Want to start my own business as a bridal hair & make up artist? Is it worth it? How to do it privately?

[Memyself212]

I have always had a passion to start off my business as a hair & makeup artist and I did when I was in my 20's but at that time I didn't really have my own place to accomodate clients and couldn't drive so was struggling a bit. I also kept my prices quite low even though I know I was quite good at it as I thought I wasn't worth that much money.

I now have the place and can drive.

If you read my last post, I am looking for an evening/weekend job for extra financial support and I really want to become a successful bridal hair and make up artist. I am however a private person and I don't want to become famous or anything. I just want my work to speak for itself and for it to become a means that I can get regular gigs over the weekend or evenings.

Is there any way I can sort of become a private make up artist in my area but able to get more work coming in without me going all out on social media?

In the asian industry most artists charge £500 for hair and £1000 for hair and makeup. This is standard in the asian industry and this is my target audience. So even if I get one client a weekend and spend 4 hours getting her ready and just get £500, I would be pretty satisfied with that.

Any suggestions or advice?

You need to be on social media but you don’t need to feature in it or do TikTok live streaming

just set up videos with your hands showing and focus on the brides if they are happy to have their results taken

choose an anonymous business name

you can still be ‘private’ and have a business presence on sm

First thing to do is get insurance. Always get insurance.

You probably will need a social media presence, as many people will search or ask for recommendations online. Photos of your work are important. You don’t need to be ‘famous’ though (I don’t know what you mean by that entirely, but you don’t need to show your face on your socials) it’s more of a portfolio.

@fishshop thank you, I will try that, has given me a bit of confidence

OP good luck. But to be successful you're going to have to be flexible - brides will also want a trial make up/hair go, poss with photographer, so may not fit in to weekends all the time. You also need to build up a portfolio, which could mean offering it discounted. And make sure you are covered for the bride who doesn't like the trial make up and cancels on you.

@35965a Do you know where I can get insurance from?

Just worried when influencers get big (I have no intention) and they get a lot of hate and backlash, I dont think i could handle that as I am a very private person.

Is it normal for someone to have a different name to be even private? E.g. I can have a business name and keep my name as something totally different to what everyone knows me as?

@crosstalk I am more than happy doing trials and offering that as an extra service. I was thinking to also have a professional camera on hand so they can see how their photos will look in general. When I worked in my 20's I built a portfolio so I am thinking I can use that as a starting point as it's all my work anyway that I did but years ago (but still valid)?

I would still recommend social media Op. Unless someone has used you before and then personally knows someone else getting married to recommend you to, a lot of people get their recommendations from local fb groups for example. Same way as they get recommendations for other services such as engineers, hairdressers etc.

@MariaVT65 Thank you I will consider that.

Of course you can- but you are dealing with people who are parting with a lot of money. I would be a bit ‘hmmm’ if someone was cagey about remaining private, the name they gave me was ‘amirah’ but was ‘aruna’ on gbejr bank account.

I’d make sure it was a middle name, or a reasonable nickname - or be prepared to be ‘I go by x but on my ID it is y’