Author: Cybil Solyn

It’s freaking hard for all business right now and small ones are really struggling. If you’re in a place where listening to someone even TALK business fills you with anxiety, save this ep. Understand that you will be in a place to listen to it in the future.

I’ve had some really hard days myself. My hair is falling out. I’m breakout out. And I’m just eating my feeling. These are all things that cancer, building a house on credit cards, and a friends death didn’t push me to. So yeah, these are some traumatic times. Give yourself some space to and some kindness. Know you’ll be in a head space to deal with all this again soon – or maybe in bursts.

On today’s Skinfessional episode we talk about how to get (or not get as the case is for so many) money from unemployment, where it isn’t (the PPP), and how you might have a goldmine sitting on your shelf already.

Making a business pivot is about a change in business strategy without a change in vision. In COVID times being nimble and rethinking strategy has become a daily event, but to keep the anxiety down and not stress out about all this change you have to focus on the vision of your business.

I share how doing weekly facials live on Instagram to feel connected to my clients and to keep myself accountable to my own skincare routine has spawned a pivot in my business and Alex reminds us that she’s actually the smartest girl in the room by reminding us to give people what they want!

In this weeks episode of Skinfessional I desperately try not to fangirl too hard at the person I’ve been known to call “My Oprah,” Lori Nestore, The Wax Queen, owner of Eva’s Esthtics, Tuel, Berodin and probably the person who’s had the greatest positive impact on my success as a six-figure solopenuer and esthetician as she talks about the best ways to sell and get any client booked and buying. So pay attention because she can do the same for you!

I reached out to Lori a few months ago when I wanted to do an episode on converting cold calls. You see, I took a class from her one Monday morning in Vegas on how to essentially turn any customer who reaches out to you into a client. If you’ve ever been to the Las Vegas skin show you know that the Monday 9 am classes are…well…special. If you’ve ever gotten yourself up for one, they are either the best thing you and the eight other people in the room have ever taken, or some sad sales pitch by a company who couldn’t get a better time slot. I’ve been a super fan of Lori’s pretty much my entire esty career so I was in it to win it with whatever class she was offering – even one on what seemed like how to answer the phone.

This class changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my business. I took what I learned from that two hour session, implemented it, and started filling my books. This is when I realize that Lori Nestore was way more than just a Wax Queen, in fact, estheticians and beauty professionals everywhere were being done a disservice because Lori was a closeted Business Goddess and not nearly enough people were getting to learn from her.

I booked all of Lori’s sales classes, I figured if Lori could make me into a superstar waxer, she could turn me into a superstar businesswoman. Now I’ll be honest, I grew up in biz. My family owned a restaurant, I’ve been surrounded by sales reports, running P&L’s (if you don’t know find out NOW), checking cost margins, etc. Still, it blew my mind that Lori was the first class I had come across to really go over this part of the industry – the part where all the money is made, tracked, and often lost.

I honestly can’t remember how many classes I took with her over the next few months but I know it was all of them. It wasn’t until I was talking to Lori during this interview that I realized just how many of the sales techniques I use and teach are grounded in the things I learned with her. To this day I use, nearly verbatim three of the sales scripts she teaches. The reason? because they work! Just like in Vegas, when I went home and implemented Lori’s sales scripts my numbers increased.

The year I took Lori Nestore’s business classes, I went from making $10K to $100K. I’ve been making that and more ever since. Take a seat, learn the value in silence, and listen because the Business Goddess is about to lay down knowledge you can take to the bank.

I’ve been sitting at home with a lot of FOMO while scrolling through my IG feed. I’m a super productive person. Like, my superpower is not sleeping. I have about five extra hours in my day just from not sleeping and missing meals.

So when I’m sitting around envious of what others are “accomplishing” during their quarantine I know that something is seriously off with me. That’s when I realized that not only am I being bombarded on social media (looking at you IG!) by DOING DOING DOING!!! But also that I was just on red alert amounts of stress that had my brain spinning its wheel unable to focus on tasks. (hi, this paragraph took me ten minutes to write.)

