So, then we are in the new fresh decade 2020 and it is time to stop looking back, now it is full focus forward! :)
Productive fresh start
Själv har jag startat året väldigt produktiv! Jag har nästan jobbat lite för mycket, men jag har inte velat slösa bort “ett flow” heller :)
This is partly because I simply have been sugen at work, only when I have lunch does it itch in my fingers to continue! But also because I have a holiday in a week (South Africa 18-30 Jan !!), there are many projects I both want to start and complete before we leave.
Three days this week I have worked until after kl. 00 at night! And yesterday (Saturday) it was almost 22.
It's not healthy, but sometimes you have to be a little workaholic for a short period! :)
Makeover of the webshop!
The biggest reason for the late nights is that Miska and I have started redoing the website. When you start certain things, you have to complete them quickly if the site is not to be in renovation chaos for customers.
Som jag nämnt så var 2019 ett “pausår” då vi inte utvecklade så mycket utan saker har bara fått rulla på. Och åren innan det så är det salongen som fått all fokus. Så nu är det dags att ge webbshoppen mer kärlek igen!
Jag ville ha hemsidan mer “webbshoppig”. Den är ju uppdelad i salong/webbshop vilket gjort det svårt att bestämma design och upplägg, så då har allt blivit ett luddigt mellanting istället.
Here are some of the changes we made:
A warmer color theme, surely it feels quite harmonious and nice? :) A little tropical twilight-feeling I think!
2. The banner with info, we have had free shipping over SEK 795 for a long time, but it has not been clear. In addition, we have many payment methods (soon throughout the EU) and I have the policy to only sell cruelty free brands for many years and it is great to print so customers do not have to google themselves!
More focus on my makeup tips och steg för steg-guider. Dels att texten “ingen vanlig webbshop” tillsammans med sminktips-länkarna är det första man ser när man kommer in på sidan.
Dessutom har jag skrivit “sminktips” istället för “beauty guides”. Jag tycker beauty guides låter finare men tänker att det finns en risk att det inte lockar lika mycket.
I have also divided the make-up tips into clearer categories! Before, there were only three: get the look, makeup tips and products, but now there are so many posts to scroll through so I needed more order.
4. Better product overview, this is not quite finished yet but we are arranging a clearer way to browse all products. Before you could only choose from the menu but now there are categories + popular products already on the front.
In addition, you should be able to get a simple overview of whole sortimentet istället för att alla produkter ska vara huller om buller (som dom nu är om man bara klickar på “webbshop” i menyn).
Like this:
One row per category and you can scroll to the right if you want to see more products of the same category.
The mobile version is getting better also when you can swipe right to see more products. Previously, each product came as if on a vertical line, you had to scroll down a lot.
Bara två sidorna är klara i dagsläget och det är kategorin “base make-up, tools and more” och “eyes, lips & eyebrows”Which you get to if you click on the pictures on the front. I linked them if you want to peek! :)
Other minor fixes - Miska som har byggt hela vår hemsida sitter med andra förbättringar också! T.ex. har vi många kunder som alltid köper Bamboo Powder och Makeup Base Mattifying från Paese samtidigt, så nu har han lagt in den som extraval “komplettera med produkter som ofta köps tillsammans” så kan kunden lägga den i varukorgen direkt. Smidigt!
Han finslipade också mailutskicket som sker automatiskt till kunder, vilket resulterade i att det råkade skickas iväg ett “recensera det du handlade-mail” till jättemånga gamla kunder. Så nu har det öst in recensioner från kunder! Det var ett misstag men det visade sig vara jättepositivt haha! :)
A positive review is really GOLD for a company so I am grateful straight to the heart!
You are very welcome to check out the website creativemakeup.se and provide feedback! :)
Two new limited companies!
