Latest / Honest Esthetician Education / The BIGGEST Mistake When Starting Your Business!

Transcript

The BIGGEST Mistake When Starting Your Business! · Honest Esthetician Education

• 0:00
  This is the biggest mistake that you can make in your business.
• 0:03
  And in my opinion, it's being cheap.
• 0:06
  So what I mean by that is cutting corners with the little things that actually do matter.
• 0:12
  So for instance, linens, spa wraps, things like that.
• 0:16
  When I first opened up my business, I tried to go the cheap route.
• 0:20
  And then I ended up literally only three months later needing to purchase more.
• 0:24
  There was literally holes in my spa.
• 0:26
  Yeah.
• 0:28
  Yeah, I think even like thinking about the spa wraps, my biggest, I remember I do most of the laundry and the Velcro spa wraps, which I don't know, maybe this is a hot topic.
• 0:36
  It's gross.
• 0:37
  But the Velcro ones, I mean, the hair gets stuck in it, but they get stuck to every single thing when we wash them and dry them.
• 0:43
  I will say really quickly, not to cut you off, invest in Snap Velcro.
• 0:48
  The Snap one works best.
• 0:49
  I'm sorry.
• 0:50
  Invest in Snap Wraps.
• 0:52
  And my favorite are from Bocateri.
• 0:54
  Okay.
• 0:54
  Just letting you know.
• 0:55
  And that was one of the things that we learned pretty quickly.
• 0:57
  So where'd you get the first one?
• 0:58
  Was it Amazon?
• 0:59
  It was Amazon.
• 1:00
  And there are some gems on Amazon.
• 1:02
  I'm not trying to bash.
• 1:03
  Yeah.
• 1:03
  Amazon wasn't the problem.
• 1:04
  It was the ones that we picked.
• 1:05
  Definitely.
• 1:06
  It wasn't me.
• 1:07
  You picked it.
• 1:07
  Yeah, I think it's just so important to know that an initial investment is going to last you so much longer if you just...
• 1:17
  Pay more.
• 1:18
  Yeah.
• 1:18
  So what you talked about linens.
• 1:20
  So what about the sheets?
• 1:21
  Where did you buy in the beginning?
• 1:23
  What mistake did you make?
• 1:24
  Where do you buy now?
• 1:25
  So I bought ones from Amazon.
• 1:29
  I just feel like they don't last as long.
• 1:32
  So I honestly reverted everything to Boca Terry.
• 1:36
  I hope I'm saying that correctly.
• 1:36
  So the Amazon ones also got really bad oil stains after a while.
• 1:41
  Definitely.
• 1:42
  I think that the difference was the ones from Amazon stain way quicker because
• 1:47
  Yeah.
• 1:48
  So.
• 1:48
  Because they might all stain.
• 1:49
  Because oil, when you're doing massages.
• 1:51
  I know you've like tried Instagram and asked people.
• 1:55
  And then some people have just told you everything stains and all types of oil stain.
• 1:59
  But we have the ones we have from Boca Terry right now are, I don't know, some months, three, four months in now with no stains still.
• 2:06
  Way more than that.
• 2:07
  Yeah.
• 2:07
  I had it at my old suite.
• 2:08
  That was like.
• 2:09
  Oh, so we just had the bulk of them were the Amazon ones.
• 2:12
  I mean, you can just really notice the difference when you are paying quality and things.
• 2:19
  And they will really, really, truly last you so much longer.
• 2:21
  And they are softer.
• 2:22
  They feel higher quality.
• 2:23
  I don't know how much the clients really notice, but if they did, I mean, some people can be crazy and feel those things out and you would want them to feel like, oh yeah, these are good.
• 2:32
  Definitely.
• 2:33
  I even think, I mean, everybody starts somewhere.
• 2:35
  I'm not advocating for literally go all out, but I do think that there is a part in your business where I personally wish that I would have just...
• 2:47
  I mean, even if it meant me personally, I don't know if this is, I would have put things on a credit card for the business to have higher quality things because in the beginning you want every detail, every aspect when somebody walks in your door to be like a great experience.
