Ask Me Anything: We're Talking About Doing Henna at Coffee Shops, Using Alternatives to Henna During Design Practice Sessions, Bridal Henna, and Managing a Henna Business
Ask Me Anything!
You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers!
In today’s Ask Me Anything!, we’re tackling the following questions submitted from hennapreneurs like you:
[01:42] What is the etiquette for meeting clients for henna appointments in a coffee shop?
[12:13] Is there anything cheap that I can use to practice doing henna designs with
so that I don't waste henna?
[13:39] Is there a website where I can learn how to build a henna business?
[14:35] Why did you want a bigger space for your henna boutique, how did you find the spot, and how much is the rent? + How many appointments do you average per week at your henna boutique?
[19:52] What is the best affordable website to get banners for my henna booth made?
[22:43] I've never done bridal henna before and had a last-minute inquiry for a henna appointment for a bride and her guests. How do I plan for the event and how do I price my services?
[28:48] Can I use your PSA posts for henna clients who aren't feeling well?
Got a question about how to become a henna artist?
Ask me anything about starting, growing, and maintaining your henna business!
By the way, you’re totally invited to join me and other high-aspiring henna artists inside of the private Hennapreneur Community on Facebook! There we connect about henna, about business, and about all things related to crushing it as a henna professional.
+ Read the transcript here
Chelsea: Okay. Oh, wow, let's see. Are we good? Let's see. Okay, here we go. Yes. All right, Hennapreneur. Hi guys! Sorry, look, I'm a couple minutes late today. I hope that you guys will forgive me. Let me go ahead and share this feed over into the Hennapreneur Community as well, and then we will begin with today's live ask me anything session, yeah? Let's see... and we're live. Here we go. Okay, so we had a handful of questions that came in today for our live ask me anything session, so we're going to jump right in. First, let me take a second just to introduce myself. Hi, welcome everyone! If it's your first time here, if you're new to me, new to Hennapreneur, hi, my name is Chelsea Stevenson. I am a professional henna artist based here in Baltimore, Maryland. I'm also a business strategist and the founder of Hennapreneur, and I help henna artists all over the world to start, grow and scale their henna businesses. So twice a month, I come live here on Facebook and answer any questions that you guys have about henna, business, branding. So today, I had quite a couple solid questions that came through, so let me pull them up right now. Ah! How are we doing today, by the way?
I feel like, I don't know about you guys, but I'm like, I've been running. I've been running! All right!
First question we've got, “I've seen the topic come up before, but have missed how to approach it. If I want to meet people in a coffee shop, what is the etiquette? Do I speak to the owner or the manager? Do I offer something in return? Should I start drinking coffee? What kind of agreements are generally out there, so I can go in prepared for the conversation?”
This is a really great question. So anytime that you're wanting to work in a coffee house or a coffee shop setting, one, let me start by saying this is totally common for our industry. So if this is the first time that you are hearing about “coffee house sessions,” know that this is really, really normal, really, really common, for henna artists, particularly for mobile henna artists.
So as far as etiquettes are concerned, when you start working with henna in a coffee shop, it's going to depend on two things. So I like to kind of break this up into two different wheelhouses, right? So the first is, is this locally owned or is this a franchise like larger corporate sort of experience? If this is a locally owned coffee shop, then you're definitely going to want to make some sort of communication, some sort of contact with the owner or with a manager who's there. Because it's another local owned business, that's a relationship that you're going to want to build, and not just show up in their space doing henna. In that sort of scenario, what I recommend is having a conversation around, “hey, listen, I'm a local artist. I'd love to come and just meet my clients here.”
See if they have any things that are not okay with them. So for example, they might say things like, “sure, you can meet your clients here, but you can't solicit people while you're here.” Or, “sure, you can see your clients here but you can’t exchange funds while you're here.” Things like this. If that's the case, then you know right off top, you know, these are like the etiquettes of things that you need to maintain. But certainly when it comes down to like another local business, make sure that you build that relationship with them because you might find that even later on, you guys can collaborate in some way. You might have like a coffee night, a coffee and henna night, like a popup that can happen more regularly with them and so forth.
