7 Mistakes I made as a New Business Owner
Welcome to the Spa Business Building Podcast, your go-to destination for turning your passion as a beauty or wellness professional into a successful and profitable business. I'm Tiffany, your host. I'm a mom, wife, licensed esthetician and massage therapist, and enthusiast of all things business building.
Not too long ago, I took a bold step into entrepreneurship, embracing the roles as a wife and mother of two while venturing into the spa industry as a solo practitioner. Armed with nearly two decades of expertise as a licensed esthetician and massage therapist, my passion for the spa industry fueled my determination to succeed despite having zero business experience and no client base. I created Spa Business Building because I've been in your shoes.
I faced the challenges, celebrated the victories, and learned invaluable lessons along the way. Now I'm here to share my insights, strategies, and the insider knowledge that transformed my own business. In the Spa Business Building Podcast, we'll deep dive into all things Spa Business Building and Spa Business related, from effective marketing strategies and client retention secrets to building solid business systems.
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I'm Tiffany, your host. And in today's episode, I wanted to share the seven mistakes that I made as a new business owner. And I'm hoping that this will help you to boost your bookings and grow your business.
And I feel like these seven mistakes are pretty common mistakes. That's why I wanted to share them. I see, you know, new businesses making these mistakes and season businesses.
And I can absolutely relate. I started my business nine years ago, and I had no idea what I was doing. It was all trial and error, and I wasn't doing these seven things.
And once I started implementing them, I saw so much growth in my business, and I was able to attract new clients into my business. So let's dive in. The first mistake that I made as a business owner was not having a website.
And I feel like this is pretty common. Not having a website is... It's like it's having no visibility essentially online.
A website is so important because it allows you to not only showcase your services, you can add your testimonials, your prices, you can highlight your personality and yourself. You can add images. You know, people want to see all of these things.
And when you don't have a website, you're not able to showcase those things and you're missing out on potential clients. A website is so important also for SEO, or search engine optimization. And I did a episode, a few episodes back with Maggie Schneider from Hilltop Help, and she explained why SEO is so important for a website.
So I will link that in the show notes. You can go back and take a listen, but SEO helps you get found through keywords that you add to your website. So when people are searching, it will pull up your website, and then people can go and take a look.
So if you don't have a website, you're not able to be found in that way. And if you're just using your social media, I just don't think that that's enough. I think that people want to see more.
And having a website makes you stand out. It makes you look professional, in my opinion. So go and get yourself a website.
And I know that in the beginning, I didn't have a website because I wasn't making any money. It was not the last thing, but I didn't do it right away, and I should have. Now, there are very cost-effective ways to do it.
There are free websites. My liability insurance offered a free website, and I quickly started using that, implementing that. And because in the beginning, I didn't realize that they had that.
And once I started kind of digging in, then I used their free website. And it wasn't the greatest, but you know what? It was a place to start.
So having something is better than having nothing, in my opinion. And we all start somewhere. So I had this free website, and then I didn't even have a scheduling website at the time.
People were just calling me to schedule, and I was like doing it on paper. And it was horrible. It was so unorganized, and I hated it.
So then I finally decided to purchase a booking site or using a platform, and they had a website. So I switched to that. They also had email marketing and lots of other great things, and it was super helpful.
I really liked it. I eventually grew out of that because it didn't have a lot of the capabilities that I needed as my business grew. So then I started making my own websites, and I built quite a few of them, actually.
I started with Wix, and then I moved to Squarespace. I like them both. They're pretty cost effective.
I think I pay like $33 a month right now for Squarespace. I also have an online store where I sell my skincare products. And so I think I pay like $33 a month, and it has drag and drop features.
You can create things in Canva and upload it. Your images there make it really beautiful, and it doesn't have to be super elaborate. It can be super simple.
You only need a few pages, and you don't have to spend thousands of dollars by having somebody build it for you in the beginning. And as you grow, you can eventually do that, someone to help you. But you can start free and then move up from there.
Because remember, we all start somewhere. So that was the first mistake that I made. The second mistake that I made was I wasn't capturing emails from potential clients.
So I had no way of grabbing those emails when people came to visit me or were looking on social media or my website. I didn't know much about it, but I learned. And so you know, when you go to a website and there's like a pop-up that says, hey, sign up for this free 15%, get 15% off, put your email here.
And then you start getting emails from them. That's what it is. It's a pop-up.
