Preparing for the Launch of Your Beauty Business

After weeks of planning, it’s finally time to prepare for the launch of your beauty business–or maybe you’ve been closed and you’re ready to reopen. It can be an overwhelming process trying to prepare for the big day. Running a business is not easy, however we are here to help. It’s time to watch all your hard work pay off.

Having a strategy in place to ensure that everything will be ready to go once you launch is important. This is the time to start preparing all the backend work and amping up on your marketing to create buzz before the launch. Your business should be streamlined and you will already have booked appointments by the time you open. From there your business will be able to take off and continue to grow.

Prepare the Backend

You will need to prepare the backend and administrative side of your business. This includes everything from scheduling and collecting deposits to client notes and forms. When each part of your business is running smoothly with minimal effort, it will become operationally efficient. Running an operationally efficient business means that all aspects are working together to increase productivity and profits.

Think of the entire process from the start and finish from your client’s point of view. You want to make it easier for both you and your clients. Before the launch of your beauty business, you should think about how:

• Clients will book and manage appointments
• Deposits will be collected to secure the booking and prevent no-shows
• Intake forms and waivers will be filled out
• Client history, notes, and forms will be stored
• The payment will be processed after the appointment

All of the above can be easily managed with software. When using software to manage your business and administrative work, you will have more time to focus on your client relationships and services. Jupiter is an all-in-one business software for beauty and personal care professionals. Scheduling, deposits, client notes, image galleries, forms, and more features to come. It has everything you need so you can go completely paperless and manage everything from one application.

You can set up your account so when a client books an appointment with you, they will be asked to pay a deposit to confirm the booking. Intake forms can be automatically sent to your clients for them to fill out before their appointment. Everything works together in one seamless process so you don’t have to worry about missing out on any details. Less problems, more money.

Set a Date

Determine a date for the launch of your beauty business. This will be the day you will be officially open for business and servicing your clients. First, look at how much you have prepared to this point and what else needs to be done. Then create a list of everything you need to prepare for a successful launch. We have written a guide to start a home-based beauty business. It goes over what you need to start building your business, from licensing to interior decorations.

For each task, give yourself an estimate for how long it will take and set deadlines. Remember to be realistic and consider additional time in case anything comes up. Your launch date will be when you know everything will be done and ready for business operations. Once you have a set date, you can start pre-booking appointments.

Start Pre-Booking Appointments

You don’t want to wait until the launch of your beauty business to start taking appointments. You should open up your bookings before launch and start pre-booking appointments. This will help ensure that you will have a steady income right from the start.

To get new clients to book with you, offer an introductory promotion to entice them. If you’ve been open before and you’re looking to relaunch your business, offer an incentive for returning clientele. This will help you find new clients and build relationships with current ones. It shows that you value your clientele and want to continue working with them.

If you are using Jupiter, you can set your booking window to start from the launch date. This means that if your launch date is June 1st, you can start accepting bookings weeks in advance for that date. While your clients are booking away, you can focus on preparing for the launch.

Promoting on Instagram

To get clients to start pre-booking appointments, you will need to promote your business on Instagram. This is your opportunity to start creating buzz around your business before it launches. To do so, you will need to come up with an Instagram strategy. This will consist of the planning, creation, and delivery of your content on social media.

You want to find the best type of content to reach your business and marketing goals. It’s better to start earlier than later so you can learn more about your potential clients. This is why we recommend starting your Instagram account much before you launch your beauty business.

The best part about marketing is being able to test out different ideas and having a variety of content to see what brings in the most engagement. Your Instagram content strategy can consist of:

• Photos of your work
• Behind the scenes
• Content about yourself and who you are
• Educational tips

Your Instagram content should highlight your work and services for potential clients to see. If this is the beginning of your beauty career, you may not have photos of your work to post on Instagram. Instead, you can focus on building your brand by showing your face, talking about your background, and showing behind the scenes–all while promoting the launch of your upcoming business and looking for models to build your portfolio.

To go along with your Instagram content, you should provide educational content to establish yourself as an expert in the beauty industry. It will attract new clients and educate your current ones. It adds additional value to the client experience. Let’s say you’re a lash artist specializing in flat lashes. You can compare flat lashes to regular lashes, then showcase how the difference in style and application can lessen any damage to the natural lashes.

When clients see that you know what you’re doing, they will trust you. This trust encourages potential clients to book with you and current clients to continue booking.

Keep Clients in the Loop

As you start growing your clientele list, you will need to continue building those relationships to increase client retention. High client retention will help to ensure you will have a stable income each month. Now is the time to start working on those relationships to build a loyal client base that will continue to book with you. This can be done by keeping clients in the loop with social media and email marketing.

Use social media to stay engaged with your clients. Use it as a platform to communicate with your clients and get to know each one on an individual level. The more you engage with your clients, the more you will understand their needs and values. This will help shape and tailor your services to serve them better in the future.

Now is also the time to start collecting emails at the time of booking. Email marketing is one of the oldest, yet most effective forms of marketing your beauty business can use. It allows you to directly message each of your clients and encourage your clientele to continue rebooking with you. If you have any upcoming promotions or launch parties lined up, let your client list know!

If you are using Jupiter, you can easily create and send messages to your clients. This is an alternative to manually emailing each client or signing up for another email service. It can all be done right from your app since your client list is right there. Write out your message, schedule it, and it will be done. Your clients will always stay in the loop.

Once you’re ready to open up for business, everything will be set. Your administrative tasks will be streamlined, your client list is already growing, and your Instagram is sparking engagement and interest. If you need help getting your business organized, try Jupiter out free for 14 days. Not sure if Jupiter is right for you? Speak to a member of our team and we’ll be happy to walk you through the feature ourselves.