Mistakes I Made When Starting My Braiding /Hair Stylist Business

Hey everyone welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new, so i feel like it's been a really really long time since i've sat in front of the camera and just did a sit down. Talk to you guys about hair type of video, which is weird because i feel like that's what my channel is mostly about. I'Ve been really off my youtube game lately, which is not unusual for me, but i feel like lately has been the office. I have ever been so anyway, i'm trying to get back to it. So here we go so in today's video. I'M gon na be talking about being a hair braider and doing it as an at home or traveling business again, but i'm gon na be explaining common mistakes that are made, and these are all mistakes that i've made so i've learned from them. So i want to explain those mistakes to you guys so that you guys don't have to go through them, so you guys can learn from my mistakes today so really quickly. For those of you guys who don't know me, i do hair braiding more than anything, but i also do weaves and crochet styles and different kind of natural hair services, and i do them out of my house or i do it at other people's house as a Traveling hairstylist, so that's what i'm going to be talking about today, so i've been doing it for a couple years now, but when i first started out, i didn't even realize that i was turning this into a business, so i made a lot of mistakes, so i Have them all written down here, and hopefully i didn't forget anything so i'm just going to go through them with you guys. So the first and biggest mistake that i made when i first started out was i didn't, have a price list. I had no set prices for anything. I always had a general idea of how much certain services should cost, but whenever people will ask me how much i'll charge for a service or they'll come to me asking if i could do something and i'll be like yeah, i can they'll want to know how Much i charge for it and i have no price in mind and i would panic and i would just throw a number at them, not even lying. That'S really how i was. I would just be like um 55 70 like i'll just be throwing numbers and a lot of times when i give them a price, a lot of times, they'll say something like: oh that's it and i always hate it when that happened, because that meant that i Seriously, undercharged myself or other times they would make a face like and oh that's a lot of money type of face, and i don't know if it's really too expensive and i should lower it or, if they're just being cheap. But the thing is, i never really knew how much i should be charging, so i was just kind of all over the place and the bad thing was. That is that i had to remember how much i charged them. So, for example, i'm just gon na make up something, so somebody would ask me how much it is to i don't know to get a quick weave and i'll say something like 50 and then a few weeks later. Somebody else would ask me for a quick weave and i forget what i charge that person so i'll, say 70, so obviously that's messed up, because i have people all over the place, getting the same services from me, but everyone's paying a different price. So luckily, i never got into a situation where two people knew each other and knew they're paying two completely different prices, but i was always at risk for that and whether or not i got caught it was still unfair, no matter how you look at it, because That means somewhere along the line, somebody's paying a lot more money for a service that somebody else is getting and they're getting that service done from the same stylist. So what i actually ended up doing sometimes was. I would write down what i charge each individual pers person like i always write down like my client records anyway, so i would always have to write down how much i charge them just so i don't forget to charge from that same thing, because i knew i Would forget so to avoid that mistake. I mean the solution is obvious, but i didn't do this, but if you want to start doing here on your own, you need to sit down and make up a whole price list of what services you're going to offer and figure out how much you should charge For each service and don't start offering any services until you have those prices set in stone. So when somebody asks you for a price, you have something to give them and then when somebody else asks you for that same service, you're, gon na be charging the same thing, and obviously that should go without saying like that should have been obvious. But, like i said when i started doing hair on my own, i was really unprepared for it just kind of happened. So i was so all over the place with my pricing and slowly little by little. I had to like slowly raise prices for certain people like little by little until it got to the point where everybody was paying the same thing, but i've been doing this for years and a lot of the clients that i started with. I don't have any more. I'M not sure if i was just a bad stylist back, then i didn't know or whatever, but now everybody pays the same thing for everybody. So if you're one of my clients and you're coming across this video, don't worry. I am not like that anymore. That was like well like 10 years ago, when i started doing this a little less than that, but that was a long time ago, so everyone is paying the same fare price for all my services now. So the next mistake that i made kind of goes along with the same pricing thing, and it's that i had a starting out price. I didn't call it that, but that's really what it was. So basically, when i first started doing here, my own, i wasn't really a braider just yet i kind of just did services that i had just learned in school. Like i used to do everything out of my house like i did color i did highlights. I did haircuts, i don't do all that anymore, just because i thought you're not supposed to so. If i'm doing color it's somebody that i know personally, but i don't offer it as like, and everyone can come and get this done type of service for that you'll have to see me at the shop that i work at but anyway. So i used to offer everything and if someone asked me for like a full set of highlights, i would say something like well: