Get Your First 5 Clients | Tips to grow your makeup artist business

If you want your first five paying clients, listen up because you need to hear this. The hard truth is you will not get your first paying clients simply because you love doing makeup. The majority of newer makeup artists are not struggling because they're new. They're struggling because they're not treating their business like a business. Hey guys and welcome back to the fifth day of the 25 days of Kitmas. Today we are going to be deep diving into how you can get your first five paying clients as a makeup artist. So before we get into the actionable steps, we need to talk about mindset. And I promise you that this is one of the most important shifts that you can make as a makeup artist. I want you to start thinking about your business like a business. That is the number one mistake that I see a lot of beginner makeup artists do. The majority of people I see treat it like a fun little hobby, like you're a little girl that's just playing around with your mom's makeup and just seeing what sticks. That is not the case here. We are professionals. We are building an industry that has far surpassed itself in reputation. If you don't take yourself seriously, how do you expect other people to take it seriously? Sorry to be super candid, but that is the hard truth about this. Now it's super intimidating for any beginners to start, and I totally understand that. You automatically compare yourself to all of the very talented, very experienced makeup artists out there. The ones that have had five to 10 years of experience, the ones that have established portfolios, their marketing portfolio and social media is on brand, and they also have a lot of connections within the industry. So if you show up looking like you're brand new, very disorganized, very chaotic, people are gonna treat you like an amateur. And this gap will be- become painfully obvious. If you just go on Instagram and start scrolling makeup artists in your area, you can clearly tell which ones have been in the industry for a while and which ones are within their maybe first couple of years because their branding isn't there and this leads me on to tip number one is that you need to do a branding session with your business before you even start think of this like giving yourself a simple clean professional foundation before you even start taking clients clients believe it or not do not know and also really don't care how long you've been doing makeup for as long as they see that you look professional first of all you have to pick your aesthetic or what you want your brand to represent this goes in line with picking a few different colors mine personally are all the neutral kind of colors so i have I have beige and I have a brown nude kind of color and that's pretty much what my branding colors are. That way my colors are very elevated and very bridal since that's the niche that I'm in. The other thing you should probably do is pick a couple of fonts. This is something that will keep your brand consistent across all platforms. And then lastly is kind of just like a vibe overall. I'm a natural to soft glam kind of makeup artist and I very much specialize in simplistic, clean, luxury style makeup and I want to attract the type of clients who also resonate with that too. And you guys might already be overwhelmed because you're like like, okay, how in the world do I even think about this? Don't get too overwhelmed. You can always change this aesthetic and this branding at any point in time. I have changed my branding multiple different times throughout the year. I swear it changes like every couple of years. I figured I'd mention one of my number one most highly recommended graphics and social media tool to help me out with my branding. And this is a website called Canva. If you guys have never heard of it before, there is a free unpaid version where you can go and make an account. and it literally helps you set up all of your branding. So you can pick out your fonts, you can pick out your colors, and they have all of these free customizable templates for every single social platform. I have the paid version only so I can access the premium features, but if you use it for your business, you can also use Canva's paid version as a tax write-off. Just keep that in mind. And it's only $12.99 a month. The other things available on Canva are free photos and videos, free of copyright, free to use. You can use them on any of your social media pages, and I use most of their templates too for Instagram reels. I really like that. a lot. I make my YouTube thumbnails from Canva and I have used Canva for years. I am also not sponsored by Canva but would very highly appreciate if Canva did sponsor me. After you're done with branding for yourself. Number two is creating a booking site or a website. If you are super intimidated, website builders do make it very, very easy nowadays where it almost becomes a plug and play situation. I personally use a website called Squarespace. On Squarespace, they have templates that are already set up for you, already have an aesthetic. You just have to plug in your own words and your own media images and that's about it. It really doesn't take that much effort, as much effort as you think. It's not like you're building it from like a completely blank website. You're already using a template that exists and you're just simply plugging in your own information. I transitioned to Squarespace, it elevated my business highly. It elevated the look of my website. There was much more modern themes as far as website design goes. And I really love the templates that they had. They also go through a website called Acuity Scheduling, and that's where you can do your booking links. I think that you can also just make like a singular contact page on Squarespace too. So if you want, for instance, your Instagram page to link to just like one singular booking page, I think that Squarespace can do that too. I promise you, if you set yourself up just taking DMs, you will almost instantaneously regret your decision. DMs can get lost. They can get ignored. It's really chaotic when you do it that way and then you're just doing things without having a system memorize anything for you and it's just a whole chaotic mess that you do not need when you first start. The next version of this branding is moving on to Instagram and I will definitely deep dive into Instagram and do a future kitmas video but with Instagram your social media presence should be about at the same level as any other makeup artist that's been doing it for five to ten years because you really want to put yourself on