Everyone’s been talking about preparing for the recession, but what about the business boom that comes next?
Last week we looked forward to the upcoming "slow" season. This week we’re throwing it back to 2021, when we were all coming out of the biggest recession most of our businesses had ever experienced, and reflecting on how we all coped when our books went from wide open to overbooked.
So as we start to look forward to 2023, I hope you’ll enjoy this journey back in time with me and walk away with the tools you’ll need to grow your business in the coming year.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER:
If you’ve enjoyed this blast from the past, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you’ll be prepping for the business boom! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar for more tips, tricks, memes, and exclusive content on all things sugar.
Want more? We’d love to have you in The Sugar Tribe!
If you’ve connected with or been inspired by this episode in any way, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you embrace Sugaring For All!! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar.
If you are interested in learning more about Radeq Lab's Premium Prebiotic Sugar Line of products, you can find them at www.radeqlab.us.
Cheers to your Sweet Success!
Everyone’s been talking about preparing for the recession, but what about the business boom that comes next?
Last week we looked forward to the upcoming "slow" season. This week we’re throwing it back to 2021, when we were all coming out of the biggest recession most of our businesses had ever experienced, and reflecting on how we all coped when our books went from wide open to overbooked.
So as we start to look forward to 2023, I hope you’ll enjoy this journey back in time with me and walk away with the tools you’ll need to grow your business in the coming year.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER:
If you’ve enjoyed this blast from the past, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you’ll be prepping for the business boom! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar for more tips, tricks, memes, and exclusive content on all things sugar.
Want more? We’d love to have you in The Sugar Tribe!
If you’ve connected with or been inspired by this episode in any way, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you embrace Sugaring For All!! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar.
If you are interested in learning more about Radeq Lab's Premium Prebiotic Sugar Line of products, you can find them at www.radeqlab.us.
Cheers to your Sweet Success!
Shannon O'Brien 00:03
We all went from closed back in 2020, to open in 2021. And hopefully from here on out. And what I'm finding is that clients are begging down our door to get appointments. And the number one question that I get from our sugar pros in our love to sugar community and our sugar tribe group is, now that I have clients, what do I do with all of them? So if that is the issue you're having, this is the episode for you. Welcome back to The Sugar Show. This episode is for you. If you are a season Sugaring professional, who has realized that I was right, and that by adding sugar, you are going to be a successful beauty professional. And you got certified and you started triggering your practice. And now you have too many clients. I know good problem to have, right? Well, since we started doing all this training, and we started the sugar tribe, for those of you that don't know, our sugar tribe is an amazing group of folks who have already been certified or maybe they're just dig just got certified, and they're wanting to take their technique to the next level. It's the Grow part of what we do with love to sugar, where we first teach you how to learn to sugar, and then we help you grow your business. And the sugar tribe is an amazing group of men and women who are ready to take their business to the next level. So we are in the sugar tribe group, we have our coaching sessions. This is a small plug for the sugar tribe. But it really is pretty cool. They're all listed in a premium listing on the sugar network and they're rockin their business. And the problem they're having is that they are too busy. So when I do one on one consultations with those in my tribe, they're trying to figure out how to accommodate all the clients, you know, because I wasn't kidding when I said you know by adding Sugaring, I know you're experiencing this, those of you that have been Sugaring for a while. When we were in lockdown, it was people were banging on our door saying I mean, I know that for me, they were saying would you mind coming to my house, can I come to your house, Sugaring people never wanted to stop getting sugared it was it was the craziest time. And now that we are able to open again, our clients are coming in droves, and they're referring their friends, and it's the busiest time that we've ever had. I know that it has been really helpful for those of you that when I consult with you, you said you had a very bustling, say lash or facial business. And people started to kind of take that out of the budget maybe