NAMING YOUR BUSINESS | INTRO TO HOW TO BUILD YOUR BRAND | GOING SOLO SERIES SNEAK PEAK | ESTHETICIAN

Hey you guys, it's your girl Cristen here. I'm a licensed aesthetician, an educator, mentor, a YouTuber and a mom. We got Devon back here with us today. I have been sharing with you my real and raw journey as a solo esthetician. I've had my business open for about 15 months now and it's been a thriving six-figure business. And for those of you who've been watching me since the beginning, I love you. Thank you so much for your support. And if you're new here, make sure you smash that subscribe button because you're gonna wanna join this family. We are growing and flowing here. On this channel, you can expect a new video from me every Monday. And I've been doing videos from entrepreneurship to skincare. It is all covered here on this channel. I know a lot of you guys are new estheticians or maybe you're in beauty school. All this information that I'm gonna be sharing with you in this video is gonna be so valuable for you, especially if you're in the midst of starting a business. If you clicked on this video, you have an idea of what it's gonna be about. We are gonna be talking about naming your business and how to build your brand. This is gonna be an introductory type of video. It is a part of my going solo series that I'm working on currently. I shared with you in the last video. If you haven't watched it already, make sure you check it out. It's the pros and cons of being a solo esthetician. And to let you guys know that I'm working on this course and I promise you, it is coming, okay? I'm not just trying to hype you up. It is seriously coming. My goal is to have it done by January 1st, 2022. I'm declaring it right now. All the footage is filmed. It's just me at this point, mashing it together, putting it online, putting the materials together. And you know me, I don't like to put anything out there that is not quality. So promise you it's coming your way. So I figured, hey, you know what? Let's share another sneak preview of it. And this part of the course that I'm sharing with you, it's gonna be broken up in modules. And this module is called putting your business on the map. You're gonna be getting an introduction to that part of the course. And of course, I will be jumping in here and there to make sure you're paying attention. And also you guys, I didn't even tell you, my mom is here visiting from Hawaii. You guys are gonna get to meet her for the first time. And we're doing something really special today. And I wanna almost get emotional saying it because I just can't even believe it. About a year ago, I said on Instagram that this time next year, I was going to be seriously considering purchasing a place. And I am seriously looking at moving very, very soon. Top of running a business, making this online course, hiring new employees, which you will be meeting soon as well, and possibly moving, guys. I don't know what the heck I'm doing. So you will be seeing some clips of me. Hopefully I can show you the actual place itself. But this is just the very first place I'm checking out. And I wanted to share this part of my journey with you to inspire you, to motivate you, and let you know, hey guys, if I can do this, being a single parent, I've been through the ups and downs in my life. And if I can do this, you guys, you can do it. And I wanted to show you, to inspire you as well, and to take you along with me in this journey. As always, grab a pen and paper and be prepared to absorb some really helpful information in this video. Let's get this party started. of Hey there you guys. Welcome to the next module. This module is called, getting your business on the map. I have my laptop here as usual, and we are gonna be going through our presentation slides. Again, this video will be broken up to different sections. What to expect, I'm gonna go over the agenda right now for this module. This module is gonna cover the guidelines for naming your business. helpful tips for branding yourself, licensing and insurance, what you need to know about self-employment taxes, understanding self-employment and health insurance, and then what to consider when choosing a location, and then obviously some action items. Let's dive right into it. Tips for naming your business. Now what to consider. When it comes to naming your business, I notice a lot of estheticians start out with skincare by so-and-so or beauty by so-and-so. And I did. I started off as Beauty by Miss Chris because my Instagram name is Miss Kristen, so a lot of people knew me as Miss Chris, and so I thought it was fitting to change that to Beauty by Miss Chris. You know, that was totally fine for a while, and I'm not saying that all of this has to be set in stone, but if you are trying to turn your side hustle into a full-time business, this is when you're going to want to consider something that is going to be more long-term. So maybe as of right now, you've been operating under one of those beauty Instagram names. I'm here to challenge you to think of maybe something that's outside of the box, and that's why I put think bigger. What other parts of the business do you hope to expand to? Now this tip would be for somebody who is trying to potentially take their business to the next level. Maybe you want to start a YouTube channel. Maybe you want to do merchandise. Maybe you want to sell skincare. All those things need to come into consideration when it comes to naming your business. My parent company is Kristen Marine Co. I did come up with that to kind of embody what my brand was. Obviously, I'm the face of the business. First and middle name made the most sense. And then at the time, I was working with other individuals. I was referring out to other makeup artists, other hairstylists, and so I thought, okay, and company would make sense because it's me and others. So that is ultimately how I came up with my business name. For you, if you don't really see yourself expanding into other avenues, then totally fine to keep kind of your beauty name or your skincare