5 mistakes that are costing you HUGE in your lash business

1. Failing to Establish a Brand

When we mention brand — it doesn’t actually have anything to do with your services or menu. It’s everything ELSE that makes a customer resonate with your business. Taking the time to figure out what your salon does, who you’re serving, what your message is, and what you stand for. Brand is a complicated beast because it includes both tangible and intangible factors.

Your brand is your design, aesthetic, font choice, marketing image, and more, but it’s also your values, ethics, goals, and mission statement. Basically, your brand is who you are as a company. It’s what sets you apart and makes you unique. It’s the unique identity of your business which is it’s own entity apart from your own self. It should live and breathe and feel like something. 

Failing to establish that kind of recognizable factor for yourself might cause you to disappear among the sea of competitors out there. A strong brand, makes for a strong business!

New to branding? Our LashPRO Accelerator course is an award-winning brand development curriculum course!

2. Never adjusting prices

This is a pretty common mistake that a lot of lash artists can make! Pricing should be fluid, especially as you grow, hire new team members, upgrade the salon experience, and do additional education  courses. The pricing that you set at the opening of your business should by no means be the same pricing that you have a year, two years, or three years later.

You need to change your pricing as circumstances demand it. Whether it be upgrades to your business, inflation, or just an annual increase to celebrate your success! And you know what?

Most clients, especially if they are invested in your business and have a personal connection with it,  won’t mind an annual change. Make sure that you’re including new services or an upgraded experience as you raise your prices also, so that your clients can see where these changes are being impacted and how they are justified.

3. Devaluing client retention

 
Listen, we get it.

Winning over a new client and convincing them to get services is definitely alluring —the possibility, the potential, the opportunity, it’s all so sweet and feels like a total win. And while you absolutely should be expanding efforts toward bringing in new people, it’s imperative that new customers don’t get more attention or energy than your existing loyal.

Why?

Because your regulars are your bread-and-butter. They’re your cheerleaders who tell all their friends about you and are proud of your success. They’re the ones booking monthly appointments, showing up on time, and posting about you on social media.  If you stop focusing on keeping them, so you can focus on drawing in the newbies, you can bet you’re going to alienate some of the best customers out there.

Make sure they’re always a priority for your salon and that their experience is top-notch. 

4. Not setting proper policies

Policies sound — icky. No one likes a nag. But taking charge and putting written policies in place can help keep your salon, your employee-employer relationships, and your customer reactions running smoothly. If you have an established, written policy for refunds, referrals, and more, you’re safeguarding yourself from dealing with surprise dramatics of a customer caught off guard.

Some of the most important policies for your salon include:
Late/Cancellation Policy
Guarantee of Work Policy
Kids/Cell Phone Policy

5. Guinea-pigging your clientele

Clients are paying for consistent results. They expect their provider to know each service, product used, and technique extremely well. If you have returning clientele who are trusting you to deliver the same results at every appointment — the last thing you want to do is shake that trust. This is where “guinea-pigging” comes in. Testing new products on the regular and not committing to a full product system is a mistake, and one that can cost you largely. We’re a bit biased, but Sugarlash PRO’s complete liquid system is formulated to work together with optimized pH and performance levels for consistent, beautiful results.