Now on the other side, is that of more corporate. So that's where I'm thinking of like chain coffee shops. Things like Starbucks, things like Dunkin Donuts, coffee shops like these that are everywhere, right? In situations like those, there's still etiquette, but there's less red tape, there's less formality. In situations like those, you don't have to touch base with the manager or with the owner. That's kind of out the window. The expectation in those sorts of settings is that people meet their clients for work there. That's what happens in that sort of coffee shop. Oh goodness, sorry guys, I got a phone call that came through, what the heck?! So for situations like those, you don't have to worry about, you know, chasing down who do I talk to? Can I sit here? all that. It's kind of a given that people meet their clients there. That said, there is still definitely a level of etiquette that you're going to want to maintain when you're working inside of that space.
Specifically, for example, when I was working in coffee shops, what I would prefer to do is like, if weather allowed, sit outside. From the, you know, the scent of our henna. There’s a scent for our henna, whether it smells good or not, doesn't matter, there's a scent, right? So, I would prefer outside seating. Anytime I would arrive, I would order a beverage for the table. Whether that's just for me or even having like a running card available so that you can order something for your client. That might be something that you do keep in mind. If you do this, obviously that's going to cut into your profit margins, so price your services appropriately accounting for the fact that you might be spending $3 on a coffee. Or you can encourage your client, “hey listen, before we get started, do you want to place an order first?”
And so that way you're bringing in that business for that coffee shop as well. Typically in my experience, in working in a coffee shop setting, I'll tell you in the past, I've worked largely with Starbucks, in Starbucks settings. I did that for a number of years to the point that I actually had a rotation. Monday, I was at one Tuesday, Thursday, I was at another, and then Wednesday, Friday was at a third. And they expected me to be there. If I wasn't there, they were like, “oh gosh, you didn't have clients last Wednesday?” or whatever. But it became a really good working collaborative sort of relationship because I was always bringing in clients. I was bringing in clients who otherwise weren't coming to that location, they weren’t going to be there.
They were coming for their henna and I was encouraging them to also purchase a coffee or to also purchase a thing. So just as a rule of thumb, even if you're going into that more “corporate” coffee shop setting, just be mindful that you want someone to make a purchase. So if it's not your client, make sure that you make a purchase and that there's something purchased at the table. But otherwise, the expectation is that people are going to be meeting their clients for business there. And so what that business is, is kind of irrelevant. I've never had an issue, I've never personally experienced an issue at a coffee shop, with the exception of one, and I can't even really call this an issue. I had glitter, obviously glitter, and one of the new staff, who came along way after I did, had made mention of glitter being on the floor.
And I've always been the type, of course you come into a space, you pick up the space before you leave and whatnot. But I guess this new staff member didn't necessarily appreciate there having been some glitter left behind that was still on the floor. So that was the only time that I ever had a coffee shop that was like, oh, this is the thing to address. In general though, in terms of etiquette, it's not as, maybe intimidating, as we may make it out to be or we may think that it could be. Honestly, it's just sitting, making sure that you're kind of, you know, respecting the space and making sure that we're not encroaching or imposing on other people that are around us.
So yeah, I hope that that answers the question fully. I'm trying to make sure I didn't miss anything else inside of the question.
She said, “should I start drinking coffee?” Drink something, buy something, purchase something. Normally what I would do, to answer this, what I would do is I would wait. So with my clients, I'd come, meet my clients, do their henna. I’d encourage them to purchase a drink before we started. So they purchased their drink and however many consecutive bookings I had, everyone was purchasing a thing. And then after the night was finished, then I would purchase my thing before I left. So it's like there's always going to be a purchase happening, whether that's at that appointment or whether that's me purchasing it before I actually leave the location.