i'm not so good at it right now, so i'm only going to charge you this much and, to be honest, i didn't do this Very often because, as i said, i realized how wrong it was that i said that so the issue with that, and i noticed that a lot of new stylists do this, and the issue with that is there's gon na come a point when you're no longer not That good at your service, so if you're offering a major major discount because you're not so good at it, the day's going to come when you realize okay, i can. I could charge a decent price for this. Now you can't get suddenly out of the blue, double and triple your prices on your clients and be like well. I was practicing, but now i feel more confident, so i'm gon na charge more. You can't really do that. That'S not really fair! So to avoid that, if you're not comfortable with a service, if you feel you're not good enough to charge a fair price for a service, you shouldn't be offering it because, at the end of the day, your clients aren't your mannequins they're. Not your practice. Dummy they're, not your guinea, pigs, they're, your paying clients, so, whether you discount them or not, it's not fair for you to be like i'm just practicing today, but next time i got to pay like a hundred dollars more because i'm gon na be more confident. So if you need practice on a service, don't offer it practice on a sister or on a friend or a mannequin or somebody, but don't offer it as a service. If you're gon na have to sell yourself short because you're still in your practice phase, you get what i'm saying. One thing that i notice that some styles that i follow do is that if they are new at a service, they would actually post like. Okay, i want to do this service, but i want to perfect it so i'm gon na offer the next or the first two people who respond to this message. I'Ll do the service for you for free or for, however much money, but that would be it, but they won't be going to their clients being like. Oh i'm, not so good at this, i'm only gon na charge. You 25, even though i should be charging 125. long story short. If you can't charge the full price for your service, it's not a service, don't offer it yet practice that on the site and then when you're ready for it, then you can add it to your list of services. So that's that so another huge huge mistake that i used to make for the first couple years that i was working as a home-based and traveling stylist was i had no policies set in place. I had no cancellation policies, no no show fees, no deposits. I did nothing to secure my money when people booked appointments with me. So if someone bought the service for me - and i set aside my day or my hours or my time for them and they didn't show up - or they can't tell us that last second - i was just at 100 loss. Such a huge mistake sorry had to pause for a second, as i was saying, stylist. If you don't have any policies set in place, you will somewhere along the line, lose respect when it comes to your time, and obviously this doesn't go for every single client. You ever have because most clients do respect you, but there are always those few there's always that handful, who will casually cancel an appointment or just not show up if they have nothing to lose. So, in order to avoid that, you have to have something set in place for them to realize that you take your time seriously. You take your work seriously and if they set an appointment with you, they need to show up or cancel with a decent amount of time. So i would never recommend starting a business without having some sort of policy set in place, whether it's just simply taking a deposit which is the simplest way to go or having. You know a certain window of time that you have to cancel before you get a charge, or you know some sort of feed at the pacific. No show you for me. I think the easiest thing to do is to take a deposit from your client and make it non-refundable, or at least not refundable, after a certain amount of time, because the thing is, if a client counsels on you last minute, more than likely, you can't fill that Spot in the short amount of time they give you, so you need, if you don't have enough notice, you need to have something in your pocket to make it for the time that they took from you basically - and i went over this before in a previous video - I believe was my q, a video i think, i'll link it somewhere on the screen, but yeah. I already went into it on detail on why it's important to set policies, but i personally feel like having deposit is the best thing to do so. Basically, you need to give them something to pay you in advance to hold a spot, so if they decide to just not show up, even though you're not going to get most of the money, at least you have something in your pocket same thing with, if they Can'T the last minute, it's still time, that's wasted, so you want to have at least a little something in your pocket, so you're not at a total loss. So when i started, i was not even aware of doing this, even though i knew salons did that. I didn't think was necessary for me to do it because i wasn't a salon. I was just myself and i was just doing here by myself on the side. You know what i mean, but at the end of the day, whether it's your side, hustle or your full-time job or career, your time is still valuable, no matter what. So while you take one client a day or 50 clients a day, every spot that's booked is valuable, so you can't allow people to just cancel on you whenever they feel like it. So, like i said, i explained this in more detail in a previous video, so i'm not going to go too much in depth on that, but definitely definitely definitely have some sort of policy to protect yourself and your money when it comes to your time. Because your time is valuable as a hair stylist. Another mistake i made was i didn't charge for traveling when i first started doing this, because again i wasn't prepared like when i started working by myself. I was working out of my house out of my kitchen at my old house, and that was it. It was very rare that anyone ever asked me to come to their house. I wasn't really branding myself as a traveling stylist, like i do today. So the rare times that i did travel, i never made anyone pay