How to Start and Grow a Beauty Business from Scratch
hey great people it's another tuesday and as you know every tuesday on vanguard live we talk about business and how you can grow your business how you can take your business to the next level welcome to the business show the sme digest business show with abe uitunji and today i have a very very beautiful guest in the studio um today we're going to be talking about beauty and the money that lies in beauty as the topic goes today um how to start a beauty business from scratch how to build a successful beauty business from scratch um i think this is particular to the ladies out there but the guys also can also you know i've seen guys these days they're into beauty and all of that so get said today is going to be another wonderful tuesday on bangalive show i'll be right back after the short break stay tuned okay welcome back to the sm digest business show so today we're going to be talking about how to build a successful business um beauty business from scratch okay so i was doing my research and i come to discover that the beauty industry is what 3.2 billion dollars in nigeria just nigeria so what does that tell you i mean those in this niche those in this business are making a whole lot of money trust me the beauty industry you know from makeup to fashion and all of that they are making good good stuff but today we're gonna we have an spot in the studio that is going to be telling us about how we can also tap from this industry has been tapping into this industry and making a whole lot of money okay so um welcome to this um show today thank you so much for that viola okay so many people are calling you know from the world violet welcome viewer how are you doing i'm fine heist business cool you're looking good thank you all right so starting the busy business from scratch um so many people out there have been wondering is there an opportunity in this beauty industry are people actually making money because so many young ladies i've seen how they they started at a particular point of time they throw in the tour they drop out and they don't get to continue especially those beer and ladies in the makeup industry and others so tell me what's the opportunity in these industries okay yes first i will start with having passion for what you do okay many people have gone to the business because they have friends they're having a relative doing the business and they feel okay they want to know copy them and you know do what they're doing maybe you see someone doing it and making money and you just go into the business with the aim of just making money okay you don't have passion for reits when you start having challenges in the business you can't scope with that you will easily fall when you're in the business knowing that okay this is my my calling you know you are very good in needs when you're in the business even if there is any challenges you keep still you keep okay you keep going and you keep pushing but you know yeah the copy yeah exactly you don't have passion you just copy you copy what others are doing at the end of the day you just follow you don't have anything to keep you going okay okay great okay so um you see one beautiful thing i just learned is you don't have to go into the fashion on the beauty business because of money you have to go into it because of the passion for it okay so if you're looking at your friends you're looking at a colleague your family that ah this person is you know into the beauty business and she's uh making money and all of that you don't have passion for it the it's it's not all rosy all the time right so if you don't have passion passion it's very key so number one thing you need to have to go into the beauty business is passion right okay so before then let's even get to how did you get to start how did you start you started from scratch right sure yes great give us the insight of how you started and how you've come so far being being a self-taught makeup artist self-taught yes awesome i was a catcher i started three years ago that was 2018. okay i was baking then but already i have these talents in me i love art so much i love drawing i love painting so i had to build myself started doing it on myself gradually i was moving then i decided to open a studio very small studio then a very small studio i didn't have anything but you know i started very small i remember i i bought my first fan three months after i opened the studio that means i was the maker for three months without any fun is he a ceiling funnel he's standing a very small a very small hanging fan like imagine how broke i was then but i did it it took me a year to buy my ring lights my first ring light now i have like six seven eight ring glides in my studio it took me one year to get a ring light like i don't have anything on me but i know okay this is what i have to learn for i was doing it people were like wow you are good and you know gradually building myself going for upgrading classes you know watching online videos and you know practicing of course and we are here no awesome beautiful now do you the one year it took you to get your ring lights during the three months it took you to get a small standing fan what was keeping you going what was that thing that was inspiring you guys exactly i died is the passion one thing is the passion when you have passion for something you do it and the feedback you get from people will keep you going knowing that okay this i what i'm doing now i don't know where it's taking me to but because i'm happy doing needs i'm not getting any monies it's not like okay i have money it's not like i'm going into this thing because i want to go and pick dollars there because no business is in fact no businesses no business have a tree that grows money i'm not doing it because i want to go and pick money damn doing it because i i love what i'm doing so doing it even when i don't have anything to eat when i i trek to the studio because i don't have transport fair to you know take a bike or a bus but i keep going you know passion will take you to where you will pick the money eventually passion will take you to where you will pick the money i love that line and i'm going to write that very bold on my wall passion will take you to where you will eventually pick them up you see i uh i'm guessing to even learn from um viola you have to be passionate about whatever thing is it is you're going into okay because there are times where you will not even be making money you won't be seeing the money it is the passion