Why business plans are a waste of time

Many of you might be surprised to learn that I have never written a business plan for my business. I have written a couple of mock business plans while working on my master's degree in International Business, but there has never been a point in my ever-evolving business where it made sense to have an official business plan. I could research and put my best estimates down on paper, but there are far too many variables for any business plan to be more than a wish list. My best advice to entrepreneurs has always been, "Just do it." Don't waste time trying to perfect it before going live, because while you're busy working on the perfect logo and brilliant marketing materials, all of your competition are getting their products into customers' hands. Once a consumer has tried a product that works well enough, you'll have a hard time getting them to switch to your product. If all you have to get started is $15, figure out what you can do with that and do it. Just get started and learn as you go. Snowball your earnings into more supplies and better equipment. You need to start working with actual customers if you want to find out whether or not your business idea is viable. And you need to be willing to accept that what you think is a good idea, may not be what sells. Ask for feedback and be willing to change until you find something that works.  

Here's a short and sweet article on the subject.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/08/14/why-business-plans-are-a-waste-of-time/

Earning potential in the face and body painting industry

I posted this as a response to someone on a newbie face painter forum who was asking about earning potential in our industry.  I thought it might be helpful to some of you who follow my blog as well.

 I've met "headliner" award-winning, instructor/ sponsored artists who travel extensively for their work and only earn $20,000 - $30,000 per year. And I've met mediocre artists (whose names you never would have heard of) who run their own entertainment company, with multiple artists and services that earn six figures. I also know people who lose money every year because it's just a hobby (which is fine). Based on my experience, I would estimate that, most artists (for whom this is a 2nd income in their household) are earning in the $5,000 - $20,000 range. What you can earn depends 100% on your desire to make money, your willingness to work hard, and your business sense. You can be the greatest artist in the world and be broke if you don't know how to run a business or if you only make emotional decisions about your business.

I started my business with a $15 henna kit. I lost money for the first few years because anything I earned went back into the business, and because I had to fine-tune what I wanted to do vs. what made money. There were a lot of poor decisions (or "business seminars," as my husband likes to call them) that cost me money in the beginning. But you're always learning, so just figure out where you went wrong, forgive yourself, and move on. I went from being an artist, doing festivals and parties, to being an instructor, to running a supply business. You never know where it will take you. My husband retired early last year because I now earn enough to support our family. 

You have to decide how much you need/ want to earn, and then do everything you have to do to reach that goal. I write my financial goals down and tell others what my goals are so that I feel more accountable. I have a sticky note on my computer right now with $15,000 written on it, and tick marks for each $1000, because that's my next short term goal I need to reach to pay for a couple of big purchases. Trust me, it works.

The most important piece of advice I have is to never stop your marketing efforts. I thought I could get to a place where I'd have enough customers and the business would just kind of run itself, generating more business naturally. I nearly lost my business with this kind of thinking. You will never get to a place where you can stop expanding your skills and marketing your business because your customer base and competition is constantly evolving.

Conventions and Tradeshows...Worth it?

Here's an interesting article I came across on my Facebook feed.

http://comicbookwife.com/2014/09/20/the-hidden-truth-about-comic-book-convention-earnings-for-creators-have-comic-book-conventions-jumped-the-shark/

I see this at conventions for all industries, not just comic book conventions.  Instructors, featured artists, and vendors are usually sacrificing income they could be earning at home or even going well into debt to attend conventions these days.  I used to attend 8 - 12 conventions per year.  Now I attend 2-3 at the most.

I'm looking at this from the convention/ tradeshow standpoint, but it also applies to any festival or event where you pay a booth fee.  You have to measure the potential impact of your marketing dollars.  How many attendees are going to be there?  How many are potential customers?  How many vendor hours are available?  How much in sales do you have to earn per hour just to break even? How much does it cost you (per potential customer) to attend the event?  Remember to include cost of goods when you do your math.  If your booth fee is $2000, your hotel $1000, your travel expenses $1000, and staffing costs $2000....You might think that $6000 is break-even, but how much did it cost you to buy the $6000 worth of product that you sold?  Your break even might actually be closer to $10,000. If you're at an event with 10 vendor hours, you'd have to have $1000 in sales per hour just to break even.  Unless you have products with a very high price point, that level of sales may not even be possible.   And let's assume that many of those sales at the show were actually to current customers, who would have purchased from you online if you had not been at the show.  You could have stayed home and made money instead of going through the stresses of traveling and working a tradeshow, hoping to break even.

The best way to reach customers yesterday may not be the best strategy for today.  The marketplace is evolving and customers are more savvy than ever.  Instead of buying the first thing they see, customers wait to go home and read reviews and compare prices.  I'm not saying that conventions and tradeshows aren't worth doing, especially if you have a new product or the show attendees are mostly unfamiliar with your product.  But be sure that you do your homework on the event and make sure that you are getting as much marketing impact as you can from the event.  I see far too many new products debuted at shows before they are ready to launch.  By the time the creator gets their act together, either the moment has passed, or competitors have already gotten their version of the product out there.  Have your product in stock and ready to sell.  Polish up your website.  Make sure you have plenty of advertising material to hand out.  When given the choice between getting your company name and logo in front of customers or spending that same amount of money to get your actual product into actual customers' hands, which do you think will have more impact?

My cousin works for a large international professional hair product company.  I know they can spend upwards of $30,000 to attend a tradeshow where they are pretty much just meeting with current customers, supporting vendors, and maybe gaining a handful of new customers.  I can't help but think that they could have sent out $100 worth of free product to 300 good customers or potential new customers and have gotten much more value for their investment.  An online competition with $30,000 going to help somebody start a new salon would have gotten them incredible amounts of publicity.  But some old dogs take a while to learn new tricks.

It may be tough love, but sometimes you have to remove emotion from the equation and do what makes business sense.  As my favorite money guru, Dave Ramsey likes to say, "It's math, not magic."

Henna and Liquid Bling Clearance Sale - New Stencil Loyalty Program

Check out the Amerikan Body Art home page for our Liquid Bling clearance sale.  Also, the 2014 crop of Jamila Henna Powder has arrived, so we are clearing out what's left of the 2013 crop.  It's some great staining stuff, so stock up while you can.
www.AmerikanBodyArt.com

Also, I introduced a new stencil loyalty program.  For every 75 self-adhesive stencils purchased in a single order, you get a free 10ml vial of Body Glue.  Yeah Freebies!!!

Raise your hand if you like free stuff! I created a brand new page on our website for free downloads, samples, and marketing materials. I can't wait to have more material to add to it! There's a tab at the top of our website, 100% Free Stuff. Check it out.

Also, the progressive sale is still going on with our Professional Henna Kits. The current price is down to $114.99 (regularly $149.99) with 3 Free Gifts.

www.AmerikanBodyArt.com

Freehand Glitter Tattoo Kit

Check out our new Freehand Glitter Tattoo Kit at the low introductory price of $19.99

If what you're doing isn't working, do something different.

 As of April 1^st, Amerikan Body Art will start making some changes to our discounting programs. We will now differentiate between reseller accounts and professional artist accounts.  The idea is to make it more attractive for people who want to sell our products with some degree of exclusivity and to still allow professionals to get discounts when buying in volume. In addition to changing the discount program, we are also adding an affiliate program, an instructor program, and drop-shipping services.

Wholesale program for Resellers of Amerikan Body Art products

Resellers will receive 50% off retail prices for ABA branded items, 30% off bulk items and packaging (we will also be lowering prices on some of these items), and 20% off non-ABA brand items (such as face painting books and facepaint make-up).  For the most part, your prices will remain the same as they have been, and we will be able to offer you more products. We are working on a separate website for resellers to use in the near future, but for the time being, resellers will have to email their orders.  In order to be considered a reseller, you must show proof that you are marketing Amerikan Body Art products in your business…i.e. a link to your web page where you feature Amerikan Body Art products or a photo of Amerikan Body Art products displayed in your brick and mortar store.  The minimum purchase requirement for wholesale orders will remain at $200 except for drop-ship orders.

