(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this message)
Not all money is good money, my child, and you have been causing your own headaches by accepting appointments and payments from crappy clients. I'm here to help you stop. Hey there, I'm a beauty business coach and I'm going to tell you exactly what it is that you're doing wrong in all of these nightmare stories I hear about nightmare clients.
In the beginning of this video, I'm going to share the most common headache inducing clients and how to spot them from a mile away to ensure that your first year in business or whatever year you're in, still having this problem, isn't harder than it needs to be. You know these clients. They call four to five times before they've ever even stepped foot in the door.
They immediately want to know how much without asking any value-based questions at all or answering any of your qualifying questions from you. So also don't expect a hello via DM. Just price how much? Rude.
These are the same clients who are going to take the pencil out of your hand while you're mapping and show you quote how it should be done. Let me show you how I want it done, how it should be done because they've done it that way for 30 years. Okay Marge, here's the needle.
You do it. Here's the needle. You do it then.
She wanted an artist, but she doesn't want the art. Okay, these are the clients who attempt chargebacks or try to bully their way into a refund threatening to give you a bad review and tell everyone not to do business with you. Marge, baby, I would pay.
I would pay to never have another disrespectful scammer client like you through my door. Just FYI. You want to leave me a bad review? I'm going to leave you one right back.
When she says, don't come here. I'm going to say, I also do not recommend Marge. These are the clients who threaten lawsuits and don't follow their aftercare and consult other artists and talk shit to them.
Avoid these clients. Avoid them at all costs. I'm going to help you spot them before they get on your books.
Check your DMs very closely and watch during consultations because you're going to see some of these signs and I'm going to help you save yourself, future self, a lot of headaches. Let's dive into the three climate types you should be wary of as you start your PMU journey as an artist. These are the ones that you want to handle carefully or probably just avoid altogether.
First up, we've got clients with really oversaturated brows. They just insist. All they need is a touch up.
They just need a touch up. Now let me explain why this is a red flag because when a client's skin is already heavily tattooed, it cannot hold any more pigment and any new work is going to fade out really quickly, often within just a few months, honestly. It's not about the color itself.
It's about the skin's ability to retain more pigment. Overworking this type of skin can lead to both scar tissue and dissatisfaction for your client, obviously, because I paid you all this money and it's already gone. That's not my fault.
That's science's fault. It's better to just refer them off to a laser technician to lighten their existing tattoo before ever even attempting to work on them. Don't forget, you only get one shot at a first impression.
Even if this client leaves happy with the orange you slapped over their gray, they're going to go around showing off their oversaturated cold eyebrows to everyone and proudly tell everybody that you did it. You did this. Those people are going to have no idea that it's not entirely your fault.
They're going to take mental note to steer clear of you and your shop. Once that impression is made, you cannot walk that back. It is what it is.
Like, oh yeah, she did Marge's brows and they look god awful. You know, Marge. Just be wary of putting out work that you wouldn't want your biggest enemy to judge you on.
If you would be embarrassed for a girl who gives you mad hate to look at them, don't do it. Let's talk about assholes. Yes, I said assholes.
We all encounter them from time to time in business, anytime you're working with the public, right? But in high ticket beauty services like permanent makeup, they're just always going to be a few like operators who can smell your rookie vibes and they're going to think that they can finagle some kind of free service out of you simply by being stronger personality-wise or maybe scarier than you. These are the ones who are going to be disrespectful, very demanding, and simply just difficult to please. They are committed to being unhappy because they've learned through life that it might lead to a refund.
New brows and your money back? Dope. Why not? Remember, you don't have to tolerate mistreatment just to get a client. That is not a client that you want.
So if they come to you trash talking a competitor, know this. They will trash talk you to the next artist later. Know that.
This is a tactic used to create a fictional bond between the client and the artist where you are posed as their savior who's going to fix the problems the last bad artist left them with. Personally, if they want to throw out an artist name, I will just call that artist, even if it's someone that I can't stand. Hey, Ms. Joseph is over here saying, you know, you did her brows last time and she wants me to touch them up just as a professional courtesy.
I wanted to call and ask you about the brows before I agreed to work over them. Can you tell me about how long ago they were done and what pigments were used on them? Nine times out of ten, they will just start telling you all about Ms. Joseph's. Also, they might give you the information you need to work on them.
Or, you know, that's if you can work on them anyway, who knows? Or if you even want to, but she'll tell you all about that client. Your time and expertise are valuable and it's okay to set boundaries. It's okay to set boundaries around more business.
You set the policies and force them. This is exactly where I got my big dick energy from. Okay? You may not know this about me.
