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HELP! Business is slow!
217 Plays1 year ago
Have you ever been in that place in your business when services are slow, sales are down and you are panicking and wracking your brain trying to figure out what to do and how it happened? This episode includes a guide of what to do when times are slow. The answers are within and without so we have dissected different aspects of this guide and done a deep dive into what is required to get your business back on track and keep it that way.
1. Evalute the amount of energy you are giving your business.
2. Evaluate if there are other areas of your life that are bringing your energy down or if you are mentally and emotionally low aka your vibes are off and then focus on getting them up first - then immediately take some action steps toward your business.
3. Evalute what you were doing when business was good. Additionally evaluate what is not currently working for you in the business currently. Be ready to let some things go and pivot.
4. Make sure you have a solid vision of where you want your business to be on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis and then work backward and identify what the habits are that need to be in place to get you there - additionally, schedule in as much as you can to be sure you keep yourself accountable and on track.
5. Evalute where you could add value to your services and in your retail sales even down to the way you are talking about products. We are in a recession of inflation and people are spending money on and budgeting for what is the most valuable. This is an opportunity to take a good look at what you are truly offering.
6. Focus on your Google page and building reviews first because you stress too much about social media.
7. PREBOOK your clients!
8. FOLLOW UP post appointment
9. All in all - take radical responsibility and accountability and realize that your business tends to come from within more than it does from without and both need to be working in harmony
Find us:
Instagram: @sweetcheeksuniversity @sweetcheekswaxingskincare @the_esthi_coach
beyondestheticspodcast@gmail.com
www.sweetcheeksuniversity.com
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Transcript
Spontaneous Hawaii Trip - Refreshing Life
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome to Beyond Aesthetics podcast. We are your hosts. My name is Tiffany Orr. My name is Jessica Peterson.
00:00:27
Speaker
We are so happy you guys are here. And I'm so happy we're here. We haven't recorded in a hot minute. Oh, do you want to tell everybody why? Yeah. So I took a very spontaneous, very out of character last minute trip to Hawaii last week. And it was amazing.
00:00:46
Speaker
I've never done anything like that before. I've been to Hawaii before, but it's been a really long time. But I've never done something so spontaneous. And I took my kids and I didn't tell them it was a surprise. And you know what? Highly recommend. Sometimes those trips are just the best when they're not pre-planned. And everything truly fell into alignment so perfectly. It could not have worked out better. My schedule and just everything, we had such an amazing time.
00:01:16
Speaker
I was really needed and today's my first day back to work and I feel so refreshed. I thought I would feel stressed and a little bit overwhelmed, but actually just having that time away and that downtime with my kids, it's truly so important. It makes me reevaluate so many things about really what's important in life.
00:01:38
Speaker
And now I get to be here and I get to pour myself back into work because I feel good and feel refreshed. Yeah. And you love the ocean. The ocean has my heart. The mountains have my heart too. My heart is truly in both places, but I feel such peace and calm.
00:01:58
Speaker
when I'm at the ocean. And I think it was because I was born on the coast and I spent my first six years of my life on the west coast. And yeah, it's just like, it's in me, it's in my blood, it's in my soul and reconnecting with that is always so healing for me.
00:02:17
Speaker
I'm so happy because I even sent her a message yesterday and I was like, if you're feeling overwhelmed, it's totally fine. You know, we can figure it out. And she was like, Nope, I'm totally ready. So that's always a really good sign that that was exactly what you needed. Absolutely. So happy for you. But I'm happy to be here. And I'm happy about our episode today.
00:02:38
Speaker
Yeah,
Kitten in the Office - Meet Milo
00:02:39
Speaker
me too. You guys, I just have to preface this. I have a brand new kitten at home. He's like 11 weeks old and he just barely ventured out of the bedroom for the first time. So he discovered my office and I would go shut him in a room, but I need him to know that it's totally fine because he's been so terrified of this house. So if you hear him meow or if
00:03:06
Speaker
you see him and this is my new kitten, Milo. He is a kitten. It's a big adjustment going from an older cat who was also terminally ill to major kitten. He's so cute. He's so fun to have around, but his
00:03:28
Speaker
timing of deciding to come out of hiding today. Who knows why he decided to choose this today because he also decided to make some appearances on our mastermind call this morning. I was like, I'm so sorry, but I can't shut him in a room and make him think that he's not allowed to be out because I need him to be out. So if you hear him,
00:03:50
Speaker
If you see him, this is Milo. He's just going to be our mascot, I guess. That's what I was thinking. He is going to be the podcast mascot. Probably we'll need to make an appearance every episode. It's just, yeah, he's starting his career today. That's what it is. And man, he's so cute. He is the perfect mascot. He is so fuzzy. He's so small, but he's got some big boy paws.
00:04:14
Speaker
He's so fun to have around but yeah, it's been a really fun adjustment but I'm happy to have him and he's just playing around with these cords on my laptop right now. Like hopefully he doesn't unplug us. Yeah, I'm watching him. I'm watching him.
00:04:30
Speaker
I am so excited about this episode. I feel like this is just a really common question that I get it all the time for sure. I always have. You might get it sometimes too. I'm really excited to talk about it. I had recorded a solo episode with these answers.
00:04:53
Speaker
But I really wanted to go more in depth and also to have your perspective.
Evaluating Energy and Accountability in Business
00:05:00
Speaker
I had written this
00:05:01
Speaker
these answers with a single esthetician in mind. And so having you here also to help expand on this. So basically what this is, is I was approached a few weeks ago with the question about business being slow and somebody needed advice. And I was like, I would love to do that. And so I wrote out this whole email. I wrote out this whole email.
00:05:29
Speaker
And I was like, this would be so good to do a whole podcast on this because that's a question that everybody has. But I did write this email with a single esthetician in mind. So I just want to preface that, that we'll be kind of going through the list of what I said and dissecting it, but we'll do our best to also include this from every single perspective as well.