We will begin offering drop-shipping services for resellers as soon as we can get a few little issues worked out.  I’d appreciate any input on drop-shipping programs from those of you who already have a drop-shipping agreement with another company.

Volume Discounts for Professional Artists and Entertainment Companies

The most common complaints that we receive from professionals are about only needing to replenish a few stencil designs or some other item that professionals use up quickly, but not enough to place a discounted order.  So we will start adding volume discounts on stencils and other items that you professionals and entertainment companies go through quickly.  In order to allow for volume discounting on individual items, we are reducing our overall shopping cart discounting, but also lowering the threshold for receiving our highest professional discount.  The new overall cart discounts will be 10% off orders of $100 - $249 and 25% off orders of $250 or more. 

Instructor and Affiliate Programs – Earn money for your referrals and a rebate on your own orders.

A lot of you have supported us over the years by promoting our products simply because you believe in the integrity of our company and the quality of our products.  I feel like we’ve grown from absolutely nothing to this wonderful company that we are today because we have the support and love from so many generous people.  We can’t be everywhere to meet potential new artists, so it really helps our business grow when people like you help spread the word about what we have to offer.  We are creating these new programs not only to market our own products, but also as a thank you to those of you who use our products in your business and in your classes and to help you find more success as an artist and/or instructor.  We want these programs to be fair and mutually beneficial to you, your students, and Amerikan Body Art. 

Affiliate Program

Our new affiliate program consists of a banner or ad placed on your website, which links to the Amerikan Body Art website.  Our website software tracks purchases made through the link on your website and we will pay you a referral fee of 10% of the total purchase (after applicable discounts and before shipping costs).  Additionally, you can use the link when placing your own orders and receive a 10% rebate on your own orders.  Payments will be made monthly. 

The affiliate program is going to be launched on a trial basis and we make no guarantees that it will last forever or that we won’t make changes to it as we go along.  Until we launch the program and see it in action, we can’t know what unforeseen issues could cause problems.  There will be some pre-requisites to becoming an affiliate, and some requirements to maintaining affiliate status such as minimum sales generated through the link, other than your own purchases.  If the link doesn’t generate any sales for us over a certain period of time and only serves as a rebate generator for the affiliate’s own purchases, we will likely withdraw their affiliate status.  We want this to be a win-win situation for us and the affiliate…increased sales and visibility for us, and income/ rebates for the affiliate.  

Instructor Program

Basically, we will offer you and your students a Coupon code (for free shipping or a free product), product samples and literature for your students, a gift product that you can offer as a prize or use for demonstration purposes, and we will advertise your class on our Facebook page.  In exchange, we simply ask that you offer a great class to your students, make a genuine effort to market your class, pass on these samples to your students and promote our products in your class.

Just to be clear, I’ve outlined our expectations below.  We believe that the majority of people are honorable and honest, but we also need to be sure that we aren’t being taken advantage of if we want to continue to offer this program.  At this early stage of the program, we would be happy to consider any suggestions you may have and we hope that you understand that the program may go through some fine tuning changes, based on feedback and experience.  We may find the need to limit the frequency that we are willing to allow each instructor to participate in this program, based on the perceived success of their classes and marketing efforts, but we are willing to give everyone a chance to try it out at least once.

1.  You must contact us at least 2 weeks before your class.

We feel that you need to be marketing your class for at least a couple of weeks (probably a month) ahead of time in order to allow potential students time to make arrangements to attend.  We will give you a coupon code for the Amerikan Body Art website for both you and your students to use between 2 weeks before the scheduled class up to 2 weeks after the class.  You can also earn 10% of your students’ orders by becoming an affiliate and having your students shop through our banner on your website.

2.  You must have both a business website and a business Facebook page.

We want to know that you are indeed in business as a face and body artist (or in a compatible industry) and are qualified to teach.  You don’t have to be an award-winning artist, but professionalism is important. 

3.  Your class must be advertised in at least two places (website, Facebook, newsletter, email group, forum)

We want to know that you are making an effort to bring in students with good marketing practices.  Send us the class information and we will put it up on the Amerikan Body Art Facebook page as well.

4. Your class must prominently feature the use of Amerikan Body Art products.

We consider ourselves to be sponsors of your class, and the purpose of this is to spread the word about our supply company.  It’s fine if you have other sponsors for your class as long as you can be fair about it.

5.  Samples and literature sent by Amerikan Body Art must be distributed to your students.

Let us know how many students you expect or hope to have.  We understand that you may have fewer students than you anticipate, but an estimate will help us know how many samples to send.  We expect these samples and the accompanying literature to be handed out to students, not kept for yourself or your employees.  Use your own discretion as far as what to do with leftover samples, but they are not to be sold unless the funds are to be donated to a charity.

Although we have not set an exact limit on how many samples we are willing to send, we would expect that class size would be commensurate to the instructor’s experience, marketing efforts, and venue….Meaning that we probably aren’t going to agree with an expectation of having 50 students at your house, but if you were teaching at a convention center, a larger class size would be normal and we would be happy to accommodate requests for a larger amount of samples. 

So that's what we've been up to lately....Feel free to email us any questions or suggestions.

The P Word....and the C Word: Profit and Change

This is a long one folks….

This article, while largely aimed at those of you who sell merchandise, can also help those of you who sell intangibles (such as face and body art services).

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I hate change…probably more than most people.  But I consider myself a sane business person, and any sane business person who finds themselves getting poor results while doing things a certain way, must change the way they do things.  (This applies to life in general, not just business.)

Before delving into profit margins, I need to be sure that you understand what profit really is.  As a corporation, you receive a salary (as do any of your employees) and any money left over after salaries is your company’s profit.  That’s fairly straightforward for those of you who have incorporated your businesses. 

However, as a sole proprietor, all of the money left after expenses becomes your income.  This income represents your salary plus company profit.  A lot of people throw around big numbers that sound great, but aren't a true reflection of the profitability of your business.  If you are a sole proprietor, with gross sales of $100,000 you DID NOT “make” $100,000. And if your gross sales were $100,000 and your expenses were $50,000, your company profit IS NOT $50,000…unless you work for free.  With gross sales of $100,000 and expenses of $50,000, your profit is $50,000 minus whatever you would have paid someone else to do this job.  So if you determine that $48,000 is a fair salary, then you made $48,000 and the business profited $2,000. 

Why is this important?  Because a record of business profit is necessary if you wish to sell your business, if you plan to use it as leverage for a loan, or if you want it to continue to have value after you retire.  As a self-employed business person, you have two ways of providing for yourself once you retire.  You must either have funded a retirement account while you were working or your business must be able to continue to provide profit for you when you no longer wish to do the daily work and must pay someone to do what you have been doing.  You spent years building up your business, and it doesn't make sense for it to simply cease to exist when you are no longer willing or able to work.

Too many businesses don’t take the time to do the math to determine whether or not their business is actually profitable.  They look at gross sales as an indicator of business health and when their profit isn’t as high as they’d like, they think the solution is higher sales.  Well if your profit margin is too low (sales vs. expenses), higher sales might not translate into higher profit…In fact, it could even be driving you further in the hole.  I ran the numbers on a few of my Amazon products and determined that I was actually losing money every time I sold one of those items.  How could that be?