the same level as them. You want your brand on social media to be cohesive across the board. So again, same color scheme, same fonts, do a little intro post about yourself and make sure you're including your booking link, any way that people can contact you in a short description about what you do. And then your last thing you want to add to your Instagram page is of course your content. And this now goes into the next tip. Tip number two is creating proof of skill before you ever get your first client. Clients need evidence that you can actually do makeup. That might be a super obvious thing to say, but beginners make the mistake of clients just happening upon their page. or just because they start posting, people will automatically find them. And that is not the case. Cannot wait for clients to show up in your chair for you to be able to build your portfolio. You have to go out and do the work before that even happens. Step number one, just do a full glam on yourself. Like you can do something as simple as this or in whatever style of makeup that you wanna advertise for yourself. Again, it's all about cohesion. It's all about making your brand aesthetics. So if you're a natural soft glam kind of makeup artist, don't post yourself in like a full glam smokey eye. You won't be attracting. the ideal clientele. Clients do not care who the model is, they just care about your skill set and they care about if you can complete the task at hand. And step number two is practicing, practicing, practicing. practicing on people especially with different features as you because you can't just be doing like all caucasian people for instance you have to be doing people with different complexions different eye shapes different skin textures everything and this will get you more practice as a makeup artist too these will most likely be friends and family this is probably your best advertisement is people that you already know so ask a family member a friend a co-worker i've had several brides in the past that had a very diverse group of bridesmaids and they wanted to look for somebody who specifically had all the different skin tones in their portfolio and they ended up choosing me because i had it advertised on my portfolio step number three is try a wide variety of looks if you have no idea what your overall aesthetic is or what you want to be known for try everything try all the looks underneath the sun whether it's natural soft glam full glam smoky eyes red lipstick after a while whenever you repetitively start doing makeup you will get to a point where you just end up clicking with a style of makeup and really enjoy doing one style of makeup more than the other ones eventually you're going to get to the point where you're kind of tired of working on people that you know, so you're going to start going to people that you don't know. And this is where model calls and styled shoots come into play. This and all the makeup that you're doing on your friends and family is going to be free work. You're not going to be able to charge for it. You're not going to be able to make money off of it. It's purely just for you to practice and get portfolio pictures. With styled shoots and model calls, most likely you're probably gonna advertise this on your personal Facebook page or you're gonna post it on your Instagram page. Say that it's a completely complimentary makeup service. Practicing the... these different techniques and literally there's so many people that when you say free makeup application or complimentary service they're gonna jump right on board with that you're probably not gonna have trouble getting people so model calls are very nice because you can do this independently and kind of on your own free time But if you want to take it a step up, you can go into styled shoots. Styled shoots are normally where you collaborate with a photographer and other vendors possibly to be able to do a content day. Since I'm a bridal makeup artist, I usually collaborate in bridal styled shoots. And I do this every once in a while. It's not something that I like to do anymore because they are unpaid. But what's really nice about them though is you get to connect with all the rest of the vendors in that shoot, which is great. And they have your information. They also may have a lot more connections than you. So utilizing them for their audience and their reach. resources is also really nice. The other thing that's really nice about this, especially when you first get started, is that you will also be getting professional photos back from the photographer at no cost to you. So that's a really quick way to get professional photos for your website and to post online. Everybody just exchanges their services and you all get your content for the day. However, I do want to mention that no matter what free work that you do, all of this should be temporary. It shouldn't be the only thing that you're doing because of course you still have to allow time for actual paid clients. I still do model calls and style every once in a while, but since I'm a bridal artist, I do them during my off seasons. So I'll typically do it during like January, March time when I don't have a lot of weddings going on because I don't ever want to detract from me getting jobs because I'm doing this unpaid job. And that's the same with beginners too. Again, you kind of just have to treat yourself like you already have been in it for a while. So you have to make sure to reserve your time wisely. Once you have about, I would say 10 to 15 photos to post on your social media pages, I would post all of them, do captions, do hashtags, everything and then once you have a solidly built portfolio then you can announce your services. So yes all of this takes place before you even take your first paid clients because again clients need to know that you do have experience working as a makeup artist and that you can actually do makeup. Then we're going on to tip number three. This is when you're going to announce your services like a professional. This is the second most common mistake that I see beginners make is they'll announce it like they're new. Most everybody goes hey I'm new and just looking for practice or I need faces to build my portfolio. Comment down below if you guys have made the mistake of doing that already. Don't feel alone. I did too. But here's what that tells people as a potential client. Screams beginner makeup artist, screams inexperienced, screams not confident, and screams not trustworthy for an event. And you do not want any of those signals present in your business at all. So even if you are new, you do not have to advertise it like that. Clients