00:05:50
Speaker
So I have the email right in front of me so that we can just go line by line and Tiffany also has a copy of this email. So really the question was exactly that. It just was really short and sweet from my friend and she just said, business is slow. Any advice? So I'm going to start with number one, which is to evaluate the amount of energy you're currently giving your business. Yeah.
00:06:17
Speaker
So it really starts with with you as the business owner or the solo esthetician and truly like
00:06:26
Speaker
It's so easy to look outside of us and blame, place blame on what is happening outside of the business, say the economy or inflation or the season or XYZ. We can name a million things that we may think are affecting our business, but truly it comes down to what energy are we and have we been giving our business. And I think it's important to even look back
00:06:52
Speaker
at the past three to six months even. And this is a hard one though for a lot of people because it takes some radical accountability like you called it and being able to place our ego aside because at the end of the day, we don't want to admit our faults or maybe where we have fallen short. And so starting there is number one.
00:07:16
Speaker
and just really evaluating where has my energy been? How have I been putting it into the business? Where is it gone aside from my business? Yeah, which actually just goes right into the second thing that I said, which was that sometimes when we're going through different things in our life,
00:07:41
Speaker
I mean, this is a myriad of different things. This could be like, I'll just use my own examples of my cat passing away. It's been three weeks now and I didn't, I wasn't able to work pretty much all week that week. It was so hard on me. That was one of the biggest losses of my life. And so naturally when we're going through things like that, business is slow. Or a good example is last summer when my sales
00:08:08
Speaker
in my territory, they dipped like pretty bad, mostly in Idaho, a little bit in Utah as well. And I did the same thing. I was kind of looking outside myself and I was trying to find something to blame, but then I was like, you know what? I really haven't been super present because I'm not in the best place ever, right? There's a lot going on with my family that was really hard on me.
00:08:34
Speaker
And so naturally, I was like, Oh, actually, when I when I really sat down and took some accountability, I was like, actually, my energy just in general is really bad, right? So say that we are going through a time of just
00:08:50
Speaker
depression, or there's something big going on in our lives that is bringing our energy and our vibes down, that is going to translate into your business. And I don't think that that's a bad thing necessarily. I actually think that that's just a really natural thing to have happen, you know, when we're going through maybe a health crisis, or not just taking a lot of radical accountability and saying, actually, you know what, my vibes are pretty low, because
00:09:18
Speaker
I'm not doing great. And so naturally my energy or my business is going to take a hit also. And it's interesting because once we can recognize that, we can fix it. And we can say, actually, I kind of suck lately because I'm going through a hard time. My vibes are pretty low. And now I can see that that is kind of causing a bigger picture
00:09:44
Speaker
um for me that that needs to be fixed and so I need to work on getting my vibes up and I really think that that's important and that was my experience last summer when that was happening once I did take that accountability and I was like wow I am going through a really hard time my vibes are really low what do I need to do to pick those vibes up
00:10:06
Speaker
you know so there's that aspect and then there's the logistic aspects of these are the actual actions that need to be taken but i also had to like raise myself back up and everybody does that in different ways but once i did all of a sudden my numbers like doubled.
00:10:25
Speaker
which is amazing, right? Having that awareness about where you were and why you were in maybe that slump and your sales were low and just bringing that awareness there and then realizing, okay, I want to get back to where I was and then you can find your ways to get there. And actually it happens more quickly than not when we just bring that awareness and set our ego aside and realize where we're at, where we want to be. So it's really, it can be a really beautiful process.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So I think that those are the two most important things. But like you said, I do think that they're sometimes the hardest thing because it is so easy to blame everything outside of us and try to look for different reasons. But the truth is that your business starts with you. This is actually all an inside job. It's all very
00:11:19
Speaker
internal that doesn't mean that there's not some external factors but if you're doing everything right then those external factors shouldn't have such a huge effect on you. And they're easy to easier to identify when you bring awareness just like for me sometimes it takes consulting with somebody else
00:11:40
Speaker
and having them help you identify and that's what we did this last fall. You and I had a meeting and you helped me realize I started a new business last
Consistency: Building Trust and Stability
00:11:50
Speaker
year and I moved and expanded my current business and that's where my energy was going and it was all due course. It was all necessary but it made so much sense that I didn't realize on my own
00:12:02
Speaker
why my numbers were low, why my sales were down because my energy wasn't going there, it was going to somewhere else. And so having a consultation or reaching out for advice from somebody else, sometimes that's all it takes. Usually you can talk your way through it and you can realize on your own when you have somebody else to talk to about it. So that can be really helpful too.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It is always easier for somebody else to see that. I have that conversation with people all the time. It's really easy for me looking from the outside to be able to
00:12:41
Speaker
identify that and other people. So hopefully, you guys have some professional and personal support and somebody that you can reach out to. And honestly, if you don't, reach out to us and we'll help you take a look because it can help to have that outside perspective for sure. Yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker
And then I think our next topic is to look at what has worked in the past. When your sales are down, when you feel like you're in a slump, when you're not getting your bookings and your services are down, I think it is so important to just look back and see what's worked for you before. Because if you're in business,
00:13:24
Speaker
here, if you're listening to this podcast, obviously something's worked for you to get to where you are today. And so you can just easily look back. And it's easy to forget the things that work. And I had to do that the last couple of weeks, to be quite honest. I had to do some evaluations on our sales. And then I looked back and I was like, okay, well, we haven't done this type of marketing in a really long time. Let's get back to that and let's try that. And it's really funny, those little realizations.
00:13:54
Speaker
that you're already you've already done and succeeded at a lot and you can pull from your own creativity and your own mastermind that you have in your back pocket is already there.
00:14:08
Speaker
Me and you have had that conversation several times. I think it was the first question I asked you. I was like, well, what were you doing different when your cells were really great? What did that look like? You knew you were posting more. I think it's pretty clear once you just sit back and ask yourself, what were you doing before when things were really working?