• 3:02
  So I think it's worth doing that because in the long run, if you're putting in the hard work, you can't fail unless you are, if you can't fail, if you're always putting in hard work, you're going to eventually get successful.
• 3:13
  I also think about your spending it.
• 3:15
  Here's a quote.
• 3:16
  My phone is down there.
• 3:17
  I wish I could Google it.
• 3:18
  There's a quote about you spend twice as much money by buying the cheap thing.
• 3:24
  And we've been there before because even with the Amazon wrap or the Amazon sheets, we doubled down on Amazon and bought them again.
• 3:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:33
  really soon because we also didn't explore enough options and we are still trying to like we'll just get the cheap ones again and you'll look at your expenses and you will end up saving more money yep yep buying it one time instead of multiple it's just like buying a laptop it's buying any tech it wears down so much faster
• 3:49
  Yeah.
• 3:50
  So I want to talk a little bit about marketing because we've made the same mistakes in marketing as well.
• 3:56
  We've even made marketing mistakes as far as, you know, six months ago.
• 4:01
  This isn't something that like we've been genius at and we probably will still make many more because it's just a learning with everything in business.
• 4:07
  Everything is figuring it out as you go.
• 4:10
  But I remember one specifically, one of the first ones I feel like was our logo.
• 4:17
  And I felt like we spent a lot of money for it at the time.
• 4:21
  And this might be one that you could argue that you just don't have the money when you open the doors.
• 4:25
  It's better to have a logo than you just typing your logo on the computer.
• 4:29
  I personally think it's more important to have a set up room.
• 4:34
  Than marketing.
• 4:35
  Yeah.
• 4:35
  than a logo or things like that.
• 4:37
  Yeah, I completely agree.
• 4:38
  I was just talking about in general, uh, the mistake that we made of buying a cheap logo in the beginning, uh, when you could have just made it yourself and then yes, spent more money on the room.
• 4:49
  Cause I completely agree with that.
• 4:50
  Yeah.
• 4:50
  I wouldn't say I just meant as far as like buying it twice.
• 4:54
  So we bought the, we spent the money.
• 4:56
  I found somebody on Upwork, which is one of my favorite place to hire contractors, which is amazing people on Upwork.
• 5:01
  Um,
• 5:02
  Um, but with our kind of light budget that we had at the time, uh, it just wasn't going to get us something very good.
• 5:09
  And I mean, we got some cool colors out of it.
• 5:11
  It gave us some inspiration.
• 5:13
  But we could have found those same colors ourselves and done it.
• 5:15
  Yeah.
• 5:15
  And I think we didn't believe.
• 5:17
  And you're a lot more creative in that aspect as far as like graphics and that computer stuff.
• 5:22
  And I think if we would have trusted you more than to like, hey, Victoria, go sit in a coffee shop for four hours and just explore logos and colors.
• 5:30
  We could have came up with something very similar than we ended up getting.
• 5:33
  And I think we spent four hundred dollars.
• 5:35
  So it wasn't.
• 5:36
  insane.
• 5:37
  It wasn't like a, but it just wasn't smart in the beginning when you're trying to build, you could have, we could have spent $400 on linens or essentials like to make the room perfect.
• 5:46
  So I think it's, or decor and things like that.
• 5:48
  I think it's important to invest in the essential.
• 5:51
  So when you're first starting out, don't cheapen out on the, on the little things that in the, they do create the experience for your clients.
• 5:59
  So even if you have an empty room, invest in good linens, invest in good spa wraps, invest in those,
• 6:06
  A bed topper.
• 6:07
  Yes, a bed topper.
• 6:08
  Invest in the necessities.
• 6:09
  And then from there, you can grow because you can truly create the perfect experience with your hands.
• 6:13
  This is you're a professional, you know, that you can create such a good experience.
• 6:18
  But I think that it is important to invest in the essentials.
• 6:22
  Yeah.
• 6:22
  Yeah.
• 6:23
  I think another one that we messed up in the beginning, as far as marketing goes, you can keep like bouncing back at the room stuff as you think about it.
• 6:30
  But another one that we had was a landing page that we probably paid $150, $200 for because I wanted a landing page to send people over to when it came to like a special or an ad.
