Selling beauty products online? Yes! What’s next? You know that you need help. So, what do you look for and what do you avoid in a mentor? Seeking out a mentor to help you learn how to effectively sell beauty products online, can be exhausting.
Aside from a persons credentials, experience etc … You need to know what you want from such a professional. Even when you know what you want, it may not be what you need at that time. However, you will know where you want to begin and you can grow from there.
Most people get the first step wrong. Therefore, when hiring a professional to help you, have an outcome in mind.
Your outcome needs to be very clear and specific. If your outcome cannot be measured in terms of success or a lesson learned, you need to rethink it.
This is an important step, therefore, you don’t waste your time. Besides that, It will also help the person you’re considering, to know exactly what kind of advice to offer you.
Your mentor/coach will be of much greater assistance to you when you focus on one outcome and are clear on the outcome you expect.
This is also a great way to separate the great mentoring professionals from the average ones.
You see, there are some so-called experts out there in the beauty business. They’ve read about running such a business, yet never actually owned one.
This presents a problem. Why? Because these people are not skilled in many areas of running an online beauty business.
We’ve had some excellent mentors to help on the digital marketing side of being online. And because they were not specific or had little to no experience in the beauty industry as a whole, it often presented a problem. We found out, that we knew more than we thought.
We learned at that point, that our problem was more of not having confidence in what we knew.
In fact, they only had very general knowledge. If this person has not owned and operated a successful beauty business themselves, especially one with an online presence, they are not the right mentor for you.
If you have a measurable outcome and specific focus when you meet them, you will easily be able to know the real experts from the fakes.
Once again, please don’t waste your time and money with the wrong mentoring professional.
If you currently don’t really know what you need from a mentor, then you need to sit down and figure this out first.
Don’t leave this step out. It is actually very easy to do if you know what you need. However, if you find that you don’t have a clue, a strategy session with a mentor will be your next step.
Ask yourself where your business is in terms of its growth.
– Maybe you need help building a website?
– Do you need help with your metrics?
– Are you in need of help with Internet marketing?
– Do you want to create a new product or service?
– Will you need help with creating content?
– Do you need help building your list?
Whatever your outcome is, you need to be clear on it. Remember to be specific and have a clear deadline for your goal.
Once you have this step complete, check out a number of experts who fit with your intended outcome.
You can narrow your search down and give yourself a much greater chance of success.
In fact, when you do this step you are almost guaranteed a successful relationship with your coach.
There are literally thousands of mentors out there.
However, there are only a few mentors that have success and willing to help you. These are the ones that you want to work with.
Think of it like this…
When a sports star wants to increase their success, who do they look for?
They look for people who have already accomplished what they want to have.
The best people in every profession model themselves on those that have succeeded in the past. They don’t settle for the first person that comes along.
This is the same way that you need to approach your own coach or mentor. Don’t fall into the trap of believing hype or clever sales copy.
As such, you need to find out about the level of success they have had in the past.
If they currently have an online business, take a look at how they’ve set themselves up. One thing to keep in mind, is that there is a lot of internal work that goes into setting up an online store.
There’s more to it than meets the eye. For instance, you cannot run a business purely on social media. Social media is a tool used to make people aware of who you are.
And just because you don’t see a business on a certain platform, doesn’t mean they are not successful. Everything boils down to where your market/customer is found. For some, it will be Facebook, others will find a better flow with Pinterest. And while Instagram is the new darling in social media, doesn’t mean it will work for you.
There is a night and day difference between a good mentor and a great mentor.
Here’s why. A great mentor can give you many of the shortcuts they’ve based on their vast experience. They can literally save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.
This alone makes the mentor a worthwhile investment.
A great mentor will also understand what you need to know at what time. They will understand the long-term implications of each action in terms of setting up and growing your beauty business online.
The great mentor will have systems that you can easily plug into your own beauty business and transform it very quickly.
All of this means that you can begin to make (or increase) profits in a far shorter time than with a mediocre mentor.
Of course, this is the whole purpose of a mentor. If they don’t make you more than your investment, then you need to find someone else. The key to this is how quickly You Do the Work.