00:14:32
Speaker
you know, trial and tracking is really important. I don't love trial and error. I just love trial and tracking. And it would be a really good idea to have some sort of a document for whenever you do run promotions, that you actually keep track of the different things that you did in that promotion and how successful that promotion was so that you do truly have something to pull from some really good information
00:14:57
Speaker
this worked before and this is what I was doing all the time and this is what you know how I was managing my time and just pull from what's worked for before and that's going to be really good data for you as well so that is really important to do.
00:15:15
Speaker
I love the idea and I also love having numbers in front of me. I love to run reports and actually all of my platforms that I use for my website and our booking system and even Eminence, you give me our reports and to actually have that on paper because it's easy to think in your head like okay,
00:15:33
Speaker
it felt like sales were down in February. And I looked at our reports over the weekend and actually I was pleasantly surprised we weren't down. We were actually up from January and to have that realization out in front of you can really make a big difference as you move forward and in your mindset on actually we are doing okay. And yeah, so if you have platforms that you can run reports on,
00:16:02
Speaker
your sales and your services, print them out, get them out in front of you or write them down and actually have them out in front of you. I think there's a difference of just looking at them on the screen versus having them in front of you on paper. So I highly suggest that too.
00:16:18
Speaker
And to track, like you said, track your progress for, you know, quarterly, every half a year, and then yearly. And then you can compare in years past and, you know, recreate from things that have worked, and then realign with that energy that when those things were working.
00:16:38
Speaker
Absolutely. And consistency is key. And I've always told people like, if this is working really well for you, then keep doing it, right? So if the way that you hosted your event that one time that it was insanely successful was great, then let's just continue to rinse and repeat that because I think also consistency is important for your
00:16:58
Speaker
That doesn't mean that they don't love to switch it up. They don't love a surprise. They don't love something different. But I think that probably 75% of the time we should be rinsing and repeating those types of things that have already worked for us while leaving a little bit of room for learning new strategies and trying different things is really important. But gosh, if it was working, then let's continue doing that promotion that way every year.
00:17:25
Speaker
Absolutely. And I'll tell you what you guys, your customers and clients thrive on consistency and reliability. And I want to say routine. I don't know if that's the right word that I'm looking for, but I think social media has it in our head that we constantly have to come out with something new and something different and something nobody else is doing.
00:17:48
Speaker
And that can be great, but also, like you said, rinse and repeat. It promotes reliability for your customers and clients. They know what to expect, and they can trust that. And I think more than anything that is so important, especially in today's economy and where we're at in the skincare industry, is
00:18:10
Speaker
just getting really having a really solid foundation on what you promote and what you give out to your clients so that they know what to expect and they know that they can trust it because constantly throwing this stuff their way can be confusing and it kind of gets lost in the mix. Don't you think I could not agree more could not agree more. The last thing we want to do is just overwhelm people all the time when
00:18:38
Speaker
you know, even you're coming up with your policies when you're coming up with your different events when you're coming up with your different promotions, keep it really simple and keep it really, you know, fairly consistent, that we're really not switching things up too much or creating like too many details.
00:18:54
Speaker
Because if I'm listening to your ideas for your promotions and I'm getting confused, then your clients are going to be even further confused. So yeah, keep it really simple and just rinse and repeat what you're already doing like 75% of the time. Yeah. Because confusion leads to they're not going to spend their money or book with you if they're confused. It's going to make them freeze and not do it. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:25
Speaker
And then this is one that has been hard for me, but really important is to evaluate what isn't working anymore and let it go. And I think with
00:19:41
Speaker
our ever-changing economy and the industry is sometimes there is some things that need to be let go if they're not working anymore. It's kind of like beating a dead horse and expecting that horse to get back up and perform for you. And if it isn't working and if you're pouring your energy into something that really isn't working for you anymore, it is okay to let it go and to move on. And this is what I call pivoting. And it can be hard for some.
00:20:08
Speaker
to pivot and try new things and explore new ideas and to put that faith and trust into the unknown. So this again, it comes back to evaluating you know, where you're at, what is working, what isn't working, and then choosing to put your energy in the right places.
00:20:26
Speaker
Even I needed to hear that. Yeah, it's a hard one, isn't it? It is hard. No matter where you're at, no matter what you've done, no matter what, it is always really, really difficult to let go of those things that are just not really working for you anymore.
00:20:44
Speaker
We develop attachments to a lot of things that we just have to learn to let go of. And it's interesting that you bring that up because a few, it was maybe the year before last year, I feel like that was kind of the theme of my year is I was like, what actually deserves my energy?
00:21:00
Speaker
and what doesn't. And I had to learn to distribute my energy where it needed to be instead of being overwhelmed by so many things all the time. I just had to continue letting go. Is this really important? No, it's not. OK, I don't need to worry about it. And then this year is obviously a really big one for me with those decisions that I've made with my business recently. But
00:21:23
Speaker
we have to do it and life changes, our circumstances change, our desires change, our energy. As we grow and evolve, part of that is just letting go of so many things that are not working and it really is so freaking hard. There's no way that either one of us is sitting here telling you that this is the easiest thing in the world to do because it's probably one of the hardest.
00:21:48
Speaker
But it's also completely necessary for you to grow and evolve personally or in your business. We're just going to have to evaluate what's not working and let that go and oh gosh, it is so hard, but it's so important. It's so hard and it's hard to even land on what isn't working because
00:22:07
Speaker
What we know, what's been consistent, what we know to be true is we have attachment to that, like you said. And it's hard to just admit, I think, to ourselves that it's not working anymore, especially if there's deep emotional attachments to it. And this can be personal and business and should be. And you guys, the whole point of growth is to not get stuck and not stay where we are.
00:22:35
Speaker
It's not the point of our lives. It's not the point of our businesses. We're meant to grow and we're meant to excel and change and pivot and succeed. And yes, we may fall down. And yes, we may, you know, I don't even like to say make mistakes because nothing's a mistake, but we might go down the wrong path for a minute. And then
00:22:55
Speaker
figure it out, but that is the whole point. And for anybody to tell you that they've stayed on this trajectory, this uphill path of success would be lying. And it's not fair to believe that because it's not how it is. It's so hard though.
