The "TRAP BABE" Recipe: The Beginning

  Hey Trap Babes, I am here to give you the recipe on how to get your clientele up and get a consistent income flowing in while using marketing skills that are easy as 1,2,3. 

COME ON, FOLLOW ME TO A FEW POINTERS BELOW.

  I've been doing hair since I was about 16, I started right in my mom's kitchen. My cousin called it "In House Weave Trappin." By 18, I was doing a few sew-ins here and there at Scooba Tech, where I attended community college. When I transferred to Mississippi State University, I was doing hair out of my apartment in my hometown. For years, I did hair at home. My clientele was okay but I always wanted to branch out and be bigger. ALL OF MY CLIENTELE back then came from word of mouth. I'd never had a logo, a business page, a business card, a flyer, a website, a billboard, LITERALLY NOTHING to increase the marketing of my business. 

  In 2019, I realized I no longer wanted to do hair at home, so I obtain my braider's license through the Mississippi State Department of Health which was quite easy. In the state of Mississippi, you do not have to have a cosmetology license to do any techniques that result in tension on hair roots by twisting, wrapping, weaving, extending, locking or braiding hair by hand or using a mechanical device. 

TO ALL HAIR BRAIDERS, TAKE THIS SMALL STEP:

• To obtain your braid license, you can print your application here: https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/3015.pdf
• You will need a $25 money order, a photo copy or your State ID, or driver's license.
• Mail all the items above to the address below:
  MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
  Hair Braiding Registration/Professional Licensure
  PO BOX 1700
  JACKSON, MS 39215

 I had lost a lot of my clientele because I suffered from severe depression that affected me physically after I lost my sister and I stopped doing hair for months. While I was out, I educated myself on locs. I became fascinated with them after my boyfriend let me play in his hair. That's right, I have only been in the loc game for roughly about two years and I am self-taught. In June 2019, I got my first booth, paying rent weekly but I had no clientele. I was just starting out.

My first marketing strategy to get my clientele up:

1. GIVEAWAYS
       If you offer an item or a service and you have social media, do a few giveaways. If you are not selling or servicing to anyone, WHO IS GOING TO DISPLAY YOUR WORK OR EVEN TRY YOUR PRODUCTS? 
   
       9 times out of 10, my giveaway method is a photo of what I am giving away, followed by "Comment a number between 1-300  to win the item below." For Mother's Day, I gave away 3 baskets, "Post a photo of your mom below, and tell me what she means to you." Nothing too extreme. 
   
   
      Giveaways can also be used to build your traffic towards your business page, "Like my business page, share this post and comment done" below. 
   
   A giveaway is a giveaway, I don't believe in doing raffles for my business because my ultimate goal is to make a difference and make someone smile.
   
   Giveaways helped me showcase my work. They helped me build my business page and website and it helped with "word of mouth" marketing. 
   
   
2. BUSINESS CARDS AND FLYERS
     Social media is a great way to display your work but what about ALL OF THE CLIENTELE/CUSTOMERS  you would miss that are not on social media. I am here to tell you, the younger generation are a great group of clientele but once you get older clients, they are stuck with you forever. 
   
      I went to all the local "hood stores" and hair stores and posted my flyers and my business cards. I was posting me everywhere. It's kinda like how our generation promote parties. If you can post a flyer everyday to get a party packed, you can promote your business. Party promotion is actually a form of marketing.
   
   
   You don't have to be a rocket scientist to create your flyers or your business cards, there are easy ways to do so:
   
   The cheapest way to create flyers, business cards & logos:
   www. postermywall.com
   
   To print flyers, visit your local print shop:
   For the people in my hometown, visit 
   COPY COW
   500 RUSSELL STREET, SUITE 1
   STARKVILLE, MS 39759
   
   To print business cards.
   -Go to walmart and get the business card templates, and print them yourself. (If you don't have a printer or a computer, GET ONE, you have a business now, that is an essential item.)
   -Your local print shop
   -www.vistaprint.com 
   
   
3. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
   If you do not have a business page, get one. It is way more professional. I post on my personal page and my business page and I get frustrated when my personal messenger is filled with business questions but that is my fault. Learn to separate the two *note to self* LOL 
   
   The reason I am saying this is because when you post on your personal page, usually, you're only friends with locals, your family and your friends. Take it from me, you'd be suprised that sometimes, your own folks will be the very last people to support you.
   
   With a business profile, you can run ads for as little as $7/week, that's $1 a day. With that being said, you may reach a very small audience. The more money you pay, the more people you reach. 
   
   If you run an ad for $5 a day for 5 days, your budget is $25 and you will only reach about 3.3k people or less but if you run a ad for $100 for 5 days, your budget is $500 and you will reach 55.5k people or less. 
   I am here to tell you, it is okay to start small, I started small. WITH THE $1 A DAY ADS.
   Don't stop at Facebook, start an instagram business page and use your hashtags and you can run ads on IG as well. 
   
   Also, be very specific with the audience you are trying to reach. 
   
   FOR EXAMPLE:
   
   I have several target markets but I play around with them all the time to see which market can hit where. I have grown to learn that cities in two other states produce most of my sales.
   Here is an example, this one is very widespread and not very specific but it kind of gives you an example of the things you might want to use for your target market when running ads. 
   For my launch week, I ran an ad to reach a few thousands, but only 1,200 people actually clicked the link and only a few of them purchased something. The goal is to reach an audience who will not only click the link, but who will buy something.