When this happens I throw it out to the Skinfessional community (I recommend you all do the same!) to see if I’m all alone. I wasn’t and I didn’t feel as bad being all messed up in a group was WAY better than being messed up alone… I discovered that lots of people were having the same sense of fear and overwhelm I was. Who would have thunk it?

Doing Nothing is Hard

That’s when I decided that I needed to get proactive about doing nothing, but it proved harder than expected because I felt all this peer pressure to be doing. To combat this, schedule even more time away from social media and away from the tech of my life. I could read, watch tv, cook, hang with my cats, exercise, anything that didn’t require me to be online. But nothing else.

I already schedule an hour as soon as I wake up to be offline and one at night, but I needed more. If you’ve listened to other episodes we talk about this (here and here). I’m not tied to my phone or tech but this was surprisingly hard to do for more time! Exercise classes are online. Recipes – online. And as soon as I would get online I wanted to check on what everyone else was doing and since I wasn’t in my studio I became obsessed with how my peers were holding up and what they were up to in a way I hadn’t since Yelp was brand spanking new. It was a vicious cycle! The only way out was to just cut myself 100% off for longer stretches.

It was like a diet of the mind with an hourly caloric intake of triggering media. Slowly I realized that I didn’t need to DO as much. I could settle down and be okay with relaxing, and this let me open myself up to doing again.

Do You Already Have Stuff?

If you feel like you are in a place to DO take a look at what you already have sitting around. I know I had a bunch of half finished courses, updated classes that I needed to take again, and stuff I had kinda half-assed when I took them the first time. Alex and I dig deep about all this, but if you come away from reading this and never listen I want to make sure you know that before you start investing in the new and shiny and get all overwhelmed, be sure to look at what was once new and shiny. It might be just what you need. Also, remember the point of this episode. Doing nothing might be the most productive thing for you right now!

It’s day 14 of quarantine and how has your life changed? For Alex, not much has except that we are all living in her world now – and she’s here to help spread her wisdom and spark joy in working from home (or even just sitting around in it if that’s you!)

Alex has been working from home for nine years and in this episode explains her tips and tricks for transitioning from working on people in a salon/spa setting to working from home. Cybil who has had a successful solo skincare studio for the past decade hasn’t been able to work on a human in three weeks. Alex is doing better than ever, Cybil is trying to keep her sh*t together. In this episode, we talk about how important routine, a daily schedule is, movement, and our own struggles and successes while sorting through the feelings of learning to be an employee in our home offices. Join us and get real solutions you can use to help plan your own days productively and hopefully profitably through quarantine!

Unlike Alex, I don’t freaking work from home so I’m stressing because this ain’t no vacation! I work on humans in a studio and COVID is breaking my business and draining my bank account. Yeah I’m hustling with all the online sales and digital stuff I’m trying the alternative things, but I am not making what I was before and my bills are still the same, so let’s talk strategy on what we can do about it.

First Make a Financial Plan of ACTION!

Get your financial house in order. I know it’s stressful. No one wants to do this. Looking at our bills and knowing how the sausage is made is scary and time consuming, but if you don’t know you can’t fix stuff! So lets do this!

Get your last three months of bank and credit card statements out. Find all the stuff that comes out monthly. You’ll be surprised what they are. Oh yeah that $2.99 for online storage, that $5.99 for marketing app do you even still use that??? $25 Starbucks auto reload etc. Whole Foods seems to be a weekly visit of $349 (eek!)

Put the info in three columns: Finite, Need, Wants. You can use a program like Mint or Quick Books or a spreadsheet to do this. I’m old school and just use paper because it’s just faster for me so I don’t get bogged down in tech. You do you people. Just get this done and get it done NOW.

Finite – This is all the stuff that comes out monthly that you HAVE TO PAY. Like you have zero choices about. Mortgage. Rent. Car Payment. Credit Cards Minimums that never change and you can’t change them (though we will circle around to this in a second!)

Need – This column is obvious needs like groceries, gas, utilities, advertising.