How long would I be at the coffee shop? I would be there sometimes for hours. Typically, I would start working with clients around like 5, 5:30, and there were times that I would work at the coffee shop until they closed. So, I mean, it just would depend, honestly. It would depend on that day. But yeah, no, that's, that's something that's super common, and as far as the etiquettes are concerned, I hope that that answers the questions. Oh, this! I missed this part, “do you offer something in return?” So if you're working at a coffee shop where it is that sort of like a more corporate environment, you don't have to worry about giving anything in return. If you're dealing with a locally owned coffee shop, then you might come up with an agreement. Especially if you're going to be there on the regular, you might come up with an agreement with them that, you know, specifically, if they're hosting you, that you're giving back a portion or something.
But typically, that's not necessary. Especially if there's no funds that are happening, no exchange of funds that's happening there. That's something that I really want to be sure to touch on. I, when working in a coffee shop situation, never exchanging money at the coffee shop. The booking was paid in advance, via whatever payment method I had. For me, that's online booking. My clients book, they pay when they make their reservation, they pay in full. So if any funds were given to me at that location, it was a tip, but there's never like any request of payment for services at the actual coffee shop. So I would encourage you to also do the same. If you're going to work inside of a coffee shop, be sure that you are having that exchange of funds happen outside of the establishment so that there's never any confusion whether or not there's been some sort of solicitation that's happened there. You might find, and this gets a little bit tricky
sometimes, is when you're working in a coffee shop, obviously you're very visible. And so there may be other members of the public who are there, who like to watch. And this is something that I would see a lot is, I would start working and then people would come over and they'd watch, and then they'd say, “okay, how can I, like, can I get some done too?” And if that's the case, then you haven't had the opportunity to exchange funds outside, right? So, in that case, I, I, my process, and you can choose to do this, or you can choose to take the risk of taking that booking right then if you have time. But my practice was to, at that point, give them a card, let them know, okay, I only bring along enough henna to be able to serve the clients who have booked me for today.
If you'd like to book a session, here's the card you can book online. And then I would just meet them at the coffee shop again, at whatever day it was that they actually booked, instead of taking that booking right there and having the risk of was there solicitation that happened? ‘Cause you never, that's one thing that businesses across the board, whether it's locally owned or if it's corporate owned, it's very frowned upon. So if there's any question about whether you're soliciting your services to their guests, that's a great way to be asked to leave. So that's kind of how I address that. So yeah, I hope that, that should now answer all of the questions, regarding the coffee shop. Uh, okay.
So someone asks, “Hi, Chelsea, I feel so bad using henna paste to practice with. Is there anything else that I can use to practice that won't waste henna as well as not being expensive? Many thanks.”
Absolutely! I would recommend starting with lotion, use a lotion cone, like create a lotion cone. You can go to like, even the dollar store, get a cheap lotion. Don't let it be too thin, though! If it's too thin, it'll be runny and it won't give you the same practice. It won't give you the same experience. You want to find a henna, or I'm sorry, you want to find a lotion rather, that looks and behaves like henna in terms of consistency. I mean, you can even go to the dollar store and get like a cocoa butter that's sort of more of a heavy, more of a thick consistency and use that lotion, put it into a cone and use that for practice.
So long as the henna, I keep saying henna! So, so long as the lotion mimics the same consistency as your henna paste, you'll still get that muscle memory kind of engaged. Just look at those muscles engaged in the same way, and you'll still be able to build out your technique, without having to worry about wasting your henna powder. This is something actually I do it, but also I let my kids do it too. So my kids, when they want to play with henna, I'll give them a lotion cone, like here, you can play this. And that way they can build out their designs and then it just wipes away. So this would be a recommendation I'd have for you.
Uh, okay, let's see. Someone asked, “is there a site that offers all these things on how to build a henna business?”
Welcome to Hennapreneur, my love! You're in the right place! That's what Hennapreneur is here for. So everything from the beginning, how to get started, how to mix henna, how to prepare henna, all of that exists through Mixology and Basic Design. If you want to improve your design technique skills, there's the Design Lab. And if you want to build your business, an intensive program, a business program, that's called The Accelerator. The accelerator is a hundred day program where you learn how to build your business from the foundations through content marketing, through the backend operations, all the things. So welcome to Hennapreneur, I hope that you'll stick around! There's all sorts of resources here. Uh, okay. “What is the rent at the boutique and how”— oh, dang you guys went straight for the jugular, today!
