We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah English a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

When I first moved to L.A from Chicago back in 2015, I worked at a commission based salon that was an extremely, toxic environment. It was so bad, that I quit without having another job lined up. After leaving, I hopped around & struggled for a couple more months until I got an offer from an acquaintance to open a salon suite together. Without any hesitation, I said Yes & we started planning our opening. I barely had any clients, I could count them on one hand. But I wanted so bad to be back in a stable work environment, so I took a huge risk, & busted hard to make it all happen to succeed. All I needed to do was pay my weekly rent. Profiting would come later.
So I put my business on Google, Yelp & ran a Groupon. It was a love/hate relationship with a couple of those, but it worked!
It took me 3 years to build a steady, loyal clientele & to have good money flowing in. To this day I am consistently booked 3-4 weeks out & currently have a waiting list.
Taking that risk with hard work & patience payed off to be successful!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m originally from Chicago, Illinois. I started out working in a salon since I was 16. It was my after school job. I never got good grades, so my parents were like, “Well, you need a job then.” I started off shampooing & answering phones, which led to mixing color & applying for the stylist’s that would double book. I continued to work there after I graduated high school, & then it was a no brainer for me to immediately go to Cosmetology school. Once I graduated from there, that’s when all the risk taking started. I upgraded to working in a high end salon & started to build a clientele. I also made wonderful friendships with the other stylist’s that are still relevant today. So over 25 years in friendship & a loyal clientele! All of that started to shape my career & led me to moving out to Los Angeles in 2015.
I started all over again from the bottom with no clients, working at a few commission based salons & now upgraded to owning my own studio! It was a scary but rewarding ride.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

When I moved here from another state with no clients, I had to rely on working at a commission based salon to start building. Well, I quickly found out things don’t exactly work the same way here in California than they do back in Illinois. A lot of salons don’t have enough clients to consistently “feed” you. And then you have the shift in how you advertise or promote yourself. I learned really quickly you need to do it yourself. So if that was the case, I might as well work independently, & not for someone else. So I put my business on all social platforms that were free, & I ran a Groupon. That all helped keep the flow of clients coming in for a while until I saw retention. I was able to pay my rent & build a clientele. Keeping active on social media with your work, and finding models to showcase something new, helps to attract new potential clients.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I first started doing the Handtied Extension method, it was early on in the game. I needed to introduce & promote the method. So I talked about it with some of my existing clients & they were all interested. I then asked a small handful of them if they’d like to be my model for the extensions. I said all they had to pay for was the hair, if they would allow us to film & take photos. They all agreed, & I got some great content from that, which enabled me to consistently promote my business, & grow my audience. Then I had a social media influencer reach out to me to ask if we could film for an episode of Clevver, Beauty Trippin. I agreed, so they filmed the install in my salon suite. Which led to a lot more new clients contacting me after it was aired.
So my advice would be:
Get some models to film & take pictures of your work. And maybe try snagging an influencer to exchange for a post.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.hairbysarahenglish.com
• Instagram: @sarahrockinhair
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCjUolZQQVtKzC8nbxQylnEA?view_as=subscriber