I used to be a stripper in college. I worked at the gold club in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I absolutely love that job.
Those girls are still my friends to this day. Some were even guests at my wedding. Some have worked for me in this business.
And we had a very caring work environment where we felt really supported by our management. Shout out to Nando and Robert. And just we felt very safe in general.
Now, I say this just to set the scene, right? Because if I were unsupported or if I felt unsafe, I probably would never have been able to develop this, like, armor around myself and become so bold with my own boundaries and policies. If a customer came in and started speaking to me in a certain way or tried to stiff me on tips or do anything out of line, it was very easy for me, even at five foot zero inches, 110 pounds, to tell a grown man, pay me, pay me at the door on his way straight to hell. And for three years, I told grown men to kiss my ass.
And the funny thing about men is that the more you bully them back, the more they pay you. True story. So when I opened up my beauty business after college, I had to call on some of that big dick energy often, pretty often, actually, in my first couple of years.
So creating policies and sticking to them can feel really intimidating. Truly, it can, because you're going to upset somebody, especially if the bully is threatening you, right? The first time that this happened to me, a doctor came into my studio. We're signing my forms and told me that it was probably silly of her because she's a doctor and she never bothers reading what she signs.
I did her initial appointment and honestly, they were great. They were beautiful. She loved them.
I loved them. I took before and afters. I scheduled her eight week touch up.
I sent her home with aftercare that specifically spelled out how to care for her new brows. And this is the important part and what to expect during her healing process. About two to three weeks later, I get a terrible grainy photo, you know, boomers of her forehead.
And then shortly after I got a text saying they didn't stick. Some conversation ensued back and forth with me reiterating what was in her aftercare. If you read your aftercare, you know this is the disappearing phase, blah, blah, blah.
Now the issue is that Nell had no idea this was a two step process and she would need to pay an additional $100 at the time for a touch up. So I reminded her politely that she did in fact know this because we scheduled her touch up at checkout three weeks ago. Nell tells me she's a doctor.
She knows when she's fully healed. I can't tell her anything about how the body heals itself. She's a doctor.
She is fully healed and there's no color there. And she has now lost faith in my ability as an artist. That's legal terms.
She wants to cancel the eight week touch up. She'll just take her refund. Oh, you will? Now, baby, that's not an option.
You can't give me back my time, my pigments, my numbing, my needle, my efforts, my sanity after this asinine conversation. So there will be no refund. Your options are this.
You can come in for the eight week touch up or you cannot come in for the eight week touch up. Please note, if you do not come in, your service is viewed as incomplete. So I will not be held liable for the finished results.
That's on you. Now let me know that I needed to hand over a full refund or she quote escalate things. Ooh, spicy.
She's a doctor. After all, I let Nell know that she might be a doctor, but that doctor, it was clearly not literature because as she admitted, she had not read the forms that she signed. By the way, she's going back and forth with me on a Sunday.
And my one year old was in my arms with a fever while I'm at a walk-in clinic, like waiting to get him checked out. And I had tried twice already to get out of the conversation with phrases like I'm happy to give you a call during business hours and I can discuss this with you on Monday, et cetera, et cetera. But Nell would not be quilled.
So fine. My forms are digital. Sitting in that waiting room, I just opened up intake queue.
I found her forms. I screenshot her initials and her signature next to clauses that say that things like I cannot control the retention of your pigment. There will be no refunds for light or first body brows.
Another one said something like I understand this is a two-session procedure. The fees of which are blank for the first session and blank for the second session. I mean, it's right there in black and white and you initialed it, silly goose.
The disappearing phase occurs between weeks two to four where the brows might appear light or spotty. Full color will not be seen until somewhere between six and eight weeks, at which time an assessment will be made and a touch-up session performed. It's like all this was told to you, girl.
Nell was shocked, honey. I mean, in tears almost. She's a doctor.
And I just got you'd her. Except that it was not a gotcha. It was not a gotcha.
It was just general reading comprehension, verbal processing skills. But I don't know. We definitely talked about all of it.
So I just don't know what to tell poor Nell. So fine. Nell says, okay, I'll see you for my touch-up appointment.
And this is when I sent her yet another initial applause that she signed that says, I understand this contract can be terminated by either party for any reason. And I let her know that I had lost faith in our ability to work together and happily recommended another artist in town who I thought really deserved the headache. Best of luck now.
Peace out, girl. Don't come back over here. Ciao.
No is a full sentence. Know that. Know is a full sentence.
