Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gabriela Marie . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gabriela, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

The most unexpected problem my business faced, like most business owners, was the pandemic; for obvious reasons.

However, what made it just a little bit harder was I had just signed a lease for a new suite the week prior to everything shutting down. I was so excited (and nervous) to step into a new space I could call my own. But when everything shut down and I had no idea when I could open, the nervousness took over and the excitement slowly faded.

I made a quick decision to sell gift certificates at a discounted rate and the support from my clients blew me away. I came up with a number that I knew could help me sustain the new suite without falling behind and I sold enough in one week to do so.

That changed my attitude completely and I knew I could use all this “extra” time to get the suite ready and work on my business.

6 short weeks later, my suite was open, my clients were back, and BeGabulous started its next chapter.

Gabriela, 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?

If you told me I was going to be a hairstylist when I was in school, I would have definitely thought you were crazy.

Long story short- I graduated with my bachelors degree in Criminal Justice and my plan was to become a police officer. That plan changed when I got hired with Carnival Cruise Lines and found myself wanting to grow within the company.

A year and a half in, I didn’t get a position I applied for and took my mothers advice to go to beauty school. (Apparently, she saw something over the years that I hadn’t realized yet. I had a passion for doing hair.)

My director at the time gave me the opportunity to keep my job, work from home full time at night and attend beauty school full time during the day. (Who would say no?) So that’s exactly what I did. Yet, 5 months in I was called for the supervisor position I applied for. This meant it was back to the office and beauty school would take me a lot longer to finish. But a year later I decided it was time to quit the corporate world, finish school and get my cosmetology license. Since then, I never looked back.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Currently, I am not taking on any new clients. I have been very fortunate to maintain a great and loyal client base.

But what helped me to achieve that? Client referrals. Clients are your best walking advertisement. They are the ones who are going to give the most honest review about their stylist. The fact that my clients were telling their family and friends to come see me, was the best way for me to gain a new clientele.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Consistency.

Everyone runs their business differently, but whatever avenue you are using to attract clients, consistency is key.

If you use a social media platform, it’s important to post on a regular basis, engage with followers, and make sure you are putting out what you want in return. If you want extensions clients, post about extensions. If you want color clients, post about color, etc.

If using social media platform isn’t for you, then make sure to be consistent in which ever way works best for you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @be_gabulous