to on another day!

If any of these topics touched a spot with you then let me know over in the Hello Beauty Boss group. I would love to continue the conversation, get to know you and your business over there.