My Top 3 Success Tips for Manicurists
Hey guys so I wanted to send you a personal video just to thank you for signing up for The Nail Hub. I'm really excited about this new project, I've been searching for something like this my entire career and so I've finally decided why not just do it myself, but this is definitely not about me. I really want to create a community of people that can come to together, we can share ideas, we can talk about our frustrations, and we can work and find solutions to the things that are plaguing us. I know all of us have problems with keeping our businesses busy, making money keeping clients happy, keeping employees happy learning how to do different things . I have been there, I have done that and I totally understand and that's why I'm really putting this together, so my plan is to help you all to improve your nail skills, bring on other nail pros to show you guys how to do things. I'm working with a lot of different people I've actually invited the nail boss Nuni's nails, Gina Silvestro, Naja a whole bunch of people I'm trying to get involved in this because I really think that we can share information with each other and help our industry improve completely. So I wanted to give a free video today just to kind of talk about how I've been able to make my business successful, since I have a background in finance I was able to actually open up a salon and be profitable very quickly and so I wanted to give you guys a few tips as to how you can do that as well.
I don't like paying for traditional advertising I think it's a total waste of money so if you’re paying for anything like yellow pages, google ad words, local newspaper ads, magazine ads in my personal opinion I don't think that's going to get you the type of clientele that you want, group on, yellow (break) coupons anything that has to do with providing discounts to clients is also a big no, no. Why? okay yellow pages is so (unclear) it's not even funny in my personal opinion, when I look for a business what do you usually go on yellow or social media right, you'll go on Facebook you'll maybe google something but most of the time you try to find services through other social media outlets like yellow(break) if you were a customer looking for a business, your clients are exactly the same word of mouth is also super big and social media is basically word of mouth these days people don't know their neighbour’s anymore, so instead of knocking on someone's door or talking to their friend over coffee about what their nail place is people usually go on social media and try to identify those places for themselves and they share their opinions about them as well. One of the big that has helped me grow my business and stay competitive number one is yelp I respond to every single yelp review that I have, I like to show that I am invested in my business whether the review is some major snarky comment from someone that makes me cry all night because I'm upset about the fact that their bashing my business. I usually take a couple days to calm down and then I will write a very factual response, and you guys can go on my yelp and see the types of responses that I write for my salon Va-Va Varnish that's here in downtown San Diego if you want to check it out, but I always thank people for writing for writing me positive reviews and taking time out of their day to actually write something worthwhile. And even the negative ones I try to address their concerns and let other people that maybe looking on yelp know that I'm serious about my business, I care about my business and I'm willing to do anything normal to make sure that people are happy.
I definitely don't give away stuff for free and I definitely don't try to wine and dine people but I try to make sure that I'm fair and balanced when I talk about things, and I never use curse words, call people out, I try to keep things very factual business professional all of that stuff, so that's number one. Number two is Instagram I am a big fan of Instagram and I'm sure a lot of you follow your favourite nail techs or have your own Instagram accounts as well. One of the biggest things that will help you gain followers and gain the type of clientele that you want is to promote your best work. I see a lot of nail techs that unfortunately post pictures that maybe you don't have that many pictures in your portfolio, but I do see a lot of nail techs where they grease up the nails with cuticle oil to make the nails look better than they really are. They try using dim lighting to hide things. Make sure that you’re trying to present yourself in a quality way and that your showing your best work also make sure that your representing the type of nail art that actually provide so if you want to have clients that are willing to spend a lot of money you’re probably going to want to show the type of nail art that someone like that would actually want. If you’re a natural nail person post pictures that are about beautiful natural nails and how to keep them healthy, you want to make sure that the relationship that your building online matches up with the client that you’re actually hoping to attract. And I can't tell you how many people I actually get from Instagram, I would say out of every ten people I ask five of them say they found me on yelp and five of them say they got me from Instagram. Facebook is also good for promotions but I usually keep that just for like salon updates as to what's going on at the salon, but I do get a lot of clients from Instagram and if you don't know about how to use hash tags go on google and write in how to use hash tags and it will explain it for you.
