It’s A (Marketing) Jungle Out There!

Having a business can be the most amazing and exciting career move ever – but it can also be very stressful!

Not only are we company owners, proprietors or directors; we are also therapists, managers, cleaners, accountants, customer service agents and marketers.

The thing with beauty and hair is they are ‘hands on’ businesses.  We physically use our hands to deliver these amazing services – whether it’s painting nails, cutting hair, massaging a body – our roles are physical.

We physically clean, we physically deal with clients, we physically manage teams and our day is generally spent on our feet creating magic.

This, I believe, is why many hair and beauty businesses struggle.

Not because of what they ARE doing, but because of what they AREN’T.

We can deliver the most exceptional services but if no one knows we exist, they simply won’t book us. 

So the key to a successful business is surely the following –

1. Telling people how great we are to get them to try us out

2. Proving how great we are when they try us and getting them to return (ideally with a friend!)

If we can figure this bit out, we can basically have a totally awesomely successful super-duper business!

And that’s what we all want, isn’t it?

The issue I hear so much is, “I can do the awesome services, I just can’t get my head around finding the new clients”.

And I totally get that.

Marketing is a minefield!

And in today’s digital age, we now depend on new and ever changing technologies to do most (not all, but most) of our marketing.

And this is where the problem lies… it’s all online.

It’s not physical, it’s digital.

And this is why I honestly believe so many people cant get their heads around successful, results driven marketing. 

I have an unfair advantage that I have a marketing background, so it came a little easier to me.

But, that doesn’t mean I don’t get totally bamboozled by the endless stream of new social media sites popping up, the constant Facebook changes and the sheer amount of things I SHOULD be doing to push my business even further forward.

It really is enough to make me slam my laptop shut and hide under a treatment bed.

BUT, I know that I have to put my big girl pants on and wade through it, because that’s the only way I can grow my business. And, unfortunately for me, I have expensive taste, so I need my business to be a success.

So, what’s the secret here? 

Well, firstly, it’s bite sized chunks.

Breaking down all the different things you can be doing to grow your business, into little tiny tasks, make them seem much less daunting.

Conquering Facebook and having 20,000 fans within a week is not realistic, but setting a goal to post once per day is, for example.

Writing an entire book on beauty secrets to give or sell to your clients is a MASSIVE task, but writing a small blog weekly talking about different treatments on your menu, is way more achievable (and after a year, you’ll have a books’ worth anyway!).

Big journeys begin with small steps.  

And I’ll bet that even the baby steps you take will be bigger steps than most of your competition will take.

Secondly, you don’t need to do it all!

At least not to start with.  Focus on a few aspects that you can manage but really commit to – like a buzzing Facebook page, an informative blog and an email database with whom you regularly communicate.

Once you have mastered these, then start Instagramming, or collaborating with other businesses, or doing trade shows, or applying for awards… the list goes on and on!

I recently made a list of the main things I felt important for most businesses to do – that worked for me.

There were 68 elements that I truly believed could be done independently of each other but when implemented together would have a huge effect on the success of a business.

Then I took my list a little further.

I broke down the what, the why and the how.

What it meant in my industry, why it was important to do it in my business and how it was simply done. 

Then I took it further.

I wrote a workbook for every one of the 68 things.

A workbook that could be completed really simply to help understand how the reader could actually make them happen, really easily.

It took me over a year to compile it all, because I really wanted to think about what was important.

I re-read it and changed bits and subsequently tweaked how I did things and started to get better results.

And then I (shameless plug coming up!) packaged it up and gave it to a few friends I know in the industry – just to see what they thought.

They told me it was amazing (and of course, they are going to tell me that), but then I started to see things happening.

They started appearing on Facebook more, I started getting emails from them, one even cancelled a day out we had planned as she was too busy in her business!

And it all tied in.  They had started to action the 68 mini plans in my guide.

They picked the ones they wanted to focus on first and as they started to get results, they started to action more and get more results – and suddenly, it was all a bit addictive! 

If firing up your computer and trying navigate your way through the jungle that is marketing seems a bit much – then this is a little map to help you through.

With many copies now sold, I’m pleased to say I haven’t had one negative bit of feedback or anyone ask for their money back (as I offer a 90 day money back guarantee – no questions asked).

Best of all, it only costs the price of a couple of treatments on average – probably with a little left over.

Want to learn more about exactly what’s included?

Just click here.