Hey guys!
I hope you’re all doing great and having a wonderful week. This month’s blog post goes out to all of you who are finishing up or about to finish your Makeup Artistry courses. One of the most frequent questions I get asked is: “What were the scariest moments of starting out on your own?” This is a pretty tough question because, as you can imagine, it’s a really scary time! Everything is unknown when you first start out. Will you have enough clients? Are you prepared to work with specific skin types or tones? Is your kit adequate? You’ll ask yourself a million questions. I know I did.
One of my biggest fears was not having enough products in my kit. I’m pretty sure many people go through this compulsive stage when starting out. You want to buy everything you see in the store for your kit. The thing is, you sometimes end up having way more product than you will ever use. I started buying almost every single shade of foundation, I wanted every eye shadow palette on the market, I bought every lipstick I could find and ended up wasting a lot of money. The truth is, I now buy 3 or 4 shades of foundation and mix them up and I’ve started downsizing my kit to the essentials. I noticed after finishing a job I always had roughly the same products out, the rest were just taking space in my bag.
I remember the first time I was called to work with CNBC, I took a huge bag with wheels that probably weighed the same as me! It was a hassle to carry and I could barely lift it. Last week they had a reporter in Puerto Rico again so they called me. This time I took my Stilazzi set bag for both hair and makeup and I could carry it on one shoulder! So a word of advice, don’t go crazy buying stuff and for the stuff you really have to buy, use your PRO discounts. Studying at QC gives you the opportunity to get really great discounts at a lot of good stores so you can stretch your hard-earned cash.
Another of my fears was “How will I get clients?” Although I have another job (I still don’t rely 100% on makeup for my income), I was worried I wouldn’t find clients, or clients wouldn’t find me! I created a Facebook fan page, which is free, and started through there. I would post pictures of my work, review products, and post makeup tips. In a couple of weeks I started seeing more activity on my page and people started asking me for quotes. Little by little, and by word of mouth, clients started coming to me. Last week I got to 5,000 likes! Yay! So if you’re starting out, Facebook is really a good tool to use. Later you can pay for a website, but honestly I’ve gotten way more clients through Facebook than through my site.
Another scary moment when you’re starting out is meeting clients and being so up-close and personal with someone you’ve never seen in your life! I still get nervous when I’m going to meet a new client, but if you’re a people person and you like to talk, you’ll have no problem whatsoever. I love to talk and when I leave the client’s house it’s like we’ve been friends forever. So just be yourself! I’m sure your clients will love you. Now get out there and do some makeup!
Big hugs,
Nichole
