Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Serena Billman Rave. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Serena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
Scaling up any business is all about networking. It’s putting your authentic self out there, believing in yourself and your work. My main strategy is that if I just keep expanding my expertise and producing quality work and content that the people will find me. Social media helps a lot to put yourself out there and keep a cohesive portfolio to easily show your clients but a lot of it is grassroots work, face-to-face with people. Being honest and realistic with your clients and their expectations is also important, people will find you disingenuous if you’re not. I also find it important that you don’t pressure the client, I don’t recommend products you don’t need. I don’t recommend unnecessary treatments. My main purpose is to come up with a personalized skin plan/treatment that will bring you results and that is why I offer always complementary consultations. when the client follows this plan and they see results that they’re so ecstatic and happy with is what means the most as a service provider.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My brand is Skin by Ser LLC, and the services that entails is ever expanding. If you know me, you know, I’m always excited to learn and master next thing. Skin by Ser started out as just aesthetic and nail services, but very soon I’m proud to say that we’ll be adding piercing services as I’m in an apprenticeship for that currently, once I finish I’ll be getting my salon licensed for piercing and be offering the services right at my suite in Elite Suites Blank Canvas (where Skin by Ser is located). I would not be able to juggle all the different industries that I have a foot in if it wasn’t for extreme discipline and lots of calendars. I believe what sets me apart from a lot of other service providers is that I care so deeply about the science of the skin and the technicalities of my services that creating skin care plan for them is like making a formula to me. When you’re excited about doing the services, your client is excited about receiving them.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I am not someone that was able to have investors or get a loan to start my business, I worked four jobs to be able to fund my regular life, but also have the capital to slowly but surely get all of my materials. It’s not for the weak but it was worth it. I’m big on planning. I have one year plans, five-year plans, etc. so by planning it out, slowly budgeting everything and keeping focused I was able to get everything I needed beforehand.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media can be a really helpful tool to put yourself out there. It can be difficult to remember to take and make content, So I have a few clients that I call my “content clients” that have been with me for a while and come consistently so I can document the evolution of their skin. Remembering to post every day can be difficult so I utilize the scheduling tool, and pre-schedule my posts for the week. I find before and afters in collage form to be the most effective, People are very quickly scrolling through social media and sometimes don’t even want to scroll through multiple photos on the same post. If you can have your results in the first photo/ thumbnail you have a better chance of catching interest, so that’s what I try to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://skinbyser.glossgenius.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skinbyser?igsh=eW0xNmtwZnVnZTh2&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DTqtiJ4pv/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Yelp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serena-billman-rave-335877174?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
