How to earn money and advertise with my henna?

[Opal]

I'm 17 and I'm very good at henna, every year at charity events I do henna and I did henna for people's weddings. People have told me I'm good and that they would pay me but I always said no its ok because then it was just for fun. Now I want to earn money from it...I don't want to hang a massive desperate sign on my parents house or on our street...any alternatives? how do I find customers? I'm really new to this does anyone have any ideas? And how much do you think I should charge per hand? Thankyou so much plz let me know any business success stories of your own!

[:o)]

I have run a couple of mini businesses my self but not involving henna. I know people like you who just do it at charity events and hold stalls at fayres etc. My aunty does henna for Eid she charges £1 for one side hand for kids and £2.50 for adults.

If you want to go big then and I mean like really good professional patterns then you need to see how long it takes you to do the pattern what type of henna you are using etc. And charge according to that you also need to be aware of others that do henna and the prices they charge cos if they are cheaper but are good then people will go to them. The main factor I say is your price and the quality of the mehndi along with the patterns you can do. I know some people that do crap patterns lol and I wouldn't pay for them.

I have a friend (btw im 19 and so is she) who did bridal henna for two sisters that were getting married. She made in total £120 just for both of their hands and half their arms not bad is it it took her about 2 hours to do both of them now that's not bad money in fact its good

for bridal you can cheekily charge high prices (but not too high) because people are more likely to and are willing to pay that much.

TO kick start your business you need to advertise and market your henna service. Now to do this you can tell all your friends and they can pass on the word. You can send a text to your contacts and request them to forward It on to people they know and who may want henna done. You can make leaflets and post them through people's doors you can make a facebook page you can make posters and stick then around your school/college (if your allowed to) but generally id say pass the word round would be the best. If you could get yourself into an Asian clothes shop or something then you would make a lot more business. Where I live there are women who do mehndi, eyebrows etc in a room at the back of a shop and they make loads of money especially on eid, Diwali weddings etc

Also, when it comes to occasions like eid, Diwali etc you;ll make more money but otherwise you may find business a bit slow. you have to sell your business really well and you have to treat your customers politely and with respect (common sense I know but thought Id point it out) that's how they'll come back to you and pass the word round. If you take a long time doing henna then your patterns will have to be amazing. I have realised in the past women that take ages doing henna but the patterns are average people don't go back to them because they obviously don't have loads of time on their hands. Also if you were to hold a stall then you will need to do patterns fairly quickly so you can get through more customers.

another way of advertising is to put up posters in Asian shop windows or local shops you can also leave leaflets with them and ask if they don't mind handing them out to customers but be wary some of them might want commission etc. but generally they should be willing to do it for free

I have a business success story: in the summer just gone I was bored I had a long summer off before I was due to start uni and I wanted to do something useful earn some cash. I set up a personalised bracelet business from home which I made from hand (stretchy elastic and pearls). Each bracelet took me 10 mins to make and I charged £3 for it and put it in an organza back. I did this for 3 weeks and at the end of summer I had made £350 but I had spent £80 on stock which left me with £270 which I thought for a first attempt wasn't bad I was happy. Anyways enough of the essay lol if you need any more advice feel free to get in touch with me via email Ive got some business experience and I am currently studying for a business management degree

good luck and hope it all goes well

[Seryph]

The first thing you need to do is find out what you need, wherever you live, to have your own business, if you need a license or not, then you need to be doing you own tax returns on any money you make.

Now, once you have all that paperwork sorted out, you need business insurance.

Now that you have all of that sorted you can start advertising yourself as a henna artist, get a website up and running, print up some business cards, and always be wearing amazing henna so that when people say, wow your henna is pretty, you can say oh I do it myself, here is my card!

Check out the Henna Tribe (https://www.facebook.com/groups/HennaGathering/) the artists are mazing and always willing to help out new people.