00:23:15
Speaker
It's hard. I mean, it's like I'm hearing my words saying it and I know it to be true. It's still hard for me to believe it because we just want this like, okay, we do this and then we do that and then we're here and then we have happiness. And it really takes like evaluating where we're at and what we really want and need to feel and be happy and feel free. And it's a lot of inside work. It really is.
00:23:44
Speaker
It really is. I thought this was just going to be about business advice. I know. And it truly isn't, which is interesting because that kind of goes into the next one, which is creating your actual solid vision for what you want your business to look like on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. If you don't know exactly what you're going for, then there's no way to know how to get it. So create your vision and then work backward and make a plan and have the daily discipline needed to follow through and the tasks that are needed to achieve what you want.
00:24:11
Speaker
time management then becomes really important, but also that is kind of where the letting go. Once you are able to look down the road and say, this is what I really want, this is what I want my days to look like, my weeks to look like, my months, my quarters, my years, you're going to have to look back and be like, well, then I got to stop doing this thing. I got to let go of this thing and I need to start putting my energy into this thing. Those two things do really tie together.
00:24:39
Speaker
But Tiffany and I talk about this all the time. If you don't know where you're going, you're never going to get anywhere. It's just like you really have to have that solid vision. And once you do, it can make it a little bit easier to know where to focus your energy and what to let go of. But that's a really big deal. You have to have some sort of a blueprint.
00:25:05
Speaker
Yeah, you have to have a roadmap to get to where you're going. And even if it's a big out of this world vision, I hope it is. But you really have to land on it and get very clear on it, put it down on paper, put it on a vision board.
00:25:21
Speaker
get it out in front of you and make it so crystal clear that when you close your eyes, you can feel yourself there. You don't have to know the how, you don't have to know the actual road to get there. You don't have to figure out all these things like, but what if, and all this and that, you just have to be so crystal clear on where you want to be
00:25:43
Speaker
what that vision is that you can say it off the top of your head that you can feel yourself in it and then you just like work backwards from it and you work really hard and again like you said you let go of the things that don't align with that vision even though they're hard it's going to be really hard and you have to get really real with yourself and be really honest with yourself and
00:26:06
Speaker
And then truly, you have this blueprint, like you said, and you can work backwards from it. And it's important to not place any time restrictions on that too.
Vision and Strategy for Business Operations
00:26:19
Speaker
That's something that I struggle with. I am so crystal clear in my vision and I'm annoyed that it's not here yet. But that takes a lot of grace and patience with yourself and with the universe too.
00:26:32
Speaker
having that vision so crystal clear and then reevaluating it often. And maybe you might realize that you had a clear picture of where you thought you wanted to be. And maybe that's just not quite right. So you can totally tweak that vision and readjust it. And you should often, you should revisit it often. But like Jess said, if you don't know where you're going, you can't expect to ever get there. And I think that is a majority
00:27:00
Speaker
of people. They want their business or their life to be a certain something, but they can't really say exactly what that is. And when you ask them, what do you want your business to look like in a year, and they don't know, or in five years or 10 years, or what's their end game for their business? And if they don't have that, then it's going to take them a lot longer to get there.
00:27:27
Speaker
Yeah, so how does that translate into like, why did I put that into that list is because when you're working backwards, then you're able to see, well, these are the small things that I need to be doing on a daily or weekly or monthly basis in order for me to get to the big picture. So that's really,
00:27:48
Speaker
how I'm tying it back to and why I put that in that email is because now you can see that again, like, so number one, your relationships with people become really important. All right, I got to make sure everybody's pre booked. I got to make sure I'm selling retail. I got to make sure my relationships are good. I've got to make sure I'm staying on top of my promotions. Do I want events to be a part of my business?
00:28:11
Speaker
Um, am I doing my follow ups with people? Like when you have that big picture in mind and then you break that down into, Oh, actually these small things that I'm doing or need to be doing on a daily and weekly basis are what build me up to that big picture. Right? And so that's why I have that in here. It's just a matter of working backwards and then, okay, this is what I want. Okay. So what does that need to look like on the daily, weekly, monthly basis in order for me to get
00:28:40
Speaker
there because that is actually where I find and that's I think where we're getting to here pretty closely is like we're really dropping the ball on these things that are super important because we don't give them enough credit.
00:28:58
Speaker
No. And discipline is going to be absolutely required in that. Yeah. And that's why I put that time management now becomes really important is because you have to have the discipline. You have to have the time management even to do your follow-ups, right? I'm like, well, when is that in your schedule to do? Oh, it's not. Well, that's going to be an issue. Yeah, absolutely. Love that.
00:29:24
Speaker
Let's talk about being in a recession of inflation. Oh, I'd love to. This is going to be a big one for everybody. You were the first one to ask me this question, and then I started digging into it. This was a few months ago. You were like, how do we pivot our business? What does our focus need to be because of the economy? I don't remember how you worked at it, but I was like,
00:29:45
Speaker
That's a great question. The thing is that everybody really needs to get a handle on and fully realize is that we're in a recession due to inflation. It's not like 2008 where it's a mortgage crisis and now people don't have money anymore and we're losing everything. Nope, that's really not what's happening. It's just that things cost more.
00:30:09
Speaker
The money is there, but we're really only spending our money on the things that we find the most valuable. I think that it's actually an extremely good opportunity to, again, look at your business and ask yourself, am I offering the most valuable service possible? What can I do to build more value into what I'm offering in my retail, in my services?
