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Chelsea: There we go, okay. I got my home music on. Y'all about to hear my whole jams. Oh Lord! How are we doing? Uh, how are we doing hennapreneurs? Let me share this feed over really quickly into the Hennapreneur Community. And then we will start. I'm super excited because—as always—today, we're going to connect on all the things, business, henna, branding, the things that you want to know. And I'm pretty hype because we had a couple of questions that came in that were really good. And, um, so we're going to dive in! If it is your first time hopping in and joining me for an Ask Me Anything session—Hi! My name is Chelsea Stevenson. I am a professional henna artist and business strategist in Baltimore, Maryland, and also I'm the founder of Hennapreneur so henna artists all over the world come to me, consult with me, hire me to help them to build or scale their businesses.

So, twice a month we come live for these Ask Me Anything sessions. And I like to talk about whatever you like to talk about. So today we're going to be talking about some business things behind the scenes because those are the sorts of questions that came in. And if you guys have questions while we're here live, you're welcome to drop them into the chat. And I'm happy to answer them while we're here. So! Okay, let me pull this little post up. Boom, boom, boom! All right. So... And I see that I've got a couple of people live here with me. So, give me a like and give me a heart. Let me know that you can hear me well because y'all know—my little AirPods. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we like to play games. All right. So, first question! I love this first question.

This hennapreneur says: "Hi! What do you do when—Hey, Alyssa! Welcome!—What do you do when the remaining balance isn't paid 48 hours before the event? Reminders are sent and you know that they've opened it. Do you reach out again anyway or does that feel kind of like hounding?" So, I love this question. And to give it a little bit of context, you guys have heard me say before that I do not believe in working an event or working a party or working any sort of booking without first having been paid in advance. This is a process that I have in my business. It's a process that I've had forever. I will not show up if I'm not paid. And so, um, I—one of the processes that I have in my own business and that I suggest strongly suggest to my students is that if you're going to be working on location or if you're going to be taking on any sort of booking that you get, you seek your payment in full in advance. For me, for parties and for events, I require payment in full by 48 hours prior to the event.

I don't care if they pay me within that, you know, just up to that 42 hours, I don't care if they pay me weeks in advance, months in advance. Um, that's fine, but it has to be paid in full by 48 hours before. And so that's the, you know, a little context to that question. So what happens if someone doesn't pay the remaining balance in full? I don't show up. That's the easy answer. So what happens with—what happens is when, um, when my clients book with me, and this is what I suggest, this is how I suggest you set the things up in your own businesses as well in order to protect your time and to protect your money and to protect your sanity because, ultimately, that's what we want, right? We want things to be easy. And so what I recommend, what I suggest, is that when you are going to be working at an event, in order to have that event or to have that booking secured on your calendar, that you capture some sort of retainer, right?

And so, inside of my own business, I require a retainer, a monetary retainer, and also a signed service agreement. The signed service agreement tells my clients what they can expect from me when I get there. And it also tells them what I expect from them in terms of how this exchange is going to play out. So that's a contract, right? We're—like, I will not go into a situation like that, doing business with someone for their party or event, without a contract on file. So once they've signed their service agreement and they've paid the retainer, which the retainer is just a portion of the total balance due, the remaining balance is then due. It's payable by 48 hours prior. I send them reminder emails. And so they'll get a reminder email if it's not paid in those days prior to, like, us hitting that 48 hours.

But if we hit that 48 hours and they don't pay, I don't show. And I will literally send an email saying, "I haven't received this. It seems your priorities may have changed—" letting them know that I'm not arriving. So they, at that point, they have the opportunity to pay or they have the notice that I'm not going to be there, but it's never a question. Um, and this is something that I touch on at multiple points with my clients. So it can never be said that it wasn't communicated. When they book, they book going in knowing that this is a requirement. As soon as they book, they get the service agreement that also outlines that it's a requirement. And then they receive those notifications, those reminder emails, if they haven't paid in full, they receive those reminder emails. If they ignore those emails that, like, it has been communicated.

