Jenna: So today I wanted to talk about how to make policies for your lash business. I know that this is gonna be relevant for a couple of my students right now. So I wanted to share this video cuz I know it can help a bunch of other people. Sometimes making policies is really uncomfortable for some people, especially if you're not used to setting boundaries in your personal life or et cetera.

I know for in the beginning of my business, it was really difficult cuz I just wanted to practice as much as I could. I wanted to gain as many clients as I could and I was willing to sacrifice a lot. As you go, you really have to make those policies in order to like really preserve yourself and your business to make yourself profitable, to stop yourself from going crazy.

And the sooner you can implement these policies, the easier it will be on your business. Um, so please don't wait. As long as I did to implement policies, I really would recommend starting some policies off right away. And I can give you a good idea of what you might encounter in the future. Check this video out and take some notes and see what works for you.

What doesn't work for you. If you have anything else that you wanna suggest, link it below in the comments. So to determine the policies that you would like to have for your business, you might wanna ask yourself these questions. What are some of the current frustrations that I have with my existing clients?

What behaviors are generally unacceptable to me, what really matters to me during the flow of my day? What behaviors cost me money? This is a big one. And what behaviors affect my other clients. Also, you might wanna think about what is working well that I would like to enforce in all of my appointments. So think about your ideal client, who is the person that you love seeing all the time appointments go?

Well, everything is kind of just like really in the flow. You wanna write down a bunch of things from that appointment that you love. and try to think about how you can kind of really encourage these behaviors in your other appointments, because likely there are some things that are happening that are going well in that appointment, uh, that are causing some awesome things for that client as well.

Like such as good retention or just like a positive vibe too. If someone comes and does something that is generally not acceptable to your business, you might not have like the best vibes with them. They might not know why. And if you don't make a policy. To enforce that or discourage those behaviors, then it's just gonna keep on happening and getting worse in your business.

You wanna encourage the positive behaviors by curtailing those things that are really taking your time and energy away from being positive in the studio. Take a second. Pause this video. And we're gonna write these questions down in the top info there. So you can take a second and fill these out for yourself and.

See, what kind of policies you come up with for yourself before I dive into these a little further. So we're also going to link my policies on my website. Down below here, you can check them out. And if you have any questions about why I would've made any of these policies, I am an open book and I'd love to go through it with you. DM me@elevatelash.ca. I'd be so happy to talk about it with you because some of these things might not make sense for you, but through my years of experience, I can help maybe. Suggest some things that might come up for you that have come up for me as well and save you some time, money, and stress with that.

So I'm just gonna kind of briefly go through these things and tell you some of the things that are top on my mind, if you didn't already think of them by yourself. So. What are some of your current frustrations with your existing clients? So you might just be starting out, but some of the most general ones are being late for appointments.

That's for sure. Something, no showing for appointments. Or also being way too early for appointments being too early for an appointment can be as inconvenient as being late for an appointment. You are going to need to go to the washroom. You are going to need to eat food like any human being. And sometimes clients do not understand this.

And so sometimes you do need to put a policy in place for this because you are not a robot. And if you don't eat and go to the washroom, like a regular person, it's going to really weigh on you all day. If you're just trying to really accommodate every client, but not kind of curtailing these behaviors that make you feel rushed or uncomfortable or missing out on your breaks.

Also someone coming way too. Can be annoying to the previous client because that's their time. Right? So it depends on your studio set up, but if you're a solo entrepreneur and you are taking time away from that current client's appointment to deal with the really early client, it just is not a good vibe for anyone.

So that's another one that can really affect your business that you might not think. Right away, but consider adding it to your list. If that's something that you think you would like to be, have respected in your studio as well. So those are some of the basic, typical frustrations of many lash artists that you might wanna consider.

And so what kind of general behaviors would be unacceptable to you? So there's lots of studios that have a safe space policy. You can include things like that, so that you are just kind of like making sure. That people know that you're going to be respecting all types of genders and ethnicities and stuff like that.

Also other behaviors that might not be acceptable are I'm trash talking their previous lash technician. Sometimes you really do have to talk to them about that because sometimes it, it gets a bad rap that studios become like. Uh, places for gossip, but gossip is not a good thing to have in your business because if someone is talking about someone else or you end up getting involved in it, it's a bad feeling for everyone.

And it leads everyone to think that you might do that to them, or you might be fostering those conversations with other people. So try to nip those in the bud. I would, uh, really recommend, and sometimes you can just have a no gossip policy. So. Other general behaviors, maybe like mutual respect. There's a lot of different things that you, you might not be okay with taking off your shoes when you come into the studio, like little things like that.

So just think about the things that you want your clients to do and make a list. So you're also gonna wanna think of what really matters to you in the flow of your Workday. So that could be how clients communicate with you. Do you wanna be picking up the phone all the time or do you wanna be DMing them or dealing with, with things through email?