that will keep pushing you just like how the passion kept pushing viola for the period of one year to get earring lights now how many ring lights are you having i have a half length i like to have so many lights i have a photography studio yeah i run wow about four or five speed lights wow strobe lights so where was the breaking point for you at what point did you break even from the points where you were not making any money to the points you now started getting good deals at what point what happened okay i don't like to talk about it that way because it was actually supposed to be a negative thing considering it was a pandemic period maybe in coronavirus pandemic you know that was when everybody had time to sit at home relax you know do more things then i had a lot of people people around a lot of people always have excuses i'm going to walk i want to come for issues but my boss would not allow me but during that pandemic time everybody was at home everybody had a chance to you know come around i walked back to back my studio was very close to my shop then so i just take i can wait to my studio you know to avoid harassing and everything then open my studio from the back of my cosmos they are taking risks to come even nominating how the road was then but they were coming so that was the time i made a lot of money and i left this small studio where i was then now opened a bigger one so from there good work as i was working what's now about beauty is one thing about beauty is referral the moment you are good once people you post it online everybody wants to get who did this work for you who did this thing even if his hair any part of beauty as long as this work is perfect it's it's it's keep bringing people to you you don't even need much you know much advertisement you don't need much talk on it and people will keep coming awesome i was going to get into that i was going to say like what is your marketing strategy what you've just mentioned is that you just have to be good apart from being good is there any other strategy sure yeah applied to get more deals more businesses what are the strategies you've been using is being mostly on by facebook you know posting all the time what's not about business you know they say out of sight is out of mind when you don't put it to your friend's face that i am still i'm still into this i'm doing this every day have to keep telling them you keep reminding them keep posting consistently he didn't work that time throw back some of the works i did you know keep telling them come on patronize all you keep posting and they keep coming and then online you know i i run my some of my instagram ads do a lot of things just you know it's much you have to be consistent and you also run ads yes yes yeah awesome awesome also you see consistency is very very keen business you know some people just start and before you know in three months they just give up because they are not getting any patronize or they are not getting anybody talking about them and all of that so great so now i want to get into the money aspect because i like i love money so how profitable is the beauty industry like the makeup business and all that how profitable is it before now i never knew makeup could be so profitable before now wow before now i think he's doing just you know trying to just make a living out of it but now i realize you can make you can't you can make more than ivanka what's up so what someone is receiving in in a moment you can receive it in one week you can make more than one really to be honest to be honest do i am not i'm not sure i can work for any salary again because of i've invested so much in my craft you know i've gotten i'm i'm i'm going somewhere that i know that i have i have a very stable ground on my income wow exactly so you don't run out of you don't run out of you don't lose whatever makeup is you don't lose because whatever you invest in it you're going to get it's double foods just be good make sure you are very good a lot of people have back off because they are not good okay so they are not good yeah okay so um do you do you do you often get some customers from social media sure yes like the consistent posting you normally make you normally get customers from there i unless the people eighty percent of my clients are for social media in the studio where i am i may be in a very intimate area you don't have people walking people that even working can't afford to pay your price so like if not 90 80 percent of my clients are from facebook from instagram my whatsapp contacts referrals and all that if i didn't i work by booking if i didn't get to book online i don't work so people don't just walk in and you know they when they hear the price because of the area we are they just move out but because of online my business is in my phone it's my data you know keep posting and then keep getting clients so how do you how do you handle issue as pertaining to security now you say you get most of your bookings online and i'm very very sure you just study that your area people most of the people can't afford it exactly those areas in the trenches exactly so definitely you you get bookings outside the area now how do you deal with security issues i remember a story that happened the last time in makeup artists when she stayed something like that oh yes so how do you cope how do you handle that so what what i always do is whenever you chat me up yeah that you got my number from social person or you got me from sun so thing i always like to have a grandson so now granted okay this is someone that knows you our first now ask is who directed you to us okay maybe you say okay i got a number from instagram i'm okay can i see your instagram page okay when i get to know you i'm second place can i see one or two people that knows you before i go to outside job most of my work is inside the studio before i go to outside you'll be asked to be able involved and for that reason work i need to know at least one or two people that knows you very well before i'm back on the journey so if it's so immediate i walk outside lagos too okay if i'm going outside legos i'll make sure that i've contacted one or two people that would say yes this wedding is holding yes i know there's a reading like this and then i will see inform people around me before i move to the to the venue this is where i'm going to you know give them details just in case you know we can't be hundred percent sure anyway business is risky we keep taking risks but at least you try to make sure that even in the