So I will not show up. Time is money, friends. And you can't force people to respect your time. You can communicate what your time is worth. And so if they do the things properly, you'll be there to service their party. And if they don't, well, the ball was dropped on their end. So, um, I don't, I don't reach out again after that point. Um, we're all adults. You entered into an agreement. You're not fulfilling your end of the agreement, then that's that. Onto the next one and I will enjoy my afternoon off. Okay. So there's my answer. Okay. Another question! "You mentioned in a video that at a recent six—d-d-d-I speak English, y'all. I can read. Okay—"You mentioned in a recen—you mentioned in a video at a recent sweet sixteen party that guests were not getting henna and time ran out.

Do you put it into your agreement that it is up to the host that she is responsible for making sure her guests get henna? Or do you communicate that when you get to the party or in an email before the party? I've done it when I get to the party, but I feel like I should have mentioned it prior, too." This also is a good one. So, you guys, expectations are important. It's really, really imperative for us as the service providers to go in providing our clients with as much information as possible so that they are making informed decisions. And so that they are planning accordingly. I, when I arrive at a party, I'm not going to have a conversation with you at that point about what you need to expect. Up until then, we've already had these discussions. So again, inside of my service agreement, I'm letting them know that I'm going to be there from X hour to X hour.

During that time, this is what you can expect from me. These are how many designs you can anticipate that I, that I can complete. And actually, this is information that they don't even have to access on a service agreement yet. This information is actually present right on my website before they even submit a request for me to work at their event. So they know going in how many people they can expect to see get serviced. And then, inside of the contract, inside of the service agreement that I send them, they also will have access to, obviously, details around the time that I'm going to be there, when I'm going to get there. I let them know I'll be there a little bit early to set up. I let them know that I'll be leaving on, you know, timely. I let them know that if we need to go over, I'm going to charge them for that and exactly how much that's going to be per hour.

So we have these expectations going in and I am not going to opt to babysit my clients when, again, they're adults that came into the service agreement and they came into the—they came to the table looking for the service, hiring me for the service, as someone who was an informed party. So I don't, um, I don't, like, I don't push it on them. Um, and I think also that we need to be kind of aware of, like, the type of clients that we're dealing with, right? And I'm going to share this with you because I feel like this gives a little bit of added context that a lot of times people, either they don't know, or man—I'm just going to say many times, they don't know. So, you have to consider your client, right? Consider the type of client that you're working with.

If you're working with someone who's penny pinching, if you're working with someone who's like super budget, like budget motivated, dollar motivated, the way that they engage you is going to be different from the person who's going to be a little bit more open with spending. There is a reason why I charge a premium price for my parties. I charge that because I want to attract those people who are willing to pay me off of the strength of my skill and are willing to pay me off of the strength of wanting to do business with me specifically, right? So the price point is not an issue for them. When I was working earlier on in my business prior to raising my rates and whatnot, like when I first got started, I remember charging a lower fee. It was in those instances, it was in those parties and in those sorts of exchanges that I would have the hosts that were like, you know, making sure that everyone was in there.

Like, they really wanted to get everybody done in time. And like, the pressure of being there, um, was very much one of like, there's this pressure to perform. Now I really don't experience that. There are oftentimes—there's still, like, because I'm there as the entertainer often, um, there is a high demand. But I don't feel, like, pressure from my hosts to like, make sure that everyone gets done. That's not even a thing. In this particular party and this is something that I shared in our Behind the Scenes membership. If you've not heard of it, the Behind the Scenes, it's a private community where I give behind the scenes details of what, like, what it takes to run a business. And so it was inside of that membership that I was sharing this story about a recent sweet sixteen party that I did.

And, literally, there were times where I was just like, sitting there twiddling my thumbs because people were not coming to get started. In fact, I didn't actually start offering henna services until like, like, like probably a good half an hour after I had arrived, um, after I was set to begin. And it was because the party had other priorities. They were doing other things, right? And so what ultimately ended up happening is that they ended up adding on extra time. It costed them more money to do that, but they were willing to do that because they valued the service, right? And so, um, for me, I don't find that it's a matter of needing to communicate to them any extra, like to my clients, any extra about that. It's communicated in the process of them hiring me. And it's not my job to babysit them.