name. I think that's totally fine. But I would challenge you if you are somebody who's looking into making multiple six figures in the future by doing a YouTube channel or starting an e-commerce site or gosh, what other avenues could we get into? It can go into being an influencer. You might be wanting to promote different brands, things like that. And so either way, I would encourage you to come up with some sort of parent name for your company just because you are legally going to need to have a name to create bank accounts under and potentially an employee identification number at some point. I would have something in mind for you to refer back to if, say, you do decide to expand into other realms of this industry, because the possibilities are endless. I challenge you with that. And then when you look at your goals, does your name capture your business today and in the future? I think having that in mind is going to be really important. Look, guys, what are you doing? Oh, my gosh. I wanted to jump in right here because I was editing this video and I was like, I just have so much more to share. And this is why, you guys, it's taking so long for me to finish this, because I keep thinking of more things to add into this video and even into the course itself. And so I wanted to jump in here and give you a little bit more of my thoughts when it comes to naming your business and some things that I have been kind of discovering at this point now that I've been hiring employees, thinking about the company growing even more and selling product and all that good stuff. And when it comes to naming your business, I want to challenge you to think about what can you see on like a storefront? What can you see on your logo? Make sure it's like a legible logo, too. You know, you don't want it to be this super long name. And then you're trying to come up with a very simple logo to put on your Instagram or your website. And then you have to go and rebrand everything. So make sure before you pick it and you commit to it that it's going to fit all of those things. So I mentioned a logo. I actually have created my own logo for quite some time now, and I use a website called Canva dot com. Now, you do have to be a little creative with it. You can also hire somebody. You can search on Instagram, you know, logo creator. I know I've actually been reached out to a lot by logo designers on Instagram, so they're out there. Just research it. Find yourself a graphic designer. But actually, where I'm at in the business, I am going to be doing a little bit of a rebranding now that I'm hiring employees, now that I'm expanding. And so being in that process has made me realize, like, I don't regret, you know, naming it what I named it. Kristen Marie and Co. But it is challenging to kind of go about it to where like, OK, how am I going to change and rebrand things without completely having to do like a whole like 180? You know what I mean? So there is going to be a little tweak to it. I'll, of course, share that with you when the time is right. Maybe you're somebody who's like, you know what? No, I'm only going to want to be a solo esthetician. I'm not trying to hire anybody or anything. Trust me, guys. I was in that place as well at one point. So that's why I'm telling you now, being where I'm at in the business, that I wish I would have maybe considered more of those things. Keep on watching. I'm going to be getting more into about trademarking and things like that. And then, of course, I want you guys to meet my mom. And we're going to be going and checking out a place really soon that I'm looking at potentially purchasing. I want you guys to see that. So make sure you keep on watching. Like this video if you're enjoying it. Subscribe to your girl's channel. And I'll see you in a little bit. Make sure that it's not already trademarked. So I did put a link here to go and type out your name, potential business name, to make sure that it's not taken. I actually made that mistake of creating some shirts that said Skin Magician on them. And I was like, oh, it's such a great idea. Blah, blah, blah. Lo and behold, that name was already trademarked. So if I were to go and put out merchandise with those names on them, I could get in trouble. You're going to want to make sure that your business name is not already taken. It's me again. So I wanted to jump in here because I forgot to include this little piece of information. So when it comes to trademarking your business, you can trademark the name. You can trademark your logo. That's basically going to protect it from anybody else taking it or copying it or creating a similar version of it. Yes, I did have to consult with a lawyer when it came to this because they know a lot more information about it. But just based off what he was telling me, he said that trademarking it doesn't necessarily guarantee that it's going to not be messed with. You are actually in charge of policing this yourself. Like, there's no trademark police out there who's going to make sure that nobody's taking your logo or your name. Legally, we'll protect it, but it's not going to guarantee that you're going to be able to catch every single person who's doing that. Also, there's the option to trademark it on the local level and the national level. So it's a lot more expensive to trademark something on the national level because it's going to be, you know, trademarking it from coast to coast in the United States. So it's definitely a lot more expensive. But if you just want to trademark it locally, like for your state, it's a lot more affordable. And I think to me, that makes a little more sense because like where you're operating is really mainly where it matters. For now, if you're just opening up a solo business, thank you. If you're opening up a solo business, I don't think it's necessary. I think state level is just fine. And then of course, as you start to expand your business, say you create like a clothing line or you have multiple locations in different places, then yeah, you might want to consider doing a national