What’s the difference between a successful business and a business that’s headed down the failure toilet?

SYSTEMS.

Systems play a massive role in building and running a successful business. And no, I’m not talking about your online booking system. Systems are repeatable processes that help a business grow with minimal to no action required from you (the business owner).

In other words, a system is a fancy business term for routines.

Whether you own a massive corporation, or you run a small business from your moldy basement, businesses are made up of systems strung together to offer either a service or a product to a customer.

{If you want to listen to the podcast episode on this topic, click on the player at the top of the post. Alternatively you can watch the video below, or read on…}

If you think about it, our lives are made up of routines. Some are intentional, and others don’t require a second thought. You get up in the morning (after hitting the snooze button several times), brush your teeth, wash your face and maybe take a few seconds to regret having that extra glass of wine last night.

A routine that many of us ladies share is our makeup routines.

We start the process without much thought. We know what product goes where and when. We don’t put blush on before foundation…and if you do put foundation on after your cheeks are all rosy with blush, you totally had too much wine last night! (but that’s a discussion for another day).

The point is, you’ve got daily systems that you don’t even need to think about doing. They just come naturally. We all have routines that make our lives systemized and repeatable. A routine eliminates the thought process, which means your mental energy is saved to help solve the really big problems in your life.

Another thing to note is the fact that an entrepreneurial mindset is different from that of an employee. Most of you who are in business have just enough discipline in your life to have a routine. If you’re not disciplined, you probably won’t have even made it as a lash artist much less a business owner as we have clients who schedule appointments with us in advance, so you need to have some discipline to be consistent.

The truth of the matter is that your lash business cannot grow without systems.

The more you recognize the systems you already have in place, the more you can improve those systems to grow your business and spend more time doing the things you want to do in your business and less time slaving over the stuff you don’t want to do.

By being intentional in creating and refining the systems in our businesses, the less duct tape we need to keep our business (and our sanity) intact and functioning

So, let’s dive into the four common duct taped strategies lash artists slap together and what it costs them to grow a business built on duct tape.

1. Website

Do you have a website for your business?

If you don’t, I’m sorry to say that you’re doing yourself a MASSIVE disservice.

A duct tape excuse that I hear time and time again is…

“I don’t need a website (or can’t afford a website), so I’ll just use my booking software or Facebook/Instagram page instead.”

NEWS FLASH – Social media is not the same thing as a website!

There’s a distinct difference from online marketing for social media and your website.

Social media is for marketing your business, not for closing the sale. You post on your social media with hopes of getting people’s attention. You hope that someone will be scrolling through their Facebook or Instagram feed, come across a post about your incredible lash work and click to find out more, right? You want to create a demand for your services and marketing your business on social media is one of the best ways to achieve that goal.

BUT no matter how good your posts are and how breath-taking your lashes look in your latest selfie, social media can’t replace a website. It’s as simple as that.

You NEED a website to lead potential clients through the buyer’s journey from discovery to conversion (i.e., booking an appointment). Check out this episode of Lessons of a Lashpreneur, “How To Convert Followers to Clients – The Marketing Funnel Explained” to find out how you can lead people through your marketing funnel.

A website holds a lot more information about your business. It communicates who you are and what services you offer. Having a website also helps to legitimize you as a business because it increases your credibility as a lash artist.

If someone wants to find out more about you and your business and they find you on social media, they have to scroll through your posts and try to piece the puzzle together. However, if you can direct them to a website that’s clear and user-friendly, they can find out everything they need to know in one neat little package.

The cost of not having a website is high.

I mean, you may as well leave your money on the table and walk away because if you don’t have a functional site, you’re losing out on a lot of potential clients. This is the digital age people! Customers expect you to have a website. Heck, I expect you to have a website!

You’ll have little to no chance of attracting a luxury-priced paying clientele without a website. Websites are the difference between an amateur and a professional. Without a website, you’re losing those high paying clients to your competitors who DO have a website. So, not only are you losing clients, but now you’re losing money!

Don’t worry. You don’t have to spend a fortune hiring a professional web designer to create a website for you. You can learn how to do it yourself.

Can’t afford a pricey Web Designer to create a website for you? We’ve created a step by step tutorial of how to create your very own WIX website just for lash businesses to take you from “None to Done.” Check out my DIY Web Design e-course here.

2. Booking Appointments

The duct tape excuse I hear time and time again when it comes to booking appointments is…

“I don’t have many clients, so I’m going to allow anybody to book with me at any time, anywhere.”

Oh god.

When you allow clients to book with you whenever they like, there’s no real system in place. At least, there’s no working system in place. Maybe your clients message you through Facebook, or they send a short text at, oh I don’t know…midnight?

The problem with this method of booking an appointment is that it’s taking up more of your time. The back and forth of trying to find the right time that suits you both can be super frustrating. You might also find yourself picking up the phone and calling (or texting) them to remind them of their upcoming appointment.

