So…you’ve decided to launch a brand-new lash business. It’s an exciting time. You’ve pinned down the perfect location, all of the supplies are bought and ready to go, and you’ve done so much training that you’re 99% sure you could do lashes in your sleep.

There’s just one thing missing…

Clients!

It doesn’t make sense, right? You’ve done all of this hard work, and you’re more than ready to start making people look and feel good about themselves. So…where on earth is everyone?

I hate to be the one to break it you, but chances are, they’re all over at Nancy’s place. I know what you’re thinking. First of all, who the heck is Nancy? And secondly, why does she have a fully booked schedule while you’re over here watching your lash tools collect dust?

Well, Nancy is the other lash artist in town. She doesn’t offer anything different than you and if we’re going to be totally honest, her lashes suck. BUT…what Nancy does do better than you is business. She’s a marketing genius. She’s got tons of followers across all her social channels, and when people in the neighborhood think of lashes, they think of Nancy.

Yes, it’s annoying, but it’s within your power to change it.

You just need to know how to market yourself properly, which can be taught but you’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

Look, I get why you’ve been procrastinating on this. You don’t have any idea of the ins and outs of running a business. You may or may not have any formal education or corporate work experience to your credit, and while you’re crazy passionate about your artistry, you didn’t realize that being an entrepreneur requires a whole new set of skills that you haven’t mastered yet.

Does that mean you’re a failure?

Not necessarily.

The real question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you’re really cut out to be an entrepreneur.

In this post, we’re going to put you to the test so that by the time you’re finished, you’ll know whether you’re really committed to this lashpreneur life.

{If you want to listen to the podcast episode on this topic, click on the player at the top of the post. Alternatively you can watch the video below, or read on…}

Defining your Desires

One of the first things I’m going to ask you to do is to identify your desire as a lash artist. What do you hope to achieve?

What are your goals?

Here are a few common desires that lash artists tend to share:

I want to be fully booked.
I want to own a salon with staff.
I want to make 6-figures.
I want to make a full-time income working part-time as a lash artist.
I want to charge more.

Once you’ve defined your “big goal,” it’s time to get honest with yourself as to why you’re not reaching that goal. I read a book recently called “The 5 Second Rule” (check it out on amazon here… it’s an excellent book, by the way, I totally recommend you read it!). This book really helped me to see why I wasn’t reaching my goals and what I could do to change that.

It’s all about being honest with yourself as to why you’re not reaching your goals, which is something that I want to talk about in this post.

Why do some lash artists struggle to create a successful lash business?

A lot of the time, people blame their artistry. They think they need to take more lash courses and learn how to do things like mega volume, lash lifts or even microblading if they want to compete with other lash artists.

Lash artists often think that their artistry is the problem and if they just add on a few more services, everything will magically fall into place. But it’s time to break that spell because I’m here to tell you that running a successful lash business has nothing to do with how many courses you take or how many services you provide.

The truth is, you don’t need to take dozens of courses.

Take me, for example. My initial training went a little something like this…

I stood next to a lash artist and watched her do her thing for an hour. Then, it was my turn. I did lashes for an hour while the professional lash artist watched and bada bing, bada boom! I was a lash artist.

If you thought that was bad, wait till you hear about my next training course.

I like to call it ‘the death by PowerPoint presentation lash certification.’ Basically, I watched a presentation, took a quick quiz at the end of it and that was that. I printed out a fancy paper and became a certified lash artist.

My point here is that the amount of training courses you do has absolutely nothing to do with how successful your lash business is.

Your struggle for success has nothing to do with your artistry!

Tell Tale Signs You Are Self-Sabotaging

Unfortunately, many of us would rather self-sabotage than do something we know is good for us. Instead of focusing on improving our business skills, we look to other things. Comforting things that make us feel a little lighter and brighter in the short run.

Instead of eating lots of fruit and vegetables and working out every week, we reach for a piece of chocolate (and by that, I mean a full bar of chocolate, none of this bite-sized junk).

Self-sabotaging is when you reach for something that you know isn’t good for you because you’re feeling down on yourself. When you’re feeling disempowered or out of control of your life, you “reward” yourself with the things you know are not going to fix the problem but make you feel good temporarily.

A few tell-tale signs you’re sabotaging yourself is when you…

Indulge in some delicious food (this one’s me)
Drink a little too much alcohol
Exhibit other toxic behaviors
Use excuses such as “I don’t have the time” or “I’m not techy” etc.

All of these things aren’t good for you. I know it. You know it. We all know it, and yet we keep doing it. We make excuses for our self-sabotaging habits because those excuses put the blame on someone else or something else. It takes the pressure off your shoulders because hey, nobody can say it’s your fault. It’s that thing over there that’s causing the problem, not you.