Company 1: My own make-up brand is not so far advanced that I thought I would need to start the company already now, but to start up projects with producers and be able to sign agreements, I have to have that company ready. And there are no problems really :)
How psychologically nice and attractive that the financial year starts on 1 January 2020? ♥ I'm shaking haha! When you start a company, you do not have a business year like the usual year Jan-Dec, but if you start July 1, the company's year is July-June. This is the salon's business year, you have the end of the year just before the holiday.
But now the company year will be like a normal year Jan-Dec and just January 1, 2020 feels really NICE right? :)
Company 2: Me and Miska do more and more of their own freelance jobs in the form of websites, consulting jobs, etc. so we decided to start our own limited company on the side of the salon, because we are more co-owners, it's easiest that way.
Det företaget har vi medvetet väntat med att starta till 1 januari eftersom lagen om aktiekapital ändrades från och med 2020, så nu behöver vi bara 25000:- i aktiekapital jämfört med 50000:- om vi hade startat innan årsskiftet. Eftersom det mest är ett “på sidan av-företag” utan direkta kostnader eller skyhöga vinster så känns det onödigt att lägga in massor av startkapital.
Man vet ju inte om företagsnamnet går igenom förrän man fått godkänt av Bolagsverket men mitt och Miskas företag kommer antagligen heta “Hillside Media AB” eftersom vi drömmer om ett Spanien-hus i bergen med en fantastisk utsikt, så det är ett passande namn för vårt gemensamma AB ♥
An early and dark morning with cozy lighting, coffee and signing various certificates and applications to soon be a partner in a total of three (!) Limited companies.
What a start to the year! :)
More salon jobs
I have worked at home a lot in 2019, which I will continue with 2020, but not quite as much!
In part, I will be more at the salon because Miska has started to take customers and if he goes in so I can do it too. He is still in the apprenticeship phase and wants feedback on the drawn brow shape before he starts tattooing, so then I will help with that as well.
Here I sit and work while Miska has an eyebrow customer :)
In our waiting room you will find me from time to time in the future! I do not have an office anymore and our store part is very small, so I sit where I can fit. Sometimes I'm in the way behind the checkout counter and sometimes I'm in the way in the waiting room, so I move around a bit :)
Speaking of Miska's eyebrow tattoos, I received this message last Friday, Miska already has such satisfied customers ♥
Another reason I will probably be more at the salon is because we thought we would update it a bit more. After the move to a smaller room, we paused with news and updates because we had had double rents for so long that we needed to curb expenses - and refuel some energy even after the stress year 2018.
But now we are back on track with a little more stable finances and have loaded the creative account inside as well;) So now I thought I would start looking at product exposure, news and things that can be improved and developed.
A novelty that landed in our warehouse on Tuesday is the tweezers from Brow Game! SO GOOD!
I actually got these tweezers as a press sample for the blog, but liked it so much that I emailed and asked if there is a possibility to become a reseller - and I got it!
So the makeup artists at the salon had to test mine before we decided, but they agreed with me and wanted to buy them. A pair of tweezers that brow stylists want to work with every single day IT's a good grade.
This nice place is now on our checkout counter!
Det som är ovanligt bra med dessa är hur bra de fungerar på småstrån, ni vet dom som är svårast att plocka. Att plocka “normala” brynstrån är ju ingen konst så länge pincetter inte är svindålig, men just alla små tar sån himla tid – tills nu.
Olga sa “jag testade Browgame-pincetten på en kund med mycket ljusa småstrån och det kändes typ som att jag trådade!!”
I will write a more detailed post about them soon, I have taken pictures this week but have not had time to make the post.
click here to buy them in the webshop!
Another reason to be more at the salon is to help, we have invested quite a lot in marketing during the autumn and it seems that it is starting to give results now. Our hope is that the makeup artists will have so many customers that they may need a helping hand :)
It becomes a vicious circle when you have to stifle costs (due to double rents) then you market less and then you also get less revenue. So that I have worked a lot from home in 2019 is also because I have not been needed at the salon, the staff has had time to fix everything that needs fixing anyway.