• 6:42
  And it ended up being the same thing where it was something that we could have made ourselves because I was trying to cheapen out.
• 6:49
  And it didn't work because it was cheap and it just
• 6:51
  wasn't what you can spend that money.
• 6:53
  Yeah.
• 6:53
  You can spend less, but you're not going to get a good outcome.
• 6:55
  Exactly.
• 6:56
  And so then it ended up being, yeah.
• 6:58
  Or you're going to get people who are like Groupon people because that's what it looks like.
• 7:02
  It looks like you're attracting those people.
• 7:04
  Uh, and so I think in my opinion, in those situations, now that you've said it with the logo and with those things, I would recommend sometimes it's better to pull up your sleeves and figure out things yourself rather than pay for a cheap,
• 7:15
  If you don't have the money and you can't put it into a place that you know, you know, you wish you could pull up your sleeves and do it.
• 7:23
  And I promise it's going to be the same thing as if you end up cheaping it out.
• 7:27
  We found that with the logo and a landing page because we ended up creating our own landing page that was very similar and didn't work just like the one we paid for, but one we paid for.
• 7:36
  And now as of right this second, we just had our website remade, which we're paying good money for to get remade by subcontractors.
• 7:44
  to get results.
• 7:45
  in the space that understands what they're doing and our bank account can feel it, our business bank account by the way, can feel it that that money is coming out but it makes a difference and even today and there's no specific numbers because we haven't got the analytics yet but we actually booked a client today
• 8:02
  off of Google the day our website came out.
• 8:04
  And we don't book a client every single day of the week.
• 8:07
  So to me, I mean, maybe I'm just really excited, but I'm like, okay, coincidence that the website comes out today.
• 8:13
  First impressions are everything, right?
• 8:16
  And I think that's where a client now, when they come onto the website, it's going to look like we spent some money on the website.
• 8:22
  Just like when you go onto websites and you're surfing, searching, you could be surfing, you're
• 8:28
  on the web.
• 8:28
  No one uses that term anymore.
• 8:29
  But if you're looking for a restaurant and the restaurant has really high quality pictures, the website looks really nice, you're more likely to go to that restaurant.
• 8:37
  And it's the same thing with all of us in service businesses.
• 8:39
  I think it's really important to view your business as if somebody was
• 8:44
  if you could watch somebody scrolling on your page.
• 8:47
  So if you were like to look at your own and you were with somebody, would you want to be embarrassed of your like website or whatever you're doing?
• 8:56
  Like, like you would see them not book an appointment because it wasn't all the way there.
• 9:01
  That's a really interesting, I like that.
• 9:03
  I've never, we've never talked about that before.
• 9:05
  And I like that idea a lot too.
• 9:07
  Cause I also like that idea could also go into, if you could put a camera in your spa room and have two best friends go in there and one of them's getting ready to get a facial and they look around your room and they're talking about it.
• 9:21
  Like what things about your room could hurt your feelings.
• 9:23
  And most times what people look for is things that are like cheap, right?
• 9:26
  Is that they're going to go like,
• 9:28
  Oh, look at this bed.
• 9:29
  Like, look at those legs on that bed.
• 9:32
  Look at these sheets.
• 9:33
  Is that a stain?
• 9:34
  I mean, we can never, I mean, we got rid of our sheets before the stains.
• 9:37
  But those are things that are important.
• 9:39
  Right.
• 9:39
  And I think that it's easy as a business to get like, okay, well, that doesn't matter.
• 9:43
  That doesn't matter.
• 9:44
  But they all do.
• 9:45
  The little things do add up and they do make for a whole different client experience.
• 9:48
  Yeah, it's all about the quality.
• 9:50
  And really quickly, since we are talking about quality, I want to talk about- What a segue.
• 9:56
  My first, our first sponsorship on your Best Edition podcast, Little and Brave.
• 10:01
  She is a small business owner, such amazing mission and her clothes are just so cute.
• 10:07
  So this top and bottom is from Little and Brave.
• 10:09
  So just wanted to give a shout out.
• 10:11
  Thank you so much, Little and Brave for sponsoring this video.
• 10:14
  This is our first ever sponsor.
• 10:15
  So it is very exciting for us.