These are important things that you can can communicate with your client to prevent miscommunication or hurt feelings. Sometimes someone might feel ignored. I know at elevate, for example, we have a phone. Our phone number is not. Sometimes people text that phone number and I actually have no clue. So I try to put as much as possible everywhere that phone calls no text to that phone number, just to avoid any of those hurt feelings, but there's other lash texts who don't want any phone calls.

So they say no phone calls only text. So that's your choice and the policies it's not. These nasty rules, it's about communication with your clients so that there's easier flow of everything. And also you can really choose or help people choose who you are going to jive with. Right? There's some people who only want a phone call.

If you are not a phone call person, maybe they're not the right client for you. So just by communicating that in your policies, you can avoid some things, dissatisfied customers or a poorly matched client, because if they want a phone call always and. Person, maybe they should find a phone call studio. So just a couple of things to think about the flow of your Workday.

So think about breaks. Think about how you're gonna deal with it. When someone comes in with barely like two lashes left and they have only booked for a fill, if you don't set that out in your policies, it can be an uncomfortable conversation and lead to a client having. Than ideal service with you, but also yourself taking on a lot more than you should, because you haven't outlined in your policies, how you're gonna deal with this in advance.

So, um, once again, if you want a suggestion about how I deal with it, just check out my policies down below on my website. And I've got that worked into mine as well. so what behaviors are costing you money? So these are important for you to think about if you don't have a policy about them coming in without mascara, then that's also kind of a behavior that can cost you money because it costs you your reputation, right?

You want them to come in, prepped for their appointment, or if you're gonna decide that you are going to clean every set of lashes. Good on you. I don't do that personally. I don't have enough time and my clients are fully capable of doing this themselves. So in my opinion, my time is more valuably spent working on their eyelashes, not cleaning them.

They can do the cleaning themselves. So I have them clean before they come in and they all know that. So we very rarely have that situation come up. But if you don't make. In your policies and you don't have that expectation with your clients, there's just gonna be disappointment. And it's gonna lead to you having a lesser quality of work put out there.

So set those expectations in your policies, whatever they're going to be and stick with them. So everyone knows. Other behaviors that could cost you money are how are they gonna pay at the end of their appointment? Do you accept E transfers? Are they, uh, is the payment due at the end of the service? I know that this should be really common knowledge that it's expected to be paid at the end of the service, but sometimes if you don't.

Put that in your policies, people will expect that they can pay you like maybe two weeks down the line. And that usually Le leads to you having to chase 'em down. Maybe they forget. Maybe you can't find them again. So set those expectations that you are going to be paid at the end of your service so that there's no awkward feelings.

Also let them know. Are you only taking cash? Do you take debit credit? What are your payment methods? We also want to think about the behaviors. Affect your other clients. So as I previously mentioned, clients who come to you early, that's a behavior that affects the previous client. Especially some people are a little bit more nervous these days with contact with certain people.

And they just don't wanna be in a room with a bunch of other people for an extended period of time. So making sure your appointments are running smoothly and someone's not throwing off the whole schedule for someone is really important. Also your cancellation policy. So the busier you get as a studio, the longer you need to, to have for cancellations, in my opinion, because where are you gonna put them when they cancel and reschedule, you're fully booked.

You cannot put that on yourself that you're gonna work overtime all the time. And so unfortunately, or fortunately you do have to lengthen that time that you will need in order for notice to reschedule. For a long time in my studio, I did 24 hours. I would recommend not starting at 24 hours. Now the situation has really changed with the whole thing.

That's happened with all the illnesses and you really do want to accommodate for illness. Like you will have to decide how you're going to do that in your studio. So what's your rescheduling policy. If someone's sick, generally, I find that my clients don't abuse this because they want to come for their last appointments.

They know it's gonna be hard to get in otherwise. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of repeat clients, but when you are new, you're unfortunately going to have more people probably maybe abusing this policy. So unfortunately that's kind of the cost of doing business, but not having a cancellation policy at all or rescheduling policy is just putting all the clients in a really bad situation because those appointments are being held for someone who's not really committed. And you have other clients who are loyal, who are going to show. Who really would like those times and, or you don't yet, but you want to attract those clients and you do not wanna make it E as easy for clients who aren't committed to you to book in, as you do for clients who are committed to you and are loyal to you to book in, you want to really encourage and reward the behavior of being loyal prebooking and, uh, not canceling your appointment.

You do wanna detract away from someone who is a notorious counselor and rescheduler because they're not only affecting your schedule, they're affecting everyone's schedule. And it's your job to really put those boundaries in place because you're in charge of the group, right? You are supposed to be doing what's best for your business, but also for the whole.