While the profit you make with their ideas and advice is important, more often than not, they can help you find direction. This can result in greater value than income earned when you’re lost and confused.
Mentoring is the process where you pay for advice and help from someone with experience who’s achieved what you want to achieve.
The basic idea is very simple. The mentor helps you increase your beauty business’ visibility and bottom line. If the mentor doesn’t help you gain knowledge, clarity and understanding of what you’re doing, then he or she is actually costing you money.
You can hire a mentor to work on any aspect of your beauty business.
For example, you can hire an Internet marketing expert who can help to drive more traffic to your website (and increase your sales). A marketing expert to help you with your marketing.
You can also hire an offline mentor. This could be someone that you meet with and apply advertising methods offline.
You may also want to hire a mentor that can advise you on how to redesign your beauty studio or premises. Again, the outcome needs to increase your profits.
Generally, you will meet with your mentor once a week. During this session, which often lasts one hour, you will plan and discuss what actions you have taken over the previous week.
You will see how they have helped you with your business.
You will also discuss what will be done in the next week.
All mentoring sessions should revolve around action steps. If you only speak and talk in general terms, then you will get little from the relationship.
Your beauty business mentor should push you beyond your comfort zone. This is part of holding you accountable for the assignment given the previous week. This is a key aspect of mentoring.
If you just keep doing the things that you are currently doing, your results are NOT going to change.
Your business mentor should only be concerned with helping you with your business. This is how your relationship starts out at least. Overtime, after working together on multiple projects, they can often become a friend and confidant.
Selling beauty products online is not easy. At times, your mentor may need to be brutally honest. They will hold you accountable and keep you on track. Even when you have good sounding excuses, you will need their honesty.
This is the way to make fast progress and reach your goals much faster.
Your mentor should preferably have owned and operated a business in the beauty space, especially online.
Think of your mentor as a long-term investment in your business. They should help you to set up a system that makes your business grow week after week.
Don’t expect your mentor to be overly sensitive. I have found the most successful mentors are solely focused on the outcome. Remember that your mentor has his or her own reputation to uphold also (e.g. they work with winners).
For this reason, you need to find a mentor that fits your personality type. Many people cannot handle such a focused mindset and don’t like to be held accountable.
So … you need to get clear on what matters most to you.
Do you want to feel comfortable or do you want a successful online beauty business?
I advise you to find a mentor that pushes you and challenges you to be the best you can be. Don’t settle for second best.
Take action today.
It is important that you know if the mentoring you paid for was successful.
If it was successful then you will want to hire the mentor again for another month or more.
For example, if your online beauty business just generated an extra $2000 in profit, then you need to keep applying what’s working.
On the other hand, if you gained no quantifiable results then you need to end the relationship and move on.
So the way you measure success is very important.
Set a very specific, quantifiable goal at the start of the mentoring agreement.
For example … My business will be launched and collecting data by a given date. My email list will have grown by a certain number by a given date.
In many cases, you can find mentors that you pay based on results. This is an option for you.
In such cases, you don’t pay the business mentor unless they bring you a certain number of new clients, leads or sales.
Many mentors like to work on results as they can ask for a percentage of the sales increase. You need to work out if this is a good deal for you.
Other mentors like to work for a fixed price. They often give you a price per month. Other mentors might ask you to pay by the hour.
At the start of the relationship it’s a good idea to tell them your desired outcome. Make this very clear to them.
The best mentors will appreciate this level of honesty and focus. Others might try to change your goal. If this is the case, then you should be wary of them. Unless your goal is unrealistic). Say twelve million dollars in 6 months … that’s an unrealistic goal, especially for new beauty businesses.
In some cases, you can amend the goal a little, but ensure that you both agree on the outcome before you send them any money.
You also need to take full responsibility for your own actions during the relationship. The mentor cannot increase your business without you taking repeated actions.
You need to act on the information and advice that you are given.
At the end of the mentoring period, check your results and measure the success of the mentoring.
Good luck!
This depends on your circumstances and personality type.
