Ep 36 - 5 Things You Can Do Now to Build and Grow Your Esthetics Business

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0:00:50.1 Speaker 2: You are listening to ASCP Esty Talk, where we share insider tips, industry resources and education for estheticians at every stage of the journey. Let's talk, because ASCP knows it's all about you. 

 

0:01:05.6 Emily Morgan: Hello, everyone, and welcome to ASCP Esty Talk. I'm your host today, Emily Morgan. I'm a licensed esthetician in the states of both Massachusetts and Colorado, and I'm also the Membership Program Manager here at Associated Skin Care Professionals. We share all kinds of great information on this podcast, from insider expert tips to resources on all the topics you can't get enough of, like ingredient deep dive, business tactics, lots of fun stuff. Sometimes we're just here for some real Esty talk from one esthetician to another, and today we are joined by Crystal Ochemba-Powell. Crystal is an experienced licensed esthetician, makeup artist, business coach, and licensed continuing education provider, with a combined 10 years of experience in both business marketing and the beauty industry. In addition to her esthetics license, she also holds a bachelor's and master's degree in advertising and marketing. 

 

0:02:02.0 EM: During her career, she's used her knowledge and experience to successfully build her own beauty businesses, as well as the beauty businesses of other creative entrepreneurs, including barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians, etcetera. When she's not servicing her own clients, she enjoys training and coaching other beauty professionals on how to use proven marketing techniques to increase customer acquisition and conversion. She feels that her biggest asset is her ability to intersect her passion for both marketing and beauty with her signature training courses. Please welcome Crystal to the podcast. Hello, again, Crystal. 

 

0:02:39.2 Crystal Ochemba-Powell: Hello again. 

 

0:02:41.1 EM: We are so happy to have you here. Crystal is no stranger to the ASCP Esty Talk Podcast. Crystal, the last time we chatted, we discussed what estheticians who want to go solo need to know and what they need to keep in mind when taking those first steps into solo entrepreneurship. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, it's super good, Episode 28, I believe. We'll link it in the show notes so that you can check it out. But for listeners that are tuning in for the first time or who maybe missed that episode, Crystal, you're not just an esthetician, you have a fairly extensive marketing background. Could you tell us a little bit about your experience in the marketing field?  

 

0:03:19.4 CO: Yeah, for sure. So before I traveled down the beauty path, I actually, I went to school for marketing and advertising, and I worked for a lot of different or major brands as a marketing coordinator, marketing manager. I did lots of things in that realm for about 10 years. And then as a second career professional, I fell into the beauty industry. So once I became a licensed esthetician, I realized just kind of chatting, even with my classmates while I was in school, and just kind of chatting with fellow beauty professionals, I had noticed that there was a gap when it comes to education, specifically marketing and advertising our businesses. And that's why I created the coaching aspect of my business as well, to help others. 

 

0:04:12.7 EM: And so as a beauty business coach, which is such an interesting and unique field to get into. I mean, I feel like when you go to school to become an esthetician, you're thinking, "I'm gonna be an esthetician," and I feel like you don't really initially think that you're gonna become a beauty business coach, so it's such an interesting field to go into. So as a coach, how do you help other beauty professionals specifically?  

 

0:04:33.3 CO: Yeah, so I do have a signature marketing course. It's called Marketing for Beauty Businesses, and that course actually takes people through a 90-minute social media ad course. And then I'll get into that a little bit later, but also I do one-on-one coaching as well. I have what they call a pick my brain session. And basically, I call it by BYOT, bring your own topic, and a lot of times, we just hop on the phone for that 30 minutes and it's kind of like a strategy call. So you can say, "Hey, Crystal, I'm having trouble building my website," and I can give you pointers on how to quickly build your website. Believe it or not, a lot of people think that just posting on social media will bring them customers, but it doesn't. There's actually a strategy behind that. So in my marketing course as well as my one-on-one sessions, my pick my brain sessions, I'll also go through how can you actually acquire customers through your social media, and it's not just posting and praying. 

