How to get into online teaching as a beauty professional
Did you know that I teach a program online for beauty business owners, all about using Facebook ads for maximum client attraction and sales?
I made this course in January 2019 and started selling it in February of the same year.
Was I terrified of what would happen when I released my course to the public? Absolutely. I was worried that despite all my hard work, no one would want to buy it. 🥺
Here's what ended up happening:
👉 February 2019: Made $8,000 on my first course launch, and had 24 students sign up.
👉 August 2019: Doubled down on selling, promoted it like crazy for my second launch, and made $38,000 in one month.
👉 January 2020: Improved my course material and made $82,000 on my third launch.
👉 July 2020: Coronavirus happened. On one hand, I was hesitant to sell a course to beauty business owners after their salons had been closed for months, but I knew my course could really help them attract clients when re-opening. There was no need for the stress - I ended up selling $39,000 in courses last month!
My course has made me $167,000 in 1.5 years.
Wow. Typing that out gives me shivers, because just a couple of years ago I had no idea where to start, or that all of this was even possible.
I know you've been considering new ways to make money in your beauty business. Take it from me and my personal experience - teaching online courses is one of the most profitable, worthwhile ventures you can get into in this year. Get ready to be inspired to start teaching!
Below are stories of 3 salon owners who completely shifted their businesses, and found a new passion and source of revenue, through online courses.
By reading their stories of success, you’re going to get some major ideas for getting started on your own course-creation journey in the beauty industry.
Gina Rodriguez - Teaches her clients how to care for curly hair
Course cost: $28 - $99, three course options
Gina Rodriguez owns and operates The Cultivated Curl, a hair salon dedicated to curls, and a full-service online academy for owners of curly hair. Gina was consistently booked up and therefore missing out on potential clients as a result. She saw that there was an opportunity to educate others on taking care of their curly locks and help them stay in touch with her salon even if they couldn't be in her chair.
She developed three different courses for both clients and non-clients alike, and she has been thrilled with the results. She’s providing great information about how to care for and style curly hair without having to repeat herself at every appointment, and her clients love the interaction and attention they receive throughout the extent of her courses.
Gina’s take on educating in the beauty industry:
“Beauty professionals are generally such a giving bunch! But we teach and teach, and that information has trickled out into the influencer world, where there are people who have set up channels and accounts passing along what they have learned from hairstylists! [We miss out on making money] because we are behind the chair and not really sure how to monetize our knowledge outside of our salons (or as product manufacturer “Brand educators”). We are leaving money on the table!”
Check out Gina’s courses here!
Abby Warther - Teaches hairstylists the art of balayage
Course cost: $97 for a live workshop-style class
Abby Warther is the owner and operator of The Abby Warther Academy and AW Salon in Ohio. She was one of the first in the nation to learn and perfect the art of balayage, and when she discovered the joy of teaching her art to fellow salon workers and beauty business pals, she smartly decided to market her knowledge to a wider audience. She became certified as a National Balayage Educator, and her passion pushed her to develop her own teaching material. She mainly wanted to advertise her program to non-clients of her salon, so she began growing her social media presence to expand her marketing reach.
From a brand new Insta account marketed to other hair stylists interested in learning new skills, to a Facebook group approaching 3,000 members (Built With Balayage), Abby has come a very long way, and permanently branded herself as an expert and an educator.
She recently hosted a live, 2-hour workshop on her Facebook page, priced at $97 a seat. She had 20 people sign up, and made $1940 in just 10 days of promoting. With minimal marketing, Abby was able to share her valuable knowledge and make some serious extra income through social media.
How Abby turned her passion for teaching others into part of her business:
"My entire career I always gravitated towards helping my fellow stylists and co-workers at the salons I worked for. That love for helping my co-workers learn turned into becoming an in-salon color coach for the salon I worked at during that time. Eventually, I became an independent stylist turned commission salon owner, and I was missing that [teaching] aspect of my career.
At that time, Balayage was new to the hair industry in the US and it was something I was teaching myself to do through a lot of trial and error. After about 2 years of teaching myself and building an entire salon specializing in balayage, I decided that I was ready to help others learn. I wanted to help hair stylists learn at a much faster pace than I did, without all of the trial and error, and to truly become Built With Balayage services."
Dawn Bradley - Teaches hairstylists how to earn 6 figures stress free
Course cost: 97$ and upwards
Dawn Bradley owns a hair salon that has brought her great success over the years, but as is a common theme with long-term hairdressers and stylists, the long hours and physically demanding work started to feel like less of a joy and more of a burden in her life.
Having been introduced to the idea of teaching a course about everything she’s learned over the years, she decided to make a move by developing an online education business designed to help salon owners and hairdressers thrive in their businesses. Dawn credits her courses for bringing joy, excitement, and lots of extra money into her life.
In July 2020, smack dab in the middle of COVID, Dawn has made over $150,000 in revenue from her signature program, plus $50,000 from her other mini-courses. So impressive! And Dawn has been able to shift every aspect of her work and personal life to her liking because of that success. She now enjoys working from home most of the time instead of at the salon, only popping in to see favorite clients as she wishes.
Why Dawn loves having a digital course business:
“I’m really proud of the success I’ve seen with [my salon] business—I make 6-figures as the salon owner—and it’s still standing almost two decades later. The problem with my salon business, though, is how taxing it can be.
Standing on my feet all day was putting strain on my body. Having a million different things to worry about all the time gave me so much anxiety that I ended up in the hospital, and I was physically exhausted all the time.