It's just not. What it is my job to do is to be keeping an eye on the demand and keeping an eye on the time. So if I see that there's an adjustment, for example, if I see that early on in the, um, let's say that I'm booked for two hours and in that first hour things are very slow, then I can create designs that are a little bit larger, right? But in that second hour, if I see that the demand is higher, it's my job as the artist to do the best that I can to service as many people as possible. So at that point, I'm going to be switching up the way that I'm approaching these clients, to these guests, and I'm going to be switching the way that I'm creating my designs in order to work a little bit more faster, more quickly and more fluidly so that I can see more people,

right? So I do the best that I can to give as much service as possible, but it's not my job to babysit the guest list. And in fact, often, you might encounter situations where the guests will try to put together, like, a wait list. Um, even when I see guests or the hosts try to put together like a list, um, down which I'm supposed to work, like I won't do that. I'll let them know: if you want someone here to manage that list, that's fine. But like, I'm not going to stand here and babysit this list. I'm not going to be calling people and waiting on people and whatnot because, honestly, it waste more time. And that's not what I'm—that's not what I'm here to do. I'm here to do henna. If you want a line manager, you can be the line manager, but that's not going to be me, you know? So, uh, this is something that I don't necessarily feel like you have to go on and like hyper communicate to them when you arrive so long as had, um, or you've communicated prior to getting there about what that's going to look like. I think that you've done just fine, okay? Um, all right. I wanted to touch on—there are two additional questions. One of them came into the a henna co—uh, Hennapreneur Community earlier today and another one came in over the weekend and I thought that they were really insightful. And so I want to go ahead and address them here as well. So, first—the first one was one that was regarding cultural appropriation. And this is something that I feel is necessary for us to talk about inside of the henna community. But I also feel like oftentimes the conversation gets derailed.

And so I wanted to take a moment just to, like, set the tone and make sure that it's very clear where I stand, and by proxy, where Hennapreneur stands on the issue of cultural appropriation as it relates to henna, okay? So, um, this hennapreneur came into the community and she shared that she was accused of cultural appropriation by a white woman. She says, you know, I love henna. And I was taught it by Syrian refugees while working with them. Um, she enjoys this, she's offering the service, and so forth. Um, but she doesn't want to be appropriative of other cultures or make excuses so she wanted to consider and reflect. And she asked what we thought about this— what I thought about this and what the community thought about this. As someone who is white and born in the Midwest and henna is clearly not from her culture of origin.

And this is something that comes up fairly often inside of henna communities at large. But again, I want to like, just go ahead and like, put out the things. If you have not heard me talk about this before, this is something that I think it's worth addressing. So in my, um, from my perspective, right? From my perspective, any time you're going to have a conversation around cultural appropriation, you need to be sure that there are voices at the table who are vocalizing and who are expressing their needs, first of all. And also, these voices need to be representative of that culture or that community that is upposedly being appropriated, right? And so, from my position, henna—first of all, henna is an art form. Henna is a medium. Henna is an art form.

And henna has been used across the globe by so many varying cultures and peoples and communities that it is virtually impossible for you to say that it's culturally appropriative for anyone to take that that art form and apply it if they're just using it as art in and of itself. Now, once we get into, like, things like orientalism and stuff like this, we have another issue there, right? But if it's just the act of applying henna to someone else, that in and of itself is not appropriative. In fact, the fact that henna has been used all over the country—excuse me—all over the globe across these varying cultures and communities is enough to show that the use of henna at large, right, is the result of cultural exchange. And so anytime you have cultural exchange, this is going to happen.

A lot of times people don't, uh, people are very dismissive of the fact that henna exists in cultures and places like West Africa; um, the fact that henna was used inside of Europe; um, the fact that henna has been used in Northern and Eastern Africa, like, areas where we are—or even the fact that henna is being used, and has been used for a very long time, in Far East Asia. Like, these are places and these are are communities that are often totally erased from the conversation. And oftentimes when we hear about people discussing cultural appropriation in the context of henna, they're doing so in a way that is almost to say that only South Asian bodies, only South Asian communities, are able to use this thing. And that's frankly not true. It's simply not true. Second— first of all, henna didn't originate in India. So let's—we can just start there.

And second of all, the fact that we are constantly having this conversation in the context of South Asia, of the South Asian community, lets me know that there is not enough education. There's not enough information out there for the larger henna community and that henna artists, specifically, are not educating themselves on the history of henna—where it came from, what peoples have been using it, and what people are still using it today. And that's really sad because if you want to jump to the table and you want to come and make accusations, then you likely should be informed prior to making certain statements, especially blanket statements like these, which would, um, I don't want to say—well, first of all, they are offensive, but second of all, they can't—they certainly open up the opportunity to threaten or to cause harm to other people and to their businesses.

