Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alana Mascarenas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Alana, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
The story behind my mission… I love to make people happy. I also love to do hair and makeup. By doing these services to others I’m not only doing what I love but I am transforming the way others view themselves from the outside, making them feel beautiful. The huge smile of excitement and ease when the service is over reminds me every day why I get up and come to work.
Alana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
During my senior year, I enrolled into a concurrent enrollment course to pursue my lifetime goal of being a cosmetologist. In 2021 I graduated with my high school diploma as well as my cosmetology license. As soon as I got my license I was offered an opportunity to own my own salon studio. As I mentioned before, doing hair was always my goal but my long term dream was to open my own salon. Everything happened so fast, I got my license and opened up Scissors Studio all within a month. I was way in over my head. I had to sit down and make sacrifices to make sure my business was getting the most attention I can possibly give it. I also had to sit down and realize that I need to figure out how to balance work life and home life with relationships I couldn’t afford to lose.
I got discouraged at times due to slow months, the constant worry of if I will be able to bring in enough clients to stay open but the days that made it all worth is was when felt my phone buzzing late at night and the notifications said “you have a booking”
I have read books on how to keep a salon open,I have also talked to my clients about what is easy and convenient for them, just so I can get an Idea of what works and what doesn’t.
I have been open for one full year now and I would say it was all worth it!
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
At the beginning of my journey I was very slow, I would say for the first 6 months I was so slow I was worried I would have to close down. I tried to advertise by posting ads, I would ask friends to share my photos and website. Nothing seemed to be working. I also didn’t want to sound desperate so I would sit in the office of the building twiddling my thumbs and wait for other businesses clientele to come in and I would hand them my card to let them know I do hair. I would get two or three clients from that but not enough attention I wanted. So I printed flyers offering 75% off of my services and went around the neighborhood, fast food near me, closest grocery stores, and just passed them out to people. Sure enough my books were filling up pretty fast. I then realized I shouldn’t have made the discount so low because I was doing more work then what was being performed on the head. Good karma came back around and people started coming back and sharing. Word of mouth advertising is way better than any paid advertisement on the internet.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
I do my best to have clients rebook the day of their appointment, if they can’t I understand. I always keep notes on what we talked about or if they had a special event coming up so I can make sure I can touch up on the conversation when they come back for their next appointment. I try to make every time I see them a welcoming, personalized glam day.
If they can’t book right then and there I usually mark when the 8 week point for there next service and I will give them a text to let them know it’s been 8 weeks I was wondering how they were doing, if their hair is doing okay, if they liked it from last time, and that I am hoping I will see them soon.
I just want to make other people happy because that is what makes me happy!
Contact Info:
- Website: Scissorsstudios.net
- Instagram: Scissors_studio1
- Facebook: Scissors Studio