trademark. Just to let you know, I wanted to inform you about that. And then make sure to check Instagram to make sure it's available. Maybe even TikTok as well, other platforms. But particularly for me, it was Instagram. Make sure when you go on there that you're able to at least come up with some sort of like version of your business name because you can always put your actual business name in your title. And that doesn't really matter if somebody else has taken that already. But if you can at least create a version of your business name on Instagram, that would be ideal. Also, you're going to want to look at available domains for your website. So Squarespace, GoDaddy have been website domain searchers that I have been familiar with. I currently use Squarespace as my website, what do you call it? My website engine, so to speak. And so you can go on there and basically check to see if a potential business name is taken on there already too. First action item should be have a name chosen for your business and select a website domain and Instagram handle. Then after that, you are going to want to write an about me section. And the reason why I have you do this step now is because I feel like in order to really understand your goal as a professional, it's important to kind of put it in words. It's important to put it in just a short, maybe like paragraph, two paragraphs max, a little bit about your background, a little bit about what you hope to bring to the beauty industry, what you hope to service your customers with. Just to kind of give yourself a little bit of like perspective of what you see for your future. And then also when people come and visit your website or even your Instagram, you're going to want people to know what you're about. I'm going to end this clip here and I'll see you guys in the next one. Thank you for making it to the very end. I know you guys are probably wanting even more information. Feel free to pop some questions down below. But like I said, this is just a sneak preview of my online course. In the course, I do get more into building your brand. I get into how to set up your Instagram page, your website more in detail because I did share with you some things in this video, but it dies even more into it in the course. Promise you it's coming your way. I'm really excited to finally launch it for you guys. I know a lot of you have been interested in it right now. If you made it to the end, you guys are about to be in for a treat. I am going to be actually looking at a listing today for a condo that I saw online. This is actually going to be the very first place that I check out that I actually go and see in person because everything has been online at this point. I'm just so excited to think about finally taking this step. It's scary. It's so freaking scary. You guys don't even understand. I've lived on my own before, but I've always had roommates, you know what I mean? It's always been a rental. To actually go into buying a place and being responsible for it 100% is really scary. Also, I just hired employees and I'm taking on even more financial expenses. It's like, oh my God, am I doing the right thing? I don't know. Something in my gut is telling me to just freaking go for it. I hope that inspires you as well to lean into what you're most afraid of doing because honestly, I feel like that's the best way to tell whether or not you want it bad enough. My mom should be here very soon and you guys will get to meet her. But yeah, I'm going to show you clips of the place that I'm checking out. I don't know if this is going to be the place that I end up in, but it's the start of just manifesting that new condo that I want. I'm really, really excited to share this part of my journey with you and you guys have been a part of it. You guys have made it possible. So I love you guys so much and I'll see you guys when my mom gets here. Why are you laughing? Do I look like a dork or what? Hey there everyone. So this is my mom. Hi everyone. And Devin's back there. We pulled up to the apartment or the condo. How do you say it? Condo complex? Yeah, condominium complex. Condominium complex. And she's here visiting, but I wanted you guys to finally meet her because my mom was really the biggest push to like do the skincare part of the business. Initially when I wanted to open up the studio, I was just thinking makeup and lashes and then she's like, no, no, you should do skincare. People want facials. I was like, yes, all right. So she really was the person that sparked that part of the business. But you did it. You did it. I just gave the idea. I'm glad I listened though. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Now we're gonna get out of the car and go check it out and we'll probably, you know, do a little video so you guys can see little clips of it. But I'm excited. Yep. Are you excited? Very excited. Let's go. Okay. All right, y'all. So I'm back home. We went and checked out the place. It was cute. I'm still gonna be looking, you know, I don't want to just go for the first place I see, but it was definitely a really great listing to start with. So I was really thankful that my mom was able to go with me because this is my first time buying anything, any property. Good to have someone with me that has owned a home before and knows what questions to ask. And I honestly, I went in there and I was like, I don't even know what to ask. It was great. I enjoyed it. And it's kind of surreal to kind of be in this position where you're like, wow, I really am considering buying a place. So I hope you guys enjoyed that. Devin is down for a nap now, and I'm going to go ahead and finish editing the rest of this video. As always, I hope you guys have a beautiful, wonderful week. Please like this video. Subscribe to my channel. Comment below, you know, what you enjoyed and your thoughts about maybe what you thought of the place that I checked out today. And yeah, I'll see you guys back here on Monday for some new content. And until then, stay safe. I love you. And I'll see you in the next one. Bye.