 

0:05:37.2 EM: And I have to say, I love picking your brain. Ever since we have had you as a guest on this podcast, you have just come to us with so many amazing tips and expert advice for other estheticians to be guided through their business and to help them succeed. So what are some tips that you can maybe give today to skin care and other beauty professionals about marketing their businesses in order to grow and to get more clients? Because like you said, it's not just buying some followers and having a bunch of followers on Instagram. It's a little more than that. 

 

0:06:15.4 CO: For sure. Number one, I always advise everyone to actually have a marketing strategy. A lot of times when you talk about marketing strategy, people, they get a little stressed out and they're thinking, "Oh my God, I have to do all the things at the same time," and you don't. If you just find one strategy that works for you and your business and stick to it and duplicate that, if it works, then keep using that one strategy to get your clientele. So one of the things that I teach... And of course, there's several different ways that you can market to your target audience and acquire that clientele, but I always... I preach social media ads. It takes money to make money. It doesn't take a lot of money though. So I always, number one... The number one tip I always give is to make sure you actually have a plan or AKA a strategy in place. 

 

0:07:09.2 S2: Hey, guys, stop. Let's take a quick break. 

 

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0:07:44.4 S2: Let's get back to the conversation. 

 

0:07:47.7 EM: I think that's a great place to start too, with making up a marketing strategy, just because like you said, I think that there is a lot of pressure for people to... If they're building a brand, building a business, they're thinking, "Oh gosh, I need to do this and this and this and this, and I can't even get started unless I've done all of those things and checked off all those boxes," which is just simply not true. You have to start somewhere and just get it going first. And I think, like you said, at least starting with a social media strategy, that's a great first step, and then whatever else you want to do afterwards, you can take those steps after if you want, but it doesn't have to be all at the same time. So I think that's great. What other tips can you give?  

 

0:08:33.5 CO: Absolutely. Always know who you are targeting. And this is another touchy subject, because I feel like when people say... People throw around the word "know your target audience", and then people get stressed out over that aspect as well. But believe it or not, everyone is not your target demographic. And I remember even when I was in school and we were going through the business portion, and my instructor was like, "Know you're target demo," and so it's like, "Who are you targeting?" And someone says, "Everyone," or, "Anyone." But it's not. And so I always encourage people to really dig deep and pinpoint who their client is, and it's okay to niche down. You don't have to do everything in your field of esthetics. So is it women who suffer from hormonal acne? Well, if you think about it, what age range would a woman suffer from hormonal acne? Or is it women who are looking for ways to look beautiful naturally? So maybe they want lash extensions, so now you're targeting women between this age and this age who generally wear lash extensions. So you have a target demographic, you just have to really figure out and sit there and think about who it is that you're targeting and who can you match with your services. And like I said, don't necessarily stress over who your target is, just define it and it will improve and become defined as you go. 

 

0:10:09.3 CO: When I first started as an esthetician, I said, "I wanna do facials and brows," and that's all I did. "I just wanna do facials and brows." But then I realized, I was like, "You know what? I actually have a passion to help acne clients so I'm going to do acne." And then I realized that a lot of my clients, and this is actually my target demographic, became who it was. I didn't define it, it defined me because I was paying attention to it. So what I started noticing is in my market, I had a lot of young African-American women who didn't necessarily know how to target or to tackle their hormonal acne. And then they saw me, they heard my story, they know that I suffered, I'm a 20, 30 something year-old black woman who's suffering from hormonal acne, and they said, "Oh my God, I see myself in her." So as I start to grow my business, I realized that people saw themselves in me, so then I started to hone in on that specific target demographic. So it's a give and take. You target them, and then as it becomes a beast of its own, it'll actually start to define who your business is. 