me anything extra for that and what made me realize that i should was. It was one service in particular, i remember somebody was a bridesmaid for a wedding and she wanted me to do her. Hair and driving she used to come to my house, but on this particular day she want me to come to hers and it was almost an hour away and the service that she wanted was so short. So i didn't charge her much for it, because it was a very simple, quick, updo style that took me no time at all, so i only charged it for the service that took me like 30 minutes, but meanwhile i spent almost two hours going and coming from Our house, so then i remember coming back home and thinking about it and i was like okay, so a good portion of my saturday was spent just traveling to her house, but i only charged us a little bit of money because her service, her service, was so Short, so i've also mentioned this in a previous video, where i mentioned to be honest with you guys when you travel, you do end up losing in the long run, depending on how much you charge for traveling, because sometimes the amount of time that you spend driving You could have taken a whole other client in that amount of time, depending on how far you go, so i always say to make sure that you're compensating yourself your time somewhere along the line. I don't like to charge a lot for traveling because i am just driving - i mostly just charge to cover the time that i spent and the gas i spend. But obviously i can't charge the amount of money outspent for a full service, but it's better than charging. Absolutely nothing and spending all your time and spending under gas, giving somebody that convenience of going to their house rather than have them to come to you or have them go to any other salon. You know what i'm saying when you travel, you are providing convenience for somebody and convenience costs money, so never ever ever. Travel for free unless you're going to your next-door neighbor's house, make sure you're getting something for your traveling. So another mistake that i made a lot was. I didn't ask a lot of questions whenever somebody would book a service with me, so just to make up an example, somebody will say: hey. Can you put box braids in my hair and i will say something like yeah that'll be a hundred dollars? That'Ll, be my whole consultation. I wouldn't ask what size braids they want how long they want them to be how long their hair is, and this is just an example because when i first started doing here, i wasn't even doing braids, but i'm just using that as an example. But i never asked enough questions and i'll wait till they're already there for their service to figure everything out and truthfully. That is extremely unprofessional. Just because when you do services like that a lot of times it can backfire because, let's say okay, let me use color as another example, because it's a better example, let's say like i will take a color service and never ask things like do you already have Color in your hair, we'll close your hair. Now, when was the last time you did this, like you should know the condition of your client's hair. So if i don't ask those questions, there's a good chance that somebody will come and sit in my chair and i'll, be like. Oh, your hair's, not in good condition. You can't handle this color. I should have asked that before, like i just had a consultation with them and i never took the time to do that with clients so a lot of times, i would have to be telling them on the spot that i can't do what they want. I have to do something else. Instead, i don't think i've ever turned somebody away completely, but i would sometimes have to give them a different service or i'll try and explain my way out of doing the service if that makes sense like i'll be like well, you look better if i did this. Instead or something you know what i mean so basically, i didn't consult with my clients, and i think it's also because i was so new that i just didn't know what questions to ask, because truthfully, if you're fresh out of school, you really shouldn't be working on Your own and that's my biggest thing, i kind of rushed into it and i shouldn't have, but i didn't have enough experience to know what questions i should be asking all i would know was that when i'm starting working on their hair, it wasn't turning out like I wanted to because i didn't know this this and that and then i'll be like. Oh, i should have asked them that when they're first making the appointment, but now it's too late because we're here so that was my main issue. So to avoid that mistake, basically just don't rush into working on your own too quickly, because, honestly, when you go to school, you don't learn enough. Like i'm just gon na say i flat out, you don't learn enough in school to be considered experienced. You learn enough to pass your state board test and get your license, and that's it. It'S very basic everything in school is very surface. You need to work under somebody before you can consider yourself an experienced stylist and that's what i didn't do so that was what i struggled with a lot when i first started doing this. So the last mistake that i have here and i'm sure i have more to share, but that's all i could think of for today, but the last mistake that i have is that i never told anyone the price for their service. If they didn't ask - and i really don't know why i was like that - i feel like i was always afraid of offending somebody by giving them a price. If they didn't ask for it, because i thought that it would look like i'm assuming that they don't know what i'm charging or that i'm accusing them of not being able to afford my service. And i don't know why. I thought that. But that's what i was always afraid of, so i was like. If they don't ask me the price, then that means that they can afford whatever they want, because you know how some people they don't ask prices because they know they could afford it, because they just have it like that. But i've noticed through experience that a lot of times when people don't ask prices is because they assume that you're going to charge them a very cheap price, because you're working out of your house or because you're young or a lot of