risk one or two people will be able to say this is where she said she's going just in case of anything so don't pray about it happen to us anyway yeah business is risky so but then you have to be calculative in your moving out and all of that okay great great great now some people are actually sending questions and they are asking that how do you deal with not having customers for a while it's very very it's normal it's lower yeah your beauty business for when you don't have customers for a certain period of time how do you deal with such um situations okay i always tell people my students i have lots of students even before when i opened my studio it took me a lot of time to even have a single student most times we stay you don't have clients that's why i say you need to have passion for this me what i do for myself is i use my i am the best model in the world i model with my face a lot so all the time i don't have clients any day i'm not booked i walk on my face if you go to my instagram page you see some of the arts work i have there's this recent one i drew to a savage on my heart on my chest yeah so is that of you know when you feel you are jobless today you want to do something there is no job last day for me there is no job ladies there are strongest i'm not doing anything i either i'm working on myself or i get a model or someone to know to work on so even when people look at it they will feel how this person is having customers even when you're not having customers okay you need to let people feel that you are doing something all the time so that was a secret that's a secret even when you don't have customers you have to keep walking so that people will think you have exactly so that people will see that this person sold out we are sold out some people are telling you that i saw that online okay you're getting a whole lot of good strategies here in the makeup business the beauty business it's still the sme digest business so we have a whole lot of questions coming in which are we um asking viola for you okay so um i i heard of a wedding recently that they said the makeup artist charged 250k is that how good you guys make money it's 250k for your makeup yes why haven't you charged more than that are you serious you don't know what the client is some clients that are big they don't want when you share they feel you don't know what you're doing i don't want to come so long you don't want to feel you don't want it to feel your standard is less exactly so some people will even go to instead of boogie that's like some people online book flight for their you know yeah makeup parties and a technician from abuja your clients determines your your price or you have a fixed price no once you're working on outdoor there is no fixed price for outdoor the location that means the price the walks on what can be two days a day three hours you know like that like that and we have fixed price for studio job because they are all coming to your studio so is the fixed price right when i'm going out i can charge you whatever i want to charge you wow when someone connects me to you and the person let me know that this message this person gave a new example eventually i won't charge you three times you know extra now um how much will it charge one million yes whoa exactly makeup is not shipped one millionaire that's beautiful so your clients also determine your your costs sometimes you will not know it is even a celebrity you want to work on you just go down then but maybe i've already charged low price when you get there you see you don't have a show but when you know you have to do something when you know you have to do something okay so we have another question that people are asking us what's the biggest job you've done so far okay the beginning of job i've done is not um a celebrity but it's not about paying you know about who you work for it's about how much you got from your work so i've worked for a client that based the uk she came to nigeria and i worked for her and she paid me a whole lot of money in just a one-hour job wow a whole lot of money just a one-hour job so most times it's not about maybe you work for this person or for this some people are rich and they don't they're not even on social media some big clients are not online he's not about fees sometimes you do for you work for popular people just for for them to push you they don't give you anything they feel they're doing your favor they want to push you back around they want to sell you so you don't charge them some clients that will even pay you i'm not sure they're on social most of them are on social media wow so they reclined they're real rich people are knowing social most of them are annoying how do you get to get in contact with them yeah exactly by referral by someone that knows someone you know by contacts and all that wow beautiful so you have on your page i saw you have over 20 000 followers wow we keep growing we keep growing awesome great so now for those listening to us out there that wants to get into this business and there are some of them that are also they are also in the business but they have not made significant progress just like viola concepts and they are aspiring to be like viola concept and what advice can you give such kind of people what do you advise them to do okay that that's how for you is you know the bible say do not despise your little beginning don't use because you are here today you are here today looking at someone that is in foster you me you are one story building and your aim we all actually we all aim to go higher but don't push too hard don't be too hard on yourself if it will happen it will happen every growth takes time give yourself time don't push too hard don't just because you want to be like somebody and i start frustrating yourself and i start having low self-esteem and i start thinking you're not doing enough you are doing be contented always make sure to work on your growth upgrade yourself you know try to invest in yourself i always tell people the highest investment i've made so far is invest in myself every day i keep on upgrading myself the more i upgrade on myself the more i get the money back in return when you keep on doing one thing all the time from time to time people will get to run away from you some people need upgrading but they don't believe they need upgrading they always feel ah they're not gonna pass me waiting should they do safe no from time to time try to you know look at some okay please what what can you teach me one or two things you know you grab