And they're capturing your emails so they can stay connected with you. And this is a really great tactic to start nurturing relationships with potential clients because someone may find you and they're not quite sure if they want to schedule with you or buy services or products. So they go to your website to check you out, which means that they're curious.
And that's a great place to start is with that curiosity. So if you have a way to capture those emails, and this is really great on your website, you can also do a link. Maybe you can do link in bio with a Google form to capture those emails, and then start uploading those to an email system.
If your platform, whatever website you have, doesn't offer like pop-ups or something like that to capture emails, there are ways around it. And I'm happy to help you figure that out. If you would love to chat about that, you can find me on Instagram.
We can chat more or go to my free Facebook community. But there are ways around it if your platform doesn't have that, but which is one of the reasons why I switched from my original scheduling platform because they weren't capturing emails from potential clients. You had to just book an appointment with me.
So I switched to a website where I could capture those emails. And I get quite a few emails a month where people who are interested in my services, but they want to just kind of know more about me before they schedule. And people need to build no like and trust with you before they schedule services from you.
So I capture those emails and they go on my email list and I email them regularly with valuable content. So that was the second mistake that I made. I wasn't capturing emails to nurture that relationship with potential clients.
The third mistake that I made was that I wasn't even sending any emails to any of my clients. So I was capturing emails from clients who were scheduling with me, and I was sending email confirmations for appointments, but I wasn't regularly sending out emails. I was actually really terrible at it because I thought, what the heck do I say?
I probably sound so stupid. I have no idea. Do people really wanna hear this stuff?
Yes, yes they do. They're there for a reason. And if they don't open your emails, it's fine.
They're still on your list. And it keeps you at the top of their mind. And if they want to unsubscribe, let them.
That just means that they're not the right clients for you. I have clients who come and see me every month and unsubscribe from my weekly newsletters. Sometimes people just feel like they get a ton of emails and sometimes they unsubscribe, that's fine.
If they wanna miss out on valuable information or updates that I have, that's on them. I do update them in office at their visits, but for people who I don't see regularly, they stay on my emails. And I will say, sending emails regularly, I have about a 50% open rate, which is awesome.
Anything over like 20% is really good. So mine is at about 50%, but I wasn't sending regular emails. And once I started doing that, I noticed a growth in my business.
People were scheduling more. They joined my wait list, and I could track how many opens I had, how many unsubscribes. But yeah, once I started doing that, I really noticed a difference in my business and in the growth of my business.
So that was mistake number three. Now, mistake number four was the fact that I had no idea who my ideal client was. I didn't know who I was targeting.”
“And not just my target audience of females from 30 to 50, that's a target audience. You want to really hone in on your ideal client, that one person who is just, and it could be somebody who you already see, but they're like the perfect client or who you want your ideal client to be, like make up or sewn on them. And I didn't do that.
I was just trying to attract anyone and everyone. And it became kind of problematic in my business because I was starting to have clients come in who just weren't my ideal clients. They were asking for services or things that I just didn't like, didn't enjoy, didn't offer.
And once you start trying to attract the person that you really want in your business, one, you'll see growth, but two, it makes your marketing efforts easier. When you're just trying to cast out that net at a wide audience of people, it makes it so much harder. But when you have this little barrel of people and you know that one person, it's easier to target that person.
So knowing who your ideal client really helps with your marketing efforts. You know their problems, you know their likes, their dislikes, you know pretty much everything about them. And once I started kind of figuring out who my ideal client was, and I will say, I do a lot of different services.
I do skincare and massage, and each of my services has their own ideal client, their own persona. So when I am marketing that one service, I know the person who I'm talking to, who I'm targeting for that service, because I know what their problem is, and I'm trying to market to them. Which leads me into my, where am I at, number five?
My fifth mistake that I made was not clearly defining the problem that I solved for my ideal client. So when you know who your ideal client is, you know exactly what problems they have and what problems they want solved. And I was not defining that for them because people want to know, when people are looking for beauty and wellness services, they're looking for a service provider to solve their problems.
So being able to define that problem for them and promoting that when you're speaking in your emails, in your posts, you're able to capture the attention of that person. And that builds trust with them because they're like, oh wow, they really understand what I need. I like this person, I trust this person.
So then you're capturing them by getting emails, you're nurturing them on your email list, you know who that ideal client is, and you're defining the problem for them. So yeah, that was number five that I wasn't doing. And again, once I started doing it, my marketing efforts became so much easier and I could grow and get more bookings.