 

0:11:15.8 EM: Which is so important. Authenticity in your practice is such a huge thing to keep in mind. Of course, if you're new and you're still trying to look for your niche, you don't have to come right out of the gates of school knowing exactly what you're gonna do. I mean, sure, maybe you're obsessed with brow-shaping or maybe you love waxing, and so you pursue that end, but really through your own personal experiences and what you find that you love to do is really gonna start to define you. And then as you start to find clients that can see that genuine passion for whatever that niche is, they're just gonna wanna continue to go to you because they know that you're not just a jack of all trades doing a million different things, and you're like, "Oh whatever, we're just doing another acne facial." It's something a little bit more meaningful and a little bit more that they're getting out of that service and they know that they can trust you. And then you just start to build that clientele in a more authentic manner, which is so, so important, but you don't really get there until you've had a little bit of experience. One of the other things that I love that you said in a video that you actually did for us that ASCP members can check out, it was all about how to turn your followers into clientele, and I love that you said, "10,000 followers does not mean you have 10,000 clients." 

 

0:12:42.5 EM: I am obsessed with that quote because it is so accurate. And it's like once you hear it like that, you're like, "Oh no, yeah, you're right. That isn't what that means." And even if you do have 10,000 clients, are they your ideal clients? Are they the clients that you are really wanting to pursue and work with? And I feel like all of that really matters. 

 

0:13:05.8 CO: Exactly. The beauty of this industry is that a lot of us got into it, not out of necessity, but because of our passion. And so if you have to do this every day for the rest of your life, why not love it? So why take on clients that you don't necessarily want to take on? I mean, you will have a couple of those ones that you're like, "Uh, not so much," but ideally, you want to be doing... And for me, it's acne facials. And for someone else, I may be something else. But definitely hone in on what you love to do, define your target demographic, but don't be afraid to allow your demographic to define who you are as well. 

 

0:13:47.1 EM: I love all of that. What else do you got for us? Just keep them coming, lady. 

 

0:13:52.3 CO: Yes, this is fun. Always have what we call a CTA, which is a call to action. So when I'm doing... One of the things that I do in the pick my brain sessions, a lot of times people come to me and they just want me to find ways that they can improve their business. And one of the first things that I do is, I go to their website. How easy is it for me to book with you? Do you have a call to action? Do I know what to do when I go to your website or am I fishing through to find the Book Me page? So what a call to action is, it could be "Hey, click here for more. Text me to hold your spot. Click here to book." And you can use a call to action on your social media, or you should be using your call to action on your social media, your website, and even your email. So when I send out my email blast, I'm saying, "Hey, guys, I wanna talk to you today about x, y, z. Hit reply if you have a question or hit reply if you wanna know more." On my Facebook ads I'm saying, "Book here, click here to learn more." Sometimes, because I have a business phone number and not a personal phone number on my ads, I'll say, "Text me for more information or text me to hold your spot," and I get so many text messages because sometimes texting in this generation is so much easier. But if you're not telling your client what to do and how to do it, they're gonna scroll by. So I always say have a CTA, a call to action, in everything that you do. 

 

0:15:21.1 EM: And I think something else that might help is look internally and see what works for you. When I think of call to actions and what I'm trying to convey to maybe our members about an event we're having or what have you, I'm always thinking, "What works for me?" If I just see someone that posted some cool content and they're just like, "Hey, I have this cool thing," and I'm like, "Wow, yeah, that's a cool thing. Next." I don't think to do anything with it or to pursue it more because I'm just... We're looking at so much stuff on our phones every single day that I just... When you have that much information going through your brain, you don't necessarily think, "Oh, no, let me pause for a second, this is really interesting. Let me figure out a way to pursue this." But if you just threw in a quick little call to action in there that's like, "Hey, I've got this brand new service. I would love to have you come in. It's $10 off your first service. Here's how to book now." There's your call to action, and then you're like, "Oh, wow, yeah, I do wanna book now," and it gets people thinking versus forcing them to think for themselves, which sounds like I'm saying people are lazy. But in this world of just so much content and information out there, throwing in a quick call to action is just really gonna bring that to the forefront of your client's mind, and they're gonna take that action when they know it's just easy and there for them to do so. 

