Learning the craft of eyelash treatment and doing it so well for many clients and for a good number of years calls for a new venture in your lashing journey such as starting your own lash business. Having to put your career into practice and enhancing your skills over the years must have been such a fulfilling choice. But there’s still a vast field of opportunities you can try on that you may also want to pour your passion into and of course, diversify and increase your income stream.
Starting a business is sure a rough ride and you will have to brave your way into every challenge for it to thrive and be sustainable. But with the unforeseeable future, you would be glad you didn’t settle in and took the risk.
Now you’re thinking about what to do next aside from applying gorgeous eyelash curls. Don’t worry we’ve got you covered. On this page, we will be talking about some of the first leaps into the business world you might want to consider.
- Build your own Lash Salon
Your small lash studio has been instrumental in becoming the skilled eyelash technician that you are now. And while you and your lash clients have come to love that tiny set-up, the interior, and the ambiance you have built, moving up to a bigger space, offering another set of lash treatment services, hiring a team, and building your very own lash salon are just series of events you could have been meaning and dreaming to come to reality.
Owning a lash salon is a dramatic way to level up from being a hustling professional to becoming an inspired business owner. BUT! You must do the labor first before getting the glory. To start a lash salon business, you will have to undergo an endless cycle of complete-and-repeat a long to-do list which includes:
- Planning and deciding the lash treatment services you want to offer.
- Planning and deciding more about many business stuff such as business permits, pricing, policy, location, marketing, accounting, etc
- Looking for a space and setting it up
- Stocking up for your lash salon supplies and getting the equipment running
- Hiring and training your first team
- Getting everything running on a day-to- basis
In running your own business, you will be required to learn a bunch of what they call “soft skills” such as leadership skills, communication skills, and problem- solving skills. In owning your own lash salon, most of the time, you will no longer be doing the fieldwork because you will have a load of other things to do in managing your business.
- Offer online courses or in-person training.
Certifications, training, seminars attended and years of experience making you an expert lash professional are your tickets to another lash business you might want to jump into especially if you enjoy teaching and sharing your knowledge to those who are starting their way into the lash industry. Being able to hone and train the next generation of lash artists is another gratifying part of having lashing skills.
To be able to teach or offer courses to young lash treatment learners, the most important thing to do first is to get a certification to be a lash educator. The process goes along whichever your state imposes to be able to get accredited and qualify. Next are also a bunch of matters that need to be decided upon such as whether you’d do online courses or in-person trainings if you’d do the beginners guide or move to doing the advanced topics of lashing and lash treatments. Lastly, you will also have to plan how to acquire students and market yourself.
- Start your own lash brand.
With your experience in the lash industry, you now know the kind of lash extension supplies you wished you knew when you were just starting out or when you encountered that first horrible lash retention. Moving forward, you want other lash artists to have access to a good lash brand that offers a premium quality collection. Launching your own brand of lash supplies is the answer.
Launching your own product line is a next-level kind of challenge as you will not only be challenged by your technical knowledge of the lash extension application but the knowledge of the chemistry of product formulation will be required. Coming up with a product that performs its function requires research, testing, and a lot of trial-and-error prior to launching because a lot is to be considered from quality, and safety to sustainability.
And your task does not end at finalizing the product line formulation. Another equally demanding but vital part of establishing your brand is making it known and bringing it to the right market. It’s called branding. This part here requires another expertise that you may not get from the lash courses or seminars you’ve attended.
This may be a long shot, but if you have the grit, you can be working on the next top- tier brand renowned in the global lash market and the thought of your brand being lined up with other established brands is just so revitalizing!
- Be a wholesaler.
If you’re not ready to start your own label yet, but still want to offer other lash artists a good product line, then you can certainly be a wholesaler of your most trusted brand. When you purchase supplies in bulk, you can do it for a significantly cheaper cost. After that, you can start selling by adding a markup.
If you have found the right brand and have confidence in them in terms of quality and service, you can be their focal person for supplies that could distribute to the lash artists in your town.
We always strive for career growth because nobody wants to be stuck somewhere. And sometimes career growth means a career shift like shifting from being a lash technician to a lash business owner. That’s even necessary. If moving up and doing a whole lot of different routines enables you to influence and be of more impact to the lash community and to the beauty industry at a larger scale, then it’s worth every chance.