As soon as you graduate makeup school, you want to keep the momentum of your career going! One of the most straightforward goals you should have is to start booking clients. You can have the greatest skills as a makeup artist, but what is it worth if no one sees it? Booking clients is also a great way to sharpen and refine the skills that were taught to you as well. At our LA makeup school, we stress how important it is to make your mark and remain active in the pro makeup industry in Los Angeles! Here are some top tips that we teach our students…
Create a website
We’ve constantly stressed about how important social media is in our “Building Online Presence as a Professional Makeup Artist” and “How to Become a Successful Makeup Artist in Los Angeles. In addition to having that social media, you want to drive potential clients to your website which is where they’ll get the overall impression of you. If someone likes what they initially see, they will keep looking. If not, they will go on to the next artist available. When someone Googles your name, the goal is to not only have your social media show up but your website as well. Having a website allows a better introduction to who you are as an artist, your portfolio, background, experience, and pricing range. You want to have such great content that people take the time to go through your website and eventually hit the “contact” button and email you for an inquiry. Having a great website allows for your personality and style to show to a potential client before they can meet or contact you.
What’s great about having a website is that you can also have room to talk more about yourself and your background. Your potential clients want to know more about you, so write a mini-autobiography! Show them how passionate you are about your craft and what inspired you to become a makeup artist. We also encourage you to include how many years of experience you have, the certification, skills or makeup training you went through; these are all examples of things that will make you credible!
Using sites like Squarespace, GoDaddy, and WordPress are great stepping stones to building an amazing website portfolio.
Make business cards
Networking is integral to your career as a makeup artist and a business card is an easy and excellent way of leaving your brand’s imprint. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or seasoned artist– making connections is crucial to your career and credibility. In this day and age, you shouldn’t leave your house without business cards. You never know who you’ll run into or who will be interested in your services. At each job you do, be sure to always have business cards on hand. These cards should be a quick and eye-catching representation of your brand; that isn’t too text heavy and includes your direct contact information, website, and social media so people can easily refer you to work. Sparking a conversation with someone and leaving them with your business card shows that your services are legitimate and that you take yourself seriously as an artist. When you represent yourself with confidence and professionalism, people will be interested. Give a bunch to family and friends so that they can broaden your potential connections as well.
We suggest using sites like Vistaprint and Zazzle to create a card that matches your brand’s personality.
Have a consistent, professional name
Having a professional name for yourself is very important! You ideally want to keep your official name simple and let people know that you are an artist. When it comes to your name online, something like Jane Doe Makeup, Jane Down MUA, or Jane Doe Beauty would be great. Your middle school screen names, with unnecessary letters and numbers, should be long forgotten in order to keep your presentation clean. The name on your website, Twitter, Instagram, and business card should all be the same. If someone wants to identify you, they should be able to do that with ease. Adding to that, if you are on social media and you have a website, keep the name consistent. You don’t want to be JaneDoe247 on Instagram then JaneDoeMakeup on your website. Keep a name that you know you will like and stick to. Once you have established clients and relationships, it will be a difficult shift to change it. Make sure you are comfortable and happy with your professional name. Being able to have an established, consistent name will ensure that people will find you immediately if they have to. Looks are very important, so if your outlets of communication are clean, cut and professional, clients will assume you are too.
Have a strong work ethic and value clients
In everything you do, make sure you are implementing a strong work ethic. Always confirm with clients on any changes to a booking, arrive early, stay on top of your emails and work that needs to be completed. It’s great to be a freelancing artist because you can set your schedule and choose gigs that you’d like to do, however, it’s hard since you have to push yourself to meet your goals and deadlines. You have to be your own boss and advisor in every situation. Constantly working can burn out you emotionally and physically but when you’re not working, we encourage you to stay inspired! As a makeup artist, you have to stay on top of trends and cultivate those trends for your own as well. The time you spend not working on clients, you should turn to everyday things like paintings, people, and colors for inspiration. We always tell our LA makeup school students to turn to magazines and photo shoots as an easy way to always be inspired and keep creating.
Valuing clients also goes hand in hand with having a strong work ethic. When you’re first starting out, you’re eager to grab as many opportunities as possible and book up your schedule in order to put your foot in the door. Not all jobs will be great, but don’t put a damper on your business by coming in with a bad attitude. No matter what the job is, you should be focused on making it memorable for you and your client. Leave a lasting impression on clients so that they’ll always have you in mind if they need an artist for an event, wedding, photoshoot, etc. It’s a waste of time if you do not make all of your experiences memorable and create relationships with whoever is in your chair.
Be assertive but professional
Valuing your client means being kind, attentive, and accommodating when necessary. However, there are moments where they could be taking advantage of, devaluing, and threatening you to work on a day off or ask for a lower price. Being assertive and direct (yet always friendly and considerate) is the key to successful networking. Make it known that the policies that you create for yourself and your business are not wavering and are to be respected. If you would like, you can even implement a policies section on your website and always refer to them there. Staying professional and standing by what you say will show that you are serious business and they’ll respect your services more.
These are just a few tips on making your mark and remaining in the world of makeup artistry! Finding your personal style, a name that fits you and your craft and presenting yourself in the best way possible are all great steps! Included in our LA makeup school’s Professional Course is our Bridal Makeup + Business program where we dedicate a week to building your freelance business and touch on these topics more in-depth. Not only do we help you build a resume and website, but also how to network efficiently and figure out your rates for potential clients. We hope to see you in our Chic Studios classroom one day!