Having an online course has been LIFE-CHANGING for me. The biggest shift has been my ability to take care of myself first.”
See Dawn’s courses available here
So, what should I teach?
You’ve just heard the stories of 3 hairstylists and salon owners who took their experience and turned it into a thriving online course.
But what if you don’t do hair? Or what if you’re not a salon owner with years of experience?
Don’t worry, there is a ton of opportunity up for grabs in the beauty industry. No matter what kind of business you have, or your level of experience, here are some ideas to get you started…
Teach a technique
One of the most popular topics for a course is to teach a technique related to your beauty expertise. Here are some questions to help get you started:
Is there something you do really well that other beauty professionals are always asking you about on Instagram? Or that you get a lot of attention for on social media?
Is there a technique that you’ve perfected, or found your own special way to perform?
Do you notice other beauty pros struggling with something that comes more naturally to you?
Are you one of the first, or few, to get educated in a specific technique that you see is growing in popularity?
These kind of techniques could be in any beauty niche:
Facials, esthetics, and skincare products
Lashes and brows
Nails
Hair extensions, cutting, coloring, styling, etc.
Spray tanning
Makeup PMU and microblading
Waxing and hair removal
Teach a business skill
Teaching the business side of having a salon or beauty career is also such a great idea! Ask yourself these questions:
What have you learned about running your own business that you think every new beauty business owner should know?
Have you gotten really good at using a specific tool or platform for managing or growing your salon?
What’s your 'secret sauce' that’s lead to your success? Could you teach that to others?
Here are some examples for you:
Marketing tools and platforms like email marketing, Facebook ads, Instagram, Google, etc
Customer service skills that you’ve learned and perfected over the years
How to manage a team and scale your salon
Combining other business skills with salon ownership: legal, accounting, budgeting, etc.
Teach something to your clients
Instead of teaching other beauty pros, why not create a course to teach your own clients, or, better yet, to grab the attention of potential new ones! Here are some ideas to get you started:
Think about the things that your clients are always asking you about. Gina knew that styling curly hair was the #1 issue clients had after their appointments, so she made a course about it.
Turn the free education you give your clients during their appointments into a course that you can charge for.
If you're finding you're repeating information often, that is exactly the type of thing that should be in your course!
Some examples of classes you could offer:
How to style your hair or do your makeup at home
Teaching a skincare routine or sharing common skincare ingredients to educate your most curious clients
You can also teach something that’s not strictly related to your beauty services, such as developing a healthy microbiome and gut flora, or practicing mindfulness in your daily life - these are all things that are sure to interest your health-conscious clients.
What’s stopping you from creating your own course?
I’m so glad I took the leap last year to create my course and start selling it, even if I didn’t feel 100% confident. To be honest, I’d been thinking about making a course for a LONG time, but I had several fears that were stopping me. Maybe you’ve felt like one of these yourself…
"But what if I make a course, and no one wants to buy?"
Start small and grow from there. Begin with virtual consultations, appointments, or lessons on Zoom Live with your clients (aka potential students). Do 1-on-1 Zoom makeup sessions. Set up free private coaching calls with other beauty professionals to help them with their business. These are all great ways to practice teaching, get feedback and start understanding the biggest struggles, questions and “aha moments” of the people you want to market your course to. With the feedback you receive from clients and peers in the beauty business world via these online sessions, you'll find you're able to build immersive, comprehensive, and irresistible course material.
"I feel like I’m not enough of an expert to make a course."
The person who waits long enough to “feel ready” to make a course is the person who never gets around to it. You have to start before you feel ready. You don’t need decades of experience, or a big following, or a massive client list. All you need is to be a few steps ahead of your students. You need to be able to teach them something that you’ve done well. If you do insanely good lash extensions, teach it. If you’ve got a signature way to provide customer service that you want to teach to other professionals, DO IT!
You have experiences that other people don’t. If you’re worried that your experiences aren’t enough, remind yourself that they got you to where you are in your business, and that’s already saying a LOT. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be YOURSELF.
"I’m worried that someone else has already made a course about what I want to teach."
There are at least 1,000 online course that teach accounting for small businesses. There are easily over 3,000 that teach you how to do makeup at home. And yes, there are thousands of courses that teach Facebook ads (what I teach). But here’s the thing: while it’s true that every idea has been done before… it’s never been done by YOU!
You are the magic secret ingredient that is your sales tool, differentiator, and secret weapon. Your unique personality, your way of explaining things, and your life experiences all add up to make your course 100% unique. Do not worry about other courses teaching the same subject. Instead, think about how you can infuse everything that makes you and your experience unique into your course. That’ll make students instantly attracted to your course.
Ready to learn your own unique path to creating an online program?
Now that you’re feeling more confident and seriously inspired about creating and selling a course, let's seal the deal and get you moving towards it.
My success as a digital course creator has been powered by my business coach, Amy Porterfield. She taught me everything I know. When my courses were just the spark of an idea and I didn’t know where to go next, Amy guided me and inspired me.
To get you headed in the most positive direction possible, Amy has created a free quiz to take. The quiz will tell you which of her courses will help you the most where you're at right now. I promise you that Amy will hook you up with a proven framework to activate your 10% edge and bring your digital course to life! Take the quiz right now and get started on teaching others all the valuable knowledge you hold.
Quiz: What’s Your Personal Path to Creating a Profitable Digital Course?
Take this 2-minute quiz and find out which one YOU should take based on your experience, expertise, and where you’re at in your business.
I’m so excited to see what your results will be!
Cheering you on!
Stephanie
