Are you lying to yourself?

I have always been taught “honesty is the best policy”. I feel my honesty does help me in Business with my clients. I will take the road to help you grow, not just feed you a line of bull to help me grow.

With honesty however, comes a whole lot of tongue biting. Honesty is fine, yet we have to be careful in choosing our words and have some empathy. Which is why, you will seldom see me comment on social media. Not so much because I’m afraid to be honest. Because my brutal honesty could indeed alienate a whole ton of people…who may not like to hear the truth.

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After following a thread on social media recently, I just can’t sit back and not say anything. Therefore, this thread has become my article.

The thread asked a question. Because I didn’t save it and of course can’t figure out how to get back to it, this isn’t exact. However, it was something on the line of “how has your Business been since Covid”?

The 100’s of answers were astounding with most of them being negative. Anything from being unable to raise prices, to losing clients. With…..a whole ton in between.  The gist however, not a whole lot of positive outcome.

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My question to all of you who say Business has suffered since covid….what have you done?

Have you resorted back to the same thing you were doing before covid? I know with sanitary practices most people/salons did. Most aren’t taking the time they need to properly sanitize their spaces. Wiping bottles, cleaning door handles, polish bottles. Sanitizing their lamps between clients, wiping down chairs etc. I could go on and on about the precautions we all took during covid which…..most no longer do.

What about marketing? So you lost some clients. Yes, we all did. For us as a Distributor many of our clients closed shop and many of our clients downsized. The question is, what have you done to try to replace those clients? Are you attending community events? Are you actively seeking new clients besides making a post on social media? Have you re-evaluated your website, your search engine optimization? Have you given clients a good reason to come visit your Salon? Have you done any marketing at all?

This has been my #1 reason why I am not fond on booth rental or Salon suites. When you are independent you are responsible for bringing in new Business. We will lose Business by fruition. How will you win Business? It doesn’t just magically appear!

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Raising prices was another big gripe. Why? What are you afraid of? Do you know your worth? Are you educated?

I know Technicians who take class after class on nail art and design? Do you think THAT will help you raise your prices? Owning a Business isn’t a hobby. If having fun with nail art is what you want to do that’s great. Just don’t bitch and complain that you aren’t making any money because that’s where your focus is AND….most don’t even charge for it.

When prices are raised it should be for justifiable reasons;

1. Your cost have increased
2. You furthered your education to help your clients
3. By furthering your education, you increased your worth
4. You choose better/high quality products

If any of the above have not been done, then yes….I can see your hesitation. Yet, if you continue to grow both professionally and personally, and rent has increased, product cost have increased or you’re bringing better products on for the benefit of you and your clients….then raising prices should not be a hesitation.

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Another big issue for me in regard to this thread is everyone touting their titles? Master this, master that.  Certified in this, certified in that. What exactly is all those titles doing for you? By the sounds of the thread I was reading….absolutely nothing.

The problem in my mind is Technicians take all this classes to “learn” and be better. Yet, many never master any of the classes they took.

This is going to be a huge discussion in my Missing Pieces class. You must dwell down on why you take class after class after class…..yet, never perfect what you learned. Use it or lose it. The certificates look great on the wall. Do they really pertain to your actions?

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Owning a Business is hard. Making a Business successful is harder. We just can’t sit around on our asses and expect that we can “dream” and it will come. We have to work at it. Every day, every minute. We have to stop complaining about not having Business, we have to work on getting more. We have to stop complaining about not charging enough (because our clients won’t pay for), we need to make a change to make our Businesses profitable.

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Nothing is the same since covid. Including how you brought in and maintained your Business. IF you think for one minute anything has gone back to normal…you are so wrong.

Therefore, our thought process has to be different. And, choices have to be made. Do you want to continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Or are you going to wake up and realize THAT cannot happen.

From what I read on that social media thread…many are stuck and many did expect things to be status quo. They aren’t. Once you realize that….well….maybe you’ll do something about it.

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If I struck a nerve, I apologize for causing you a bad day. What I don’t apologize for is possibly opening the eyes of many who want the best of both worlds. A hobby AND an income.

This Industry can no doubt be fun and we SHOULD love what we do. However, what I’m reading is most of you aren’t happy.  Maybe it’s time you figure out why.

CJ Murray, President