Basically hash tags is just a way to associate search words with your pictures. So for instance if you post a picture on Instagram about nails you’re going to want to put hash tag nails, hash tag manicure, hash tag maybe the city that you’re in so for instance hash tag San Diego, hash tag nail salon. So those are what hash tags are for and what it does is someone searching on Instagram for pictures of nails, if you put hash tag nails your picture is going to pop up or them for them to see even though you may not be friends with them on Instagram or any other social media. And hash tag actually work on Facebook as well and Twitter so if you do like to share your social media between the different systems I highly recommend using hash tags on Facebook too. Not many people are doing it yet, and it really has helped me get a lot of followers on Facebook too by putting those hash tags that are for basic things. Also for Fall totally recommend doing some fashion inspired nails so for instance I just got my new vogue Fall edition and I have been going through there and finding all of the amazing designs for Fall fashion and doing fashion inspired nails. That is a huge way to get more followers, people love stuff that's in vogue, vogue is like the fashion bible and so if you’re doing nails that are related to stuff that's in vogue people are going to assume that you’re a high class nail tech, you do high end work and that your stuff is related to high end brands and all of that stuff makes people have the impression that your stuff is worth a lot of money okay.
So Yelp, Instagram, number three if you don't understand how to do finance then you need to get help. The number one mistake I see salon owners or even nail techs that work on their own as contractors or paying booth rent, get your head around your finances you cannot assume how much your spending or how much your earning I would recommend that if you’re a business get quick books and start logging in all of your stuff and tracking how much your spending in each different area okay. How much do you spend on salon supplies, how much do you spend on parking every month if you have to pay for parking stuff like that. That was a big thing for me as a finance person to understand where am I spending money and does that make sense. Does it make sense that I spend twenty-five hundred dollars a month on salon supplies given how big my salon is, those are the questions you should be asking yourself. It's very easy to get financial advice I would recommend getting an accountant and a financial adviser if you can. If you can't get quicken, for people that don't have their own businesses and just need small financial management download quicken it's not that expensive and it will help you wrap your head around exactly how much money is coming in and how much money is going out okay. So those three things I would say are on my top list of what you need to be concentrating on if you really want to grow your business and the yelp thing is a great way to get people in your business, the Instagram way is a great way people to get great way to get customers in your business. There both free so how much better can you get than that and you want to make sure that all that money that is coming in the door your keeping as much as possible. So that's why the finance management is super important but that really has been the key to my success and I just wanted to share that with you guys but I've got more stuff coming for The Nail Hub. I can't wait to share it with you, you guys are going to love it and hopefully I will have everything done by October and I will keep sending you guys updates okay.
I don't like paying for traditional advertising I think it's a total waste of money so if you’re paying for anything like yellow pages, google ad words, local newspaper ads, magazine ads in my personal opinion I don't think that's going to get you the type of clientele that you want, group on, yellow (break) coupons anything that has to do with providing discounts to clients is also a big no, no. Why? okay yellow pages is so (unclear) it's not even funny in my personal opinion, when I look for a business what do you usually go on yellow or social media right, you'll go on Facebook you'll maybe google something but most of the time you try to find services through other social media outlets like yellow(break) if you were a customer looking for a business, your clients are exactly the same word of mouth is also super big and social media is basically word of mouth these days people don't know their neighbour’s anymore, so instead of knocking on someone's door or talking to their friend over coffee about what their nail place is people usually go on social media and try to identify those places for themselves and they share their opinions about them as well. One of the big that has helped me grow my business and stay competitive number one is yelp I respond to every single yelp review that I have, I like to show that I am invested in my business whether the review is some major snarky comment from someone that makes me cry all night because I'm upset about the fact that their bashing my business. I usually take a couple days to calm down and then I will write a very factual response, and you guys can go on my yelp and see the types of responses that I write for my salon Va-Va Varnish that's here in downtown San Diego if you want to check it out, but I always thank people for writing for writing me positive reviews and taking time out of their day to actually write something worthwhile. And even the negative ones I try to address their concerns and let other people that maybe looking on yelp know that I'm serious about my business, I care about my business and I'm willing to do anything normal to make sure that people are happy.