• 10:17
  Besides Alexandra with our wine.
• 10:19
  With the wine in the beginning, which I don't think we talked about on the podcast.
• 10:21
  I was just on Instagram.
• 10:22
  We did get a free bottle of wine also for the podcast.
• 10:26
  But this is our first kind of official sponsorship of the episode.
• 10:30
  And it means a lot.
• 10:31
  It's a huge deal for us to have that.
• 10:33
  We've worked with...
• 10:34
  uh yuri before we've been buying her clothes for a long time been supporting her for a long time so it means a lot that she's listening to these episodes and now supporting us so make sure you go i will put it in the description her website to go pick out hopefully one of these are still available because they're selling out like crazy yeah um i know the tops are in the bottoms are a little set so make sure you go grab one before they're all out
• 10:57
  Awesome.
• 10:57
  But that was what a segue into quality.
• 11:00
  So back into quality, I want to talk about some other things as far as maybe going a little bit crazy here with machines and maybe some bigger things.
• 11:12
  I like this topic.
• 11:13
  investing in because you are very bougie as as far as the stuff you carry so you carry the official skin pen which was the first fda uh cleared microneedling device we have hydrafacial which has all of the patents in the whole industry as far as uh microderm it's not microdermabrasion it's
• 11:33
  Hydro-drobrasion is what they would call it.
• 11:34
  But either way, they own a ton of patents.
• 11:36
  They're one of the first or one of the biggest in the space, one of the biggest names.
• 11:39
  So what's your thoughts on cheapening out as far as kind of some of these more expensive treatments and services?
• 11:44
  You know, before, I think there was an episode where I felt...
• 11:49
  I mean, I've always been an advocate for investing in quality, of course.
• 11:54
  In a previous episode, I think like I said, if you, if that's all you can do to just do it, but now my opinion has completely changed just being in the business and working with Hydrofacial and just realizing the marketing that you get with Hydrofacial.
• 12:10
  I don't, I truly do not believe that you get the same outcome with any other device, for instance, um, specific, specifically talking about Hydrofacial and-
• 12:18
  But can we, outcome in what way, as far as results go or as far as outcome of what clients kind of like see about the brand?
• 12:26
  So results and just the type of clients that you get with HydroFacial.
• 12:30
  So both aspects really.
• 12:32
  I definitely think that investing in the big boy, you should wait to save up and invest in...
• 12:41
  in the quality of it, to be honest, I don't think that anything compares to hydrofacial.
• 12:47
  I mean, as silly as it is, hydrofacial is the top in the industry and people are Googling hydrofacial.
• 12:53
  Hydrofacial is only getting bigger.
• 12:55
  So why would you invest in another machine?
• 12:58
  In my opinion, that, um, in my opinion, doesn't give us great results.
• 13:02
  Yeah.
• 13:03
  So the results and then, yeah, as far as the Googling goes, Hydrafacial is the number one searched.
• 13:10
  Are we calling it microdermabrasion?
• 13:11
  Is that or is that?
• 13:12
  Hydrodermabrasion.
• 13:13
  It's hydrodermabrasion.
• 13:14
  I think so.
• 13:14
  But I mean, they're the number one searched in that category.
• 13:17
  They're the biggest brand name as far as consumers searching it to purchase one near them.
• 13:20
  I don't know what people are searching for.
• 13:22
  Yeah.
• 13:22
  And I've looked a little bit into, because I'm more into the SEO of our website and what people are actually Googling.
• 13:28
  Yeah.
• 13:28
  And as far as like what we're trying to rank for, we want to rank for Hydrafacial Near Me.
• 13:33
  We want to be number one because the results are, the amount of people that are searching that up are so high.
• 13:39
  If you can rank number one in that search result, you will get most of those clients.
• 13:44
  Yeah.
• 13:44
  So yeah, people are searching specifically for Hydrafacial.
• 13:48
  Yeah.
• 13:49
  And Hydrafacial owns all the patents.
• 13:51
  So the problem is- You can't compete with anything.
• 13:53
  And I'm not sure if everyone knows this at home, but Hydrafacial owns, they own Hydrofacial.
• 14:00
  So technically, and our rep told us this and I did look it up, but they owned a patent for Hydrofacial.
