When I graduated from cosmetology school I had no idea how to project my earnings. As I said before, I just waited for my client to call or to walk in. As a result many of my clients would wait until their enhancements were in sorry shape, with broken nails. Or their feet were catching on the sheets and their toenails were werewolf length.

I struggled to get people to come in for their appointments more regularly. I had no idea how to accomplish this. Then I took that class that talked about how to get clients to book standing appointments. That was the first time I saw anyone break down the potential financial gain from each client in simple mathematics. It was also were I was first introduced to the idea of pre-booking clients. The light bulb went on and I finally began to understand how to take a look at my books and see how much money I could make. It helped greatly with figuring out if I would be able to pay my bills that month.

It still took me a couple of years to learn how to breakdown and analyze how much money I could earn from each client in a year. Once I began to understand that, I was actually able to plan ahead for the times of year that would slow down in my salon. I was able to start making seasonal offerings to clients to entice them to book ahead to take advantage of the special. Or to make a plan for my enhancement clients to take off their nails and get manicures for the summer to take care of their hands while they gardened. I now had some tools to properly build a full book instead of expecting it to magically happen. No longer was I stressed out waiting for the client to make the first move.

— Sandy