it you grab from this person grab for mr a grab for mr b you're not joining together none of the day they are going so far even the person that taught you in the future the person will know that this is the person that the person is doing so well okay and then don't this is a competitive business yes once you know what you are doing you don't have anybody to compete with most times we compete with people because our job is so low we have low standards you have your competitors are doing what you are doing far diving better than you but once you are very good you know if you have time to you even be the one scheduling clients if you don't telling them this when i have chance he's like so he's not he's in every business so you have to be good you have to be good so look how you can get the reference out there and you can get people to come down yeah okay that's beautiful so is there anybody you look up to in the industry there's lots i look up to a lot of people a lot of people that mean i don't know if i should be changing but that many many good makeup parties have been there for five years ten years 15 years yes my boss seems to make cooperation i've been in the business so she's in nigeria now but she have been there she's you know i will look up to her and try to grow to the level that i've been now wow that's awesome so as had there been any points you felt like giving up like a part of this yeah there was there was find something else yeah there was a time um so you know some i remember broke into my show my studio and took away a lot of valuables then i felt like god i think these last these last parts i think this is the end of it but thank god for family my family came up i know you know they took everything upon themselves you know build me back then i was almost you know collapsing because they robbed everything i had but my family came up you know nothing like family they come they came up and helped me and i started again you know keep pushing wow wow so awesome it was always easy anyway it's not always easy but exactly all right beautiful we're having a nice conversation with some viola the founder and the ceo of viola concept we're talking about the beauty industry and how you can start from scratch to build a beauty business that will be churning you good loads of money okay um you've advised people aspiring people that i want to get into business on what did you do you have to keep up you know don't the fact that you're here today does not mean that you can't go to the next phase so um viola concept how can people reach you how can people contact how can people see the good works you've been doing okay please do our instagram account viola concept okay you also have viola pictures and art that's for my photo studio i also run a photo studio yes i have a studio for makeup i also have a studio for photography we teach we can also check us on viola concept academy where we know posts our student jobs we have a lot of students they graduate from time to time every four months every five months you graduate ten sets fifteen five six like that so we are doing well with thank god and our facebook page to viola concepts oh beautiful so are you going to advise those that are starting now are you going to advise them did you just start from home or you need to just rent a big space and all of that you can start from home if you don't have money to rent a space you can start from home you can also do outdoor jobs but be very careful the country is not good be very careful be security conscious you can start from home where you save up money but it's always good to work in a studio because you have a spacious place to accommodate students you can always stay with a lot of people having a lot of people in your house is not too safe unless the people it's not safe to have you know number of girls actually you know makeup is mainly girl okay i've already had to to me too many students since i started viola concepts other ones we are all females so having a lot of females in your house is not always comfortable if you are married it's not advisable even as a single guy is not still advisable so try even if it's a very small place you just start off with okay so try even if it's a small place she she started from a small very small place so all you just need to be doing is you have to be consistent in your craft even when you are not you've heard it even when you're not making business you have to keep making people think that yes this person is busy doing something one thing on the other okay so it's been a wonderful time um before we go um i wanted to ask a question like um what are the challenges you've talked about the security issue what are the challenges are there in this um beauty industry we have a lot of challenges sometimes people tend to look down on beauty artists most times you'll be like it's not just makeup it's not something just why are you charging me so much why this one okay you always ask them okay yes i will do the makeup and cleaning it but the pictures you take are not cleaning the picture they're not deleting the pictures you do this thing for photo shoots people gaze to you know neglect this work we are still kind of in a way where people does not appreciate makeup in as in as much as it is in other countries but we'll keep pushing anyway then we have other challenges too you know every day the rise of things in the market the makeup products keep adding money and the way you start adding money you make up prices people start feeling somehow like why are you charging us i don't know that the market the dollar and everything is affecting us too when you tell them they don't like they'll be like waiting with you know imported in nigeria so at the end of the day is big challenges to us but you know keep pushing won't give up keep pushing and don't give up that's the watchword for the beauty business so it's been a wrap on today's episode of the sme digest business show with abi away sunday so i had viola in the studio today we talked about uh the beauty business and how you can start from scratch you can really start from scratch and as she said the business is very very much profitable you can get into the beauty industry today like i said the beauty industry is about 3.2 billion dollars a whole lot needs to be tapped into that industry all right so thank you for joining us on today's episode see we come your way next week all right thank you thank you so much we'll see you next week sme diges business africa show with abby god bless you
2022-04-19 12:42
