There are a lot of perks to owning your salon, but with freedom and flexibility also comes pressure to constantly have clients in your chair. As a Sola salon owner for the past 7 years, I've learned that one thing that makes salon ownership less stressful is having my books filled at least six to eight weeks out. But to have them filled requires a healthy clientele. Here are the do's and don'ts I’ve learned for building and nurturing a clientele. The Do’s: 1) Identify your target market: This is by far the most important thing you can do when building your clientele. Yes, there are entire college marketing courses on this topic, but to simplify: Find your tribe, love them hard. If you have a clientele already but its not as big or loyal as you’d like, write down the names of your top 5-10 favorite clients. Yes your favorites - not the ones who necessarily spend the most money or come back the most often, but the people you genuinely enjoy. If you don’t have a clientele yet, pretend you do. Daydream about who you would want as a client and write down a few things about your imaginary tribe. Now look at your list. What do they have in common? What makes you two click? Is there a pattern? Get specific. You’re not for everyone, and that's ok. You’ll be too much for some and not enough for others, but it doesn’t matter because not everyone is your people. You don’t want to waste valuable time and money trying to appeal to people who won’t mesh with you. Once you’ve figured out some of the similarities between your VIPs (real or imaginary) dig deeper and write down where you think or know they might shop, what brands they might like, and the types of bars or restaurants they might frequent. Then stalk those brands. Go to their websites and see what their common themes are, color schemes, simplicity versus glamour, etc. This research will help you market yourself specifically to people most similar to your VIP’s, aka your target market. 2) Build your personal brand: Once you’ve identified your target market you need to create your personal brand. Fortunately you should have an idea of brand strategies that work from the research you did on your target market. You want your brand to showcase your personality, but above all you want it to appeal to your target clients. Brand your business cards and literature in a way that speaks to your customer. Sites like zazzle.com & vistaprint.com have tools, images and fonts you can use to create a logo for your brand. If you don’t comfortable designing something yourself, there are graphic artists on Etsy that will create a design for as little as $25. If you’re serious about your brand, there are sites such as 99designs.com that can create a very target specific logo for your brand in the range of $99-399. This isn’t an area to skimp on. Don’t rush through it. Be picky. You don’t necessarily need a creative salon name either. Your name can be your brand. Whatever you do though, be consistent. Your brand isn’t just on your door and your business cards these days. It's on all your social media channels and your website. Your brand should be uniform across all platforms. Don’t call yourself @SaraJaneStyling on Instagram and “Sarah’s House of Hair” on Facebook and @SJHouseofHair on Twitter. Pick one, make sure the usernames and domains are available across all platforms and get those profiles set up and linked together. It's easier for clients to remember be able to find you online. 3) Create a website: Now that you’ve got your tribe and you’re building your vibe to attract them, you’ve got to get a website. Your website is what people will want to rifle through to get a first impression of you once they’ve become aware of you, whether their friend gave them your card or they came across you on Instagram. And we are so lucky that Sola makes it easy to build and edit our own Sola site with Sola Pro! Your website is essentially your resumé. It's what your client will use to decide whether or not to hire you. Like it or not, your presence online is more often than not the first impression people have of you. So how can someone decide if they want to sit in your chair if they have no first impression to base it off of? Taking it one step further, most clients also prefer online booking to calling in to schedule. If you don’t have a website, you won’t have online booking. If you don’t have online booking a lot of people will write you off without a second thought. It's just the truth; people would much rather click around and find a reservation that suits their schedule than talk on the phone shooting back dates and times until one can be agreed upon. SolaGenius users can now take it one step further and add a "Book Now" button directly on their Instagram! Creating a professional website will set you apart from other studio stylists and put you on the same playing field as traditional salons when it comes to your digital ide