Item X – Retail price $10

Raw material cost - $2.50

Labor cost to package item and to package/ship item - $1.75

Amazon fees - $1.90 (this includes a portion of the monthly amazon store fee as well as “Referral” fees)

Shipping materials – (labels, ink, boxes, bubble wrap…this stuff isn’t free) - $1.30

Shipping losses (undercharging) and product loss (spills/ expiration) - $1

Overhead costs – (Boy, can this be an eye-opener) - $1.60

With this math, I’m losing $0.05 on each sale.  I can spend more money on advertising to increase my sales, but no matter how many nickels I lose, you can see that it will never be a profitable product if I continue to use the same formula to sell it.

So how do I change the formula? 

I look for less expensive raw product, either by switching suppliers or by negotiating a lower cost by purchasing in higher volume. 

I look for less expensive packaging.  Sometimes we choose packaging based on appearance, rather than functionality.

I decrease labor costs by producing/ assembling more product at a time, instead of producing one or two items at a time.

I look for less expensive shipping and packing materials.  I recycle/ reuse as much as possible and look for free packing materials from friends or on craigslist.

I try to more accurately estimate shipping charges, and offer more shipping options. 

I revise my production schedule and product rotation process to avoid expiration issues.

I look for more effective and less expensive advertising opportunities, such as affiliate programs, YouTube videos, and workshops.

I decrease overhead costs when possible.  I realized that I spend $35 per month to maintain my newsletter subscriber list through Constant Contact, when I can do it for free through Blogger. 

As a last resort, and only when the market can handle it, I raise the product price.

And if none of this results in an acceptable profit margin, I stop selling the product and look for a different, more profitable product to sell.

I’d like to take a moment to discuss overhead costs, because I find that this is the cost that so many small businesses fail to calculate in their product costs, even me.  When first starting out, this is going to be a difficult number to calculate.  But if you've been in business for at least a few months, you can get a decent approximation of your overhead costs per dollar of sales.

Your overhead costs include: Rent (buildings, storage, vehicles), advertising, office supplies, website, advertising, taxes, licenses, inspections, professional dues, education, transportation, costumes/ uniforms, utilities, repairs, equipment purchases, insurance, etc….

Add up your overhead costs for the month.  Sometimes your costs might have to be an average.  Take advertising costs as an example: Over the course of a year, you spend $4000 on tradeshow fees, $100 on Facebook advertising fees, $300 on business cards, $600 on banners, and $1000 on a website.  Your annual advertising cost is $6000, so your monthly advertising cost would be $50. 

Divide your overhead costs by your sales.  So if your overhead costs are $10,000 for the year (or whatever period you are calculating) and your sales are $100,000, your overhead costs (not including production or labor costs) are 10% or $0.10 per $1 of sales.

There are other costs which you may be overlooking or underestimating, such as bank or Paypal fees, wear and tear on your vehicle, printer ink, repairs, tax preparation, credit card interest, etc….I was shocked to see that I spend $15 each week (around $800 annually) just on packing tape.  One set of cartridges for my laser printer costs $400 and I have to replace them two or three times per year.  When you start wondering if you’re charging too much and you consider lowering your fees in order to undercut the competition, you need to be very certain of what your real business costs are.

Since 2004, I’ve seen my annual gross sales either increase or stay the same, but never decrease.  However, my salary and business profit has decreased dramatically over the past two years.  Initially, I thought it was just a matter of increased competition, but I've had to concede that there are other factors that have contributed to the effect. 

Without consideration of product/ service trends, I've continued to heavily invest in products which don’t sell very quickly.  I've neglected to introduce new products or to adapt my current products to changing trends.  I allowed my website and advertising efforts to become stagnant.  While all of my overhead expenses have increased, I've failed to increase product prices or to lower costs to compensate.  Basically, I distanced myself from my business’ needs and my customers’ needs and desires.  I've been sitting here singing with my fingers in my ears and my eyes closed, hoping that things would just change with time.

Since that hasn't really been working out for me, I’m going to have to put on my big girl panties and make some necessary changes to the business.  For every change that I make, I will do everything within my power to be sure that I don’t take anything away from my customers without offering some benefit in return.  That won’t always be possible, but I promise to do my best to offer greater value without increasing prices on my products. 

Over the next several months, you can anticipate seeing changes to products, such as different kits with better price points and different packaging that will allow me to either lower or maintain pricing.  For example, we are changing our standard Liquid Bling packaging.  Liquid Bling is currently packaged in a bottle with a wide nib/plug onto which you must attach a metal tip in order to achieve a fine line.  Our new nib/plug is much finer and that means you no longer need to add a metal tip to the product.  The new retail price for Liquid Bling with the smaller plug and no metal tip will be $4.99 ($1 lower than current pricing).  And for those of you who prefer it with the old packaging system, this will still be available at the old price.  This new price will become effective as soon as we can get stocked up on product…approximately mid-February.

Regrettably, there is one negative change that I must make.  As of March 1^st, I can no longer offer a 60% distributor discount.  My business model and profit margin simply cannot support this level of discount.  Any of you who have been taking advantage of this wonderful discount over the past 8 months can still receive a 60% discount off orders of $2500 or more during the month of February. 

On the bright side, I will be adding new products such as more glitter/ mica colors and improving the website.  I am starting loyalty programs, such as our Stencil Loyalty Program.  Once you have purchased 500 stencils, the website (if you are a registered user) will inform you that you qualify for a free gift.  Sorry, this is not retroactive, it starts now.  And I have added shipping options that will allow you to save money on shipping costs when time is not as important as money. 

I am also investigating special programs that will allow instructors and advertising affiliates to earn money for helping to promote Amerikan Body Art products.

During the month of January, we moved the business to a new location. So February is the start of a whole new existence for us.  And since February is also the month in which my birthday falls, I am making it a month of free gifts.

For all orders of at least $25 during the month of February, receive a free bottle of Liquid Bling in our new packaging.  I’m going to make a special Limited Edition Valentine’s color. ($4.99 retail value)

For all orders of at least $60, also receive a free Basic Henna Kit. ($9.99 retail value)

For all orders of at least $100, also receive a free Mica-Tats Kit ($24.99 retail value)

That’s $40 worth of free gifts with your $100 order.  Limit of 1 of each free gift per customer. 

Thank you so much to all of you beautiful people who have shared and grown with me through the years.  I’m looking forward to a wonderfully prosperous 2014 for all of us.

Love,

Erika  

Visit our Shop at www.AmerikanBodyArt.com

Tips for Blogger Reviewers

I would love to offer bloggers the opportunity to review some of our products, but I'm looking for a certain level of journalistic professionalism and targeted marketing. We often get requests for free products to review. Some are so compelling that I happily send stuff off right away. Others...don't quite hit the mark. I typically look at your email to me, then your facebook, blogs and Youtube channels to determine several things before sending product to review.

1. Did you just send me a form letter that doesn't even mention my company or what sort of products you want to try out? C'mon, put in a little effort. I want to know that you didn't just CC me a mass email that you sent out to hundreds of companies, hoping that a few will bite. And while we love to hear, "I just love your company and would like to share my love with my followers..." I would prefer to hear, "I am putting together an article on XYZ products or techniques and your (specific product) is relevant to this article because...."

2. Are you in the face and body art industry (or salon/spa/ gift retail, etc...)? I am honored that you want to try out our products, but our products are mostly geared towards a very specific market segment. If your blogs/videos are about hunting and fishing, or just everything in the world that you love, there is a very slim chance that any of your followers are the type of customer that we try to target. Tell me about the focus of your blog and what kind of people follow you.

3. How many followers do you have? I'm not saying that I wouldn't send a newbie blogger something to try out and review, but you do need to have a certain amount of good content and peer interaction on your blog or facebook for me to believe that you're not just fishing for free product.