NEWS FLASH – It is your fault.

If your goal is to be a six-figure lash artist, you can absolutely be that lash artist and you don’t need a magic genie in a bottle to make it happen either. You can take actual steps to get there.

Running a six-figure lash business is simple. But simple doesn’t mean easy. It’s going to take a lot of work on your part, but it’ll be worth it. Trust me.

How do I know?

Because I’m going to show you how you can get out of your own way and start achieving your goals.

First, let’s take a look at what’s currently holding you back.

What are the behaviors and Habits you need to have NOW to get you to that six-figure lash artist?

Before you can move closer to achieving your goal, you need to assess the existing habits or behaviors you need to have right now that are going to help you edge closer to becoming that six-figure lash artist.

Let’s get one thing cleared up first…you don’t need to take lash course after lash course. Once you have the basics of lashes down, your business education comes first and then your artistry comes second.

To run a successful business, you need to learn how to get in front of your ideal client and get her attention. Understand how to market yourself to get clients in your door and then you can work on your artistry and troubleshoot retention issues because then you have clients you can work on. If you don’t have clients to work on, you have no business.

Remember…your business supports your artistry, but your artistry can’t support your business!

You need to know where it’s best to invest your time, energy and resources to get you to where you want to be.

Get honest with what it’s going to require for you to be that lash artist making six-figures

You’ve got to get honest with yourself about what it’s going to take and then commit to it. I’m not trying to pull the wool over your eyes here – it’s going to be challenging.

A six-figure lash artist doesn’t happen by accident

Look, I’ll level with you.

Say I wanted a six-pack of washboard abs, what would I do to make sure I’d have those abs in a year from now?

I’ll tell you exactly what I’d do.

I would go up into my attic, find my crystal ball and look at what habits the “Tara of the future” has so she can rock that gorgeous bikini with a toned stomach and a huge smile across her face. (side note…how much are we all secretly hating future me right now?)

So, what are her habits?

Well, we can tell that this future version of myself works out, a lot. She never eats carbs either, and worst of all…she does cardio. If I want to be this “Tara 2.0”, I’d have to give up my daily Starbucks fix. I mean, I could switch to something with less sugar, but life’s too short for that, right?

Do you see what I’m getting at?

I know precisely what habits I need to give up and what new behaviors I need to introduce into my everyday life to achieve a six pack of abs. But will I do it? Hell no. When the sun rises, and the kids are off to school, what’s the first thing I do? I grab my car keys and drive myself to Starbucks!

Do you want to know why I don’t have 6-pack abs right now? (aside from the fact I just had a baby nine months ago and this metabolism just ain’t what it used to be) It’s because I’m not committed to it.

Tara, a year from now, has to give up a lot of the comforts that I rely on today to manage my stress. I’m not willing to give up those comforts at this point in my life to get to that goal of a slamming body. And you know what? I’m okay with that.

But are you okay with not being a six-figure lash artist?

You’ve got to be committed.

So, think about what a six-figure lash artist does to get to where she needs to be and start implementing those habits into your own life.

Stop beating yourself up on the actions you never intend on doing

If you’re realizing that you’re not as committed to the lashpreneur business as you initially thought, that’s okay. Running a business isn’t for everyone.

You have to decide whether you want to be a lash artist or a business owner because one outweighs the other. If you’re passionate about the artistry of being a lash artist and you don’t enjoy or understand the business side of things, owning a lash business probably isn’t for you.

Instead, you might prefer to work for someone else. That way, you can do amazing lashes and invest in your artistry without having to do the business stuff like working on your website, tracking inventory, ordering supplies, profit and loss statements, and so on.

The important thing to remember is to stop beating yourself up on the actions you never intended on doing. If big actions are too much for you right now, try to focus on smaller actions instead.

For example, if you think creating a website is too big of a project or it’s too expensive for your budget right now, why don’t you create a single landing page instead? Create something that gives clients the option to book something with you outside the realm of text messaging and direct messaging. It’s a small step, but it’s progress.

If you are a lash artist who is committed to starting, building or growing a lash business, I can teach you the steps on how to do that. What I can’t do is do it for you or create that desire inside of you if it’s not true to who you are.

If you want to live, eat, and breathe creating a successful lash business… I encourage you to get on the waitlist for my group business coaching, The Lashpreneur Society, where I take you step by step on how to start, build and grow a thriving lash business and get you from overlooked to fully booked and beyond. We only open up registration to new members a couple of times a year, and the waitlist is how you get notified of our next open enrollment. Sign up at www.thelashpreneur.com/society.

Have a Good One!

Tara Walsh

The Lashpreneur