“What is the rent at your boutique and how did you find it? How many appointments do you average per week at the boutique?” So the henna boutique is around, I pay around a thousand dollars a month for rent there. How did I find it? I actually can't take credit for this one, my husband is the one who found it. It took me a long time to find a place, though. For me, it was, anytime you're looking for commercial real estate, you need to be looking like at least six months in advance from when you're going to need it. And I didn't know that, because it was my first time. I had been a mobile henna artist forever up until last year and opening it, and so I didn't realize that.
And so once I was on the market and looking for a place, my budget was anywhere between a thousand to $1,500 a month was what I was comfortable spending on rent, and it was really hard to find a place. My husband found it driving by one day and he said, "Hey, listen, you know, I found this place. I think it might be a good fit for you." I was like reluctant, no, I don't think so. Then we went and checked it out and I liked the property manager. I liked what they had available. They had a couple spaces available and so it worked out for me. But if you're looking for, if you're looking to rent a physical location there, you're, definitely gonna want to look with enough time in advance, give it at least six months lead time.
Sometimes even a little bit more, especially if you're looking for a place that you know, that you're gonna want to stay. Being fully transparent, I don't know that I'm going to stay in my location, because actually I wanted something bigger, but it's worked for now. And now knowing what I know about commercial real estate, I'm peeking around, like I'm peeking around to see if I can find something different. Otherwise, I'll just renew my lease when it comes up again in June. So is it in June? It's around the corner, it's about to renew. So, there’s that. How many appointments do I average per week at the boutique? Honestly, it varies. I don't look so much at the appointments as I do, how much time I actually spend there.
So my appointments, I average around 10, somewhere between 10 to 12 hours, typically working with clients at the boutique, whether that's individual appointments, sometimes that's smaller appointments. Sometimes that's, you know, a full, longer, extended appointments where people are booking by the hour. It just depends. So the number of appointments can really vary, honestly. But typically, I spend around that much time there each week. Why did I want bigger? Because I had a bigger concept for what I was doing, then I didn't want to just have myself, I actually wanted to create more of a collaborative space for beauty service providers. So, yeah. But just in finding the places, it was hard, I wasn't able to find what I was looking for in the time that I wanted it.
So I settled with what I had, what was available and actually, just speaking transparently, the place where I am now, they're open to expanding the space. If I wanted for them to expand the space, like blow out walls and expand the space to the size that I want, that exists, but I'm not a hundred percent sure that I love the location, still. So though I think that having the space, having the boutique, having like a physical location, that's yes, this is, you know, this is what it is, has a benefit, being on this side of the table, it's a little bit different too. In that it's like, there's always, I don't know that, maybe it's because I came in knowing that this wasn't exactly, like, I wasn't a hundred percent in love with it.
I wanted more when I signed. So I don't know. There's a benefit to it, but then also it's like, okay, where are we going from here? Is this really what I want? Do I want to commit to another year here? Does this really hit all the points that I want it to hit? So there's my answer. Hey, Jessica, welcome! So yeah, no, I hope that that answers the question though. As far as how he found it, he found it just by driving by. In general, when you're looking for places, though, you can look there's, what I did when I was looking for places was first, I would find where is the general location that like, when a place that already has a for lease sign, that looks good?
And then, instead of just sticking with that location, I would go and I would research the company that's holding all of the locations, multiple locations, that’s holding, that's managing, the property manager, and then see what other things they had available. And I found that I was able to find a lot more variety in terms of what was available. It was just I was coming at it too late. So if you are thinking about getting a space, start looking at those property managers now, and keep in mind that there is that kind of delay. So look in advance for sure. Um, okay. I had, here's another question that came in through my, here we go, through my DMs.
Someone asked, “which is the best and most affordable website to get banners, either vertical or horizontal, for the henna booth made? I love the ones that you have for your booth. Thanks in advance.”