• 14:05
  So if there's a spa down the street that has a different brand machine that calls it a hydrofacial, technically hydrofacial can send them a cease and desist.
• 14:14
  And they have before, especially when brands get bigger.
• 14:17
  So also a note to you estheticians who maybe don't have name brand hydrofacial and are calling your service a hydrofacial.
• 14:23
  Please be careful.
• 14:24
  We're not going to snitch on you, but just know Hydrafacial can come after you and they can send you a cease and desist.
• 14:30
  And I mean, they can't take down your business, but they can make you remove those names and services, which is a cheat code.
• 14:36
  Yeah, no, totally.
• 14:37
  And as silly as it is, I know that everyone hates on Hydrafacial, which...
• 14:43
  um, partnering with influencers and such.
• 14:45
  But if you think about it, the name is only getting out there more because of the influence of Hydrafacial.
• 14:52
  So you just, I mean, I see it all the time.
• 14:55
  Gianmarini, you know, celebrities are using it.
• 14:58
  Face reality just partnered with the face reality.
• 15:01
  And it makes people angry.
• 15:02
  It's only bringing awareness to the brand.
• 15:04
  So these top dogs are, you know, helping your business grow because that's helping people search Hydrafacial near me and nobody, I'm not trying to be mean, but people aren't searching things like they are Hydrafacial in my opinion.
• 15:17
  There's no other machine there's cause there's no name.
• 15:20
  There's nobody that, I mean, Zimitz has a great machine.
• 15:23
  Um, How do you know?
• 15:25
  Have you tried it?
• 15:25
  No, but I mean, it looks great.
• 15:28
  You got me there.
• 15:29
  You definitely got me there.
• 15:30
  Machine looks great.
• 15:30
  People that we trust and know use their machine.
• 15:32
  Glonar's machine seems pretty, pretty good as well.
• 15:35
  From people that we know and trust, it seems like they have a, it's not a trash machine.
• 15:39
  It gets the job done.
• 15:41
  But the problem is their machines don't have names like Hydrafacial does.
• 15:45
  So their machine does not have this like fancy, like name that's Googleable.
• 15:50
  Hydrafacial is shutting all of them down.
• 15:52
  Of a household name, right?
• 15:54
  No, totally.
• 15:54
  So as silly as it is.
• 15:55
  Yeah.
• 15:56
  Yeah.
• 15:56
  I think with like any industry that you're in, just do your research, see what's the top in the industry.
• 16:01
  And in my opinion, I would truly wait to invest in the best of the best.
• 16:05
  And, you know, you should set your prices high so that when you do bring on these machines, you can't afford them.
• 16:11
  I think that's the biggest mistake that people make is...
• 16:14
  having cheap services and then they can't bring on a, a hydrofacial because their services are cheap and your clientele is not ready.
• 16:21
  They're not primed for a expensive treatment.
• 16:25
  So even that, if that means you having to completely transform your business, I, which I would highly suggest and it's going to obviously take a little bit more building, but, um, yeah, like put yourself as a premium, um,
• 16:38
  you know, provider and completely change your business, it will transform your life.
• 16:41
  Yep.
• 16:42
  And I think that goes along with kind of any niche in this space.
• 16:45
  If you're a waxer, if you're a brow artist, if you're just doing facials, if you're just doing chemical peels, all these things can all match in that same way.
• 16:51
  And it all comes down to the linens that you use, the wraps that you use.
• 16:55
  And I think even, I believe I've never worked with a waxer yet, as far as consulting and helping with their business, but I feel like even them, you can become a premium waxer.
• 17:04
  You can use
• 17:05
  some fun glittery wax.
• 17:07
  You can give people add-ons.
• 17:08
  You can give them extras when they come in for waxing, uh, that really makes their experience better and more premium to make sure you're not trying to compete with European wax center, uh, because they're going to get more volume than you and they can drive their prices lower than you.
• 17:23
  So don't compete with them.
• 17:24
  Just get in your own lane, right?
• 17:26
  Separate yourself from them and become the waxer that people go, why is she, I mean, this is a crazy price.
• 17:32
  I don't know how much waxes are, but like, why is she $150 for a wax?