And when someone tries to bully you, think of me and Nell. Lastly, we have a third client type, right? Nervous clients. Nervous clients can be really challenging because they may be more prone to second guessing or to anxiety during the whole process.
They just require a whole lot of hand holding. You might find yourself repeating the same explanations over and over and over. Nervous clients are different from assholes.
They're not the same because they aren't trying to work an angle on you. They're just genuinely nervous about a tattoo that's on their face, you know? So it's really important to be patient and to be as reassuring as you possibly can with them, but also be aware that their anxiety might make things like your life more difficult. So clearly address any and all concerns that they have up front.
Make sure that all your work is done before their head hits the pillow, you know? More than half of your work should be done before the needle ever hits their skin. Address their concerns really thoroughly. Provide photos and videos of your healed work.
Have your models video healing diaries ready to physically show them. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go and check out this video where I explain how to get model diaries, healing diaries, so that they understand what to expect during the healing process. An informed client is an empowered client.
Write that down somewhere and frame it and put it in your room. An informed client is an empowered client. The nervous anxiety from not knowing what to expect is fine.
So beat them to that by giving them tons and tons of proof and reassurance before they can ever even raise a concern. Otherwise, get ready for the midnight text, asking if this brow has one more stroke than this brow. If you don't have a wealth of experience to show them, maybe pass on nervous clients for now.
Just for now, save yourself the drama because honestly, those are your higher maintenance clients. Now let's talk about the other side of things. You already worked on a client and they're unhappy.
That sucks. First, I'm going to ask you something that's honestly really difficult. And I'm so sorry, but I have to ask.
Is any portion of their argument valid? Think critically. Is any portion of their argument valid? I'm not saying that the way that they are loudly lodging a complaint is the correct way to do it. In fact, dealing with emotions, it's often not how a cooler head would handle the situation.
But if any portion of their complaint is actually reasonable, then here's what I suggest. Deescalate things. Just listen to them.
There is no framework for compassion. Let them bitch. And then ask them to prioritize their issues.
This does a few things. One, they feel heard. Two, they can articulate their issues instead of screaming.
Prioritize what matters to them and then give them something so that they can move forward. Something. This doesn't mean that you need to become a doormat at all.
I would never advocate for that. Each situation is going to be a little different. Maybe this is something that you can remediate yourself.
Maybe you can give a referral to somebody else if you feel like me and Nell, I can't continue working with you. Maybe you actually need to help them with removal. Be it on your own, if you're trained and allowed to with whatever.
Or if you need to send them to a laser removal specialist. If anyone has mentioned legal counsel, tell them that their lawyer can speak with your lawyer and then call your insurance company immediately for further instructions. Stop talking to anybody who says that they're going to give you legal action.
Never, ever lose a case unnecessarily by continuing to flap your gums after someone has said it. Block them, move on, let insurance handle it. But as you're moving on, learn from the situation.
Ask yourself, where did things go wrong? What did I do wrong? What could I do differently? Was it a technique issue? Maybe drag out your practice mats, call your educator. Was it a missed red flag? Go back over this video. Was it a systems issue that could have prevented this or helped you to weed them out? Get a mentor.
VIPMU is a great place actually for both skills issues and business mentorship. So understanding your client types and how to navigate through them early can help you to build a really strong and positive client base. Truthfully, I mean, I've done it over eight years now.
So remember, it's not just about your artistry. It doesn't matter if you're the best client ever. You also, I mean the best artist ever.
You also have to really manage your client relationships very effectively. And your mental state is going to go through a lot of ups and downs as an entrepreneur. So, you know, get a helmet or something because your first year of business is going to be a really tumultuous one.
You're learning at a pace that nobody else is. You're learning skills, technique, your local markets, unfortunately learning who your friends and support system are, not to mention dealing with this gigantic financial burden of starting a business. So have some patience with yourself.
Give yourself some grace and remember that the client is not always right for you. Some people are just better off going somewhere else. That's okay.
That's okay. I'm not for everybody. And that client might not be for me.
If you would like to know how to attract more of the right kind of clients for your business and actually repel all of these red flags to begin with, so you don't have to just weed them out. Check out my video, who are you attracting? And we will analyze what you're saying or posting that's pulling in the wrong kind of clientele. If you'd like more in-depth strategy that's tailored for you and your local markets, then check out my PMU coaching program, VIPMU.
I will link it below. It's both business and skills coaching. Don't worry, it's made for beginners.
So it's nowhere near $10,000. Get out of here. It's nowhere near that.
Don't worry about it. I will see you at VIPMU or in my next video. Ciao.
See you later.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this message)