4. How will it benefit me? I get a lot of, "My followers would really love it if..." I know they would love it. We have great products, lol. When you're trying to pitch your services, you have to remember that although I want this to benefit you and add valuable content for your readers, winning me over is not about how it will benefit you (or your followers). It's about making me understand how it will be good for me to invest in you. This is important to understand when marketing any product or service to any potential customer. Hint: good photos, good editorial, and several links to my website or specific product pages are what I'm hoping to see when I've sent you free products to review.

5. I don't always have time to follow up on the websites who have reviews of my products. It would be really great to hear some feedback on what your followers had to say about your review. I don't expect all reviews to be 100% positive, and we need to know if any problems exist that can be fixed. We like to hear the praises too. Sending us a follow-up is a good way to ensure that I remember you and would consider sending you other products to review.

Here's an article that gives some great advice for writing product reviews.

Better Product Reviews

http://basicblogtips.com/better-product-reviews.html

Where has all the customer service gone?

This past weekend I gave two separate Publix bakeries the opportunity to be my hero. And to my dismay, both stores failed to rise to the occasion. I had overlooked ordering the right kind of cake for my son’s birthday, assuming that I’d be able to find something at the store without too much trouble. After all, I only needed a quarter sheet cake with a flat top where I could place a photo frosting sheet that I had purchased online, to go with my son’s Anime themed party. I figured they’d have an undecorated cake in the freezer or something. Unfortunately, every single cake was covered in sickeningly sweet roses and distorted blobs that were probably meant to represent balloons, but were applied by someone who was likely stocking shelves last week and figured cake decorating would be, (forgive me) “a piece of cake.” I had seen a Publix commercial where a woman was in the midst of some sort of cake emergency and a delightful Publix baker saved the day. Surely, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to scrape off a few roses and smooth out the icing? Apparently I was wrong. Staff at both bakeries told me that they could not (would not) do that for me. Their attitude was, “Here’s what we have. Take it or leave it.”

I understand that sometimes you can’t help a customer. Part of the reason I was not on the ball with the cake ordering thing was the fact that Publix would not do a cartoon character photo topper due to copyright issues. So I had to order it online and pay an extra $17 for overnight shipping. But I completely understand this instance of not being able to serve a customer. It breaks Publix’ rules, which are set in place to keep them from being sued. I get it and respect it and didn't push the matter. But as far as my problem with the cake itself, I was able to take a cake home, scoop off the flowers and do an adequate job of smoothing out the top myself, in a matter of minutes. Publix, with their better tools and infinite quantities of icing, could have fixed the cake in the bakery and made it look much better than I did.

I’m not sure if it was laziness or lack of training that led to my disappointment (in two different stores), but what really got me was the sense of apathy. Let’s say that there was a lack of training and that the bakery worker didn't know how to fix the cake. Or maybe bakery workers can’t do anything that’s out of the norm…think about restaurants who refuse to alter a menu item for a customer because they can’t figure out how to put it into the computer. No matter what the reason was for these bakers to not be able to help me, there should have been some expression of empathy and remorse that they couldn't do better. It would have only taken a moment for one of them to come from behind the bakery case to say, “I know how you feel, let’s see if we can come up with some ideas based on what’s here in the case.” That’s all I would have needed for me to walk away from there without spending much more time thinking about it. Instead, I started thinking about every disappointing Publix bakery experience I’d ever had…like when they stopped making my favorite lemon cupcakes, or the fact that I can never get chocolate cake at the Publix nearest my house, and that every decorated birthday cake that we order has clearly been decorated by an amateur and never looks like the photo in the catalog. I’m ready to give up on Publix bakeries now.

I was chatting with my girlfriend, Vashti, at the party about my poor customer service experience at Publix and she countered with some of her own stories of recent customer dis-service. Vashti’s in the middle of renovating a new house, and is therefore ready and willing to spend thousands of dollars on home improvement supplies. She’s been at Home Depot nearly every day for a couple of weeks. You’d think she’d be on a first name basis with most of the employees there. Instead, she had to chase down employees to try to get them to help her, and had them literally tell her that they wouldn't help her. Now we’re not talking about them saying, “No we don’t have that item in stock, but perhaps I have something else that will work,” or, “No, that’s not the right product for the job, but here’s what you should use.” In one trip, she was looking at lighting and wanted someone to check on pricing for an item that was on a high shelf. Several people told her, “I don’t work in this department,” or, “I can’t help you.” She was finally able to locate an employee who cared enough about the business and its customers to climb up on a ladder and get the item down for her. 

On another trip, Vashti wanted information on counter-tops. The employee in the kitchen department told her, “Oh it’s going to be a lot of trouble. We’ll have to send someone out to measure, etc…” But when Vashti tried to make an appointment to get someone out there to measure for her counter-tops, she was blown off. Maybe the Home Depot employee thought the job was too small. It’s the only reason I can think of that would someone would refuse to make an appointment in that situation. But what they neglected to consider was that even though the counter-top job was relatively small, this woman was renovating an entire house by herself and had she been treated like an important customer (as all customers should be) she would have continued to patronize this store. Instead, not only did they lose her business for the counter-top job, she is unlikely to do any more shopping at that store when there is a Lowes and an Ace Hardware right down the street.

In an economy where people are desperate for work, I can’t understand why people who are fortunate enough to have a job, don’t do everything they can to be the absolute best at their job. In most instances, I feel that it’s the fault of the company that employs these people. There is obviously inadequate training and a lack of accountability on the parts of both the employees and the managers. No employee will ever care as much about a company as the company owners do. Employees are usually paid, whether or not the customer is happy. A business that is large enough to have employees needs to establish a thorough training program with emphasis on customer service above all else. It’s not enough to just get through your day and to do the tasks that you’re assigned. Sometimes my teen-aged son will mop the floor, but there is still crud left on the floor. And I have to explain to him that the act of passing the mop over the floor is not what I’m asking him to do. I’m asking him to use the mop as a tool to create a clean floor. And even if the mop has touched every part of the floor, that doesn't necessarily mean the job is done. Employees’ interactions with customers are the greatest factor in whether or not a company retains a customer’s business. They need to be taught that their job is not simply to accomplish tasks of stocking shelves or babysitting a cash register. Their job is to be a part of the customer experience, to help solve the problem of every customer who walks through the door, and to help build the reputation of the business that will promote longevity and success for that business.

As a small business owner, you may be your only employee. Which means you are the only person who can create that ideal customer experience. In a party situation, you sort of take the roll of an employee who is tasked with making the party host look good so that everyone talks about how awesome the party was. So ask yourself, “When I go do a gig, am I simply doing the work (face painting, henna, tattoos, etc…) or am I helping to create an experience that will make these party guests think that the party host is the best party host ever?” 

In Japan, it is considered rude to tell someone, “No.” The word is practically non-existent in their language. A business person will strive to come to some agreement or compromise that will allow the business relationship to continue. It is extremely rare when I have to tell a customer, “No, I can’t help you.” If a customer is asking for something that I can’t accommodate, usually an unwarranted discount because they’re “having a hard time and can really use a discount,” I will try to at least give them some ideas on how to get what they need. I understand and relate to having a hard time and needing a discount. But it wouldn't be fair to my retailers or my other customers if I just randomly gave out discounts. I find out what kind of budget the customer has and give them suggestions on how to get the most value for their money. Sometimes they just need someone with a little experience to help them think outside of the box. 

In our industry, the number one reason that causes us to disappoint a customer is probably related to scheduling. We simply can’t be in two places at once, and it seems that everyone wants their party to be held on the same day at the same time. When you start having that problem, it might be time to start considering hiring employees. I’ve had people call and ask for a henna artist or a face painter for a last minute event or because the person that they hired had cancelled, and even if I didn't have a henna artist or a face painter available, I can always find someone who can do glitter tattoos. Any one of my kids could do that for a party, and the client will remember my company for saving their day. When you do start hiring employees, just remember that training does not stop at teaching them how to provide face and body art services. The most important service that they will provide is customer service.

