Building your business can be a full-time job in itself. It is hard work, but once you have decided that becoming a Permanent Makeup Artist is the career you want to start, there are simple steps you can do to make that dream a reality.
Thankfully, others have marked the beaten path for you - so now it is up to you to follow through with the right steps. If you do these 5 steps well, you will be on track to have a successful business.
Get Your Certifications And Proper Training
First things first - you need to actually start putting the needle to the skin - starting with practice skin than real skin. There are a couple of different paths you can take to get started practicing PMU artistry with PMU Supplies.
You can ask if anyone in your area is offering local training. Sometimes artists who are established will teach and train up-and-coming artists as well. If you do this, make sure you research the artist and look at their portfolio. You want to learn from the best, and that means finding the best. Make sure they at least have around 5 years of previous work.
You will also need to take a bloodborne pathogen course - typically these courses are only a couple of hours long.
You can find out more about permanent makeup artistry and how to get started at this blog post here!
Build Your Portfolio
The next step that you should be doing from day one is building your portfolio. Customers want proof of your work. At first, you may be able to get some friends and family to let you practice on them, but strangers who are paying you will want to see that you have tattooed someone else before.
Having before and after pictures of previous clients will help you get clients and will be that physical proof that you need.
Try organizing your portfolio so that it is easy for potential clients to see others that are similar to them. You can organize this by procedure(ombre powder brows, lip liner, eyeliner, etc), by skin tone, or by hair color. Whichever way you choose to do it, it will be easier for customers to navigate if it is clearly organized.
Give Excellent Customer Service
If you do an excellent job on your client, but you are impersonal, quiet, or awkward the whole time, that client won’t recommend you to their friends or family. They may not even talk about how they got a procedure done with you at all.
Caring about your clients is the number one thing you can do in your business. This can be applied to many different areas in your business as well, so don’t just think of it as face-to-face interactions. Of course, face-to-face is the most important and we want to be friendly and comfortable with our clients as well.
Think of the portfolio example we just spoke about - organizing your portfolio in a way that is easy to navigate is a small step that you can take to provide great customer service. It’s small things like this that sometimes we don’t think about that can make the biggest impact on our businesses.
Also, you will want to use the best tools possible. Using the best tools that you can afford(sometimes the best tools just happen to be an affordable option) is another way you can show your clients that you care.
Check out our favorite PMU pens here and our favourite tattoo needle cartridges here!
Set-Up Your Marketing
Once you have your training, your portfolio images, and have given the best customer service possible, you then need a place to put all of this information.
The answer to this is - you need to set up a website and your social media accounts. There are many website builders that you can use for free, but we strongly recommend paying the low monthly or yearly fee to have a professional domain name.
Once you have your website set up, you can then have all of your business hours, how to contact you, your portfolio, and an about me page. You will also want to put any reviews you receive on here, and all of your credentials. If you have been featured in a magazine or on a local radio station, your website is also a great place to share this.
The next step will be to set up your social media accounts. It could be wise to do this at the beginning of your business journey as well. It doesn’t look good to have all of your social media accounts with different handles, so try researching the handles you want to use and sign up for them right away.
Just because you are signing up for the handles doesn’t mean we want you to go all out on running every single application. This is often too much for established businesses to run, and they often hire help.
We recommend focusing on Instagram first because our industry is so visual. Customers want to see pictures of your past work and behind the scenes of your work as well.
Make sure to check out our Instagram here!
Ask For Reviews And Give Back
If you have provided the best customer service and you have a website and socials where you can post feedback - ask for it!
It is never taboo to ask for feedback from your work, especially if you have provided excellent service. Customers want social proof, and this is the only way you will be able to get it.
Make it worth their while to give feedback too! You can give them something in return for leaving a review - a 10% off coupon or a small gift. It is a great way to say thank you for acknowledging the service.
You will also want to think about how to give back either to your community or to a charity once you are established as well. Pick an organization that is meaningful to you - it doesn’t have to be related to the beauty industry. If you have a personal tie to it and are comfortable telling that story then tell it - clients and future customers want to work with people, and they really want to work with people who are relatable.
Conclusion
These are great steps and tips to follow to start up any business, but especially a Permanent Makeup Business.
Get the proper training, start your portfolio, give excellent customer service, and ask for reviews.
You also want to set up the visual aspects of your business, like your website and social media accounts sooner than later.
Remember, once you are able to, try to give back to your community or industry as well. This will go a long way in building relationships with your clients and potential partners in the future.
If you have any questions about any of our products, please text us at 647-542-4235, or email us at hello@torontobrowshop.ca!
For more information on what the difference is between microblading and Ombre Powder Brows click here!
For information on the aftercare of your ombre powder brows, click here!
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