Welcome to week one of our SIDE HUSTLE blog series! What’s a side hustle? The shortest answer is that it is work performed for income to supplement one’s primary job. A side hustle is also what will turn makeup into your primary job! Let’s get to it…
How to make sure makeup is your full-time gig
Ever wonder how makeup artists create a FULL-TIME career that allows them to eat, pay rent and splurge on unnecessary, over priced, designer items??? They most definitely have a side hustle. During this 4 part series you will learn how MUA’s create multiple revenue streams to avoid picking up a 9-5 J.O.B.
First let’s analyze your skill set to see what kind of additional services you can offer.
Beauty artists with airbrush, face painting and body painting skills can offer the following services:
- Face painting/airbrush tattoos/glitter tattoos for kids birthday parties, school carnivals, bar/bat mitzvahs.
- Halloween makeup, themed party makeup.
- Princess parties with hair and makeup.
- Girl Scout Troup hygiene and beauty classes.
- Teen makeup classes.
- Senior all night party/lock-in tattoos or makeup.
- Pageant makeup.
- Dance competition makeup.
- Volunteer work for hospitals, support groups (do good and it will come back to you).
- Boudoir shoots
Special FX artists with sculpting, mold making, face/body painting, and airbrush skills can offer the following services:
- Make your own appliances and masks to sell for profit.
- Create medical grade appliances for those in need.
- Cast pregnant bellies (or any other part of the body for that matter).
- Create customized masks by allowing the client to be involved in the design process.
- Makeup for haunted houses.
- Create OOAK figurines, dolls, and anything else you dream up to sell online.
- Halloween makeup.
- Kids birthdays- face painting, themed makeup.
- Comic Con makeup.
- Volunteer work for hospitals, support groups (do good and it will come back to you).
Sell other product as a side hustle?
In addition to offering extra services, is there any product you can sell?
You may not know but, I am a BIG FAN of multi-level marketing (MLM) and believe everyone should have a side hustle selling SOMETHING. For me, skin care made the most sense. I was not interested in selling color cosmetics because the brands I was aware of… well, let’s just say that the quality was less than fair. My advice is to sell something you love or that compliments other services you already offer. If you are a health nut, then maybe you should sell supplements. If you love fashion, then maybe you should sell clothes. If you are passionate about problematic skin then maybe you should sell skin care. Think of MLM as a means to get from A to B. Not to mention, wouldn’t it be nice to have a residual income even after you retire as an artist?
Check out next weeks blog post in our 4 part series where I talk in detail about why MLM is going to revolutionize commerce. In the meantime, start reading Flip Flop CEO by Whitney Roberts and Janine Finney and Get Over Your Damn Self by Romi Neustadt.
Here are a few MLM’s I recommend, click on the title to learn more:
Plexus Weight Management and Nutrition
Why multi-level marketing?
I prefer MLM because of the replenishment opportunity with your clients. Instead of your client purchasing something one time, they will purchase repeatedly and you will make money every time! However, before I was a believer of MLM’s I was a lipstick slinger. Yep, I made sure every bride and bridesmaid had the perfect shade of lipstick on hand for purchase. Typically, I sold a lip liner, lipstick and lip gloss. This was about $30 in revenue with a profit of $20-24. So let me break it down: 6 clients x $30 = $180. Just about every bridal party purchased my lip bundles. I averaged about 40 bridal parties a year so you are looking at an additional revenue stream of about $7200. Not bad for slinging lip sticks.
As far as Special FX artists, they could easily be prosthetic slingers. Yep, no reason they can’t make their own wounds, noses, ears and anything else that would interest the haunt or comic-con enthusiast year-round… not to mention the opportunity in selling prosthetic pieces to other artist in film and commercial. Depending on the materials used and the need for the item you’ve created, you can make quite a pretty penny! Don’t limit yourself to monsters and gore, think outside the box and create items that will fill the need of a wider audience. ?
What else can you do to increase revenue?
You need to offer bundles or packages on your services. Instead of doing beauty makeup once, add on a trial for every client. This already doubles your income. Trials are essential to insure the client likes the makeup artists stylistic approach. For brides and special occasions, packages are easy to offer. Use your creativity and business skill to create your own packages! Here are some examples:
Bridal Makeup Package (or whatever you want to call it and price it accordingly)
Trial, Engagement, Bridal Shower, Bachelorette, Wedding Day
$400
Senior Year Makeup Package
Senior Photos, Graduation Day, Prom, Senior All-Night Party
$300
Client VIP Program
$100 annual fee $70 for every application
Includes- priority scheduling, mink lash upgrade, airbrush upgrade
So, before you go off looking for a J-O-B that has NOTHING to do with your career of choice or your interests, look within your own skill set first! Join us next week for part two of the SIDE HUSTLE series, in which I explain how MLM is key to supplementing income!
Lastly, SUBSCRIBE! You won’t want to miss out on the rest of this series! All subscribers from August and September will be entered in our giveaway… the item will be announced later this month!