• 17:37
  It becomes so crazy to people that they want to try that really expensive wax.
• 17:42
  It's why people buy, uh, I remember that iPhone, that phone case.
• 17:45
  Have you seen that it had that, that lip brand had that phone case had like the lip balm or lipstick.
• 17:51
  I think it was road.
• 17:51
  Yeah.
• 17:52
  That,
• 17:52
  everyone's going crazy for and it's like way overpriced.
• 17:54
  The hype has already died down, but it was so expensive.
• 17:58
  People went like, it must be great.
• 17:59
  It's cool.
• 18:00
  It's trendy.
• 18:00
  If your prices are even expensive, people are going to be talking.
• 18:03
  I mean, it's good.
• 18:05
  And I'm sure people talk about us too, where I'm sure some people come to our website and go, that's ridiculous for a facial.
• 18:09
  But at the end of the day, like...
• 18:11
  I say this all the time.
• 18:12
  You invest, you invested in yourself to go to school.
• 18:16
  You, you are, you invested for advanced education and it, it's so silly that people are so, that there's people out there that are angry about charging what you're worth.
• 18:25
  Like you, like this is a business.
• 18:27
  We are, this is how we provide for our family.
• 18:30
  So people who truly want to support you and under, they're going to understand that because they want to support you and they know that that's going to a good cause if that makes sense.
• 18:38
  So don't,
• 18:39
  Don't ever make anybody make you feel like you can't charge higher.
• 18:43
  Like even if you're in a small suite, I did it when I first opened and I just grew as I went.
• 18:48
  And people are just keep like run your business as if people are going to fly out to you because you are premium.
• 18:55
  Exactly.
• 18:55
  And the last topic I want to talk about as far as investing high in the beginning and not make any mistakes would be investing in, like you just mentioned, was the schooling, all the extra learning that you can do as an esthetician is make sure you're not just sticking to just YouTube, but I would say pay for some courses.
• 19:15
  And I'd say,
• 19:16
  when you're going to talking about the brands that we've picked that are high quality, Hydrafacial offers amazing training, which you can learn more about skin just doing Hydrafacial training.
• 19:26
  Or you can reach out to me if you want a personal one-on-one training.
• 19:30
  Yeah, we also do that.
• 19:32
  But like Face Reality, I mean, you jumped in with Face Reality before you knew the whole brand and how amazing it was.
• 19:40
  Just the course alone was worth the investment.
• 19:43
  Absolutely.
• 19:44
  Of kind of bringing them on just to be able to take the course.
• 19:46
  Even that, face realities, people complain about the price and I'm like, okay, then go find it elsewhere.
• 19:51
  You won't find it, you know?
• 19:53
  There's nothing as good as their acne training.
• 19:55
  Definitely.
• 19:56
  We have not found any of it.
• 19:57
  If you have something on the market right now, please comment down below.
• 20:00
  If they have a training as good as face realities, acne training.
• 20:04
  Definitely.
• 20:04
  There's really nothing like that on the market.
• 20:05
  Yeah.
• 20:05
  And speaking of courses, we want to announce that it is coming up soon.
• 20:10
  We are going to release our course.
• 20:13
  It's going to be all about community.
• 20:14
  So make sure you stay tuned to that.
• 20:16
  More of a community than a course, but it also has course aspects.
• 20:19
  So, yeah, by the end of this month is the goal launch date.
• 20:23
  Yeah.
• 20:23
  So we would love to have people from this YouTube that are subscribing come on there and really build this amazing community.
• 20:30
  We won't talk too much about it now because everything will be on there and we'll be linking that down below.
• 20:35
  Sorry, I probably talked about it too soon again.
• 20:37
  No, it's okay.
• 20:37
  But we are very excited and we've put in a ton of time and energy.
• 20:40
  This has been six, eight months of actually working and over a year of talking and figuring out how we would do it.
• 20:47
  So we are very excited about that.
• 20:48
  But besides that, I think this has been a great episode and I, we will wrap it up here.
• 20:53
  Thank you guys so much for tuning in as always.
• 20:56
  Make sure you like comment and subscribe and we'll see you next time.
• 21:00
  I'm working late.