It was a pretty talkative Sunday post this week because Miska has been gone since Wednesday and I have worked from home alone in our cabin since then, so I have a bit of talk-abstinence haha!
Beauty articles and new energy!
Jag har verkligen fått en nytändning för bloggandet nu! Jag skrev ju förra veckan att jag gått från “am I even valuable to the company anymore?” till “now we are making a big investment in marketing!”And the biggest external marketing will take place this autumn (because the summer is always fully booked anyway), but already now we are collecting materials and creating structures for how we will work this autumn.
I have always wanted to invest more in the webshop and my posts, how the tips are connected to all products etc. But the time has not been enough when I worked 200% for the salon to work as it has been a little half-hearted if I may be self-critical.
But now I have had time to both feel, reflect and work with this and realize that it is still something I want to invest in. I was a bit lost at the beginning of the year, and then another toss a while ago;) and just felt that I spend so much time on the blog but how much value does it really contribute? At the same time, I felt that without all the salon work I did before and without the blog - then there are only boring tasks left, and I do not want that either. What do I do then?
Hur som helst – efter att jag bestämde mig för att satsa mer på detta igen och tänka mer “skönhetsartiklar som går att göra annonser av” och inte bara “en sminkning till bloggen” så insåg jag att nej jag har ju faktiskt inte tröttnat på det här!
I have worked on three beauty articles for the webshop now that feel really good (all are basically ready but not published yet) and it has been great fun! I'm not a blogger but a beauty writer;)
My blog became a makeup blog in the summer of 2010 so now it's 9 years since I started writing about makeup and it's still fun!
One of the posts I will publish shortly is a guide that shows 5 different smokey eyes step by step made with black eye shadow. I am very happy with the post myself and think that many will like it!
Service & additional sales
In principle, all my customers at the salon are regulars, but on Wednesday I first had a customer who wanted to dye her lashes before she did an eyeliner tattoo at Annika and then I stood at the reception and received customers for a while.
What was so fun about having new customers was talking about our makeup and our other treatments! When you have regular customers, they already know our range by heart, so there will be most talk about other things then.
Additional sales for us does not mean that you should be a salesperson who teases customers about things they do not need, but for us it is a service to give recommendations and if they want to shop then it is a bonus!
My client was so happy because she had only booked lash color but after talking for a while I had time to pick and color her eyebrows as well - then I showed her tips on how she can fill in the eyebrows herself at home when the eyebrow color starts to drop and she was so glad I showed a good pen that she can use. Soon she will book a make-up consultation because she thought it was so fun!
I also received Annika's next customer and while her numbness ached, we tested out a lipstick color and a shimmery eyeshadow palette in purple tones that are a nice complement to all her earthy colors at home.
I had so much fun then! I was at the salon for an hour and had already sold three products and an eyebrow pick and color extra :)
Here are the eyebrows of the customer before she tattooed the eyeliner as well.
Teamwork with marketing
3 years ago, Miska and Annika and I went on business development with Peragenda.se (their EPR package) and then had great difficulty with the communication and cooperation in the company because they were doing notes, lists and saying things to each other in passing that were forgotten the second after.
Then we started with the program Quip and I can recommend it to all small business owners! It is not part of the business development or so, but we found it on our own. If you have less than 10 users, it is quite cheap, it costs monthly.
Here we have chats, to-do lists, information, statistics and key figures etc. I would not have survived without this structure, then I would probably have gone into the wall haha!
Many people wonder what Malin works with in our company because she only works from home with the webshop etc. and it is a mixture of her relieving me of work tasks so that I have time to do more things + that in the future she will work even more with marketing. As an example, I can show you what I wrote in her checklist in Quip last Thursday (yep no red days for an entrepreneur höhö) with things she would work on on Friday:
When you read a post, you can easily believe that it is quick to throw one up, but if you do it properly, it takes time!
I fix all the pictures and all the texts but there is a lot of work around it like linking to products, adding SEO tags to get more google hits, cutting together collages, posting the same posts in the webshop, then there are different formats on the pictures on Instagram, Facebook, our website, etc. Things should be published regularly, etc., etc. All that's Malin's job! :) So I can instead spend time on other parts of the company and produce more material for new beauty articles.
Development meeting with Tommy
Speaking of Peragenda's business development and marketing, Miska and I had a meeting with Tommy again on Monday. He helped us with our company and now we have changed roles and help him with his! :) Great when you are good at different things!
What we help Tommy with is his marketing and how he is the face of his company. Miska has helped some other companies with a website and marketing help before and each person has already had help from a company before but it is the same show every time: a half-baked website and good marketing tips but with poor guidance.
For example, Tommy said that he put a lot of marketing on Facebook before (with the help of the other company) but it has not yielded anything. The is ett bra tips att säga “market your posts on Facebook” men man måste grotta in sig mycket mer än så för att bygga ett varumärke! Att tänka “jag vill marknadsföra denna utbildning”, göra en reklamannons, publicera och lägga 500:- på spridningen – det kanske genererar några klick men säkerligen inte så mycket kunder. Man ser så mycket reklam i sociala medier redan, man bara scrollar förbi! Om man har en hemsida som är fin but unclear and creates zero relationship with the customer because it only contains purchased pictures and nice words - then an advertisement for an education in this company will generate zero interest as well. So it is not Facebook's fault, but the execution.
We talk a lot about lifting Tommy as a person, because he is the best! I can listen to him how for a long time! The website must be built around him, he must show what he is good at. We asked Tommy to write some articles on his website on various topics that are interesting for entrepreneurs and this week published this post on his Facebook page:
You can read his post here! Ett utdrag som jag älskar i texten är: “The escape our brain tries to deceive us is - "But they are adults, they should take responsibility". Sure it is. But now the world is not always so simple that adults always behave like adults. It's not because we do not want to. This is because our brains love fast rewards. Getting away from an activity that requires energy provides faster rewards than putting in the energy and concentration required to do what I promised. Even though that reward is far much greater, it is further in time.”
