There are so many "profound" memes out there trying to inspire most of us to keep on moving forward and stay positive. The reality is that most of us in the beauty industry chose this field, whether it's esthetics or permanent makeup, very thoughtfully. A good number of us love what we do and do it quite well. But let's be honest, if we've been in this field for a number of years we're probably reaching either burn-out mode or auto-pilot mode. Both of these modes can be detrimental to our continued career success. Burn-out mode sneaks up on most of us. We find ourselves trying to keep our clients "happy" and we'll do whatever it takes, coming in earlier or staying later to accommodate these clients. Maybe we're still charging them the same prices we charged them in 1997 because "we feel bad to raise our prices" or we think our "loyal" clients will leave us if we raise our prices to keep up with expenses and what we're worth. Since we don't charge what's necessary to cover costs, we find ourselves working harder and longer to make ends meet.
My biggest pet peeve is that when you get education for your field no one talks to you about the business aspect, specifically, not to undervalue yourself. Since we don't generally feel very confident about the quality of our work when we first start out, we invariably price ourselves too low because we think that's what our work is worth. It never dawns on us that if you start on the bottom it's difficult to reach the top (your true value) timely. Once your client is used to paying less than what the service is worth, they will never see the true value or the actual worth of your expertise. Be confident and value yourself and your time. You are a licensed professional who deserves respect and the ability to make a good living with your talents and still be able to have a life.
How about auto-pilot mode? Do you find yourself going to work everyday and leaving and everything in between is a blur? No excitement to what you do daily? If that's the case, it's time to learn a new service, or tweak an old one. Bring back excitement to what you do and always enjoyed. Your clients deserve the best from you, not someone who doesn't even want to be there. I've been in this industry almost 20 years and I still don't allow myself to feel like I don't need to learn anything else or what I do is so perfect that there is no room for improvement. There is some great talent out there, the competition is strong. Don't use it to throw in the towel, use your competitor to motivate you to get better. We can always get better, you can always tweak a service or add another facet to an existing service. The beauty industry is changing and evolving so quickly, there is so much you can offer and learn. Don't get stale, turn off the auto-pilot, light a fire under you and make your career exciting again.