Most women know at least one person who’s just that good with makeup that they could make a profession out of it if they wanted to. Perhaps that’s you? Professional makeup artists provide all kinds of services, but wedding makeup artists are amongst the most profitable (and busy) of them all. But what does it take to get a business ready? It’s not just about the brushes and pencils, there’s some work that goes into getting your new business set up.
Get some weight behind your name
Word of mouth can do a lot to help you build a reputation for yourself. If your friend tells their friend who tells their friend about how good you are, you can start building clients that way. However, you want people who have never heard of you to be able to recognise your legitimacy and professionalism as well. One of the best ways to do that is to have some qualifications, like attending a makeup course designed for professionals. Accreditation, licensing, and joining industry groups can all help you add the professional sheen to your name to go with the skills that you’re undoubtedly bringing to the business with you.
Prepare your workspace
Makeup wedding artists tend to do a lot of traveling for their work. Being able to bring your workshop of products and appliances with you to a variety of venues is important, but you also have to have your own professional space. There’s nothing wrong with starting off in your own home, so long as you have a set space specifically for the business, whether it’s an office room or even a specific table that has been assigned as the workstation. Make sure you have all your office essentials, such as good work furniture, printers, and filing space, not just a makeup station. This space is going to be not only for providing your services for local weddings, but also for offering trials to brides well before the big day.
Hit up those fairs
Building up your client list is most important of all. Since your customers aren’t likely to need your services again once you’ve already worked with them, you can’t retain existing customers, so you have to work hard to keep a steady supply of new clients coming in. Wedding fairs are one of the single best opportunities you have for doing that. All the attendees are those who are specifically looking for wedding vendors and service providers. Setting up your own exhibit, providing free trials, and talking to brides about plans and pricing can help you make a lot of new contacts in one day and may yield a new client or two by the end of it.
Get listed
Of course, you can’t do all of the work yourself. It’s simply not the most efficient way to market your business. You need to give brides the opportunity to find your business on their own, as well. One of the best ways to do that is to ensure that you’re listed in as many wedding vendor directories and listings as possible. Nowadays, when looking for wedding services, brides will go to the internet first and, beyond Google, they will most likely look at sites that do the work for them, finding and listing all the vendors in their area. If your business isn’t signed up to those sites, then you’re simply not going to factor in their decision-making process. The more wedding directories and listings you can find a place on, the better.
Create your online home
Of course, you should have a web presence of your very own, as well. Setting up a free website is perfectly reasonable for a brand-new professional makeup artist, but as time goes on, you want to invest in a professionally designed site. It should highlight your work and present your portfolio in the best light possible, as well as providing informative information on the services you provide, the products you work with, and how brides-to-be can get in touch and schedule an appointment with you. Investing in working with digital marketing industry can help make your site stand out in search engines and create effective advertising strategies to bring more visitors your way, as well.
Prepare the brand
Having a distinct, appealing brand style with your own unique imagery can help you stand out all the more, whether it’s online or in person. When it comes to giving out business cards, for instance, make sure you take the personalised option, design your own rather than relying on something more generic. The kind of branding you choose depends on what kind of customer you want to target. If you’re providing an exclusive luxury service for brides who want to spare no expense, then creating a sophisticated, classy look can help. If you want to make your services look accessible to as many brides as possible, then a more friendly, light brand can help you attract them, instead.
Spread the word
Social media has become one of the most effective marketing tools of all. There are a host of different platforms out there. Choosing out of Twitter or Facebook is essential since they have the largest user bases and it’s easy to engage with your customer base there. However, makeup is a visual art and Instagram is a visual medium, making those two a perfect match. Brides are likely to be flicking through Instagram accounts for inspiration and having some of your best work posted there and ready to be discovered can help you attract a lot of potential clients. With social media, social is the keyword, so make you’re engaging, liking and replying comments from your followers and try to get past clients involved by sharing photos of them (with their permission) and tagging them in them.
Of course, besides the tips featured above, you need a thorough understanding of your budget, how to price your services, where to get your products and equipment cost-effectively, and more. You might be a pro at makeup, but you have to become a pro at running a business as well.
Hi, I’m Anna the Editor of Beauty and Lace.