00:30:34
Speaker
You know is the experience that people are having with me the most valuable that it can possibly be and so I think it's an amazing opportunity and the nice thing is too that because It becomes more of a budget thing. This is a really good opportunity for you to get people on your books regularly. So as long as you are
00:30:56
Speaker
selling product properly in a way that creates the most value possible. You're creating the most valuable experience possible. Then people are going to want to budget for you every single month. So now you have to have the discipline of pre-booking with people so that they can get it on their books and they can get that in their budget. So once you understand that,
00:31:17
Speaker
everything changes because so many people are looking at it like our economy, our economy. I actually don't know. I've heard our economy is horrible. I have actually heard our economy is incredible. I have no idea what's going on with our economy, but I do know how people are spending. I do know that
00:31:35
Speaker
The recession is just its inflation. It doesn't mean that there's not money available. It just means that we need to take a different responsibility and look at our businesses a little bit differently, which I think is a really great thing. Yeah, I think there's great opportunity here. And I love that you called or you named it taking a different responsibility.
00:31:58
Speaker
And I think it's important too to not get scared into being scared to ask your clients to pre-book because you're afraid they don't have the money to spend or being worried about, you know, recommending retail because of the economy. That is the silliest thing I've ever heard. And you're doing your clients a disservice by not asking them to pre-book with you and by not recommending at home products. Cause if they're even there in your space, they have the money to be there, you know,
00:32:28
Speaker
And you can't ever assume where somebody is at financially. That's like number one mistake is assuming your client can't afford your services or products. And so having just that different mindset about your responsibility and use the economy to your advantage. Like you said, people are still spending and they want to spend on value.
00:32:49
Speaker
And if you can add to your services, add value to your services, add value to your education about your products, there are so many ways that you can add value to what you already have without raising your prices, without getting loose on your boundaries. With your booking times, there's really great ways to do that without lowering your prices or lowering your boundaries.
00:33:17
Speaker
I love that. Raising your prices is not a bad thing. That's not what we're saying. But people will budget for you if the value is there. Yeah. And I think I want to retouch on that. Raising your prices is not a bad thing. I don't ever recommend lowering your prices. I saw that in an esthetician group the other day. Business has been slow. She was considering lowering her service prices.
00:33:46
Speaker
I know and a lot of people had already chimed in and given her really great advice. So I just, you know, watch from the sidelines, but I don't definitely don't recommend that because you're basically you're like lowering the value you already give by lowering your prices.
00:34:05
Speaker
I was so proud of that group. I was literally when I posted a real, I did a screenshot of that because I was like, people were like, never lower your price. They were so nice about it, but they were like, no, don't do it. And I was like, oh, thank you. I felt so refreshed. I felt so grateful. And the amount of people who stepped in to give this person advice,
00:34:29
Speaker
It really warmed my heart, but yeah, you guys know you should never lower your prices. That literally is just telling people, I'm not as valuable as I once was. That's crazy to me. There's absolutely no need for it. But the problem too, so just to sidetrack a little bit, that girl also was like, everybody within 20 miles of me is lowering their prices. So I mean, I should do it too. And I was like, girl, why are you?
00:34:57
Speaker
watching all of these businesses. Like what are you doing? No, you do not need to be concerned with what anybody around you is doing. Like seriously, unless you are trying to cheer them on. Yeah. Unless you're like gaining inspiration, unless you're trying to network with them. Yes. Then just like don't even look over there. Why are you doing that? I'm like, Oh my gosh. No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't be doing that. Number one. Let's stop. That happened to reiterate that.
00:35:27
Speaker
like basically what Jess is saying is stay in your own lane and worry about you and your business and let be what others be unless you want to collaborate or cheer them on or whatever it's called. Get together with them in a positive way. Absolutely.
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm like, honestly, they're doing you a favor because they're making you look better because they're literally splashing like their perception of what they are. And you, your price, but you guys, people want the people who value themselves.
00:36:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And if you don't have value for yourself or your business, that's a problem. And that's probably number one of where you should start. If you don't see the value in your services and products and what you have to offer as an esthetician, then we got to back way up and start there.
00:36:25
Speaker
He said that energy is going to translate and whether you say it out loud or not, it's going to show. Yeah. If I were that girl, I'd be like, yeah, you guys just keep lowering your prices. You should go for it. Don't even, yeah, just keep going. It's making me look really good.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I was really impressed with that whole conversation. I loved it. Okay, so the next thing is I said, how is your Google page and your reviews? Well, here's what I
Social Media's Role in Business Promotion
00:37:05
Speaker
really said. Social media isn't really it. It can help you sell if you're consistent with it and know how to sell online through social media, but it's not going to bring people in the door per se.
00:37:14
Speaker
So don't put too much energy into that unless you want to focus on selling and being highly consistent if you want to use social media to sell. First, get your Google page and reviews in order and then take, you know, maybe a course on social media selling. I just really feel, and we just released our social media episodes, but it's something we could talk about all day every day because social media just, to me, it is a tool, like Tiffany says this all the time, like it's a tool. It's a platform for you to
00:37:43
Speaker
educate, to connect, to build a community, to sell, to create a reputation for yourself. Too many people put too much focus on it. What I've actually learned from Tiffany is your focus needs to be on Google and building your reviews.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, those are considered like an evergreen source, whereas social media is ever changing. Your content doesn't, I think I saw graph yesterday that your content you post on Instagram stays like valid or seen for like
00:38:19
Speaker
I want to say eight hours. It's not even 24 hours. But something like your Google page, your My Business Google page, your reviews on Google, those are evergreen sources that someone can visit and it's right there and it will stay there. And I know there's some
00:38:38
Speaker
add tactics and analytics that you can do to drive business to your My Google page or connect it with your website. That's kind of outside of my realm of expertise, but I know that there's people out there that can help you with that. But yeah, like Jess said, social media, use it as a tool. It's not your end all, be all, and it really shouldn't be. It should just be used as like, you've got a tool in your toolbox, and when you need your Instagram hammer, you reach into your toolbox and you use it, and then you put it back.
00:39:08
Speaker
and you should have a multitude of tools in that toolbox like your website, like your email subscriber list, like your my Google business. Pinterest is a big one.
