Help for Aestheticians (or anyone in the personal service industry): Starting a business: Business Cards

To this question, I answer with an emphatic YES!

There are a few printed materials that I believe are must-haves for an aesthetician running her own salon. First and most obvious (and the most useful tool as well) is your business card.

Perhaps right now you work for someone at their salon. Even so, I believe it is important for you to have a business card with your name on it, no matter your work situation. That may sound obvious, but I have met many salon professionals who don’t have any kind of card or just the salon’s generic business card.

If the owner is unwilling to make cards with your name on them, it is relatively inexpensive for you to have something made. If this is the case, ask your boss to at least give you the name of their printer who you can contact and have your personal cards made. Going through the salon’s printer insures a cohesive look for your business card, with the salon’s brand, font, and look, which is what you want. Ask other workers in your spa and see if you all can go in together and save money. Once the printer has the ink on the press, having more than one different business card printed is much less expensive than doing multiple cards individually.

Here is my business card when I worked for Rosewood’s Spa at the Crescent. I was fortunate that they provided all of us (facialists, massage therapists, nail technicians, et al) with the company business cards with our own names and professional services on them. This is essential to have to hand out to all of your clients or potential clients, whether inside or outside the salon environment.

If you’re an independent salon, you want to establish a relationship with a printer because in the course of your business you will have several things that need to be printed including your all-important business card. It’s a necessary expenditure well worth it if you want to make it easy for your clients to contact—and remember you.

Front & back of my business cards

The front of a business card is obvious. You have your name, a logo if you have one, your phone number, and the address of your salon. If you have a website, you’ll include that along with your business email address.

The back of the card is important real estate. My card, as you can see, has the covers of both my books along with quotes from a celebrity and a reviewer. Because mine is a special case, most of you will have a blank slate to work with on the back of your business card. Here you can come up with a number of things to use there.

Some salons utilize the back of their business cards as next appointment cards. I see this most often. If you have special advertising you want any and all clients and prospective clients to see—put it there. Use the space on the back of your business card for something. Don’t leave this blank!

Here is my first card when I opened my first salon in 1994. I used this “logo” until I had one professionally created years later. I used it on my stationary and all things Carolyn Ash Skin Care.