On Tuesday e.g. so they were fully booked for the afternoon and the webshop packages (which had been collected during the weekend + the red Monday) had to be packed earlier to get away before the mail was emptied for the day. So then Miska and I packed all the packages! :)
There will be some A4 papers from the list of orders, so I packed one basket per A4 so it was easy for Miska to pack! :)
And it never goes wrong - always when I spend time making a post about a product, we always get info right afterwards that the / any shade of that product has expired. In this case, it is Paese Argan Oil Lipstick in shade 37 (luckily the best-selling 35 was not in any case), but I have of course taken photos and published swatch pictures of all the shades! Gah!
Then you long for your own make-up brand, when that kind of thing does not come as a surprise;)
But oh what that swatch image gave results, three of the colors sold out immediately and we had a whole list of customers queuing for the 35 shade that we contacted when it was in stock again. Now we have to order new ones right away haha.
We have designed new thank you cards for the webshop packages as well. We often write a handwritten greeting behind it as well, which many appreciate ♥
The skin bible
Förra söndagen så läste jag boken “Hudbibeln” av hudforskaren Johanna Gillbro, så bra! Rekommenderar den redan fast jag bara läst halva.
In part, I read it because I am interested, but it is mostly for work purposes because when developing makeup products, it is important to know how the skin works. Even though make-up is not skin care, it is still on the skin, so it is very important! Which preservatives should be avoided and what do different formulations really have on the skin?
Mycket i boken känner jag redan till eftersom jag är makeupartist och nörd, men det är svårt att hitta trovärdiga källor för det står olika överallt så jag har haft lite svårt att veta hur mycket av min kunskap jag faktiskt kan lita på. Men en hudforskare med den erfarenheten som Johann Gillbro har borde ju vara så nära “rätt” man kan komma. Av den kunskapen som finns idag i alla fall, sen kommer väl nya rapporter och upptäckter hela tiden ;)
Söndagar är bra dagar för jobb som inte känns som jobb. Att ligga nyduschad i sängen med ansiktsmask och dricka te och påstå att man jobbar för att “man gör research” känns ju inte som någonting man kan göra en måndag direkt ;)
Brow lift !!
Another news that is expected to come soon is the brow lift treatment! We are evaluating the treatment before it qualifies for the booking system, but it bodes well!
I have done it on myself and LOVE it! I have been so jealous of people with compliant straws that they can comb nicely, mine are where they are at the end of the point, incredibly obsessive.
But above all, I did it on a customer (free test person only) at the salon yesterday and look that this transformation I just say:
So cool! Where did all the straws come from, you wonder haha!
Preparing for vacation
We have many other projects that are to be started up before we leave, so that you can start with them immediately when we return.
For example:
New goal picture for 2020 that we will present for the staff meeting next week.
Requests for holidays and schedules as well as some other changes that will take place, so that we can open the booking system for the summer.
And not least all the work with my make-up brand! I have finished writing the last product descriptions to be sent to the producer and hopefully I will get that ball rolling before we leave so that nothing needs to be pushed forward. There is a lot of waiting time in the start-up phase (you wait for answers, samples, etc.) so I hope that the waiting time matches with my holiday!
I have photographed a lot in my make-up corner as well, so that my channels do not echo empty for two weeks. One day I made material for 4 posts and changed the sweater in between so that it is not as clear that it is photographed at the same time hahaha. You feel so ridiculous then but I know how much it would bother me later if I did not do it :)
Here is a make - up I did this week that will be published shortly. Got a craze for freckles !!
No, now I'm going to have breakfast (although it's soon half past one) - it's also one of the week's unhealthy habits, start working immediately when I wake up so that breakfast is postponed until it's lunchtime…
Then I will have a telephone meeting with my ev. future business partner for the makeup brand. Then there will be hair washing and maybe some ice cream in the hot tub while the hair wrap hurts;) You're worth it now!
Hugs are ♥
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