I definitely don't give away stuff for free and I definitely don't try to wine and dine people but I try to make sure that I'm fair and balanced when I talk about things, and I never use curse words, call people out, I try to keep things very factual business professional all of that stuff, so that's number one. Number two is Instagram I am a big fan of Instagram and I'm sure a lot of you follow your favourite nail techs or have your own Instagram accounts as well. One of the biggest things that will help you gain followers and gain the type of clientele that you want is to promote your best work. I see a lot of nail techs that unfortunately post pictures that maybe you don't have that many pictures in your portfolio, but I do see a lot of nail techs where they grease up the nails with cuticle oil to make the nails look better than they really are. They try using dim lighting to hide things. Make sure that you’re trying to present yourself in a quality way and that your showing your best work also make sure that your representing the type of nail art that actually provide so if you want to have clients that are willing to spend a lot of money you’re probably going to want to show the type of nail art that someone like that would actually want. If you’re a natural nail person post pictures that are about beautiful natural nails and how to keep them healthy, you want to make sure that the relationship that your building online matches up with the client that you’re actually hoping to attract. And I can't tell you how many people I actually get from Instagram, I would say out of every ten people I ask five of them say they found me on yelp and five of them say they got me from Instagram. Facebook is also good for promotions but I usually keep that just for like salon updates as to what's going on at the salon, but I do get a lot of clients from Instagram and if you don't know about how to use hash tags go on google and write in how to use hash tags and it will explain it for you.
Basically hash tags is just a way to associate search words with your pictures. So for instance if you post a picture on Instagram about nails you’re going to want to put hash tag nails, hash tag manicure, hash tag maybe the city that you’re in so for instance hash tag San Diego, hash tag nail salon. So those are what hash tags are for and what it does is someone searching on Instagram for pictures of nails, if you put hash tag nails your picture is going to pop up or them for them to see even though you may not be friends with them on Instagram or any other social media. And hash tag actually work on Facebook as well and Twitter so if you do like to share your social media between the different systems I highly recommend using hash tags on Facebook too. Not many people are doing it yet, and it really has helped me get a lot of followers on Facebook too by putting those hash tags that are for basic things. Also for Fall totally recommend doing some fashion inspired nails so for instance I just got my new vogue Fall edition and I have been going through there and finding all of the amazing designs for Fall fashion and doing fashion inspired nails. That is a huge way to get more followers, people love stuff that's in vogue, vogue is like the fashion bible and so if you’re doing nails that are related to stuff that's in vogue people are going to assume that you’re a high class nail tech, you do high end work and that your stuff is related to high end brands and all of that stuff makes people have the impression that your stuff is worth a lot of money okay.
So Yelp, Instagram, number three if you don't understand how to do finance then you need to get help. The number one mistake I see salon owners or even nail techs that work on their own as contractors or paying booth rent, get your head around your finances you cannot assume how much your spending or how much your earning I would recommend that if you’re a business get quick books and start logging in all of your stuff and tracking how much your spending in each different area okay. How much do you spend on salon supplies, how much do you spend on parking every month if you have to pay for parking stuff like that. That was a big thing for me as a finance person to understand where am I spending money and does that make sense. Does it make sense that I spend twenty-five hundred dollars a month on salon supplies given how big my salon is, those are the questions you should be asking yourself. It's very easy to get financial advice I would recommend getting an accountant and a financial adviser if you can. If you can't get quicken, for people that don't have their own businesses and just need small financial management download quicken it's not that expensive and it will help you wrap your head around exactly how much money is coming in and how much money is going out okay. So those three things I would say are on my top list of what you need to be concentrating on if you really want to grow your business and the yelp thing is a great way to get people in your business, the Instagram way is a great way people to get great way to get customers in your business. There both free so how much better can you get than that and you want to make sure that all that money that is coming in the door your keeping as much as possible. So that's why the finance management is super important but that really has been the key to my success and I just wanted to share that with you guys but I've got more stuff coming for The Nail Hub. I can't wait to share it with you, you guys are going to love it and hopefully I will have everything done by October and I will keep sending you guys updates okay.