00:39:21
Speaker
A Facebook group, there are so many different ways that you can pour your energy into that kind of drive your needle for your business better, especially if you're trying to book services. I don't put a lot of faith into Instagram to book services. One thing that I found that's really helpful is local Facebook pages or Facebook groups.
00:39:45
Speaker
for your community. If you're trying to get new people in the door, if you're trying to fill up schedules, post that in your local Facebook group. And that's a great way to get to your community to get people in the door.
00:39:58
Speaker
I love that. So yeah, just build up your reviews. So then how do we get reviews? You just freaking ask people. It's really not hard. So my friend Katie, I was with her, I think it was last week or the week before last week, before last week. And she
00:40:15
Speaker
She has 60-something reviews on Google. She just started asking people a little bit more recently. She just asks people. She actually includes it in her follow-up text that she sends and just puts the link in there. I think we need to realize that people want to help us and people want to support us.
00:40:36
Speaker
building your reviews really isn't difficult. It's just you having enough confidence to just ask people like leave me a rating and a review. I would love that. I would appreciate it so much. And I do it for people all the time. I'm like, yeah, of course I would love to. So really quick and easy for them to do. They want to do it for you. And it's just not that big of a deal to ask them to do that. So
00:40:58
Speaker
No. That's how you build your reviews. You just ask people. You just have to ask. You send a link to them. No big deal. Yeah. And that's a big point too, is to make it easy for them to leave your review. Send them the link so that they have it. Don't just rely on them to Google your business and then find where they need to leave that review. Make it as easy as possible for them to do it and ask them. And there's nothing wrong with reminding them too. So yeah.
00:41:27
Speaker
He is just sound asleep on my hand over here. So I'll post that on social media so you guys can see the background of what's actually happening right here. Oh my gosh, I love it.
00:41:40
Speaker
So the next one is really important too, which is really just a part of those small things that are actually really big things and that's pre-booking.
Pre-booking Clients for Business Flow
00:41:49
Speaker
So I'm really of the belief that all of your clients should be pre-booked, maybe not all, let's say like 90% of them should be pre-booked. It doesn't always happen when they're leaving by any means, but that's also why your follow-up gets to be really important. I think like there should really only be a couple of
00:42:08
Speaker
slower seasons due to cancellations. In my opinion, it's summer and flu season. Other than that, if everybody is pre-booked, we really shouldn't be going through too much of a roller coaster in our bookings. It should be pretty consistent. You just have to take that accountability and get your clients pre-booked, preferably before they leave, but if they don't, again, that's why your follow-ups are really important.
00:42:35
Speaker
Just to make sure that everybody is consistently on your books. So what do you think about that? What kind of advice do you have about pre-booking? I mean definitely ask them. That's the easiest way when they're checking out when they're paying for their service. All you have to say is would you like to book, would you like to get on my schedule for next month? I wouldn't even say would you like to.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, should we book you for next month? You just don't want to leave it open-ended. So I recommend just saying, let's go ahead and get you on my schedule because I tend to fill it fast. I want to make sure that you get the time and day that works best for you. When you get that reminder, because usually people are getting texts from our booking service,
00:43:13
Speaker
You know, just let me know if we need to reschedule that. That's no big deal. But let's, you know, I'd love to go ahead and get that taken care of right now. So it's almost like you don't even want to leave it open-ended like an option, just like it's not an option when you go to the dentist. They're not like, do you want to book your cleaning in six months? Everyone's like, honestly, no, I actually don't want to do that.
00:43:33
Speaker
Um, let me call you and then they would not be a successful dentist. Like this is just something that we do. Um, and that's why again, I say like, it's not a big deal if they don't do it right then. Like there's times where I go into appointments and I don't have my phone with me on purpose. And so, but when they send me a follow-up, right? Then I'm like, Oh yeah, let's go ahead and do that. Or a lot of people will book with you. They're like, I just need to get home and look at my schedule.
00:43:59
Speaker
Um, but again, that's where your, your followup messages come into play. But I just really agree with what Tiffany just, you just ask people or you just tell people like, Hey, this is what we're doing. You can still have Wednesday at 11 open. Done easy.
00:44:16
Speaker
No big deal. And I think it's important to realize that you are doing people a favor by pre-booking them. I need to be pre-booked as much as possible because if I don't, it might not get done or it's going to be really last minute.
00:44:32
Speaker
and people might not get the date and time that works best for them. So you're really doing them a favor. I think that pre-booking is such a huge win-win situation, and we really need to look at it that way. You're not putting anybody out by saying, let's get you on my schedule. You're just not. They really appreciate that. I forgot what the second thing was. Well, a follow-up can be as simple as just sending them a text.
00:44:58
Speaker
It doesn't, your follow up doesn't have to be complicated. Don't overthink your follow up. It doesn't have to be a mass follow up. Like, I don't know. Text. They don't have to be subscribed. They don't have to be, you know, an email subscriber. Send them a text. You have them in your booking system. Obviously they got into you somehow. Um, look up their client profile. If you need their phone number, send them a text.
00:45:24
Speaker
super easy to do. But also, it's important to take responsibility if your clients are not pre-booking, if you're finding that the majority of your clients, if you're asking, and then they are declining to pre-book, that can be a hard one. You might have to put your ego aside a little bit, but really look at maybe why they aren't. Yeah. And evaluate where some things might need some attention.
00:45:53
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And again, offering discounts and getting loose on your boundaries are not the answer. No. And by getting loose on your boundaries, what I mean is say you're in the treatment room, you know, Monday through Thursday till five and somebody says, Oh, will I work Monday through Friday? Can you see me on a Saturday? That would be getting loose on your boundaries. So, um, you know,
00:46:22
Speaker
I think it's important to still stay true to your boundaries and there's ways to get them to pre-book. If you have a really valuable service, if you're asking them, if you're following up, all the things that we've talked about so far. Absolutely.