Confessions of an under-earner

I happened to be on the Dave Ramsey website, watching a webcast for his “EntreLeadership” series and Dave mentioned that he always asks potential employees and consulting clients what they’re reading. If you’re a business owner, and you’re not reading material meant to teach and inspire you to do better in life and business, you don’t have your eye on the ball. I usually have at least 2 or 3 books sitting on my coffee table….and none of them are fiction. I’m not opposed to reading fiction, but if you’re not where you feel that you need to be, businesswise, and you’re not doing something about it….reading Girl with a …whatever, is not going to get you there.

I am a book junkie, and I prefer an actual book over an ebook, but for those of you on a budget, between free internet podcasts, internet business articles, libraries, thrift stores, and borrowing from friends….there really is no excuse to not be constantly absorbing new information about personal growth, business growth, marketing, finances, and new techniques. You could watch a new YouTube video on face painting every single day and never get through all of the videos that are available.

So, you might be wondering what I’m currently reading…. I have The Courage to Be Rich, by Suze Orman, on my coffee table, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John Maxwell, on my iPad, and I just finished Secrets of Six Figure Women, by Barbara Stanny. And in my spare time (lol) I’m listening to Dave Ramsey Entreleadership podcasts. I highly recommend his website if you have any personal finance issues or business finance issues. Using Dave’s methods and advice, our family eliminated all of our credit card debt and we’re well on our way to paying off our student loans and home way ahead of schedule.

So, the book that I just finished, Secrets of Six Figure Women, really had me a bit steamed when I read the first few chapters. I currently earn more than anyone in my family has every earned, and I’m even outpacing my husband who works for a major defense contractor and has been with the company for 20+ years. I would never in a million years consider myself an “under-earner.” But according to Barbara Stanny, I am indeed an under-earner. I have to concede that it’s not like I’m a complete slacker, since according to her definition; probably 99% of people are under-earners. An under-earner is simply someone who has settled for the status quo for the sake of comfort or due to other, often self-imposed, limitations. There are definitely areas that I need to work on.

One limitation that I’ve imposed on myself is the earning potential for my company. Comparing myself and what I do to the serious nature of my husband’s occupation, I have a hard time wrapping my head around a glitter peddler earning more than a defense contractor. Don’t get me wrong….Glitter rocks! But let’s face it; glitter is not exactly a priority in most people’s lives. I often find myself on the losing end of the profit equation because I give my staff raises, and offer new customer perks, but hesitate to raise prices even when I know that it’s needed.

How many of you are afraid to raise your prices because you feel that you would not be able to afford your prices if you were a customer? You have to realize that you don’t place as much value on something that you can easily do as someone who can’t or won’t do it themselves. I use coupons for grocery shopping, even though it takes me an hour or two each week to organize my trips, but then I’m willing to pay someone to clean my house, to mow my lawn, to clean my pool, and to tutor my kids. Sure I can do all of these things myself….but I am willing to pay whatever it takes to have someone else take care of a job that I would rather not do so that I can spend my time doing things that I would rather do. We only have so many hours available to us and we have to choose where our efforts will have the most impact. No matter how tough the economy looks, there will always be people who are willing to pay for your services. You just have to reach those people.

When I first entered the henna industry, henna artists were charging $25 - $35 per hour, while face painters were charging two to three times as much. Fortunately, henna artists have caught on and are not undercharging as much as they used to. For every henna artist in an area, you can bet there are at least a dozen face painters. So why would a henna artist charge less than a face painter? It’s very inexpensive to get started with henna, and most artists are self-taught. Henna tends to be a hobby that evolves into a business, and those who start out as hobbyists are very likely coming from an industry where they were being paid $10 an hour or less. So, it just seems unrealistic for us to go from earning $10 an hour to earning $100 an hour. We neglect to consider the hundreds of “unpaid” hours that we’ve spent learning the art and building our business. We forget that while we enjoy what we do and have obtained a certain degree of skill, it’s not something that just anyone can or wants to do. We perceive what we do as simply giving someone a temporary tattoo. The person who gave me my first henna tattoo opened a whole new world for me that was worth way more than the $3 she charged me. Sure you’re not going to change every customer’s life, but there’s more to it than you think. You’re providing entertainment, a souvenir of a special day, and the opportunity for someone to be the center of attention.

A huge issue currently facing me is that I don’t have the hours or skills available to me in order to take my business to the next level. I want to focus on getting more sales outlets selling my products. This involves developing packaging, signage, and marketing materials that are more boutique-friendly. And once I have that all in place, I have to find sales people who are able to get our products into these boutiques. So what’s holding me back? Just me. Sure there’s a financial risk, but the bigger obstacle is that I have to step waaaay out of my comfort zone to give up control in certain areas of my business. I’m working on learning website software now, and my husband told me how much he admires me for persevering on something that he knows I absolutely hate. It made me think that I need to put this perseverance to work on other areas of my business….like hiring the right people and putting those new business plans into action. It feels so much more comfortable to just keep doing what I’ve been doing and to keep earning a decent paycheck, but that’s what’s keeping me at under-earner status. If I want to earn an amazing paycheck and to see my husband retire early, I need to keep pushing the limits of my comfort zone.

So what are your self-imposed limits? Are you charging what you need to be charging for your services or are you limited by how much you feel you’re worth? Have you put off calling potential corporate clients because you feel like you’re not “big enough” to get a gig like that? Do you need to polish your website and put up new photos of your work? Do you need to learn fresh new designs instead of falling back on the same old ones that you can do with your eyes closed?

Take out a piece of paper and write down where you want your business to be in one year, in five years, and in ten years. Then write down the things that you think are preventing you from reaching those goals and tackle them one at a time. Start with the easy stuff, and work on the harder stuff as you build momentum. Chat with other artists to see how they have conquered similar problems. And read everything you can about business & marketing. It’s the quickest way to get that spark of inspiration back when you start feeling stagnant.

We’d love for you to stop by the Amerikan Body Art facebook page to let us know how you’re doing and to share some pictures.

~Erika

What's missing from your business?

This weekend, my youngest son was invited to a skating party, and rather than suffer through ear-splitting pop music and a seizure-inducing light show, my husband and I decided to look for something else to do to kill time. You know you’re an old married couple when strolling around Home Depot qualifies as a date night. Luckily, we also found ourselves in proximity to a Panera Bread restaurant and my favorite black bean soup was being served that night.

When we walked into the restaurant, it was well after the dinner time rush and there were few patrons in the restaurant. I only briefly glanced at the bakery goodies, figuring someone would be at the counter to serve us in a jiffy. But this was not to be the case. There were at least a dozen workers going back and forth from the front of the store to the back of the store. Every now and then, someone would pause from their task to ask if someone had helped us yet. We would say, “no,” they would mumble something and scurry off, leaving us to wonder if we’re supposed to wait or just dish out our own soup.

Now, I am not denying that every person in that place was working their tushies off. Everyone was doing some very important job that was required to keep the business running. However, there was obviously a very important cog that was missing from their business machine. You can cook all the food and do all the dishes and stock all the bakery cases as much as you want….but without someone to serve the customer, everything else is pointless.

Whenever I come across either a really great or a really poor customer experience, I try to relate it to my own business and ask myself if there is something I can learn from the experience to make my own business better. Even though we’re a relatively mature business, we still find ourselves rapidly evolving to keep up with market trends and new product developments. This evolution allows us to still see a 20% or greater increase in sales each year, when other companies of a similar age might have leveled out with a very small annual sales increase. On the other hand, these changes also mean that certain parts of our business can become neglected.