don't need your life story. They need clarity. So here's some examples of what you might say instead. Now accepting bookings for glam appointments. Opening five introductory rate spots. this year. Now booking makeup plans for photo shoots, special events, and weddings. It's not lying, it's speaking like you're a business because you are. Then moving on to tip number four, your first paying clients will most likely be somebody that you know. Beginners expect strangers online to book them, but realistically, it's going to be the people in your inner circle or people connected to your inner circle. These people already know you in real life. They trust you, they know your personality, and they know that you're not going to scam them. So start spreading the word. I know quite a bit of makeup artists that I've talked to that are beginning always stress about this a little bit because they're almost embarrassed to announce to people that they're starting, but the more people in your inner circle that know, the more the word can get. out and the faster it can get out casually mentioned you know to your co-workers friends family hey i'm taking makeup clients if you ever need anybody for a special event keep me in mind this is also very true of my own personal experience too my very first three weddings came from people that i knew or people that have been connected to people that i've known so the first two clients actually came from when i was working as a mac artist those two clients directly came into the mac counter then the third wedding was a photographer that i used to work with at alta that recommended me to her bridal client and that's how i booked my third wedding And after that, it kind of just went on from there. Some of the people that I knew, some people I didn't. And still to this day, I want to say that about 90% of my clients that book me are from referrals. Tip number five, and I briefly did mention this, but we're gonna go back to social media again. This is where beginners get stuck. They think that follower count equals success when really it could not be. farther from the truth. Follower count is just a vanity metric. I know that you've heard people say that before, but we do tend to look a little bit more highly upon people who have that 100,000 follower count as opposed to somebody who maybe has 200 followers. But from my own personal experience, the people that have like 100,000 followers are influencers. They're people that clearly live online. People are not booking with them because their followers don't even live anywhere near them. Whereas people that have 200 followers might be completely booked because those 200 people all live in their city. It's very important not to take these things at face value. Then my last and final tip, and this is admittedly information that I have shared previously, but realized that I had to adapt with the times. So here's my updated advice for this. Tip number six is don't price yourself in beginner territory. Charging too little. ultimately is a red flag because it signals to people that you're a beginner makeup artist or not confident in your abilities and you're undercharging yourself because you don't feel like you're worth it. So treat yourself like a professional and put yourself on the same level as other makeup artists. Now I don't mean that you need to be out here you know charging like $200 per face that's a little extreme when you're a beginner but I'm saying at least charge what other people are generally charging as an average in your area because let me just put it out there if you see an artist charging 50 to 60 dollars for a full glam makeup look doesn't your mind naturally just go to oh they must be a beginner whereas if you're charging 85 as a beginner then they're like oh this person must have experience doing heavy research on this really does come into play you want to research the average price in your area what the lowest price is people charge and make sure not to go below this. You never want to undercharge yourself. You never want to undercut other artists. You want to make sure your prices match the standard in your area. Because believe me, if you start pricing yourself in the cheap category, it's going to be harder and harder each year to try to raise your rates and also get clients to understand why you're charging what you're charging to. You automatically want to come in as the authority and come in as the experienced, level-headed, grounded, professional makeup artist and show people that you are worth it. Before I wrap up, I just want to leave you guys with this. Getting your first five paying clients is one of the hardest things that you will do as a makeup artist. Not because you're not talented, but because building trust takes time. Inevitably though, those five clients will come. It might take longer than you expected. It might test your patience a little bit. You might have days where you feel invisible or just feel discouraged. You're not failing. You're building something organically and that will take time naturally. And I know we all jump on this comparison train, but I do want to put it out there that every single established makeup artist, people that are killing in the industry, getting flown all over the world, their clients. Those people started in the exact same place that you are right now and had to go through the exact same process. None of us skipped this phase. We had moments like you, moments where nobody booked us, moments where we questioned our own worth, and moments where we almost quit. But we kept showing up and that is exactly what you're going to do too. Your first five clients will come and once they do the next five will come even easier. So on that note I hope you guys did enjoy this video and that you found it helpful. If you guys did enjoy it make sure that you like the video. Comment if you have any questions or anything to add to this. Don't forget to subscribe because you don't want to miss out on the next kitmas videos that I have planned for you guys. And as always, I hope you guys are having an absolutely fantastic day and I will talk to you guys in tomorrow's video. All right. Bye.

Getting your first few clients as a makeup artist can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. In today’s video, I’m breaking down the exact methods I used to book my first 5 clients — and these tips aren’t just for beginners. If you’re an artist who feels stuck, needs a reset, or simply wants to bring in more clients, these strategies will help you rebuild momentum and start getting booked again. You’ve got this!

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