And aside from that, what was noticed—what was interesting to me is that this hennapreneur did say that, you know, the people who had made these statements to her were also white women. And I find this particularly interesting because it—I feel that today, in today's culture, right? We're in, like, cancel culture. Um, in today's culture, there's a lot of quickness, right? We're very militant. We're very quick to say, "No, you're doing it wrong and this is why." And it may come from good intentions, right? But it's also dismissive of those voices that are actually representative of the community that is supposedly being protected. And this is the thing, for me as a black woman, right? I look at henna and I—and, and, and not just henna, anytime we're dealing with cultural appropriation because this is something that affects my community very frequently—when you're dealing, when you're talking about cultural appropriation, you have to be mindful also of, like, what exactly does that mean. For me, as a black woman in America whose culture is constantly being appropriated, like that's—we don't even have to go there, right? What's interesting is that I'm never offended. When I see someone outside of my culture using something from my culture, from my, uh, cultural heritage, culture of ancestry. However, however, where it does create a problem is when that same person is able to do a thing or use a thing or say a thing, or wear a thing that I couldn't do, say, use, or wear without being looked at sideways. So that is kind of where the fine line is for me. And I think that this is something that certainly applies to henna as well because we cannot just say: oh, because, you know, because you're white, because from the Midwest, because you're from wherever, you're not allowed to use henna because your ancestry didn't use it. That's not a real thing. Cultural exchange happens.

Okay. And cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation are two very different things. However, where it does become an issue is when you see someone who is taking a thing and monetizing the thing and being able to do that with, like, the stamp of approval from society while those people from those marginalized communities where that art form, or where that thing came from are still being, I don't want to use the word punished, but certainly looked at differently. Um, and not really being supported in doing that same thing that actually came from them, right? Um, so all of that's to say that here at Hennapreneur—here at Hennapreneur, here's the thing, I don't have, uh, I don't have, personally, any issue. I don't take any issue with someone who's not coming from a culture, uh, ancestral culture or heritage that uses henna using henna today.

I take no issue with that. Where I do take issue is when there are artists who are choosing to step into this field and to step into this work without acknowledging where this work comes from, where this art comes from, the history behind it. And I do take issue even with those people who might scream cultural appropriation at someone else without having educated themselves to know the things, because anyone who really has done that work understands that there isn't an argument to be had. So, um, I'm just going to leave that, and I'll wrap that little point up and just tie it with that little bow. And if you guys want to chat about it, you are welcome. I'm always, you know, I'm always happy to talk about the things. Um, but just please understand that because that's where I stand, that is also where Hennapreneur stands on the issue.

And, uh... So I don't want anyone to be surprised. Okay. Um, Shamsa said, "Thank you for such beneficial tips. No question, because you already answered it. Thank you. And—" Oh! And thank you. I appreciate the compliment as well. Um, okay. Angie said, "Is it really necessary to have a website or a page on social media for the business or is it good just to jump into it and build the site after?" So, this is so funny. This is like déjà vu because I almost had this feeling that this question was going to come up today, so I'm really glad that you asked it. That's, that's so wild to me. Um, okay. Like, I feel like I've already answered this, but it's only in my mind. Okay. So this... So this is the thing, I strongly encourage you to start off with whatever is easiest,

okay? I am a strong proponent for the lowest hanging fruit. If the easiest thing for you to do today is to build your social media accounts, build your social media accounts. Do that first. However, however—this is a strong however—however, anytime you put content out on social media, that content is no longer yours. As soon as you put something up on Facebook, on Instagram, on Pinterest or wherever you're putting, you know, wherever you're placing it, that now belongs to that platform. And so I strongly encourage you—anyone who is wanting to have a business and is really taking that business seriously—I strongly encourage you to have a website. A website establishes credibility. It's your corner of the internet where people can come and they can see you with no distraction. Where they can come and they can get an idea of what it's like to do business with you—

what it's like to hire you, to work with you, to see your work, right? That is like your digital storefront, especially now, right? In like, COVID, everyone is looking at websites because they want to vet you first. If I'm going to have to go out of my house during COVID, I want to know where the hell I'm going and who I'm going to see and what it's going to be like. You know what I mean? It's not like before where people are willing to just take a chance, they really are vetting people. And this is something that like, I enjoy reading things. I enjoy reading things, all things business, right? And so this is something I actually was reading about recently about the change, the shifts in the way that people are spending money online, the way that people are choosing to purchase things and to hire services.