 

0:16:45.6 CO: Yep. Actually on one of my Facebook ads, I have when I'm marketing about my acne or marketing to my acne clientele, one of the call to actions is "Click here or DM me to learn more." And then when they hit my inbox, there's an autoresponder that says, "Hey, Emily, tell me about your skin," and instantly, instead of saying, "I'm interested in your acne program," because my autoresponder says, "Hi, such and such. Tell me about your skin," they immediately start divulging all this information about their skin. And "Well, I've been suffering from acne since I was a teenager, and this and this and that." And then I wake up to this DM and I'm like, "Oh my God, I gotta help her." And it's like, "Oh, okay, this is great. I would love to have you in for a consultation. When is a good time? Here's my booking link." I still filter them through my booking link, but the call to action is, "DM me for more," and it's personalized at that point. 

 

0:17:39.1 EM: As a side note, whose dream is it to just wake up to a bunch of skin care stories? I would love that. [chuckle] 

 

0:17:48.7 CO: Yes, it is. I live for it. I literally... And sometimes because everybody has a different schedule, so my Facebook ads, and I totally teach this in my marketing class, but my Facebook ads, they're automatically running and generating leads for me. So when I wake up in the morning, I have leads in my inbox. And because there's an autoresponder that says "Hey, tell me about your skin," I wake up to people who are basically already qualifying themselves for my service, and now all I have to do is follow up with them and get them to book to come in to see me. 

 

0:18:19.8 EM: Awesome. Well, what else do you have for tips for us?  

 

0:18:24.1 CO: Yeah, so this is always a fun one. I see... I'm kind of combing through a lot of the job... Not the job boards, I'm sorry, the esthetician groups, and a lot of times people say, "Oh, I just boost, but it doesn't work. It just gives me likes." Well, boosting is not an efficient marketing strategy all by itself. Don't get me wrong, boosting actually gets you likes. So you make a Facebook post and you say, "Hey, everybody, look at this, I have a new skin care line coming out, this and that," and then you boost it to get more, I guess, more clients, but it really only gets you people who just like it. There's no real engagement. So the thing is, is that you should actually be focusing on how to get your clients, like I talk about in From Followers to Clients, how to get your clients off of social media and actually into your chair. Boosting won't give you that. So a great way to actually get those clients from social media and not just liking on your page, but actually contacting you to learn more, is going to be the Facebook ads. I preach social media Facebook ads all the time, instead of just what I like to call posting and praying. It is gonna cost you a little bit of money. It may cost you $5 per day. When I first started, I was only putting in maybe 100 bucks a month, which is really not that bad. It's like 20 bucks a week, if you think about it. 

 

0:19:49.8 EM: I mean, $5 a day, that's a cup of coffee at Starbucks once a day. 

 

0:19:54.8 CO: Exactly. 

 

0:19:54.9 EM: And when you look at it that way, what is that?  

 

0:19:58.5 CO: Exactly. So what I did was once I... I kinda did a test. So I did the same exact post and I boosted it, and then I did a Facebook ad. And I got lots of likes on the boosted post, but I got two clients from the Facebook ad. And if you do the math... So let's say you're spending $20 a week on your Facebook ads, but let's say your service that you're bringing them in for is 100 bucks, you've already made your ROI, or your return on investment, twice over. So I think a lot of times when I talk about social media ads, people are like, "Oh, I don't really have the money to waste," but if you think you're going to waste it, then you're going to waste it. But if you actually know how to strategize and actually use those Facebook ads to your advantage, then you're actually really going to get your money back twice over, easy. 

 

0:20:52.8 EM: And I think a better way to think of it is not necessarily like, "Oh, I don't have the $5 to waste on an ad or boosting a post." It's more like, "Well, do you have $5 a day to invest back into your business or invest back into yourself?" Once you start thinking of it in that way versus as a "waste", I think your mindset around that will change. But I do have a quick question. When is an example of when you would want to boost a post?  

 

0:21:23.2 CO: Good question. If you want likes... I'm not gonna lie to you. I've never... I've maybe gotten one client from boosting. If you... I think boosting is more so for if you want more likes on your page or more likes for a particular post. It does help. It pushes your clout, it pushes the algorithm, it pushes your page up to the top, so getting likes and boosting is not bad. But for me, I don't have a lot of time and I don't have a lot of money, so I want the quickest way that I can get my clients. And the system that I use, that I teach in my course, the system that I use, it literally gives me two to three new clients every week, and I'm waking up to leads in my inbox every day. 

