Professional Hairstylist Networking Tips
Professional hairstylist networking tips.
What is Hairstylist Networking?
Hairstylist networking is when a professional in the hair industry makes efforts to grow their business by taking the right steps to move forward.
Networking as a hairstylist, cosmetologist, barber… basically anyone in the hair industry, is when they step outside of their comfort zone to increase their own credibility in the field, create both a face and name for their business, and build a reputation with their own steadily growing clientele.
Why Network as a Hairstylist?
Networking yourself as a hairstylist means that you are interested in increasing your business and make more money.
A business owner that networks wants their business to be longstanding and have an excellent reputation so that clients will want to keep coming back and inviting their friends, and even tell strangers about you to support your business!
The term networking is confusing, but basically, it means that you just want to make the right steps and make sure that you’re talking to the right people for the good of yourself and your small business.
You can do this by talking to others in the industry that know more than you. Talk to those that have more experience, have been successful, and that may inspire you.
How to Prepare Yourself for Networking for Your Business
- Be willing to learn
- Be humble enough to hear other success stories and be happy for their success before being jealous for them
- Be creative
- Hear other peoples ideas
- Ask for advice
All of these things are imperative to successful hairstylist networking and marketing yourself.
When you have all of the above five preparations down, you properly are ready to apply the below suggestions on how to correctly network as a hairstylist.
Hairstylist Networking Through Existing Clients
What I always say is that Word of Mouth travels faster than wildfire!
When you have an established clientele already, small or large, but you want to continue increasing your business, you have to have a plan to keep expanding your clientele. Making room for that one or two new clients every week or two.
Build a clientele
You can utilize Word of Mouth to help you build a clientele in a couple of different ways-
- Carry business cards with you everywhere you go and in conversation give them to whoever you are talking to.
- Offer referral rewards, an incentive to encourage clients to bring others to your business.
- On social media… this is a big one and often not used as a tool properly but we’ll talk about that in more detail below.
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Freelance Work
If you work for a corporate salon, or even if you have your own booth or suite, you can still expand your work by offering wedding services or mobile work.
When you freelance and have to go somewhere else make sure that you aren’t selling yourself short and remember to calculate the time and cost of traveling and add it to your overall charge.
Freelancing is good for marketing yourself and your business. But then again, if you aren’t interested in freelancing there are plenty of other ways to network.
Take Classes
Extended education and furthering your own education of the trade is important because, especially in the hair industry, it is constantly changing.
New trends, techniques, styles, products and so on require a little bit more education.
When you take classes, more often than not, the instructors are excited to teach and want to give you as many resources and help as possible. So if you are especially inspired, interested, and intrigued by what is being taught or if you like what the instructor has to say, approach them after class and ask if you can have their card so that when you use the techniques that you just learned, if you have any questions you might be able to contact them about it.
If there are new trends or styles that you want to learn, search in your area to see if there are any classes being held soon and what you can to to sign up to attend.
Who Inspires You and Your Art in the Hair Trade? Meet them!
Have you ever heard the phrase, “You are influenced by those who you spend time around.” ?
It basically means that if you want to be successful, surround yourself with successful business people. Their habits for successful business will rub off on you and you will start to make the same successful habits.
If you are inspired by and admire a co worker’s techniques, spend time with them.
If there is an influencer or instructor that you really love to learn from and soak in their techniques of the hair trade, sign up for their next class and see about meeting them face to face.
Try to build a relationship with those that make you better at your craft, your art in the hair industry.
Network with Other Local Small Businesses
Connect regularly with other small business owners and stylists in the hair industry. Look for other beauty professionals looking for hairstylist networking groups HERE on Meetup .com
Again, surround yourself with successful people and you too will soak up their wisdom and advice when it comes to successful business habits and strategies.
Teach a Workshop
Are you an expert at something?
Beard trims?
Color?
If you have a specialty, hold your own workshop class!
Market your class to other salons in the area, be excited to meet other hair professionals that you will be teaching and that you can learn from!
Building a Reputation – Become a Name First… Then a Face…
You want to have a reputation that intrigues people and makes your clients want to come back to you.
Right out of beauty school you want to choose a salon that has a good reputation and once you begin working there start to build a reputation for yourself as a hairstylist.
Your reputation as a hair professional is a big deal when networking and marketing to your clients – old clients and new.
Consider what kind of reputation you DO want to have…
Excellent? Steady? Expensive? Quality? Painfully straightforward and brutally honest?
What qualities you DON’T want to have a reputation for…
Inconsistent. Flaky. Too much drama. Self-absorbed by only talking about yourself.
The Power of Reviews
The power of asking for clients to review your business goes hand in hand with the power of Word of Mouth.
How many times have you taken someone’s recommendation for something?