Now the sixth problem that I made in my business was that I wasn't highlighting my uniqueness or what set me apart from other service providers in my area. Now I did do things a lot differently from other businesses. I had my own way of doing things, but I wasn't highlighting that when I was promoting myself.
And I think that that was a problem. People didn't know what set me apart. Now people want to know what makes you unique.
That's what attracts them to you. So if you're highlighting that in your emails, in your promotions, on your website, then people are like, wow, I really like that. But I was just waiting until they came in to see me before I showcased all that.
And then I was like, ooh, look at all this. And my guests were like, wow, this is really amazing. And then they referred a bunch of clients to me.
But if I would have just highlighted that in the beginning, I think the struggle would have been, it wouldn't been as much of a struggle for me if I would have just showcased that. So I think when you start to showcase what makes you stand out, maybe it's your years of expertise, maybe it's your technique, or a certain way that you elevate your business, a certain offerings when they come in, your room is different, whatever it may be, however you elevate your experience for that customer, really highlight that and show what makes you stand out. So that was number six.
Now, number seven, the one thing that I wasn't doing in my business from the beginning was I wasn't setting aside time to be the CEO in my business. And I think that we all make this mistake because we need to make money. So we got that hustle and we got to work as many hours as we can to make the money because when we're not making money, when we're not doing services, we're not making money, right?
Well, I learned that you have to set aside time in your business to work on your business and not just in your business. And I started feeling really burnt out because I was working all these hours and then I would have to come home before work and after work and on the weekends to work on my business. And sometimes I still have to do that, especially now.
Like I'm starting out this other business and I'm a mom of two. My husband is gone for 24 hours a time. He's a firefighter.
So being able to find time means that I have to do it around other hours. But I wasn't setting aside time at all. Now, now I work three or four days a week and I set aside one whole day to work on my business.
I work on my podcasts. I work on scheduling emails. I work on looking at my numbers.
“ work on planning my content ahead of time. I batch create my social media and I spend a whole day just working on my business. And when I started doing that, when I found time to set aside to work on my business, my business started to grow.
Because if you're not working on the backend, the foundational aspects of your business, your business isn't, you're not allowing your business to grow. You need those things. You need to promote yourself, and you have to find time to work on those things.
And social media takes a lot. Now I have found tips and tricks to, not spend as much time on social media, only work like 15 minutes a day to engage, and other tips and tricks that I have. But I do try to take a whole day to knock out my to-do list of things that need to be done so I can plan ahead and work ahead so that I can take time off.
And not have to work on the weekends or work super late or any of those things. So that was the seventh mistake that I made. So going back over those mistakes, number one, I didn't have a website in the beginning.
Number two, I wasn't capturing emails from potential clients. Number three, I wasn't sending any emails to any clients, just not sending them at all. Number four, I didn't have my ideal client clearly defined.
Number five, I wasn't defining the problem that I solved for my ideal client. Number six, I wasn't highlighting what made me unique. And number seven, I wasn't setting aside time to work on my business.
So that is it. Those are the seven mistakes that I made. I hope that you found those valuable and that you can learn something and maybe start implementing those in your business.
If you would like to continue this conversation, I do have a free Facebook community, Spa Business Building Community. I would love to talk more about this. We, it is a small community, which I think is really great because you can answer questions, you don't feel, or ask questions, answer questions, you don't feel attacked.
And I am there to actually talk with you. I post a lot of stuff in there. So if you would like to continue this conversation and really want to talk about your business in a free setting with other, there are new businesses in there, and there are seasoned businesses in there, and they give their insights as well.
So I feel like this is a really valuable community. I will post the link to that in the show notes, so you can request to join that. I also have Instagram, spa.biz, B-I-Z dot building.
So you can connect with me there. I would love to chat with you and follow your business. So go give me a follow, and I will make sure to follow your business.
You can also find me on Facebook, spa business building dot, or yeah, spa business building. And I'm also on TikTok, so I'm on a lot of different places that you can find me, but I would love to connect with you. If you found this information valuable, I invite you to please share it with your fellow beauty and wellness besties, and please leave me a review, because that is how I get found as well.
So if you could review this and share it. Yeah, thank you so much for joining me. Until next time, my friend, stay inspired, stay fabulous and happy business building.
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