Studio. And it can't just be one person throwing a wrench into everyone's schedules all the time, or taking up these appointments that other people would like. And, uh, not giving you enough time to reschedule them. So consider doing at least a 24 hour rescheduling and cancellation policy. If you are maybe in a rural place where you have to drive far or something like that, or you're commuting more than 20 minutes, I would say, maybe consider doing a little bit longer.

Because your time is valuable. You don't want to burn yourself out, but you also want to hold those spots for people who are loyal and not going to be needing to reschedule like that and cancel you all the time. And so the last little point there what's working well that I would like to enforce with all my appointments.

Basically, you can find that out in my policies. And so check out the link below and you'll see my policies and I'm pretty good about this. So whenever there's something that's really not working for me or a member of my studio or a bunch of my clients, I do go in and I adjust my policies. Or if I have an instance where a client is having a miscommunication or misunderstood our policies, which happens sometimes no matter how you try to communicate them, sometimes people misunderstand things.

So every time that happens, I go into my policies and I really do try to make things clearer so that we can communicate more effectively with our clients and do a better job of customer satisfaction and just maintaining the vibe in our studio and the balance, right. The work-life balance. So. Check it out. Get some ideas, DM me. If you have questions.

So I just wanted to touch on a couple more things that might be of interest in your cancellation policy. So that would be also telling them prior, during, and after the appointment, how to correctly care for their lashes. And this should be a part of your policies too, so that they understand it is important and that is essential to good retention.

So some other policies that I think are important are how you're gonna deal with a lash fill on top of someone else's work. Are you going to do it? We have discontinued that. For many different reasons. And you can DM me about that. If you wanna hear more at elevate lash CA I don't really wanna get into that too much.

It's just, um, a policy that I think is great because of very many reasons. So basically to ensure the quality of your work. So also no pets or children in the studio is a great one. Actually many insurance policies will not allow you to have. Or children, especially children in the studio. And we've had social workers that work as lash artists.

And they've actually even said that it is actually negligence and you could be charged with negligence. If you do have a child unattended in the studio. And unattended means when the parents' eyes are taped and you are concentrating on their eyes, there's no certified child giver in that situation.

Don't put yourself in that situation, make it clear to your clients. If you're not insured, then that's a huge liability for you. But also you're putting your client's child in danger, which is not something you ever wanna do. And not everyone's gonna see it that way, but that's the word straight from a social worker.

So you take it from her. Don't take it from me. So cell phone's off, that's a great policy to have as well for your clients' comfort, but also for other clients. Who are 18 years of older or having to have consent. That's a great other policy, having everyone sign a waiver form, of course. Oh. And also mass usage could be a policy that you want to implement as we have as well to keep yourself extra safe, to make sure you don't have to take days off of the studio or be spreading it to your clients and having them having to take time off of work, which means they have less money.

Their lashes and less time in their life to do extracurricular activities. Like self-care generally not. Everyone is going to be stoked about the rules that you implement in your studio, but that's gonna happen no matter what, when you try to make everyone happy, you end up making no one happy. And that's the truth about a studio that has no policies.

You're gonna. Getting burned out. Clients are not going to have a consistent experience. So those are both things that you don't want to happen. What does happen when you implement policies? And you're true to yourself and you communicate well with your clients is you are going to attract the right clients, your ideal clients.

So you're gonna continue to love your job, and you're not gonna burn out. You can continue to be there for a long period of time because you are not helping anyone. If you're not gonna be in the industry. And honestly, if you don't create those boundaries and those policies, then you are going to burn out way faster and you may not feel like this is the right space for you, but in reality, it's just, you need to enforce your policies and boundaries a little bit more to make sure that you don't get in that situation.

Again, don't be afraid to let clients that don't wanna comply with your policies. Go to another studio. They may be better suited for somewhere else. Everyone has different ideas of what is going to be an ideal workplace. And that's totally okay. And so I even encourage clients sometimes to go somewhere else that they might be better suited to if that's really important to them, or if it makes them feel more comfortable.

And it's not like a backhanded, uh, comment at all, I genuinely would like them to be in a situation where they're going to be most happy. And if it's not in. Studio then I completely understand. And I would be even happy to find or help them match them with a studio that works better for them. But when it comes down to it, am I going to sacrifice my policies that I have created for a lot of different reasons for one client who just does not fit in.

That's gonna possibly really throw a wrench in my other client's schedules or the way I can perform for them or the customer satisfaction in general. Like, no, it's not worth changing everything up for one person who doesn't fit into the group, they would be much better served going to somewhere else that has the policies already in.

That they are going to jive with. And it's an act of love to really match that client with that studio versus trying to be everything to everyone and having it eventually blow up in your face. So , we're gonna be doing a couple videos like this for geared towards our new lash artists and the girls that are graduating from Elevate Beauty Education.

So keep checking back next week. We'll have another one ready for you guys.