For example, we have a tendency to want to focus our efforts on tradeshows where we make a profit, while other companies are willing to accept that a tradeshow is a place to meet new customers and introduce new products. There are plenty of companies that exhibit at tradeshows and don’t sell a single item at the show. When we avoid smaller shows and more expensive shows in an effort to minimize expenses, we fail to expose ourselves to new potential customers. In the past, we’ve exhibited at shows where one new customer was a big enough account to have made the entire expense of the show worthwhile. We’ve already started tackling this problem by signing up for some new shows for the upcoming year in areas of the country where we feel our customers have not had the opportunity to meet us face to face. And we are planning to offer workshops in our new building so people can learn in a smaller setting, without the expense of a convention.

Another area of our business that has been neglected is our website. While our current website is adequate, and way better than our previous website, there are still some functionality issues that have not been addressed and are potentially frustrating our customers. I know that I’ve left a website for no other reason than there was annoying music or a long-loading flash presentation. I can imagine that plenty of people have left our website without making a purchase because the shopping cart didn’t work well on their Mac computer or because we don’t have a search function. Not only is that a loss of an immediate sale, but that could very well be a permanent loss of a customer. They are going to look around for another company who meets their needs. And once a customer finds someone who meets their needs, they are very unlikely to switch back to your company. I have been researching new shopping cart software and hope to get some of those problems resolved within the next few months.

When was the last time you really analyzed your business shortcomings and did something about it? Is there a part of your business that you hate doing so it doesn’t get done? Have you considered hiring someone to do that job in your business? Do you find yourself in a rut and accepting the status quo rather than stepping out of your comfort zone to grow your business? Start looking at what your colleagues are offering their customers and ask yourself if you’re being competitive. Why would someone choose your company over another company? (And you should know that price is not always the determining factor when customers choose a company.) How much effort are you putting into advertising? Have you looked for every free and inexpensive place to advertise your company? Have you included an advertising budget in your business plan? Do you update your current customers when you have new products and services to offer? How does your website look? Is it easy to navigate? Does it show up in search engines? Sure having a great product to sell or being a fabulous artist is important to your business. But without all of these other areas of your business taken care of, your business cannot function effectively.

Just like in life, we let our diets slip when we get busy, and our household chores get neglected, leaving our house falling apart in places….our business can start looking just as shabby without us realizing it. It’s a gradual process and it happens to all of us. You have to step back and look at your business through the eyes of both a new customer and an old customer. Your product shouldn’t be just as good as it’s always been, it should be better than it’s ever been. Don’t be afraid to ask your current customers how they feel and if they would like you to address some part of your offerings. They’ll appreciate that you care and the changes that you make can attract new business.

I hope you are all as excited as I am about the weather warming up and the upcoming busy season.
Have a wonderfully prosperous month!

~Erika

To retail or not to retail

Well, just when I think things are winding down after the summer festival rush, we start gearing up for fall craft shows, Halloween, and the winter holiday parties. No complaints here though. I’ve always said you shouldn’t have all of your eggs in one basket, particularly with a business like ours that can fluctuate seasonally.

One trend that I’m seeing with our customers is that many of you have started selling products yourself. Honestly, I can’t see why anyone would not want to sell merchandise in addition to their service business. Even if you earn $2 per minute while working at festivals and parties, there are just so many minutes in an hour and so many hours in an event. You know going into the event the maximum amount of money that you can possibly make, which to me, is very limiting and even depressing when you come home with less than you had hoped.

Product sales can easily double your income…or more. I’ve done henna at one of our local monthly events where we typically made less than $200 doing henna and over $400 selling henna kits and other merchandise. Amerikan Body Art has a very flexible wholesale site that can provide products for many different scenarios. The minimum opening order requirement is $200, and only $150 for re-orders. There are no minimums as far as product quantities go. You can order 1 or 100 of an item at the same low price. You can buy in bulk along with empty packaging to make your own kits, or you can buy pre-packaged items to take advantage of the Amerikan Body Art brand recognition.
www.AmerikanBodyArt.com/wholesale

If you’re teaching classes, 99% of the time, your students are going to want to take supplies home immediately so they can play. They’re not going to want to wait a week to have something shipped. Any products that you demonstrate in your class will sell particularly well. If you are on a tight budget and are concerned about ordering more supplies than your students will buy, you can assemble a small class kit that includes samples of each product and include the cost of the sample kit in the workshop fee.

When I started my supply business, I simply started ordering more of the products that I was already using. That way, there was no financial risk since I would eventually use the supplies myself if I didn’t manage to sell them. Plus, by purchasing in larger quantities, I was able to obtain lower pricing, which increased my profit.

Here’s an example of an easy money-maker. An empty sKweEZie applicator bottle with metal tip costs $1.49 at wholesale. An 8-ounce carrot bag of henna paste is $14.99 and will fill approximately 14 applicator bottles. Your total cost would be about $2.56 (plus shipping) for each bottle of henna paste and you can them for $6-$10 depending on your venue. At festivals where we were charging upwards of $10 for a single henna tattoo, we would easily sell a dozen or more of those little bottles, along with other henna kits, henna balm, and glitter tattoo kits.

If you want to make glitter tattoo kits, you can buy handful of different stencil designs, 5 or 6 glitter colors in ½ lb or 1lb bags, empty poof bottles, a pack of sweeper brushes, empty body glue applicator vials, and 19oz bottle of body glue. The 19oz bottle of glue will probably fill around 50+ glue vials. A pound of glitter should fill about 36 poof bottles. We have a glitter tattoo instruction sheet (with step-by-step photos) that is in a Word document which you can edit to have your contact information on there instead of ours. Just email me and I’d be happy to send you the file. We buy our labels from Online Labels, but you can also find them at Wal-Mart or any office supply store.

As far as pricing your products, the basic math equation is to double the cost of goods (including packaging). But you may also want to take into consideration your shipping costs and the time that it takes you to assemble any products. Let’s say that your cost for product (glitter, glue, & stencils) is $5 per kit. Your packaging materials, including labels and printer ink, comes to $2. And you determine that it takes you 10 minutes to assemble each kit. If you feel that $10 per hour is typical for your area for non-skilled labor, then your labor cost is $1.67 per kit. You might feel that your labor cost is $0 since so many of us start our businesses working for free, but keep in mind that eventually you will be too busy to do this yourself and will need to pay someone else to do it. So at this point your total cost is $8.67 per kit. You might even want to add in a small percentage to cover overhead costs and shipping costs, so let’s say your final real cost is $10 per kit. You’re probably looking at needing to price it at $20. Most of us are pretty frugal and crafty, especially as entrepreneurs, and we have a hard time imagining someone paying $20 for a small kit. But when you think about the fact that these same potential customers are willing to pay $10 or more for a single tattoo, a $20 kit that allows them to do a dozen tattoos is a real bargain.

Even though our pre-packaged kits are quite reasonably priced, you may prefer to make your own kits to fit the budget of your customer demographic. You may even find that our kits are too inexpensive for your area. There’s no need for expensive fancy packaging to sell merchandise, as long as it’s tidy and preferably uniform. My first henna kits were packaged in a paper bag with a label that I printed at home. Then I would buy lots of 12 or 24 cosmetic bags on eBay. Through my homeschool support group, I even found a local organization called the “Reusable Resource Center” where they received leftover office and craft supplies from local businesses. For $10 per year, I could take as much as I wanted and often found little boxes, bottles, and labeling materials that could be used for kit packaging. You most likely have a similar organization in your area. Eventually as your business grows, these sources won’t be consistent enough for your needs, but it’s a great way to get started inexpensively.