And this was one of them where priorly, people might have been more easygoing and more relaxed in assessing those people who they wanted to do business with and were willing to just check out their Insta or their Facebook first and then pull the trigger. Now, people are being a lot more intentional and they are looking for the website. So in order to have that credibility, I strongly encourage all of my students to have a website up, to have one built. And this is something that I, like, when you work with me inside of my programs, it's a non-negotiable. I make you build a website. Like, we don't, we don't play games because that is part of having a business. That's a professional asset. It's an asset to you. And having that digital storefront, if you will, gives people the opportunity to connect with you and to make a decision without all of the distraction and whatnot that being on social media might provide. The other piece is going back to who owns that content.

God forbid that you spend all of this time building out your platform, building out your following on Instagram or on Facebook or whatever. Just the other day, Twitter went down, right? Just the other day, YouTube went down. Earlier in the pandemic, remember, Instagram had a huge issue. Instagram was down. You guys remember this? So what happens when you focus all of your attention only on building on these platforms that are not yours, and then something goes wrong? You need to have your own space. You need to have your own place on the internet for people to come and vet you. And, um... And I really, really feel strongly about this. So, if you're just getting started and the lowest hanging fruit is creating your social content, you know, building out the social platforms, do that. Great. However, don't use that as an excuse for not building your website because you need your website.

That's what's going to bring people to you. And that's not even touching—that's not even touching on, like, building out search engine organization—uh, excuse me—search engine optimization on your website and so forth. So that when people go to Google "henna in my city", you pop up first. You can't do that off of a Facebook page. You can't do that off of Instagram. You can only do that on your website. So, build the website, friends. Build the website. Such a great question. I love it! Okay. So the other question that I wanted to address came into the Hennapreneur Community earlier today and I thought it was really good. So it's something that I wanted to touch on. Um, this question asks, "Is it a good idea to start a henna business right now?" I mean, with the pandemic around and everyone at home, no parties or events, plus being perhaps in a red area in the context of COVID and winter coming in soon, what suggestions, what advice might be given?

And I appreciated seeing the hennapreneurs inside of the community come and answer this question, you know, from their own perspective. But I wanted to also address this here with the larger community because this is a really, it's a really good question. It's very relevant to today. I think that there's a lot of henna artist who were working pre-COVID, COVID hit, and then they shut down and gave up. Also, now we're seeing others who are like, well, during COVID they realized that they have this passion for, you know, for this thing that maybe it was a hobby. And now they're like, well, I could make this a business. Why not? But is now the right time? And my answer answer for both is: yes, it's always the right time. So for— and it's so funny, I was actually recently speaking with a hennapreneur about exactly this, about how during the height of the pandemic—which I say that as if we're not still in it,

right?—but during the height of the pandemic, when everything just like first came and, like, everyone just started to shut down, and there was, like, mass chaos around the world, which is wild, so many hennapreneurs, so many henna artists, they were willing to throw in the towel because they're like: I'm not getting immediate return. I'm working on my social media. No, one's responding. I can't take bookings. My area is closed down. I'm just not going to do that work because what's the point? And I said, over those months, "You guys, you have to continue to show up. You have to continue to do the work. You have to continue to work on your social content. You have to continue to connect with your audiences." And some people heard what I said and some people didn't and those people who didn't are paying the price.

Now, hand to God, just the other day I received an email from someone who said, "I wish I would have listened to you. I wish I would have kept working on the things when you said to keep working on the things because now I've been out of practice. It's been six months. I've been out of practice. I can't even get my lines straight with my cone anymore. Now I can't even connect with people on social media anymore because they're not used to engaging with me anymore. I've gotten—my engagement is, like, in the ground." You guys, there is never a bad time to do the work for the goal that you have. Even when it looks like things are really hard. And I get it, I have a brick and mortar, right? I have a henna boutique. And it was really hard going home, locking up, and not knowing when I was going to come back.

