Ask Me Anything: How to Get Corporate Clients to Hire You as a Henna Artist for Their Events
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[00:02] Do you have any tips for getting corporate clients to hire me as a henna artist for their events?
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+ Read the transcript here
Chelsea: Uh, do you have any tips for getting corporate clients to hire me for events? I've had a couple of lucky breaks with that, such as the local mall, the nature preserve, large universities hiring me for events they're hosting and it's always worth it. How can I professionally let other businesses know on my services?
Girl! Okay, so I want- I love this question so hard. Let me tell you. Okay. Anytime you're wanting to work with another professional, anytime you're wanting to work with a corporate client, you need to make sure that you're one, that everything is like square. So on your website you need to make it clear that you serve them. On your- and on your, like, your Instagram and your Facebook, your social media presence, it needs to make it very clear that you are available, um, to include working with corporate clients.
The next thing is, you need to make sure that everything is professional. Your site, your everything needs to be clean. Okay? Um, you want to give that, that really clear perception that you're a professional as well, so that they can meet you and realize, "Okay, I'm dealing with someone who's at my level." The one thing with corporate clients is that they, they have a reputation to maintain because the businesses that they bring in are also like a reflection of, of their own status. So be sure that you speak to that.
Now, um, as far as having an- like, how to reach out and how to let those people know that you're available, that's going to take some work. So, I don't know if you have already looked at some of the past challenges. You know, on every Monday, in the Hennapreneur group, we have Money Mondays. We do challenges. I give you challenges every Monday on things that you can do to get yourself out there. More than once I've said, "Reach out to local so-and-so's," or "Reach out to local event planners," or "Reach out to other business owners," or "Reach out to other things in your market." There's a reason for that. You want to slowly but surely put yourself in front of other professionals in your market because professional connections are huge. If you can have consistent connection with other professionals, that's how you build referrals. And, like, I'm telling you, it's a gold mine.
So, if you haven't already, you need to be drafting an email. You need to be drafting a DM. You need to be drafting a script for when you call, because girl, you need to make these phone calls. And what you're going to do is, you're going to draft this stuff out where you're saying, "Hey, my name is so-and-so. I own henna company ABC and this is what I do. And I notice you over there doing this thing and I appreciate your impact on our local community. And I just wanted to make the connection with you and let you know that I would love to support you and what you're doing." And so what does that look like? You know, you can, you can go- let them know, "Hey, if you're running- if want to do something like a client appreciation thing, I can serve as you for that. If you want to do an employee appreciation event, I can service you for that. If you're looking for something fun to boost morale and you're in the workplace, I can service you for that." Like, you need to let them know, not only are you there and you see them and that you, um, are available, but exactly how it is that you can help. And even if they don't book you right then and there, right? Which odds are they won't. They're- Like, they just got this email from you. They're probably going to - because people are curious - they're probably going to click those links that are in your signature of your email and so forth, right? They're going to want to see who you are. Um, but that at least let them know that you're there, that you exist. And that's the start of building a relationship.
And so then, moving forward, what are you going to do? You're going to continue to engage with them. So on social media, you're going to like their stuff, you're going to leave comments, you're going to- and not like spammy, like, "Oh, Hey, did you get my email? What do you think about the, you know, us doing an event, let- DM me if we can work together." Like, no! That's not what you're doing. You're going to reach out and you're going to comment, like, genuine comments. You're going to leave genuine, good feedback for them so that they can see like, "Oh, this is a real person." And yeah, you know, she's serious. She reads what I put out there. She- all of those things, right?
So you support them with what they're doing. You let them know that you exist and then you give it time. There's some things you cannot rush, right? Give it time. So it's fair to expect, specifically the corporate cl- with corporate clients you have to understand, depending on how large the organization is, um, it can take time for approvals for them to be able to spend money.
Um, and so if you're working with a small business, for example, I have, like, in my own henna business, I do some of both. So I- for like other small businesses, for example, um, recently there was a salon that brought me out to do a party for their, um, their client appreciation that they were doing. It was their third year anniversary. So for their anniversary they brought out a henna artist and then I was there to do cli- to do henna for the guests, right? So when you're dealing with a small business like that, it can be very easy to engage with them. Um, and it can be very easy to like, get yourself on the radar, build a relationship and then next thing you know, boom, you're booked! Because they needed you. They were looking for something interesting.
Um, and then there's other occasions where you're working with a corporation that's quite large. So, for example, I'm near the DC area and I work fairly regularly with government agencies. So when you're dealing with groups like that, it can be a little bit different. You have to find the right person and you have to kind of make contacts within that agency. And, and so like with you- I know you mentioned that you worked with the nature preserve, so whoever your contact was with the nature preserve, are you keeping in touch with that person? Like, send them an email. Like, you'll want to make sure that you stay on the radar. See how you can engage with them.
Um, and even, you know, those sorts of agencies, many times they have someone who is maintaining their social media pages and often, especially if it's a larger organization, that person is a paid someone, Like, they have a social media manager. And so you may or may not actually be able to show up for them on social media in the same way as you would with a smaller corporate client. But you can still reach out via email. You can still let them know, "Hey, you know, I- thinking back over..." or "Hey, you know what? I came across-" - hold on one second - "Hey, you know what? I came across this picture from the event that we did. And it just brought a smile to my face. I wanted to share it with you and just let you know that I was thinking of you and I hope that things are great over at the nature preserve." That's it. That's it. And you kind of reintroduce yourself that way. And this would be the way that I would go about maintaining those relationships so that you can receive those referrals and so that you can always be at the tip of people's tongue when they're looking for someone with your services.