Even if you only work at private parties where you are paid hourly and not at festivals or workshops, you can still offer to create small kits as party favors. As a mother of three, I know that I’ve happily paid $3-$5 each for goodie bags and party favors. As busy as I am, I really value the convenience of being able to get all of my party needs taken care of with a single phone call. Post pictures on your website and create a postcard to send out to your current clients.

We are always more than happy to offer suggestions for your particular event or business scenario so feel free to send us an email if you’re unsure of what you should order. And although my husband jokingly tells me that my life philosophy is, “go big or go home,” and we love our customers who shop with abandon, I am also a firm believer in starting within your means and allowing your profits to snowball into a bigger business. This was our philosophy when starting our wholesale business because we wanted a retail business to be completely accessible and attainable for our customers. If you need something that we currently don’t have on the website, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll do our best to either get it or find it for you.

Have a wonderful month!
~Erika

Business Rescue

My new favorite TV show is Bar Rescue, on Spike TV. I think it’s a little funny that I like the show so much when I don’t even drink or frequent bars, but it’s the concept of the show that I really appreciate. Each episode features a different bar business that is on the verge of failure, usually due to poor management, that has opened their books and opened themselves up to scrutiny in order to get to the source of their problems. Enter Jon Taffer, hospitality consultant and public speaker. Jon typically has a friend or relative visit the establishment covertly to get an impression of what customers are experiencing. Once he’s finished with his undercover recon, he goes in to meet the owners and staff and to start the rehabilitation process. I know that there are other shows out there with a similar theme, but this one just seems to have a little less drama and a little more practical advice than some of those other shows.

Although I’ve never officially claimed the title or had it printed on a business card, I like to consider myself a business consultant. I teach seminars on how to start a face and body art business, I advise many of my friends and family in their businesses, and I spend hours each day, emailing business owners who have asked for help. When I took the family to vacation in a log cabin just outside of Chattanooga last month, I couldn’t help but prepare a mental list of changes that I felt the cabin owners should make to their vacation rental property. It was all I could do to not write down the list and leave it for the owners. I find that people don’t always appreciate unsolicited business advice. I can’t count how many times someone has given me advice that I ignored, and later wished I had taken more seriously.

I know that many of you are wondering what you can do to make your business more successful, and that there are probably just as many of you who haven’t even considered the need to improve your business because, “if it ain’t broken….why fix it?” A lot of us (and I am absolutely guilty of this) get comfortable with how things are going, and then are surprised when something happens, like a new competitor shows up on the scene, one of your artists has to move, one of your suppliers goes out of business, or the economy takes a nosedive and your regular customers can’t afford to hire you. During the time that it takes you to recover from one of these scenarios, you may have permanently lost several customers. I used to purchase some of our manufacturing supplies from one supplier for many years, and then their website was down for several days in a row, which forced me to look for a new supplier. Imagine my surprise when I found some of these items at almost 30% cheaper from a different supplier. Had my regular supplier’s website not been down, I would not have looked for another supplier, and now they’ve lost a customer. We experienced a similar problem a couple years ago when we spent a whole year with a dodgy website that only worked half the time. To this day, I still wonder how much traction we lost in our business during that year.

Have you looked at your business and assessed your vulnerabilities lately? Have you looked for areas where you can improve, and actually taken steps to make those improvements? Better yet, have you ever asked your customers or a friend to tell you what they really think about your business and what you could do to improve it? Just as we get comfortable with how things are running, many of our customers stay with us out of loyalty, but secretly wish that we would change some things.

Of course you can’t make everyone happy and there are some things, like lowering your rates, that just aren’t feasible…but there are small things that could make a significant difference in your customers’ experience. When I was in our vacation cabin, there were four minor changes that would have made my stay perfect. I felt that there should have been shampoo and conditioner in the bathrooms. You can buy full size shampoo at the dollar store, so even if every guest stole the shampoo out of the bathroom (which is highly unlikely) it still would have only cost a dollar or two…which is pretty insignificant when you’re charging $250 per night. The cabin was pretty dusty…which could easily have been fixed for free by the cabin owners. There was no toaster…which you could probably get for $10 or less these days. And I felt like the beds were less than “resort-like.” A simple change to white linens would have made the place feel much more upscale. Perhaps the owners have reasons for not doing these things, but maybe they have no problem booking the cabin so they haven’t considered the need to make improvements. But those minor things are enough to make me consider looking at other properties the next time we stay in that area.

So instead of Re-acting to business emergencies, how about spending a day being Pro-active and taking a good hard look at your business? Do you have a plan B if your regular supplier is on vacation and you don’t have the supplies that you need for a gig? Or is your plan B to give the job to another company and hope that the customer isn’t lost forever? Are you the only person on your team who can do certain gigs, or is everyone cross-trained to be able to do what is needed? Have you checked out what your competitors are doing and if there are small changes that you could make to your business for greater impact, or are you relying on your winning personality keep you in business? Are you continuing to operate the same way you have always operated and hoping that the economy picks up soon, or are you looking at a new approach to doing business?

I’ve mentioned some business improvement ideas in my earlier newsletters, which you can read by clicking the “Past Newsletter Articles” links at the bottom of this newsletter. Consider sending out a survey to your current customers to see what they suggest. Promise your friends that you won’t get upset if they give you an honest opinion about your business. And hang up that old excuse, “I don’t have time,” and find the time to rescue your business BEFORE it needs to be rescued.

I just wanted to add one more note about this economy thing. I was recently watching a DIY show about a company who specializes in re-facing kitchen cabinets instead of replacing them. People still want to upgrade and renovate their kitchens, even if they can’t afford new cabinets. So instead of waiting for the economy to improve and for people to be able to afford new cabinets, this cabinet company converted their business from building new cabinets to refurbishing old cabinets. I thought the idea was genius, and exactly what I’ve been trying to get across to my friends who feel that they’ve been suffering the effects of a poor economy. Every year, Amerikan Body Art shows increased sales of about 20%, which is somewhat surprising in light of the age of the company and the state of the economy. But when you think about it, our company provides goods and services to people who are looking for additional income….and there’s a lot of that going around these days. What does your business do to add value to someone’s life, other than offering them a rolling good time? The federal government is going to make huge budget cuts this year, which means greatly reduced funding for charitable organizations. Think about ways that your company can help these organizations with their fund raising efforts. You might end up with more business than you can handle with this new group of clients.

Have a wonderfully prosperous month!

Face Painting Convention Tips

Plan ahead of time which classes you will attend. If you are unsure of whether or not a class is for you, sit in the back of the class so you can leave and go to another class without being disruptive.

Bring a small kit and practice head if you have one.

Bring a dark towel and washcloth for cleaning up.

Bring address labels and business cards. You can use the address labels instead of writing out your address when making purchases with vendors.

Vendors often offer an opening night special that will not be available for the remainder of the show, so be sure to see what everyone has to offer and take advantage of the best deals.

If you are driving to the show, bring a cooler with snacks and sandwich supplies to keep your food costs down.

Don't be afraid to approach vendors or instructors with questions. They are there to teach and are more than happy to spend time with you.

Some of the best tips and ideas come from other attendees. Be sure to go to the evening jams and see how everyone else works.

At the end of the day...What really matters

Well, we’re back from Vegas and trying to get our business and personal lives back on track. It can be tough to be out of town for over a week, but fortunately we have supportive families and great staff that can hold down the fort while we’re gone.

Coming back from this trip has been a bit tougher than others. I got sick during the trip, along with Carlos, who worked the Dayspa Expo with me. And we’re still dealing with a lingering cough and fatigue…but it could be worse. Our friend and colleague, Gary Cole (head of Snazaroo US Division) was in a terrible moped accident right after the FPBAA Convention ended. He’ll likely have 6 months of recovery and rehabilitation before he’ll be ready to return to work at full force. Not to mention…he’ll spend tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. It sure puts things in perspective for me. I think I can just suck it up and get over my little cough.

