Bettering Your Career As An Esthetician

Because esthetics, the art of spas, skin care, and so forth is a very competitive field its important to have a road map to your career before you should get involved in it and be able to design the ideal career that you want before you step into it. Make sure that you know what you want before you invest a lot of time and money into it. Prior to getting involved in any of it you want to know if it’s for certain the right career for you and what you can do to make it a more enjoyable career as you grow with it.

First thing to know is how the whole industry works. Like hairstyling and nail work, it’s a client based business which means for the first year it’s very low pay and a lot of hours mentoring, shadowing, otherwise not making money while you learn. Depending on how good you are it can take a few years for you to build up enough clients to be able to support yourself and that’s something you have to be aware of in the beginning. A lot of it is a numbers game - just waiting it out until you have enough steady business that you don’t need to actively recruit quite as much. You also want to have a clear goal in mind for what your career is going to look like. Are you working towards being a big player in a medical spa or would you rather work at a more remote resort style of a setting. Do you want to open your own spa or private practice? Are you fine working for someone else? Do you want to teach at some point? All of these things are questions you need to answer before you make any attempts to move forward in your career.

Next it’s important to remember to not jump and hop around to different jobs. When you have your own license and are simply renting places it can be tempting to job-hop for a lot of different reasons but building a habit of doing so will only cause your problems in the long run. Make sure that you check out the places you want to work, and get a feel for the environment of them before trying to get hired. It’s also important to take a look at what kind of services and products your salon is selling. If they aren’t selling services that you want to practice ask yourself why and try to infer whether or not you can propose those service to the spa or if they are specifically avoiding them for a reason. Remember that you need to fill a need for the spa that is hiring you and proposing services you can sell there for them may be a way to do that or it may mean that you aren’t fitting in with the type of spa they want to have. Medical services don’t belong in a hotel spa and the reverse is true as well. Be smart about what you propose to potential employers and try to make sure that you’ll fit in well with a place before applying there so that you wont waste anyones time.

Remember that being an esthetician isn’t just about preforming spa services - you also have a responsibility to help the spa make money and the most common way of doing that is through retail and product sales. Most spas will carry lines of products to recommend to their customers for various treatments and conditions and it’s important that you get to a point where you like retail sales and you’re good at it. Help your spa promote and sell their products by demonstrating to your clients how they can use them and what they’ll be good for. Don’t worry about your clients being upset with you for promoting you spas products - it’s unlikely that they’ll be. Instead they’ll probably be grateful that you’re taking the time out to recommend products for them and since they’re at a spa they’re already interested in taking care of themselves - why not allow them to do it between visits?

Make sure that you are doing your best to market yourself as an esthetician. Don’t sit around and hope that having your license will be enough to get clients to come in through the door for you. When you begin as an esthetician you wont have much of a client base which means plenty of free time for you to market yourself and find new clients to visit your spa. Print up brochures or flyers, take out an ad in the newspaper or put up some pictures of your spa and the treatments you offer on your facebook page to get friends and family interested in coming to see you. Make deals with people you know in similar industries to trade cards and let each other advertise in your respective offices. Give parties where you demonstrate services and do a few of them for free to show people what they’re missing out on. Have competitions or contents, donate some profits to charity, and offer discounted services to certain groups in order to win clients and bring in new demographics. Give points for referrals and let clients earn free services by bringing in their friends and family. Little things like this can go a long way to getting you a solid clientele base which is, after all, the only way that you can do business.

Remember that in the midst of all of this you have to be patient and know that it will take some time to get all the clients you want in. Any good esthetician can tell you that it takes a while before things get busy but that it’s well worth the upfront effort you put into it. While you’re working on these things make sure that you stay current on your training, keep up with new classes, trends, and techniques and use any down time to practice and learn new skills. You can never lose by investing in your own education. If you pair that with marketing efforts to build up a good client base you’ll soon be doing very well as an esthetician. Good luck!