00:46:43
Speaker
Um, if we have a couple of minutes, let's just talk about keeping those boundaries. That was something that actually came up this morning. Um, so what I want you to just repeat for everybody, that conversation that we had this morning. Cause I think that is really common for us to start to get loose on our boundaries and probably something that most of us, um, you know, really struggle with because there's an insecurity or like a fear there. It's already recording.
00:47:14
Speaker
So let's talk about boundaries a little bit more.
Maintaining Professional Boundaries
00:47:19
Speaker
You know, we had a really, really great conversation in our mastermind coaching group this morning about boundaries and the fear associated with placing boundaries. And there is a fear associated with, you know, putting in a boundary, especially with our clients, thinking that
00:47:40
Speaker
If we tell them no, that we're going to lose their business or we're going to hurt the relationship we've created with that client. Because a lot of our clients we've been seeing for years.
00:47:52
Speaker
And when we were in the early stages of building our business, we were willing to see them late at night or see them on weekends or last minute. And now that we're more established, it's time to place those boundaries so that we don't experience burnout and resentment. And it can be really hard to do and it's truly a practice. But I think the major takeaway that we had from that conversation this morning is
00:48:18
Speaker
Number one, your clients can feel your resentment, whether you're saying it or not. If you're doing something or if you're seeing them in the treatment room when you don't want to be there, they're going to feel that energy. And number two, it can be
00:48:36
Speaker
I get that fear that's associated with it, but also if they don't want to continue being our client, then they weren't meant to stay with us as we grow and truly like though what I found personally is your clients will find a way.
00:48:51
Speaker
If they have all of these years that I work Monday through Friday, I don't get off till five. I can't come see you till after five. And you all of a sudden say, I'm sorry. I can't continue to see you after five. These are my hours. I would love to see you when I am in. Most times, they will magically find a way. They'll take a lunch hour. They'll take some vacation time. They will ask somebody to cover their shift. It's actually really amazing how people will find a way to continue to be with you once you place that boundary.
00:49:20
Speaker
And that's really where you like can nourish that relationship. And again, that's a win-win for you and your client because there was respect from both ends. And it's a way for you to continue to grow and nourish that relationship.
00:49:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I do think that that is a lot easier said than done, especially if business is slow. It's really easy to say, of course I'll take you at 7 PM because you're like, Oh, I really need that money. Um, so we have to be really careful. And like Tiffany was saying, um, earlier and even this morning on the call, the more that you do it, the easier it's going to get. And you really need to put that boundary in place now. Otherwise,
00:50:01
Speaker
Now you're going to be doing not facial at 7pm every Friday night and it is just going to create a lot of resentment because the time is going to come where you're not going to need to do that anymore. Yet you've kind of pre-committed yourself because you couldn't have just set a boundary and said no in the first place. So I think that's amazing advice because
00:50:24
Speaker
I do. I put myself in the shoes of a single esthetician, and I could see myself really struggling with that, especially if business was really slow. It is easier said than done, and I can totally understand that, but Tiffany is a great example of that. I think that was just amazing advice coming from someone who has definitely been there before. Yeah.
00:50:51
Speaker
Oh, I have something to say about follow-ups actually. So what I told my friend when I was having this conversation with her is that I think that follow-ups should be on your schedule. So I think, you know, maybe we just plan on every Friday morning from 9 to 9 45 or 9 to 10 or whatever it is that that's just when we send our text follow-ups from the whole previous week, even if you just saw them the day before.
00:51:20
Speaker
So if you are struggling with your follow ups because I have seen that be one of the first things that slides with people and we lose our discipline in that and so I think if you can just put that on your schedule once or twice a week just to make sure and just look at it as sending a friend a message because that's exactly what you're doing.
00:51:40
Speaker
We really don't need to overthink what a follow-up looks like. Just follow up like, hey, I loved seeing you. How is your skin doing after that service? Or hey, I loved seeing you this week. I'm so happy that you're pre-booked for next time. If you have any questions, let me know or follow up on
00:52:00
Speaker
some samples that you gave them or follow up on the pre-booking. Like I said, hey, I loved seeing you this week. I'd still love to get you on the schedule. Were you able to take a peek at your calendar for the coming month? So, you know, I think it's just not, it's really not hard. I think we're complicating it. And if you can just look at it as sending a message to a friend, then it's just not that big of a deal, but it is, in my opinion, one of those small things. That's actually the biggest thing.
00:52:28
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Send a friend a message and put it on your calendar. Block out a timeframe consistently to do your follow-ups. I love that so much. You know, it's funny because my friend Katie, I bought a product from her that I've been wanting to try for a long time and she even followed up with me about it.
00:52:46
Speaker
I love that. I know. I was like, she's just, and she's such a great example of follow-ups and building her reviews and building her Google page and so consistent with social media. And even with me, she still sent me a follow-up. Hey, how are you loving that product? How is your skin responding to it? Is everything great? And I'm like, heck yeah, it's so good. And it just, I don't know. I think it's, so my hair salon does that too.
00:53:09
Speaker
you know, from the minute that you book with them until your next appointment, it's just such a beautiful process. I feel really thought about and cared for because they're really good with their follow ups and with their reminders about your booking and stuff like that. And it's actually a real person. And that's kind of the other thing is that I have been asked before for follow up templates.
00:53:32
Speaker
And initially I was like, sure, yeah, that might be a good idea. And then I was like, actually, no, it's not a good idea because you really do want it to be personalized. You really do want to make it seem like you're just having a conversation with a friend. You don't want it to seem automated, right? Because I think we're really used.
00:53:48
Speaker
two things being automated these days. And so just send a friendly message real quick. It does not need to be anything, you know, extensive, but man, that is just really going the extra mile. And I can promise you that most estheticians don't do that. So it's going to create a really nice bond and a huge part of keeping your business really, really consistent. Love that.
00:54:11
Speaker
I want to side note this. So when I was early on in my business, I was scared to do follow ups because I was afraid that I would get negative feedback or that they wouldn't like their product or something was wrong with their service. And that was something that I had to really let go of. It was my mindset and it was my own fears and my own whatever you want to call it that was getting in the way.