Health issues weren’t the only thing we came back to when we returned home. Unfortunately, we only earned about half of what we had hoped to earn at these two conventions. We ended up a couple thousand dollars short of break-even, but that’s the way business goes sometimes. Conventions are meant to be advertising opportunities, not money-making ventures. Some shows don’t even allow you to sell product at the show, just to distribute information and possibly take orders. So, when we have a show where we break even on our expenses or make a profit, we count ourselves lucky. At shows like this, where we lost money, we have to come home and figure out how we’re going to pay booth fees for the next shows and how we’re going to be able to afford to restock the warehouse. Just like artists who have a slow season and still have to support their families during that slow season, our business has a slow season and still has to support the operations required to stay in business. But every year, we finesse our budget and get better at preparing for slow times.

Along with the financial issues, it seems that a million other things have not gone according to plan these past couple of weeks. We’ve had an unusual amount of orders go missing, get damaged, or get delayed in transit and several of our most important stock items have been backordered or discontinued from the manufacturer. Just to highlight….Our silver glue vials are unavailable until May, so we’ve had to substitute for gold. I suppose it’s not a big deal, but I feel like silver is one of our company colors, so it does bother me a bit. Several of our suppliers have increased their order processing time to anywhere from 1 week to 1 month, causing us to be out of stock of several items. Seven of our most popular Mica Shimmer Powder colors have been discontinued from the manufacturer, including Grape Soda, Superhero Blue, Spring Break, Aqua Lagoon, Sunny Daze, Tangerine Dream, and Cherry Pop. We should be able to find similar colors, but they won’t be identical, and it will require some time to find replacements. If you really love these colors, I strongly suggest that you stock up while we still have some left.

I truly feel like I’m putting out fires every day as some new problem arises…juggling finances, resolving customer problems, finding alternative product sources and replacements, and somewhere in there…trying to have a life with my family. At some point, I really have to decide what is important, what needs to be focused on, and what I need to accept as being beyond my control. I was talking to my husband, Mitch, last night. Mostly I was detailing the list of things that had gone wrong this week while he patiently listed and promised that it would get better soon. Amongst my closest friends, I’m referred to as the President of the Kick-in-the-Ass Club. You don’t get away with whining about being a victim of life when you’re around me. I firmly believe that we create our own circumstances in life and that we are the only ones who can make them better. So I resolved to not spend too much time whining and tried to focus on the positives. My family is healthy and happy. We have a sturdy home, filled with love and laughter. We have friends who would give us food and shelter if some disaster ever took ours away from us. And even after 12 years of marriage, I’m more in love with my husband than I ever thought possible. At the end of the day….I have everything that really matters. Everything else is just temporary.

Have a wonderful month, and hug your loved ones today!
~Erika

A little more...or a little less. To discount or not to discount

Every now and then, I have the rare opportunity to spend some time browsing the posts on the face painting forums, such as the Snazaroo forum or Cindy Trusty's Body Painting Forum. I saw a post this week that seemed relevant to a problem that many of us suffer from.

It happens all the time...You get someone on the phone who wants to hire you, but they want you to give them a discount. Sometimes it's a cultural thing, sometimes it's a bonafide budget issue, but sometimes it's just the nature of the person calling....they have to get a deal on everything. I don't know why these same people feel that it's okay to bargain with people in the face and body art industry, but they would never (I think) go into a hair salon and ask for a deal. Maybe salons suffer from the same problem too though. So you have to decide whether or not you want to give them a discount. Maybe you are desperate for work and need to do what's necessary to get the gig...but be sure to think of the repercussions of discounting your services.

#1 You are cheapening the value of what you do. You are a trained professional, you many put hours into your business besides just the hours at the actual gig, and not everyone can do what you do. You paid good money for the best and safest supplies and equipment available. You pay for marketing materials, advertising, and office supplies.

#2 The only "exposure" you get from these discounted gigs is when the organizer tells all their buddies that you're willing to discount your rates. And they expect you to give them a discounted rate the next time they call.

#3 You may end up having to turn down a client who would have paid you full price because you booked yourself to do the discounted event.

So what are you to do when someone asks you for a discount and you feel like they are simply not willing to pay the posted price for the services requested? It's been my experience that customers place more value on receiving something extra than they do on receiving a discount. Depending on the gig that you're proposing to do, perhaps you can explain to the client, "I'm sorry, but we can't discount our rates because it's unfair to our regular clients who pay full price, but I'll tell you what I can do for you..." Decide what you can afford to offer the client...and personalize it to their needs.

For example:

A mom organizing a birthday party with 8 kids may not need extra time from you, but maybe they would appreciate a CD with photos that you've taken of each child that you painted.

A mom calling for a batmitzvah may not be interested in any sort of party favors or photos, since they have already purchased party favors and hired a photographer, but maybe they would appreciate an extra half-hour of your time for free.

A non-profit event organizer would probably appreciate an offer to bring along a teenager who can quickly do little tattoos while you do the more elaborate face art.

A corporate event organizer would probably appreciate you offering to create a stencil of their logo and tattooing their staff 15-30 minutes before the event starts.

The key is that you want to be appreciated for what you're offering. You don't want the clients to think that you're anything less than professional and worth every dollar that you charge. You have to keep in mind, that while some industries suffer in this economy, luxury items and services usually do not suffer. And what we offer is a luxury service

Book club: Who moved my cheese? by Spencer Johnson

Apparently Jenn's husband, Carlos, picks this book up whenever he sees it at secondhand bookstores and hands them out to friends. So, I received my copy from him maybe a month ago. It's a quick read; you can probably get through it in an evening. I think I put off reading it because I figured it was something aimed at those who work "regular" jobs with big companies that face downsizing. But the discussion section at the end of the book made me see how the lesson can actually be applied to many areas of life. I plan on reading this book out loud to my kids as part of their homeschooling.

The main story chronicles the lives of two mice and two little people who must navigate an enormous maze in order to find sustenance (cheese). At one point, they find what seems to be an unlimited supply of cheese and decide to get comfortable. Little do they realize that the cheese supply is dwindling, until one day it is all gone. The mice simply shrug and move on to find another source of cheese, but the little men struggle with whether they should risk the unknown to go out into the maze and find more cheese, or stay put and wait for someone to bring back their cheese.

I hear people say that the economy is failing and that we all should just tighten our belts and wait it out. But my sales have increased every year since I've been in business...and not just by a meager percentage. I'd like to think that I am this amazing business guru that always makes the right business moves, but I tend to think that my ADD keeps me from sitting still too long. I get bored doing the same thing every day and am always looking for new products and services. I've stepped out of my comfort zone of exhibiting at small face and body art conventions with 100-400 attendees to exhibit at huge hair and make-up shows with 10,000 - 50,000 attendees. Yes there's a greater financial risk, but the payoff has been huge.

But maybe you don't have the kind of funds available that would allow you to launch a costly advertising campaign or to buy all sorts of new equipment. What can you do that won't cost you a thing other than your time and brainpower? In this day and internet age, there are loads of free non-traditional advertising venues. And there are probably tons of markets that you haven't even tapped into because you've become comfortable with your own little market segment, whether it be in a salon or working private parties. When I start feeling like the business is getting stagnant and I need a creative boost, I like to pick up a motivational book (or six) and spend some time reading industry forums to see what everyone else is doing. If you've run out of ideas, keep in mind that you're never more than a few keystrokes away from someone else's great idea. A fellow colleague once said, "A good artist steals some things, a great artist steals everything."