or maybe they're doing everything now, now that they're out, they can't get their hands on enough skincare or beauty, beauty services. And so they're wanting to get sugared and they're telling their friends. And I mean, I know that we're even at my shop, trying to figure out what to do with all the people that are making the switch from wax to sugar. I think it's interesting because I think people have time in lockdown to really do some research. And you know, I know that we have been advertising with the sugar network to put down the wax stick and start Sugaring we're starting to really push that out into the public that and they're they had time to start researching this stuff, and it was coming up in their feed and they were really wanting to they're your customers are asking for sugar. And so for those of you that are experienced sugar tribers Or those interested in being a part of the tribe, because you're just killing it in your business,
Shannon O'Brien 03:50
the question that I get is, you know, hey, Shannon, I'm working overtime, you know, how do I handle all these clients, which is an amazing problem to have. So really, there are not enough hours in the day and there's just not enough of you to go around. And so I'm sure you probably didn't realize this would be a problem for you having too much business because for so long. Lots of us really tried to figure out how to bring clients and how to bring clients in you know, so many gurus are talking about how to get more clients how to get beyond social media and get more clients and for those of you that have been stalking my Instagram account and my Facebook for the sugar mamas beauty collaborative. You'll realize that we don't advertise sugar a lot because we are packed. And I wanted to create this podcast episode for if that's speaking to you and your problem, because I have a few solutions for you. And it might not necessarily be to get bigger. So let's let's unpack this for a moment. You are a sugar pro who is exhausted, you have been Sugaring five days a week or you know full time or maybe you're part time sugar Pro, but your your books are packed and you're starting to turn clients away. Let's talk about let's unpack the solutions, so to speak for that. Because, again, it's a good problem to have. But it is a problem when it keeps you awake at night and you're feeling bad and turning people away, what should we do. So there's going to be four things we talked about today. The first thing is, I want you to stop. I don't want you to stop shuttering, I want you to stop, I want you to close the door of your treatment room, I want you to sit on the bed, or sit on the comfy chair that's inside your room. And I want you to recognize your success. When you go back and think about those days where you wondered if you should even start triggering, I want you to remember what it was like when you wondered how you were going to get your next client in the door. You were looking up ways that you could build your business, do social media, whatever it was that you were doing. But remember that person that esthetician that was worried about how you were going to get to this place, and I want you to recognize your success. Because if you're booked five days a week, four days a week, full days, you I venture to guess that your numbers mean, you're a six figure esthetician, which is amazing. I am so proud of you know, I think we don't stop and recognize our success enough. You know, six figure esthetician from sugar who would have thought I never would have thought when I wondered how I was going to feed my kids, I never would have thought that that little ball of lemon sugar water would get me to this place, sitting in this treatment room. Recognizing the fact that I can take my kids on vacation, I can afford to do things, I can fill my tank with gas, I can get that Starbucks if I feel like it. Because I've been smart with my business. We're going to talk about that a little bit more. But for the moment, I would like you to just recognize your success. And there are so many people that I consult with that are so panicked about the next step. And I think that's been a problem for us as estheticians is. It's always what's the next thing, what's the biggest thing, what's the latest thing? What's the next thing I have to be doing? And if 2020 has taught us anything, it's that we need to find balance. We need to honor the fact that yes, we can work hard, but should we should we really be working on work being smarter in our treatment room, which we're going to talk about. But for the moment, let's just recognize the fact that we did it. You know, I had a moment a few years ago where I sat my treatment room and I looked at my busy books and I had been standing for hours that day. I think I did 21 bikinis, Brazilians, bikinis, whatever I did 21 services that day. And I thought I'm killing it. Thank God think my hands thank my body. Thank my clients. thank my family and friends that hung in there with me thank my gurus that, you know, I watched and modeled. Thankfully, you are in this place to keep listening to this podcast episode because you are doing it.