It doesn’t matter who, the grocery store teller, a close friend or relative, or even a stranger on Facebook, a person is more likely to support a business (restaurant, local business, or salon) when it has been recommended by someone else who has already tried it.
What do Reviews Do?
✔️ Reviews help you to build a reputation for yourself as a stylist, and your salon because Google reviews works!
✔️ If you work for a salon that has several employees, request that your clients leave a review specifically for you, with your name!
Speaking from experience – I have had many new clients request me just because my name was mentioned so many times in the review.
✔️ Offer an incentive to your clients to leave reviews. Perhaps 5% off a service (that’s usually only a few dollars) or a few extra minutes of massage in the shampoo bowl.
Whether your clients leave reviews for you on Google or on Facebook, these two are the most powerful tools to use! They are better than other review sites like Yelp, which has a tendency to favor bad reviews.
I challenge you to ask every single client that sits in your chair this week to leave a review for you. Wait and see the magic!
Hairstylist Networking on Social Media
When networking yourself and your business on social media set realistic expectations. Be careful not to rely entirely on social media for your marketing.
At first we’ve all had the crazy dream that once we set up a profile we’ll be overwhelmed with how many interested parties there are and we’ll be the most popular of them all. But that’s just not realistic.
However you can market yourself as a hairstylist, barber, cosmetologist, hair professional via social media.
Social media is a tool.
Don’t forget that.
👎 Do not drop your opinions everywhere on social media if you want to build a presence there.
👍 Be careful of how you word posts and comments so that it doesn’t turn potential clients away.
How to Use Social Media as a Marketing Tool
Facebook, for example, can be used as a marketing tool, if done properly. It’s not that hard, but it takes strategy and you have to be intentional about it.
First, you need to join other groups. There is a group for almost anything so guarantee you will find several that will be helpful to you.
To build a reputation and network in the hair world with other professionals, join a local professional hair group.
Create a social presence, become a familiar name, then a familiar face, building your reputation.
Respond to comments asking for recommendations for tips and techniques (you’ll see, the power of recommendations!). Ask your own questions for the more seasoned stylists. This will help you become a name in the hair group.
Using Social Media for Building your Clientele
I have found that joining local mom groups has been the best for building a reputation for myself and gaining new clients through that way of Word of Mouth.
Moms tend to trust other moms. To be honest, I completely understand.
If you join some of the local community and mom groups, you can keep an eye out for requests for recommendations for hair services for kids, for the moms, or for other hair services.
When you see someone looking for a reputable salon for their child for their back to school haircut, or mommy treat to herself color service, you can comment with a photo of your work.
Using the words, “I am a stylist at X salon, here is a photo of my work. I’d love to be considered.” And not using pushy words, is a powerful tool.
Once you begin to build a reputation in that group, amongst the other group members, they will begin to recommend you to their friends. Even leave reviews for you on the page in the group for others to see.
That is the power of using social media to market yourself.
If you choose to have a page of your own with your work on it feel free to make one. But don’t expect that only that will build your clientele. People have to be looking for it to see it.
If you do have a page with your own work, which is a good idea, mention it in the comments so that whoever is looking for a stylist can see your work for themselves.
How to Build a Clientele in the Fastest Way Possible
Here are 11 tried and true tips that I have learned and used to build my clientele in less than 6 months! And I have used these tricks in several salons, they work!
- Be Friendly
- Dress the Part
- Know What You’re Doing
- Be Confident
- Challenge Yourself in Your Services
- There’s Power in Just Listening
- The First 15 Seconds
- The Last 2 Minutes
- Word of Mouth
- Ask for Reviews
- Make Time for Your Clients
By implementing these 11 rules, you will be blown away at how affective they are to help build a clientele fast.
See more in-depth descriptions and suggestions of how to apply the above tips to your salon please see The Exquisite Find’s article How to Get Hair Clients Fast below.
11 Tips on How to Get Hair Clients Fast
Conclusion Professional Hairstylist Networking Tips
Why network yourself as a hairstylist?
Networking yourself as a hairstylist means that you are interested in increasing your business and make more money.
How to prepare yourself for networking your business
- Be willing to learn
- Be humble enough to hear other success stories and be happy for their success before being jealous for them
- Be creative
- Hear other peoples ideas
- Ask for advice
Networking through existing clients
Word of Mouth is a powerful tool and spreads faster than wildfire!
Network through-
- Freelance work
- Attending classes
- Meeting those that inspire you
- Network with other small businesses
- Teach a workshop
Build a Reputation
What kind of a reputation do you want for yourself? How can you encourage your clients to help your reputation stay the best that it can be?
Ask for Reviews
Again, reviews are another form of Word of Mouth.
Networking on Social Media
Have realistic expectations and remember that social media is a tool to be used by you to gain new clients, not for others to use to magically find you and become your client.
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