00:54:37
Speaker
And looking back, it's so silly now, but it was a real fear of mine, but it prevented me from doing it all together. So I didn't do them at all. And once I got like past that and started doing follow ups, I really realized like people are actually so happy with their service. And, and again, this was really early on in my business when, um, not all of my clients were pre-booked and you know,
00:55:04
Speaker
stuff like that. But it's just funny to look back on. So if that's you, if you're scared to do a follow up because of maybe some something negative that could come your way, it still could. And if it does, that's like a good thing. You can you can address that concern then in there directly with your client instead of hearing about it, say on Facebook,
00:55:26
Speaker
or through another client or a friend of a friend. And so yeah, look at it that way. Just a little mindset thing. Interesting. I actually hadn't thought about that, but that is a really good point. Yeah. So good. So to kind of wrap up the business support when business feels slow, I think it's so important to, again, take radical responsibility.
00:55:53
Speaker
and to really look at your energy and to realize that our business is a direct reflection of where we are at and how we're feeling and where our mindset and energy is and has been. And placing blame outside of ourselves is not helpful or effective. We can do it all day long, but at the end of the day, is that really going to change things for the better for us? Probably not. So again, it goes back to that radical responsibility. And then
00:56:22
Speaker
you said this in the email, there is always a reason or several reasons why business is slow. There really always is. And you and I talked about this really quickly before we started recording today. When we do consult with somebody who is having a slow season in their business, and then we kind of dig deep, there's really always something that comes to the surface that explains why, even for me and you, like we talked about in the beginning.
00:56:50
Speaker
We're not immune to that. But yeah, there's always a reason it's generally always an inside job. It really does usually come back to you. I mean, sometimes I guess it could come back to your team, but still that's your responsibility. That's still something that you are responsible for.
00:57:10
Speaker
Yeah, that takes like having a hard conversation with your team that you've been putting off or just maybe some more clear communication or you being the leader and what role you're playing for your team and are you doing all that you can to lead your team?
00:57:27
Speaker
So yeah. Yeah. So good. I absolutely loved having this conversation because it also actually ties back into another thing that I see on social media all the time, which is estheticians wanting to throw in the towel. You know, like let's say solo estheticians, they give it six months or something, then they just want to be done. And my answer, if I ever do chime in on one of those posts is there is a perspective that you just don't see yet. Yeah.
00:57:57
Speaker
which is basically what you were just saying. And sometimes it does take somebody from the outside, that with your own personal responsibility and accountability. But you know what? The other thing we were talking about before we started recording is that we make it really complicated. We make our success very complicated and it really isn't because the small things are really the big things and we just have to have the discipline to continue following through with those small things.
00:58:26
Speaker
And that is what builds the bigger picture. So yeah, in my opinion, if you're really just, you know, business starts to get slow if you just can take some of that radical accountability. So just to go through the list again, and I'll probably put this list in the show notes. Number one, evaluate the amount of energy you're currently giving your business. Number two, evaluate if there's like something going on in your life or another area of your life that is bringing your vibes down so that we can fix that and get ourselves back up into a good place.
00:58:55
Speaker
evaluate what you are doing when business is good, but also evaluate what's not working so that we can let go of those things that are also not working.
00:59:05
Speaker
and then create your actual solid vision for what you want your business to look like on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis so that then we can work backwards and put all of those daily disciplines that are necessary in place to create that bigger picture. So again, time management and discipline becomes really important in that case.
00:59:26
Speaker
Those are things like pre-booking, like doing your follow-ups, like selling your retail, different things like that. Then also remembering that we are in a recession of inflation, money is available. We just need to make sure that we are offering the most value possible with our services with the entire experience from booking until their next appointment is really important and a really good opportunity for everybody right now.
00:59:54
Speaker
and then focus on your Google page and your reviews, focus on your follow-ups, focus on pre-booking. Everybody needs to be pre-booked. And then to wrap all of that up, it's just taking a lot of personal responsibility. Yeah. Thank you for that recap. That was beautiful. Absolutely.
01:00:13
Speaker
Also, get creative and think outside the box. I always think of it as hit the streets. When business is slow, you've done everything that we just listed off and you're still in a slump. Go hit the streets, go pop into new businesses, go truly get in front of people in a new way that you haven't done.
01:00:37
Speaker
Um, like put your nose to the ground and go to work and work hard. And, um, yeah, sometimes that's all it takes. I love the Facebook group thing, local Facebook groups. Yeah. That's super smart. Yeah. There's a lot of creative ways that are outside of, you know, what we think we need to do, which is like social media, Tik TOK, even email, you know, there's, there's other ways to drive business. And sometimes it just takes.
01:01:05
Speaker
I think just stepping outside of where we're at and being able to look from a different perspective.
01:01:12
Speaker
Oh, I loved this conversation. Thank you so much. I love having your perspective. Tell us how we can find you Jess. I am on Instagram at the underscore SD underscore coach SD is just within E. We do have an email address and we would love to hear from you. It is beyond aesthetics podcast at gmail.com and aesthetics again is just within E. How can we find you?
01:01:40
Speaker
You can find me on Instagram at Sweet Cheeks University or at Sweet Cheeks Waxing Skincare. I also have a website, sweetcheeksuniversity.com. Again, my name is Tiffany and we really are so grateful that you guys are here and listening and we really want to hear feedback from you.
01:02:00
Speaker
So, we would love a review from you and we would love, you know, if there's certain topics that you'd like us to cover on this podcast, definitely reach out to that email that Jess said and so that we can, we can feature it. Yes, we would love that. So, we are going to go ahead and sign off here. Milo also says goodbye even though he is sound asleep. I'm so grateful that he just crashed.
01:02:26
Speaker
And our special sign off is have pretty dreams. And we cannot wait to see you guys in the next episode. Enjoy the rest of your week or your weekend. Thank you guys. Bye.