Shannon O'Brien 08:37
I hope that you have a giant smile on your face because you have done it. You have created this business that is so busy, you have to figure out what to do with it. And for this moment, let's just do nothing. But be grateful. have gratitude for where you have come and where you are going and realize that you have done it. I think we we don't do that enough in our lives. And be so proud of what you have done your hands, your personality, your hutzpah, your Sass, whatever it is that got you there because it is a bundle of things that got you here to this place where you are quote unquote too busy. Right? Cheers to you, sister. I raised the glass to you, or brother, whoever you are. But I raised the glass to you because you've done it and you've gone this far. And now is the time to not necessarily grow more, but to grow in a plan. Okay, you want to have a plan for the next steps and And I'm one that kind of flies by the seat of my pants. So if you're that, if you're that esthetician, I feel you, okay. But if you're the esthetician that is a planner and a strategist, I applaud you. Because it is hard to do when you're running and go in and do it and you're wearing all the hats, it is hard to sit and plan. But that is what I want you to do. After you're done, kind of taking a deep breath and saying, girl, guy, whatever you identify with. You did it. It's a great job to you. Kudos to you. So the next step is, if you're sitting there, you've had your moment, you've raised your glass, you've done it, whether it's in celebration publicly, or maybe just within yourself, if you just are just so proud. That's awesome. And step two is now I want you to streamline your current business, I don't want you to worry about taking every single call that comes in the door of new clients, okay, you are not responsible. For every single hoo ha in your city, it would be nice, but you are not responsible for all of them. Okay, they can find someone else, there's plenty of plenty of business to go around for you and for other estheticians. But for right now, I want you to unleash that feeling of responsibility and streamline you. We always talk about focusing on your balls, right, focusing on your sugar balls and focusing on your clients and their experience. Well, now I want you to focus on you and your experience. And I want to ask you to really be mindful of what your day is like? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you starting your day with a morning routine and gratitude? Are you maybe running your kids off to school and then going into the shop, I want you to stop for a moment and breathe and have gratitude if you need to use my meditation download that we did at the end of season two. I believe it's Episode 22, go back there and do that. But take a minute and breathe and say okay, how can I be smart in my day today? Now, if you have maxed out your clients, and you have really taken advantage of every single minute that you are in that treatment room by packing it, I want you to ask yourself, What could I have done? Say you had 10 clients today, let's just use a round number, you probably had more than that. But say you had 10 clients, and each one of them had a Brazilian. Okay, they're your regular clients, you charge them maintenance prices. So instead of making $80 for a first timer in that half hour, you're making $50 for maintenance or $60 for maintenance, okay? Ask yourself with those 10 clients. So that's 10 times say they were all maintenance, that's 10 times 50. That's $500 I want you to start doing the math. What if you said to that client because you know, it doesn't take you a Brazilian if you're at this level, it does not take you 30 minutes to do a Brazilian. Alright, so let's start with that $50 Brazilian just to be round. What if you were to look at that client and say, hey, you know, if you grow your underarms out,
Shannon O'Brien 13:20
I can actually sugar those. Now that's $20 Now you're doing a $70 treatment in that same half an hour with that same client. No more extra social media. No more extra time. Take a little small sugar ball and sugar their underarms. Now you have a $70 client every month instead of a $50 client. Now if you're someone who takes tips, so you get tip 20% instead of a $10 tip. That's a $14 tip. Now you're making $84 in that half an hour, are you following me? And instead of $500 If you were to clone that, you're gonna make $840 that day. That's just adding underarms. What if with that client you said, Sister, is there anything else you want me to sugar because I have my sugar ball and you have my attention? What about a lip? You know, there was a client who said to me a few months ago. Oh, you do eyebrows. They just thought I was the Brazilian Master? Yes, you do eyebrows. Add on those eyebrows. Now you're building that $50 ticket just with services. And you know you can do it within the half hour. Add on a Bert lip add on a brow, add on underarms, especially in the summer, you should be doing more than Sugaring more than one service. So that $50 services maybe now $100 service, and that $10 tip is maybe a $20 tip. Even if you don't, you don't take tips that $50 service becomes $100 and that day becomes $1,000 day and that week becomes a $5,000 week and that month becomes a 10 to $20,000 month. Are you feeling me? Okay, that is working smarter in the same timeframe. Now, what about offering them home care? Now we talk about home care and you do not have to be salesy salesy, right. But what about offering home care and making sure that you remind yourself with every single client to say, You know what, it's been a few months, you need to, you need to replenish your sugar scrub. Hey, I've noticed that you have some in groans here. How about our clear stick? How about our brightening pads, definitely take a look and see if they could use some brightening under their underarms be educated on those products. But what if on that $50, Brazilian, it becomes an underarm and a Brazilian for 70. And you've added on $30 worth of product that you make $15 on. Now you're being smarter with your half an hour of time, and each half an hour of time becomes smarter in the full day, your 10 Brazilians have become a instead of 500, it's become $1,000. And you've added on another $500 in product which is $250 in profit to you with the same amount of time. You do not have to add on every single client in your city to double your income and make your time smarter. So I want you to streamline your business and really say to yourself, Okay, what profit Am I making? What products Am I using that will get me to that place. And if you are someone who is doing 10 Brazilians a day five, four or five days a week, start working with your Sugar Company and saying, Hey, instead of ordering six jars at a time, or a case of sugar at a time, start ordering three cases of sugar at a time. Because you will save money on shipping. Ask them if they will give you a bulk discount. Work with them on ordering larger volume of product, especially before the summer heat hits. Make sure you store it in a nice, cool dry area. Of course, that's a whole nother podcast. But be more mindful of your purchasing order bulk of gloves to save on that shipping, a lot of times they'll give you free shipping. Now you're saving money. Now you're streamlining your business.