I hear that. But it doesn't mean—it doesn't absolve you from doing the work. Now today, we're in a really great position. Look, already you—we can—we should be looking to, uh, to the future, right? We should always be forward facing in our businesses: what is it that we'd like to achieve? And so I've been asking you guys, "What do you want to see in the next year?" Obviously none of us can tell the future. Is there going to be a second wave of, uh, you know, the COVID pandemic? Is there going to be other lockdowns? Are these things happening? Absolutely. They're happening. That's real life. We all live on planet earth, hello! Right? I am not a fortune teller. I don't have a crystal ball. I can't tell you when it is that COVID goes away. As far as we know, things are like this forever, but guess what?

There are hennapreneus who are willing to put in the work. And because they've been willing to put in the work, as soon as things opened up, they were able to get back to work. And when things close back down, when and if, hopefully we don't, right? Fingers crossed. But if they do, they know exactly what they need to do to stay connected to their audiences so that when they're ready to launch an alternative thing, like subscription boxes, like online classes, like a gift box, gift products with their henna, like, um, what are they called? Uh... Oh gosh, transferable designs, things like this, they can still sell and they can still make money, even though they're not actually putting henna on skin and people are willing to buy it from them because people trust them. And they still know: if I want a professional experience, if I want a great experience, I'm going to go to so-and-so.

They're still the first henna artists that's top of mind. And that's what I want for you guys. So, in terms of if now a good time to start a henna business? I'm going to say that that's a resounding "hell yes"! And you know what? Even more so, because right now there are a bunch of artists who were willing and happy to throw in the towel. And so if you come in and you spend the time building the thing right now, please believe that as soon as people open up soon, please believe that as soon as people are looking for that person, they're going to think of you first because you've been doing the work in the background, because you've been doing the work even when that work didn't result in immediate cash sales. We are business owners. We think long-term. We're not just thinking: what can I pull in in the next 24 hours?

That's not how you run a business, okay? We have to be forward-facing and we have to be thinking for the long game. And so now is a great time. In fact, every day is a great time. Every day, regardless of circumstance, is a great time to continue to grow your business. And so that is where I stand and I take, like, I take no prisoners on this point. It is what it is. Okay. So that was the last of the questions that we had for today. So I'm going to wrap up. I'm super excited! Today in about, uh, two and a half hours, I'm going to be teaching a masterclass. The masterclass is the 5-Figure Foundations. Inside of that masterclass, I'm going to be teaching my framework for how you can build the foundation for a solid foundation, y'all, for how to build a 5-figure henna business.

Now, for some people that's: look, I just want to make, like, I just want to make an extra thousand bucks a month. I want to make eight hundred, five—you know, eight hundred, five hundred, eight hundred, a thousand bucks a month. That's five figures in a year. Maybe you're someone who wants, you want to be like me, you want to be doing full time. You want to make high 5-figures, near 6-figures. I can show you that, too. Inside of the masterclass, that's what I'm going to be talking about, my framework for how to structure a solid foundation for a 5-figure henna business. So this is the thing, that masterclass is not happening here on Facebook, y'all. It is happening in a live class on Zoom. If you have not registered, do that because the seats are limited. I've limited. There's only space for a certain number of participants.

And so if that—as far as early this morning when I checked, that was already almost full. So if you have not already grabbed your seat, go and register. If you need the link, let me know. I'll send it to you in a message. Let me know in the comments, okay? Um, but I'm super excited. This is content that I have not taught before. And so I'm happy to be able to share it with y'all. And if you're like, I feel like now is the time for me to be growing my business, or if you have a business and you realize: mmm, there's some pretty big holes in this thing, and I need help. Or if you have a business that you're like, man, this thing has been—I'm burnt out. It;s run me in the ground. I need help to better optimize it. This masterclass is going to be for you. So I'm gonna see y'all in about two and a half hours. I'm so excited. I'm so excited! So if you were going to join me for that, go ahead and leave, uh, just leave a comment below and I'll send you the link directly to your messages, okay? All right. I'm jumping off of here. It's so good connecting with y'all! And I will see you for our next Ask Me Anything session in two weeks. All right, bye!