You’re doing all of these extra things that you never signed up for when you first set out to be a lash artist. It’s taking up too much of your time and let’s face it, nobody ever schedules an appointment when you actually want them to. No, that would be too easy you see. Instead, they schedule at a time when you’ve got a million things going on at once, and you’ve got to stop what you’re doing to schedule the appointment because you can’t miss out on paid work – duh!

You NEED a process in place that’s repeatable for booking an appointment.

The cost of not having one? Your time (and your sanity!).

If you want my opinion, I suggest you implement an online booking system. Jerry Nattuno, the CEO of Schedulicity, says that 70% of appointments are booked outside of business hours. So, ask yourself…

Do you want to book all of your appointments in the small space of spare time you have to yourself in your day?

Or…

Do you want an online booking system to do it all for you?

With an online booking system, your clients can check to see your availability and book an appointment immediately without having to pick up the phone or take up your time out of hours. They can schedule an appointment at any time of the day or night.

I know you’re thinking, wow, this girl does not like interacting with her clients outside of hours, and I’m here to tell you that you’re totally right. I love engaging with clients at work. But once I get home, I want to switch off. I spend time with my family. I get into my favorite pyjamas, and I can relax knowing that my online booking system is doing its job.

Here’s the truth…if you want a life outside of your business, don’t constantly engage with clients outside of hours!

Let your online booking system do it for you!

3. Timing of Appointments

This duct tape excuse is one of my favorites:

“If this client walks out of here with less than 100% of her natural lashes covered, she’ll reflect my work poorly.”

Ah, this is a good one.

Are you guilty of using this duct tape excuse?

When I first started my lash business, I used this excuse time and time again until I realized I was spending so much time getting my clients to 100% coverage that I had no repeatable way of growing my business.

I realized things had to change.

Let me give you an example of when the timing of your appointments starts to break down and become an issue.

Let’s say you’ve got two clients paying for the same service. BUT in reality, they actually get a different service because one client has a lot of lashes and her 3-week fill is going to take you up to 90 minutes. The second client has fewer natural lashes and you know you can bust her 3-week fill out in like 45 minutes.

Do you see the problem?

You’re spending too much time working on the first client for the same service (and price) that the second client paid. You’re losing money! As a business, you need to structure the timing of your appointments.

I recommend setting a set service time for each of your services.

For example, maybe a 3-week filling appointment takes 60 minutes. So, what happens when that first client who usually takes 90 minutes walks through the door? Do you give her an extra 30 minutes? No, of course not! You work on her lashes for 60 minutes. And yes, that means that some clients will leave your salon with less than 100% lashes – oh my god, someone call the lash cops!

Look, don’t worry about it. As long as the lashes are even, most clients won’t notice the difference between 90% and 100% lashes. If your client returns a few days or even weeks later than you recommended and it’s going to take an extra 20 minutes to do her lashes because they NEED the 100% – that’s too bad. You’ve got bills to pay. Don’t give away your time for free.

The cost of not having a system in place means that when your business gets busier, you won’t be able to fit more clients into your current schedule because you don’t have the available time to allocate to them. So, you end up turning clients away.

Every service needs a consistent time for every client.

You must have consistency in your timing, pricing, and results.

4. Retention is a System

The last duct tape excuse I’m going to talk about is a classic:

“It’s a bad batch, or this glue doesn’t work, or it’s the client’s fault.”

This is one of those “if I had a dollar for every time I heard it I’d be a millionaire” excuses.

Did you know that you can have a strategy in place for better retention?

There’s a science that happens with our adhesives, and if you find the right environment with the correct temperature and humidity, your adhesive will work much better and provide longer-lasting results. But finding that perfect environment is going to take some trial and error.

Here are a few things you can work on to help improve your client’s retention:

Fresh adhesive – You need to know when to replace your adhesive. The industry standard is once a month, so make sure to check the date on the bottle!
Adhesive Storage – Don’t store your adhesive in the fridge once the bottle has been opened, you’ll only regret it!
Prepping the client’s lashes – You may need to prime the lashes to prep the natural lashes, so they can grab onto the adhesive better, this will help improve retention (trust me!)
Document EVERYTHING – This is my biggest piece of advice to you. Remember to document everything such as curls, lengths, the temperature of the room, etc. so that when the client returns, you know exactly what you did before to achieve the best results.

The cost of not having a retention system in place is HUGE. Poor retention doesn’t reflect you or your business very well. It stifles the growth of your business and can lead to a lashpreneurs worst nightmare – bad reviews, bad reputation, and unhappy clients!

If you want a stable business, if you ever want to grow, bring on a team, outsource the things you hate doing, sell your business, or have your business basically run itself, SYSTEMS are an absolute necessity.

Creating systems is not SEXY, it’s ESSENTIAL.

It’s important that, as a lash artist, you know your adhesive like the back of your hand. So, document everything!

If you’d like to download my client record card system where I track every aspect of every client’s appointment to ensure I’m getting consistent retention results, head to thelashpreneur.com/clientrecord

Leave me a comment below as to what system mentioned today that you’re missing in your business.

Have a good one

Tara Walsh

The Lashpreneur