So my banners, I created my banners using Canva, and actually, if you're in the Hennapreneur group, I have a video of when I got them done and I can maybe go in and bump it, bump the video so you guys can see. But I created the banners in Canva and I had them printed actually by Walgreens. This is horrible. Okay, so if you didn't know, Walgreens will print banners, and a lot of you know, small photo companies or whatever like that. Small photo companies, you know, small photo, whatever, shops, they'll create banners. I got my banners from them because I needed something like this. Doesn’t that tell you something about, I feel like I'm just really letting it out there, how much of a procrastinator I am, and waiting to the last minute.
Two questions in a row I'm like, I waited till the last minute, so this is what happened. So, I did, I waited until the last minute I needed to get banners printed. I created my banners in Canva. I had them printed by Walgreens. In having them printed at Walgreens, it was pretty inexpensive. The only thing is, and I'll say this, it was inexpensive because they always have coupon codes going. So always look and see if they have a coupon code going for, you know, for posters. But what I ended up doing was then taking the banners over to Office Depot and having them laminate it, and now these ones are now two years old and they're still hanging on really, really well. I think all in all, both for the printing and the lamination, I spent for all of my pink banners, I will bump the post in the group, so you guys can see exactly what I’m talking about.
But I want to say altogether, it came out to around, it was under 200 bucks. It was under 200 bucks. I wanna say it was around 170, somewhere in there, between the printing and the lamination. The lamination was the more expensive part. I want to say that I spent a little bit over a hundred dollars on the lamination, but the printing was pretty inexpensive. Also, they, if there's ever an issue with printing, like you arrive and it wasn't done well, or you arrive and it wasn't done when they said it was gonna be done, then they will give you a discount. So I'm going to shamelessly also say that there was an issue with my printing, and so I got like an additional discount off of the printing as well.
So it was worthwhile, it was worthwhile. It worked out for me in the end. But even if you don't have a printing issue, I think altogether, it would have been like when 170 and some change. So yeah.
And then there's another question that said, uh, okay. “I had a bridal inquiry and she wants her bridal henna done and also the guests as well. I've never done bridal yet, so can you guide me on how I should price her and how I should go about planning this?” To your surprise, oh my gosh, “Her wedding is on the 14th of March, which is four days from now.”
Uh, that's a lot. Okay! So, one, if she's going to be having her bridal henna and her guests’ henna done at the same event, then we're going to want to… Ideally, that's not what we do. I don't like that. I encourage my brides to have their henna done on a separate day from the rest of their guests. Because once you have everyone together, it can become a cluster really, really fast.
Once you add in the opinions and the comments, and the hugging and the social, all the things that need to be done, it can become a cluster, it can become chaotic. Ideally for this bride, if her wedding is the 14th, I don't know when her guests would be wanting to be done, but I would have her have her henna done either the 12th or the 11th, which is tomorrow or the next day. So that her henna has the time for her stain to develop for her wedding. And then the guests that would do the next day, or vice versa, ideally the next day. That way her henna is done, then everyone can swoon over her designs and then get theirs done. Now, if everyone is getting their henna done together, the same thing exists. I recommend for my brides that they have their henna done two to three days before their wedding. And then if the guests are going to be included, I do one of two things. And in this case, what I would do, actually, I would recommend doing the bride first. So I would recommend for her that we start her bridal session. I don't know how much henna, this question doesn't give me any indication of how much henna she's wanting, how long it would take. But whatever it is that is her request for her bridal henna, I would start her henna before the event starts and before everyone begins. So that her henna is almost done, almost done by the time the guests start to arrive, That way, when the guests start to arrive, then there's all this excitement and wow, it's beautiful and whatever, but it's almost done.
So it's not a matter of, “can you add this? Can you take this away? Can you?” Like the opinions are finished. They don't exist at this point, the work has finished. So she will get her henna done and then she can get up and do whatever she's going to do with the rest of the evening. And then after her henna is finished, you would take a little bit of a break and then start to work on the guests. And that break is not only to accommodate you after how much time you spend doing her bridal henna, it's also giving the guests the opportunity to settle.They can come, they can start to eat, they can mingle a little bit. They can get their drinks, they can do whatever they're doing, and then you start working with them.