I slutet av mötet pratade vi lite om “meningen på jobbet” och vad som får personalen att trivas och det var tur att klockan var mycket och vi var tvungna att åka hem för jag hade kunnat fastna hur länge som helst.
But do you know what? This fall, Tommy and I will start a podcast! :) If everything goes as planned in any case! The purpose is marketing for Peragenda and I'm a sidekick when he has no guests. I long so much, not because I dream of having a podcast without being able to delve into these topics with him haha!
Här sitter vi och har precis hånat Tommy för att hans Instagram var så gammal haha. Jag pratade om Insta storys och han fattade ingenting “I do not have that” sa han och jag fick en chock när jag kollade på hans mobil och såg en brun analog kamera i hörnet “That logo was replaced in 2016 Tommy! You really need our help with this!" Hahaha.
If you also want help with a website (and / or other marketing), contact Miska at hillside.media! :)
Survival strategy: Swallow praise with holes and hair!
I'm so weak for praise, haha! But it's a positive trait, isn't it? :) It's not hard to make me digest and get knee weak haha.
I truly believe that the 50% of my blog enthusiasm soared is thanks to this comment I received last week:
Another thing I still live on is a sentence my client told me about a year ago. We talk a lot about jobs because she has been eager to change jobs + that she has managerial responsibility where she works now and sometimes ventilates various problems that have arisen as a result.
Så en dag sa hon så här “Every time I face a dilemma or have to solve something, I think: what would Helena do?”
Det är nog det absolut finaste någon har sagt till mig! Alltså wow! Jag är bara hennes “brynplockerska” tänker jag men tänk att jag inspirerar henne i vardagen också :) Eller så är det jag som läser in for much in a sense haha, she might just be joking as well. But I swallowed that praise with gusto and hair and live on it even today!
“Hej jag heter Helena och jag har beslutsångest”
Before, I listened to a podcast episode of the Shulman Show and there they said that Barack Obama never chose his tie himself to cut back on the number of decisions. That is, he makes so many decisions all the time that he must not put his energy into unnecessary decisions because then the brain does not stand by the important decisions.
Det är min nya dröm! Tänk att ha en assistent som tar alla onödiga vardagsbeslut åt en, skönt! Dagen Malin går upp i arbetstid så ska jag skriva in det i hennes arbetsuppgifter “alltid vara tillgänglig via sms för att svara på Helenas beslutsdilemman”.
Jag har alltid haft beslutsångest, jag hade inte tänkt på det förrän jag gick på internatskola i gymnasiet och folk började poängtera det. Jag minns en gång i matsalen när jag satt jättelänge och pratade med min kompis Hanna om “is it smarter to pick up the math book first, then go back here and drink coffee and study in the dining room, or should I drink coffee here first and then go and study math in the room”And also rabbled out all the pros and cons between the various options. How annoying person?
But it has not passed yet, last Friday I really sat down and talked to Annika on Snapchat if it is best to wash my hair today or on Sunday. How can that even be a problem? Just do it!
I was going out dancing with Frida on Saturday and have not learned how my newly permanent hair behaves yet - is it nicer when it is dry shampooed for several days and gets a lot of volume? Or is it nicer freshly washed?
This is how it ended:
I get tired of myself haha!
Permanent makeup clients & babysitting
On Wednesday, I first had my own customers + fixed in the salon and then when Annika had customers, I was responsible for children and tried to work a little at the same time.
Here I am, updating our hair styling pictures on the website while Mileya is playing:
She was happy for about as long as it took to take this picture. Then she was very kind - tore my hair and forced me to carry her until my muscles trembled with lactic acid. I had exercise pain for two days afterwards haha.
My humor: Snapchat filters on children (preferably as awful as possible but when she became an old aunt she screamed straight out) and animals that do human things, like sitting with glasses and reading the newspaper at the kitchen table :)
I övrigt har jag i veckan skrivit på min bok på kvällarna, har fått riktigt flow nu! Jag har rensat bilder från datorn för jag behövde öppna ett program men det gick inte för “minnet är fullt” usch, finns det någonting tråkigare?
And so I left blood samples last Monday but they got no blood when they stabbed me so they gave up and I had to leave? I who hate blood tests were stabbed and dug in both arms unnecessarily! But luckily my friend works as a nurse and steered it behind the scenes;) so the blood test was left and I was told that I do not have HIV tjoho! I had some other values that were elevated that I do not know what they mean but nothing that you need to do anything about, said the doctor. So now it remains that they want to try to operate on my tonsils - but I do not want to. So we agreed that I should wait six months and continue with self-care and rest, then I will get a new call later. Thinking of trying healing again, and letting wonderful summer days and rest do their thing. For me, surgery feels like the last resort in any case ..
And I have worked from home for three days this week and worked a lot in my make-up / photo studio! In addition to producing beauty articles, I have also tested new blush shades from Paese :)
Viktoria's favorite pastime is to hang on the backrest of the chair and disturb me as much as she can.
That was all I had to offer from this week!
Miska är och fiskar halva veckan och jag ska “passa på att njuta av egentid” som alla säger. Jag tycker absolut att det är bra med egentid, men för mig räcker det att vara på övervåningen när han är på nedervåningen haha.
But when this is published, I will eat hotel breakfast in Stockholm after a dance night with Frida! You should not only rest in your free time, you should have fun too! :) So this post was written and timed yesterday morning.
No, but now I'm done babbling :)
Hugs are! ♥
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