 

0:22:09.3 EM: I love that, and I love all of these tips that you have graciously shared with us today. I feel like so many people are gonna find these so helpful, and maybe just affirming the fact that they don't need to do a million things all at once. Crystal, do you have any other resources that you provide for somebody who is just going solo or someone who's maybe wanting to grow their clientele and their business? What other great resources do you have that we can just keep it all coming?  

 

0:22:36.0 CO: Yes, I do have the Marketing for Beauty Business Professionals, this is my signature course. It's online, it's about 90 minutes. And basically... Oh, and because I am a licensed CE provider, you do receive two continuing education credits for completing it. So if your license is up for renewal, sign up for that class. It basically shows the method that I use to get two to three new clients per week. For the most part, like I said, you do get two to three clients per week, that's what I use in my method, but these just aren't two to three leads, these are two to three paying clients. And so what I use is three social media strategies all put into one. So you're not just posting and praying, you're actually... I'm teaching you a strategy to get these clients in through the door. I walk you step by step, so I hold your hand throughout the entire 90 minutes, on the proper way to set up your ads. And not only do I teach you on how to set up your ads to acquire your clients, but I also show you how to nurture and engage your leads and to close the deal. So it's a whole process that you go through. It's not about just posting on social media or posting your ad even and just hoping they come through the door. There's a few more steps that you have to do to literally get them to sit in your chair or to lay on your aesthetics bed, and I'll walk you through all of that. It's really easier than what people make it seem, and I walk you through all of that. 

 

0:24:08.0 CO: And then after you finish the course, you actually have access to me as your guide and as your support. You can totally shoot me an email or we can hop on a call and chat about any questions that you may have after you take the course. So it's originally $49.99, which I think is already an amazing price, but actually for the ASCP members, you guys will actually get $10 off, and that is through January 2021. So you would just use "Beauty", capital "Beauty2020", and there's a link. I know that you guys will provide the link in the show notes, but it's crystalngozibeauty.com/coachingpackages, and just use the code "Beauty2020" and, yeah, you'll get the $10 off the original price. It is, like I said, it's 90 minutes and then you have access to me for any questions. There's a little workbook that you can download, I think it's about 50 pages, and then it... Even though the class is only 90 minutes long, the workbook is 50 pages because it has little tutorials in there and screenshots that you can print out and walk yourself through how to set everything up and how to execute everything. So it's a course I'm quite proud of, and I'm always excited to share it with everybody. 

 

0:25:25.3 EM: And we are so excited to share it with everybody too. Like we said earlier, things like this, it is just such a well worth it investment into yourself, your business and your career. So I highly recommend if anyone is interested in learning more about how they can build up their business better, Crystal is absolutely amazing, she's an absolute joy to work with. So I highly recommend checking out her workbooks and all of her resources. I love that you do the one-on-one trainings as well so that it can just really get specific into your specific needs, and she's just got something for everybody. So I just have to say it was so much fun chatting with you as always, Crystal. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us today. Where can we learn more about you, the programs, all of the things that we've just talked about?  

 

0:26:15.7 CO: Yeah, so if you go to my website, crystalngozibeauty.com/coaching, that's pretty much where all of my trainings are. I have paid trainings, free trainings, videos, downloads, workbooks, the whole nine yards on there. And that's also where you can book a one-on-one session with me called pick my brain session. And then also on social media, @crystalngozicoaching, follow me there for all of the tips. I typically post weekly different marketing and business tips on there as well. 

 

0:26:46.2 EM: Wonderful. Well, thank you again so much for letting us pick your brain today. 

 

0:26:51.0 CO: Yes. 

 

0:26:52.4 EM: And thank you everyone for listening in. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Have a wonderful day and we'll talk to you next time. 

 

0:27:00.6 S2: Thanks for joining us today. If you like what you hear and you want more, subscribe. If you wanna belong to the only all-inclusive association for estheticians that includes professional liability insurance, education, industry insights and an opportunity to spotlight your sick skills, join at ascpskincare.com. Only $259 per year for all this goodness. ASCP knows, it's all about you.