Behind the scenes of a Bridal Beauty Business Owner
Hey Girl Hey, I constantly get asked the question of how do you do what you do. Or if running a growing wedding hair and makeup team is hard and i’m hear to give you a peek behind the curtain and dishing out a few tip of how to manage it all.
“It takes a village”
If your new around here let me first start out by saying i have the best right hand girl who helps on the back end of my business to make sure that things run seamlessly. Shelby is my Social Media and Communications manger and from Instagram, Facebook and helping out with emails from time to time the business never misses a beat. The honest truth when you run any kind of business is that you cant do it all by yourself. Trying to do everything and wear all the hats in your business will lead you straight to burn out.
Shelby is one of the 5 people that i have help me on the back end of things but she is my only full time office help who is also a member of my bridal team. My other staff members are freelancers that i check in from time to time when i need to save myself time and have others do the work that i necessarily don’t need to do myself like graphics, flyers, a few pr task, book keeping, and accounting. Business tip to anyone looking to grow their business is to hire out even if you have someone to help you on task a few times a month because time is our currency.
“Being a business owner you wear all the hats so staying organized is a non negotiable”
I think that its so funny to me how when it comes to anything that has to do with my business i become super ocd. The organization is to an entire different level. But if you ask me where that one cute top i love so much i literally have no clue what happened to it lol, But seriously in order to run an efficient and successful business of any kind you need to be organized. A few of my ultimate favorite apps or softwares that helps me operate and manage my hair and makeup team , assistant and freelance office staff. are Asana, Google Calendar, Zoom, HoneyBook.
Asana is great if you have multiple projects going on at once. You can break them down into smaller task and assign them to a team member. They can mark the job as complete. Google Calendar is literally life y’all. This is how i send out wedding details to me team members and book consultation calls with potential clients. Zoom, omg has been such a game changer for me.
As an online educator, last year i started to take on one on one clients who needed help with the back end of their business and video meetings where i can share my screen, record webinars and masterclasses has been ever thing plus more for me so if you do a ton of videos content for your business i highly suggest to check it out.. Lastly Honey Book is like the ying to my yang. It does everything i need it to all in one. But creating a simple system and work flow im able to have any of my other staff members to log into our honey book and communicate with clients, send files, take payment without them having to leave the platform its seriously amazing but dont take my word for it. You can try it out free for a full week just to see if you like it.
The Clients Experience is Everything
When i attended cosmetology school in 2012 at Paul Mitchell the words under my name said “day maker” an i don’t take those words lightly, which is why im huge on customer service and experience.. Regardless of if my team an i are available for your date or not you will still receive the same level of responsiveness and guidance the same way as if you were one of our booked clients.
Giving or clients guidance through the entire process is Key
While everything on the back end gets handled accordingly we are always front and certain by guiding our client through the entire process leading up until their big day. It’s our job as the pro to take the clients hand and walk them step by step through our process.The lovely bride feature in this photo above is one of our many destination brides Dacia. From coordinating via email on the best dates to plan for a trial run while she was in town for her final venue walk through and tasting is the number one time that i always suggest for a trial to our out of town brides. If all else fails i had plenty of brides fly in from out of the country a few days before the wedding and we accommodate the best we can with our team to set a trial up during those few day plus its a huge bonus to look photo ready during your rehearsal dinner photos lol
Being flexible with our clients is a must especially when over 50% of them are in a different state and sometimes a different country. Letting them know that we have their best interest in mind in how we build that trust. During this Beauties trial i took a few photos that she showed me and asked her if i can cook something up special just for her. From communicating with her leading up until her trial she completely trust me to do whatever i had in mind because she knew that we were already on the same page of what she wanted for her big day.
We’re Your chaos Coordinators
So normally im not really big on coffee..unless chi tea lattes counts then never mind lol. I get a bit OCD a.f when it comes to creating a brides timeline. Our bridal beauty team is made up of timely, talented and highly trained hair and makeup artist and based upon a brides final head count will determine the number of stylist we bring on a wedding and the amount of time we allot for each bridal member.
I read the timeline, then re-read it then again 3 more times just to make sure that everything aligns perfectly and then we send it over to the bride to view. When hiring a Bridal Beauty Team it is our job to help the bride round up all of their ladies so assigning each bridal party member with a time slot for styling take the ease, stress and overwhelm away from our client which is why we are day makers :)
We do more than help you look picture perfect, We help you create memories.
We take pride in helping our clients make their day the up most best best not only being a resource in providing them with list of amazing vendors vendors that they may need to cross off their to-do list.But we make their days by helping them create memories that they can look back on years and years from now to see how stunning they looked in their wedding photos. We understand that choosing your hair and makeup vendor can be a huge investment but it comes with a piece of mind for precious moment like the photo above when Dacia did a first look photo with her father (que the water works) what a precious moment that will always live on to look back on.
Customize-able Beauty based on your personal standards
Here at Alter-Image Bridal Hair and Makeup we are all about diversity and looking like the best version of your everyday self but that goes for your bridal party as well. It’s very important to me not only as a business owner but as someone who has family and friends of many different colors and shapes that we represent everyone. During the inquiry process brides recognize the fact that we constantly include images of ladies who look like them and tell tell us how much they appreciate it. over 75% of our brides have a mixed race of bridal party members and after viewing our social media they express who they love the customize in our beauty standards so that everyone feels comfortable with their services.Not only do we want to make sure that the bride looks perfect but we want to make sure that girl girl tribe looks and feels the same.
You Glow Brighter when your Happy
We provide confidence and timeless natural beauty that your entire squad will love.
These are just a few of the things that i learned to embrace and enhance when designing my business to become better and better over the years. Our team is beyond amazing and they go above and beyond to make sure that everyone feels confident in the way that they look. Its a continuous journey to better myself, and the way that i operate and manage my team and the best piece of advice to anyone who is looking to start a bridal beauty team or any job in the wedding field is to go for it and highly invest in the best education..
If you haven’t already checked out my freebies over in the education section of our site make sure to head over there now for free educational downloads and webinars.
Chat with you beauties soon
xoxo-Jasmine
Photos from today’s blog were shot by Shelby Stewart of The Wedding Click
