Richard Anthony & Heidi Podcast Transcript.

 

So Heidi. Tell us a little bit about the early days and how you started and your progression within this industry.

 

I grew up in the Hawkesbury area in farmland country background, yeah. And after I left school, I did a little bit of dental nursing and loved the clinical sides of things. And then I went on to do a beauty therapy course and I did beauty therapy for. A long time it's making the client feel better and making them feel great when they leave better than when they walked in. So, it's a very private personal sort of industry but I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yes, I agree with that I think the clients experience is very important. So you know especially. In a personal. Business industry like you know, beauty therapy. Body piercing, it’s a it's a very personal type of business to own.
So have you owned a few businesses in the past?

 

I have I've I have owned several businesses in regards to I moved locations so I had one where I was living and where I first set up and then I opened a secondary one at a later time.

 

First salon I opened in a gym actually because there was a real call for doing the spray tanning when that was coming in with bodybuilders and  just keeping everybody all nice and trimmed and tidied and tanned and cleaned. So that was that was great.

 

Well. Doing tanning in the gym would have been very interesting, especially the bodybuilders and their little teeny tiny. Little undies. Or budgie smugglers, and they're crazy tans, you know, like they're darker than me. With those tans.

 

HEIDI:
ha-ha probably makes it look a bit thinner as well I presume. It does. It makes you look; makes you look thinner and smaller. And definitions definitely there too.

 

RICHARD:
Yeah, yeah. Oh, it just makes me laugh. The whole tiny side of things makes me laugh. But you know that's really interesting. So obviously you moved on with that and you've upskilled and learned other new type of skills within the beauty industry, I presume.

 

So we went into cosmetic tattooing as well. It evolves and you've got to move with it or you get left behind on business point of view. So you've always got to keep training and upskilling all the time. So you know all this, all this brows and lashes now and cosmetic tattoo and body enhancement that I decided to jump online and get myself up skilled on a few extra things and incorporated that into a business idea. And I opened another business to where I moved to and it went great Guns, it was, it was crazy busy.

 

So what are the things that you do to keep up to date, like trying new things, you know, what else did you do? So obviously cosmetic tattooing the beauty. And obviously body piercing, you did the body piercing course as well. So that would have been a big change on a big turn around and in your business model I presume?

 

I did, and obviously cosmetic tattooing, all the different techniques and

machines, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly. You see what all the new

products and all the new techniques and all the new machines. And like I said, if you don't keep up, you get left behind.

 

So did you have any hard times within the industry,

You know, there's always up and ups and downs, especially in the last couple of years with interest rates going up and you know, cost people's confidence. To go out and spend money for beauty services, really, it's really more of a want than a need, you know? So, yeah, so they would have slowed down that would have caused. A fuel issues with the way you run your business on a daily basis on well, there was, there was lean times, definitely lean times, but you know it always bounces back. It's usually that period just after Christmas. Can be a little bit lean when everyone's paying their bills after Christmas and getting back to school. And there was also a lean time probably around July, August when the weather was super cold and nobody really wanted to put their bodies out

there. But you know in in hindsight when you when you. Looking at doing particularly piercings and tattooing ready for summer, Winter is a great time to do it because it gives you time to heal. Yeah, it's it. So if you look at, you know, putting that, putting a marketing strategy together, especially if you're looking at body piercing, you know, it's a great time for people to get that kind of stuff in winter.

 

So they can heal ready for summer? I think that's a great idea.

 

Well, I just used to get my yeah, A year's planner out and look at all the school holidays. Look where the terms are finishing when you do specials. For winter, you'd want to do some waxing, specials and. School holidays you'd run your specials with different things there if you if you needed to. So it's about getting that yearly planner out and looking when things are happening throughout the year with like Easter, school holidays all those things and that's where you know, especially marketing it that way and school holidays is great. Christmas, yeah. And the same with if you're going to be buying jewellery and things like that body jewellery and you know you get ready for Christmas, you get ready for Valentine's, you've got to be organised. So, a year planner. Is a great way to work it out.

 

So why did you add body piercing to your business? What was the

reasoning there?