Shannon O'Brien 17:34
I also want you to have that business plan where you can put your profits first, get your expenses down, have an emergency fund and really start to be smart about your money. Because you can't bring anyone else on unless your house is attended to. Really, really critical for your success. You don't have any spa owners I know that have staff and lot of product on the shelves and they are drowning in debt. Get that business that solo practice of yours debt free, get it debt free. Get your profits in alignment, have a savings. Make sure that you're able to take that two week vacation because you can if you are smart, get your business streamlined before you even dream about bringing on anybody else because I have so many people that call me for one on one appointments and they say or one on one consults. And they say Shannon, I'm really ready to grow my business. How do I hire and we spend the next hour talking about actually how to streamline their business before we even consider hiring anybody else because that's a whole nother can of worms. So streamline that business, get your profits tight. Work with a business consultant to get those hours to count, double your income in the same amount of time. Okay, pay off your debts, get your business streamlined, focus on that sugar ball for your client, but focus on that sugar ball for you. Okay, so that's step number two, that's a lot.
Shannon O'Brien 19:17
And when we consider about other ways that you can maximize yourself, I do have a few Sugaring professionals that begin the next phase, they've streamlined everything, we've gotten their business tight, we've taken a look at their budgets. We've streamlined their expenses, we really do take a deep dive into what it is that they are doing to get their processes right. And instead of bringing on new sugar pros, they start by bringing on an assistant and that is someone that isn't necessarily a certified Sugaring professional, but someone who is very detailed and can help offload some of those administrative duties that are keeping you in that treatment room. even longer, closing out appointments, calling back clients, those kinds of things those hire us out, don't they? So step three would be to kind of baby step the bringing on somebody new, and start maybe with that assistant that can Dahlia waggly. In Texas, we just did a success story with her. And she does this well where her assistant actually sets up and cleans up her treatment room and does the closing. So or she brings her client in her assistant guides her with you know, whatever it is she needs to do to get the treatment room ready or it's probably already ready. So she brings the client in, she chats with the client about any changes that are going on in her skin that Dahlia should know about. And then Dahlia comes in. And just as the sugar. She gets down to it, she does the sugar. She works on the client's skin and what they need for homecare loves on them. And then she goes out to work on the next client because that room is prepped and that client is ready. And her assistant actually finishes up, closes the deal gets her booked with her next appointment, make sure she has her scrub, you know, she gives her a reward for being an amazing assistant. And that is streamlining her solo practice. And she's brought on other estheticians but you could do the assistant model as well. So again, in your timeframe where you have 10 appointments, if you have two Brazilians in that hour, wouldn't it make sense to get an assistant that can streamline it so that you can have three to four people seen in that same hour, you can cover the cost of an assistant because they make a lower hourly and kick them back a little fun something for you know, selling a certain amount of scrubs or, or brightening pads or whatever it is for homecare and get your sistent to be almost like your little sales rep. Right for You get them rebooking, get them taking pictures of you, you know, walking out of the treatment room with your with your sugar ball in hand or whatever it is that you're going to do for your social media, that assistant can be tasked with those jobs, they can return the phone calls, they can switch some clients around that maybe started their period or woke up not feeling well let your assistant streamline your business even further. So that would be the next step that I would say to really maximize yourself as a solo. Okay? Now remember, as a solo, again, we cannot be all things to all people. We need to be smart for ourselves. So really having boundaries around what time you work. And really having boundaries around making sure that you have time off, not too much time off, because you got to physically be there to make that happen. But really taking the time to take a couple of long weekends to factor in two week long vacations in your weight in your gear. And working really hard to make sure that you are cared for will make sure that the the success and longevity of your business. So the last step I would say is after you've really streamlined everything you recognize your success your you've brought on maybe an assistant after you've exhausted all of these avenues, then think about expanding. Because expanding is not for the faint of heart. It is really really difficult to expand it means more space which is taking on more overhead. It means you have to have