times, people just assume that They can just pay you whatever they want to and that's something i dealt with a lot. Oh my gosh. I let down that so much, that's another thing i can go into, but anyway but yeah. I realized that i think almost every single time. Somebody didn't ask me for a price: they will come and get their hair done and then at the end of the service they'll just hand me money, like they'll, never be like. How much does it cost, or is this enough they'll just hand me whatever they think is that the service is worth and i would always feel too awkward to say anything at that point, because i've already done this whole service, and it's worth me to be, like? Oh, no, it cost this much to get it done because now they're like oh, i don't know you didn't say anything about a price and, first of all, and i think it's ridiculous - that people even assume that that would ever be okay and acceptable. But that has happened so many times so now. What i do is i always make sure that at some point in a conversation when i'm booking with somebody, if they don't ask me for a price, i'm still going to tell them what the price is. So if they're saying and i'll use braiding as an example, because that's pretty much all i do now, if they're saying oh, i want some feed in braids i'll, say something like how many and they'll say what they want, and i said okay well, that would be So much money, you know what i'm saying and then they say: okay, you know i want to do this instead i'll be like okay, that's fine, but that's gon na cost. This, like, i always make sure just slide into the conversation. I don't wait to be asked because it's just too risky - and sometimes when i do give them a price. Eventually they find some excuse and not come to their appointment and then that's how. I know that that's a client who was planning on not paying or paying me whatever. They want to pay me but yeah. Through my experience. I'Ve just noticed that so many times when you work out of your house or you work out of traveling styles or you just work outside of a shop people, just assume that you don't charge atmosphere services, and this isn't something that i've learned like as a starting Out stylist: this is something that i deal with to this day when people just assume that i'm not going to charge you anything like. No one understands that. That'S how i make my money like whether it's my main source of income or not, it's still work. It'S still hours of labor that you're asking for me like. Why would you assume for a second that i don't expect to get anything in return like some people will be booking appointments with me or they'll? Ask me to do a service and they'll say something like they'll, be like. Oh you do here. Oh, i really want to get my hair braided. I should let you do it and i'll even pay you and like they say it like they're. Doing me a favor by giving me money for my work and i'll just be like obviously you're gon na pay me. Why would why was the? Why did you even play that needed to be said, like that's obvious, that goku without saying and just to give you guys a little story? I remember one time i was thrown through my facebook, feed and um someone that i follow had posted a post and she was basically saying: does anybody know somebody who can professionally cut hair? I want layers in my hair and i want to professionally done and i'll like the person to be willing to come to my house i'll, even throw them ten dollars, and i remember somebody had commented in that post and she said well, i'm not professional, but i Know how to cut hair so i'll do it for you lol and then she responded and said yeah, but there's a way of professionals do it that involves angles and stuff. I want it professionally done. So i just this reading this post just irritated me because, like i said so, many people are like this. So basically, you're saying you're aware that you're asking for professional service you're aware that somebody who's experienced needs to do it and you're also asking them to come to your house and provide this professional service for you that you can't do by yourself you're being picky about It clearly - and you want the convenience of them coming to your house, and you really have nerve to say and i'll even throw you ten dollars like that is such a client red flag like never deal with a client who pays you thinking that they're doing you A favor by paying you you're supposed to get paid for your work, i'm gon na i'm gon na go on and on about this because this this drives me crazy and i need to get off the topic so anyway, like i said this is something that i Deal with a lot and if you're doing here on your own you're gon na deal with that, a lot like people really do forget that, just because you're out of a shop it doesn't mean that you're not doing professional work, you're still doing professional work. You still deserve your money and i'm gon na try. I'M gon na get off this because i'm rambling too much, but you guys get what i'm saying. Do you get? What i'm saying, do you get the frustration anyway, so all to say is that one of my mistakes was that i would not put my prices in the conversation. So if a client never asked me how much they cost, i just wouldn't mention it, and i would just assume that they're going to ask me at some point during the service, how much it costs and i'll say this much money and they'll be like okay, no Problem, it's not like that if they don't ask you for a price, bring it up, somehow just throw it at them. Don'T worry about offending anybody they're supposed to need they're supposed to want to know how much you charge they're supposed to have money prepared to pay. You you know what i'm saying so, that's that all right guys. So that's all the mistakes that i made that i can think of anyway, when i first started doing here, i'm thinking of doing a video where i actually explain how i started doing here on my own, because i kind of feel like. I need to explain that for my mistakes to make more sense, so i might do that as my next video, but anyway, so that's it for this video. So i hope i helped somebody out there and thank you guys so so much for watching and i'll talk to you guys in my next video bye.