 

 

Well, where I was living there was nobody doing body piercing and I just on the cosmetic tattoo course and I just really wanted to keep with the market and. It just, it was gangbusters. It was a great idea. Nobody was doing it. You guys are doing the training. So, I came on board and did the training with you in Penrith and I just had a blast. I didn't want it to stop, you know? Like anyone I had anticipation about you know putting a needle through someone's skin. But yeah, wow once you got on that bandwagon you were right to go and you just you just wanted to keep going. You just it was incredible and it's not time consuming you know it's you do a really, really good service and then you sell them and after add on sale with their spray and at the same time too then if you've got a display cabinet with good quality jewellery and seasonal stuff like Christmas jewellery Valentine's jewellery all of that sort of stuff, it's just out on sales and. You just watch your profit margin go through the roof.

 

So did it benefit you adding piercing to your business that make a big difference?

 

It really did, because in fact I was doing more piercing than I was doing beauty therapy treatments to be honest. It just was amazing. I was bought back-to-back day in, day out, and I think even being in a small town, you're the only one offering that service. I think it's a really good opportunity.

 

Did you get a whole range of different people for body piercing

 

 

We had everything from we had everything from babies to toddlers to teenage girls to 70 year old women getting nipples pierced. It was incredible what came out of the woodwork. It was, yeah, it was, it was insane. But it was great to take somebody on board and take care of them and you know, let them walk away having their confidence built. It was it was really rewarding.

 

So a whole range of clientele coming into your business. Yeah, you do, but you get you get funny clients in all walks of life, so. So what did you love about body piercing? What did you actually enjoy in that aspect? About it?

Just making people feel empowered and making them feel good. And at the end of the day they come in all anxious and nervous and they leave going. I've done that. I feel great about it. Now I want to get seconds, thirds.

And all different other body parts done as well. It just the confidence watching their confidence saw is amazing. Very rewarding, very fulfilling.

 

 

Do you have any interesting stories? I presume you've got a lot of stories that are sitting up there and you're filed away.

 

I actually, yeah. I had a fellow who was who was not feeling great about himself and had sort of a health history going on and he wanted some dermal done and we ended up doing a couple of Dermal piercings for him right down his neck. In a line. And he absolutely loved them. It went viral. And just to see his confidence, all was amazing. And then he came back and had a whole lot more done as well.

 

So yeah, that's awesome. So what advice would you give someone else in? In the position that you're in, you know, running. A salon.

 

Take the giant leap forward and have some faith in yourself. You'll be a bit nervous, but it'll be worth it because it's just such a great, rewarding industry and it's a great trend and it's a great profit return as well. And it's not hard. The training was easy and achievable. All the help in the world is there. Everything's at your fingertips with all the information that you need. The team's great too if you need any help or advice or want to ask questions. And you can do it. If a dinosaur like me can do it, anyone can do it.

 

 

Come on, you're not a dinosaur.

 

And you don't have to be limited to a beauty therapist. You could be a hairdresser, a Barber, a cosmetic tattooist. So, there's a big space there of people that that have the opportunity to go forward and do it. And even if you don't have those backgrounds, having that change and be able to. To actually. Pivot and look at your services and go, what I'm going to add this new service. Yeah. And all of a sudden that's like gone gangbusters. I don't shy get into it and the profit margins are definitely there with, you know the piercing. It's amazing. I never looked back to an extent where it was a really good opportunity.

To eventually sell the business, you know, in a very short period of time. After 12 months it was only on the market a couple of days and it went and it's, yeah, it's still going well. And make a good profit out of that as well. Yeah, that was the only reason. But yeah, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's so rewarding.

 

 

 

 

Well, that's fantastic. You've obviously done something really well for

it to after 12 months for, you know, putting it on the market and getting it sold in a couple of days, it's fantastic, well done. You've done really, really well. And you know what, I just want everyone out there. To keep that in mind. That sometimes you might have a business doing well, you just don't necessarily need to go, you know, I'll just, I'll just drag that out forever. Sometimes it's great when you hit a certain point in your business, it might be a good time to leave, you know, and to do something else. And otherwise, you'll miss out on that opportunity down the track and you'll be like, Oh my God, why don't I do that back then. So I think it's a really good opportunity to think about it sometimes a good time to leave your business when it's actually at the top and doing really well. Move on to other things.

 

Absolutely.

 

I'm so happy that the course made a big difference in your in your life as well. So look, I really appreciate you coming and chatting with us today. You know, you have a very interesting story. You've got a lot of experience and thank you for sharing your success with everyone and and take care and I hope to see you again and

 

I'm sure I will. No problem.