a structure, you have to understand how to hire because it is a science how to hire the right person, my God they have written book after book after book on how to hire the proper personality, how to hire the proper skills. We can help certify them with you and for you so that you know that they're getting the proper technique by taking the sugar university course for example, we can help them become stronger Sugaring professional so they are stronger for you. You need to have a training plan. You need to have a structure. You need to already have your your profit buckets in place. You need to have standardized operating procedures. If you are ready for that, then yes let's talk about hiring employees. But until you have those things in place and you're working with a business consultant, or someone like myself to to bring up those questions for you. You are not ready yet to be hiring someone. Really hiring more staff brings on a whole nother layer of managerial skills and a skill set that you might not be ready for and that you might actually not want to be honest. Okay, so not steering you away from owning the bigger place or bringing on more people and I know that you might be tired and bringing on more people sounds like the solution. But it isn't nice saralee The solution, okay, it really is a skill set to manage other people, you know, you come to work on time, you know, you clean that treatment room, right? You know, you have amazing customer service, you can't always count on that in another Sugaring professional. Okay, so, great opportunity after you have everything tight and dialed.
Shannon O'Brien 25:27
Then talk about bringing on the next level for your business. Awesome. If you're ready for that step, we can work together through that. But really, I suggest that when you are thinking about expanding, to do the first three steps that I recommended, which is to stop and recognize that success and be good and comfortable with your success, to really stream line that business, and to hire a lower hourly assistant that becomes a bit of a sales rep for you don't do those three steps First, which should take a full year, to be honest. So if you're thinking about it now, plan on this next year, being streamlining and bringing on that assistant plan on that, or just streamlining, you don't have to bring on an assistant get your get your standard operating procedures as such that everything's automated, which you can do, okay. And after all of those things are exhausted, then consider expanding more humans in your practice. Okay. So if you are at that place, let's talk I can absolutely consult with you or I can give you one of my colleagues that, you know, we've done podcasts with like Maxine Drake, and Richard Merrill and some of these folks that really are ready to help you with the next step. I'm happy to do that. But in the meantime, let's focus on your house, focus on your sugar ball, focus on your clients and focus on your bottom line. All right. So I hope that that has been of some help to you today, I know that when you are busy, you do not have time to listen to an hour long show. So I tried to keep it keep it short and sweet. And I really, really hope that you take advantage of the tools that we have for you. So you should absolutely be listed on the sugar network.com. If you have not already, you need to go in and see who else in your area is already listed on the sugar network because we are going to be supporting you every step of the way. And honestly, if you are struggling to get new facial clients, and you've been listening to this, you need to really get certified and learn to sugar properly. If you are someone that just learned through DIY and YouTube, we're happy to help you get certified. And if you want to grow, but you're not sure what to do next, a really easy thing for you to do is get involved in that sugar tribe. But we are an amazing resource for you. There's lots of tools and tricks. And the sugar tribe really is it's a membership, it's the cost of one Brazilian less than one Brazilian and it will open some doors for you and we can really work with you. So I again want to raise my glass to you and love on you and remind you that you have done it. You have gotten to a place where you are busy, busy, busy. And now it's time to do the work to really streamline that business and make it work for you so that you can go live the most beautiful sweet life you possibly can. I adore you all Cheers to Your sweet success. And I look forward to seeing you on the next next episode or in the next class or at the next trade show very very soon. Cheers. Hey, sugar pros. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you are interested in getting certified and Sugaring, growing your already existing Rockstar sugar business or joining the sugar network with us, head over to my website www dot love to sugar.com for more information about all things sugar from is sugar university, to the sugar network, or even if you just need a little coaching, it's all right there at love the number two sugar.com. Until then, I hope you have a fabulously sweet day and Cheers to Your sweet success.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sugar, clients, business, streamline, esthetician, assistant, people, ready, tribe, success, certified, day, step, hire, appointments, add, brazilian, brazilians, expanding, smart