Let’s look at the benefits of both group mentoring and one-on-one mentoring.
As part of a group, you are going to see business problems and experiences that other people in your market are going through. These can be very good learning experiences for you.
Often seeing the problems of other beauty businesses gives you a new perspective on your own situation. You might figure out a way to grow your business by listening to other people in your group.
This is probably the biggest benefit of group mentoring. You get fresh ideas from a number of people, as well as your mentor. Just hearing the comments of other people can give you new insights that can increase your profits.
Communicating with other people in your marketplace lets you exchange commonalities. Often you will find out how other businesses have dealt with issues that you may have.
It’s a good time to make new contacts in the market.
Networking is very important in any business. In many causes your business may benefit from knowing others. You may have products or services that you can sell to others.
Other businesses might have products that you can refer to your current customers. This is another way to increase your profits very easily.
Having a mentor give personal advice for your beauty business is the fastest way to increase your business. In a group setting, a mentor can only give you a small chunk of his or her time.
With one hour each week, you can plan and implement many more strategies into your business. You will have the undivided attention of your mentor.
This is almost like having an extra member of staff with you.
Ultimately, speaking to a mentor one-on-one, is more dynamic and intimate than any group session can offer. You can really get down to the details of your beauty business.
In a group setting, you are less likely to give up personal or confidential information. Often it is this information that makes all the difference in your business.
One-on-one mentoring gives you much faster growth opportunities. You can grow at a much greater speed when you have an expert spending time to analyze and improve your business.
One-on-one mentoring is how the world’s best businesses grow so fast. They get personal advice from the leading experts in their field and put it into action.
What’s Next? … you need to think about what level of mentoring is best for you right now and then make your decision based on that.
Take action now and move forward.
For your beauty business, one of the best things you can do is get a referral from a friend or someone you know.
Why are referrals so powerful?
A Poor mentor is never to going to get personal referrals. Why? Because they don’t want to be associated with the reputation of a poor mentor.
However, they will want to recommend someone who’s helped them. One that created a successful relationship and helped increase their business growth and profits.
This is why a referral is the best way to find the top mentors in the beauty business world.
In essence, you need to get a referral from a trusted source. Not all referrals are created equal.
The next point is very important. Always go to trusted sources for your referrals. If you find that, your friends, family members or close associates don’t have any referrals for you, then you need to look elsewhere.
This is where it can be a little tricky as you need to rely on the unbiased view of the person giving the referral.
Bottom line, you need to look at respected people in your business. You can often find these people in your city or online.
There are many very helpful people that give out free advice via forum boards. Again, look for those that are successful and want to help without having a side agenda.
Don’t accept referrals from associates of the mentor.
It is very easy for mentors to set up referral systems with other people in different industries. All they have to do is refer readers and customers in return for a reciprocal benefit.
Sometimes you might think a referral is genuine. It coud be an established relationship. Be wary of this.
Get referrals from people you know personally and trust. This is the number one way to find a great mentor for your beauty business.
Look for referrals from people who have a strong reputation and trusted in the industry.
If you use these two methods of finding referrals, you will be well on your way to finding a great mentor for your online beauty business.
Mentoring is an unregulated field. Be slow to hire and quick to fire.
Search locally and via the Internet.
Set up Zoom meetings. This will break the ice.
More importantly, with COVID – 19, the power of the Internet is your best choice. The internet makes it possible for you to even work with an international mentor using free communication software.
This really gives you a huge advantage over other businesses as you can find the best mentor for your online beauty business anywhere in the world.
The best mentor for your online beauty business is one that is involved in running one. Or used to run an online beauty company. They will know how to guide you through the good, the bad and the ugly of online sales.
It’s best if they were involved in selling beauty products online. If your mentor has done it, this the type of information you need to know.
That’s it for the time being. If you want to learn more about how to start and market a business that sells beauty product via the internet, check us out at beautybusinessblueprint.com.
Get our Free give-a-way: 9 Core Elements to Starting A Successful Beauty Business Online. It will get you thinking and we can help you fill in the gaps.
As always …
Dedicated To Your Success,
Juliette Samuel,