So in a situation like this is so last minute, that's how I would organize it. As far as your time, and as far as your planning, how should you price her? You're pricing her by the hour. So, however long it's going, I know that she said that you haven't done bridal before, so maybe you're not a hundred percent sure what that's going to look like or how much time it's going to be. I understand that could be scary. Don't worry. You can still have, I mean, like you can still charge at an hourly rate. I would base your expectation with her on how much time you're going to spend with the guests, because that's a service that you already done, and you already know how long it's going to take. So maybe you're saying, okay, I'm going to charge this hourly rate for two hours of service for your guests, and then I'm estimating that it's going to take another two hours to do your henna. Depending on how much she wants, maybe that's two hours or maybe that's three hours, whatever that is, but then give her a total amount. Have her pay that amount, in full, before you start working. And then if you find that you're going over, if you need to go over, then you can, at that point, have her pay the difference before you continue working beyond the time that you guys have already agreed. That would be my recommendation, and I hope that that makes sense, I hope that that's helpful for you. Ah! The fact that she's contacting you on the 10th for an event that's on the 14th, do not skip out on getting paid before you work with this person.
Do not, and do not wait until the end of offering services to get paid for working with this person. Definitely, definitely secure your payment before you start working. Because when it's last minute like this, that's where you start to have issues. When it comes down to poor planning, many times there's other issues that are happening, make sure that you secure your payment first. Get a contract over to her and do that. Okay! It looks like that's it. I don't know if you guys have more questions for me here live. If so, I'm happy to answer. Otherwise, we'll wrap up. Um, let's see. I'm like, oh, no! Facebook is telling me on this thing that there's an issue. I hope that the speed is going. You guys are gonna have to tell me. Oh, oh, that’s weird!
Okay, now I see it. No, I don't know, Facebook is making me a little bit scared. Okay. Well, it looks like we're all set for today then. So I'm going to wrap up this feed. I'm going to go into the Hennapreneur community and I will bump the video where I show my banner so you guys can see exactly what I'm talking about in terms of what was printed at Walgreens and how it was done. And then, what’s the other thing? For the person who was wondering about, is there a place where you can get all of the information about how to start a henna business? Yeah, I hope that you'll join into the Facebook group over there as well, because definitely there's resources for you.
“Can I use your PSA posts for clients?” Are you talking about the one with the, you know, if you're not feeling well, if you're not feeling well, then to reschedule your appointment, is that the one you mean, JessiKay?
I always have PSA stuff. Yeah, no, absolutely! Absolutely! So if you guys don't know what we're talking about, on Cardamom and Clove Henna, I recently posted something about if you're not feeling well, if you're exhibiting cold and flu symptoms, then you need to reschedule your appointment. This is actually something that's included in the boutique’s policies. It's always been the case. It’s not new, but it was something that I felt was worthwhile to share because everyone's talking about coronavirus, right?
Like, that's just the fact of the matter, everyone's talking about coronavirus. So, as hennapreneurs, how can we make sure that we're also being ahead of the curve and letting our clients know that we take their health and wellness seriously? So while that policy has always existed for me, I wanted to make sure and highlight that, and that's why I posted what I did. I will put a link to that post so that you guys can see it, and yes, you're welcome to snag what you need from it and share it with your, share it with your clients. I think it's important. Okay! I don't know. Let me grab the link while we're here.
You know, the whole coronavirus, it really is—I don't know about you guys—but I have a lot of hesitation, a lot of concern for how it's going to affect the peak season this year. Especially with the number of cancellation of the larger festivals and things that are happening around the country. It's really, I don't know, it's really sad.
Uh, here we go! Copy link. And I'll dump this here for you guys.
There you go. You're very welcome. All right! Well, I will jump off of here and I will see you guys next time, alright? See you soon, bye!