Wants – These are things that are optional but we like such as Netflix, starbucks, that olive oil of the month club, gym membership.

So now that we have our columns let’s talk about them.

Finite Can be changed

We are living in a world where you can ask to reduce costs on these finite things. Call you credit card companies and request reduced APR. Ask to waive late fees if you have them. Defer loans. Request a freeze on your rent or rent forgiveness for a month. What about a reduction of rent for one month? If you don’t ask you can’t receive so ASK! At the end of this article I have a script I use to ask for stuff. ASK! Many companies already have COVID policies in place.

Needs Change As You Get Broker

I was once told by a good friend that “The things you need change as you get broker.” Truer words were never spoken. I want you to imagine that this pandemic keeps you out of work for a year. Seriously do this. What comes off your needs list? How do you move things around and rethink what you “need” when you are down to $100 in your bank account? I just dropped all my marketing and advertising.

I stopped all my autoship supplies etc. I’m making plans for a business siege and the ammunition is savings and customer care because at the end of the day we don’t know how long we are going to be out of work. We don’t know if our customers are going to feel safe coming back to us. And worst of all, we don’t know if COVID will have rolling waves that will put us out of work again. So plan now for the just in cases. It’s how my business has weathered hard times.

Strip Back Those Wants NOW

I’m all for living for the now and the little pleasures. But refer to my note on Needs above. If you can’t even pay for your Needs can you even have wants? Well yeah you can, but strip them waaaaaay back. You want to drink wine – heck yay! Two Buck Chuck or something like it is your new drink of choice. You love the Starbucks? Me too….I now am making all my boba at home. Eat out a lot? Well if you go out for those $1 tacos that seems awesome. See how you can give yourself the small pleasures but still strip back anything unnecessary.

To be honest, it’s actually the stuff we get lazy about canceling or doing away with because they seem so small. It’s just too annoying to figure out how to cancel that $2 subscription for that monthly app or researching how to get all our info to sync onto one server instead of paying for 4 systems. Maybe you have subscriptions to Netflix AND Hulu AND Stars AND… why not have just Amazon for now until you’ve watched everything possible then switch? Or Use the local library streaming service which is free with your library card??? Once again, $100 left in your bank account. Get to reading those books, or spend more time starting that digital business…

Get a Side Hustle

Speaking of digital businesses, you need to think about a side hustle. The world is changed forever. We need to adapt as business owners. Think about your future strategy. What does your future business model look like?

The Script I Use When Asking for Help

You can use this script to reduce payments, waive fees, defer payments, reduce your credit cards monthly APR (always a good bet no matter what), or just ask what they are doing to assist COVID business owners struggling if you aren’t getting the thing you are asking for. Here is a script I use.

first blank = your name

second blank = companies name

third blank = length of time with company even if vague

fourth blank = what you are asking to do ie waive fee, reduce payment, etc

YOU: Hello. My name is ____________________ and I’ve been a good customer of __________________ for _____________. As you know with the COVID crisis people are struggling. I am one of them. I was hoping you could help me ______________________ . Is that something you have the authority to help me with?

Customer Service Rep: No. (or if YES have this same conversation as if it was a supervisor)

YOU: In that case, could I please speak with someone who can?

CSR: Just a moment.

SUPERVISOR: Hello?

YOU: Hi as I said to the last representative, my name is ____________________ and I’ve been a good customer of __________________ for _____________. As you know with the COVID crisis people are struggling. I am one of them. I was hoping you could help me ______________________.

(Many companies have policies in place for right now so before you give a sob story give the CSR space to offer you something. If you would like something more ASK. Make a case for why you’re a good customer and how your situation warrants a better offer only if you don’t like the one they’ve given you or if you think it unfair. )

Be sure the conversation ends like this.

SUPERVISOR: Let me see what we can do for you OFFER

YOU: I appreciate your help and your time. Could you please send me an email with the details of this conversation.

SUPERVISOR: Of course.

YOU: Once again, thank you for your help and time.