6 Tips To Build Your Brow-Shaping Business
Meri Desevic has long been in pursuit of the perfect eyebrow. An accident at age 6 tore one of her brows in half, leaving a spot where hair never grew. “I was constantly fixing it to make sure my left brow looked like my right brow,” says Meri, founder of Lilibeth Beautiful Brows with two locations in New York City.
Her shop is a testament to her lifelong brow obsession, and her background as a hairdresser and in the cosmetics industry with giants like Bergdorf Goodman, Chanel and Estee Lauder gives her the ultimate insight into what makes the best brow—and what it takes to run a successful eyebrow shop.
Her brow services don’t just include a simple shape-up. Every client gets the full Lilibeth treatment. We got Meri’s best tips on how to keep your brow books filled!
1. Don’t just shape her and send her on her way.
At Lilibeth, clients get an education. Meri first fills in a client’s brows and teaches her how to achieve the perfect shape. Then she’ll tweeze and trim to fine-tune the shape. She sends each client home with a booklet that explains how to achieve the look on their own.
2. Give her a freebie.
Part of the shaping service at Lilibeth includes the use of the Brow Shaping Tool. A new tool is used on each client to clean up super short and fine, fuzzy hairs. Then the client gets to take that tool home. Combined with the instruction booklet, that’s a powerful part of the service.
3. Gain her trust.
“A lot of clients come to me after being destroyed somewhere else,” Meri says. “She’s already freaking out. So I explain everything I’m doing.” That means the client holds a mirror while Meri talks through the service, and that’s why Meri fills the brow in first before she even touches the tweezers.
4. Offer long-term solutions.
Part of building repeat clients is being a trusted expert. That’s why Meri added RevitaBrow® Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner to her shop. It enhances natural eyebrows that may appear damaged from overstyling or environmental effects. She keeps it in a prominent place in the shop—right when clients walk in—and she has a great plan for suggesting the product. As she works, she asks, “I can show you how to do a quick fix on your brows with a pencil or brow powder—but have you tried treating them?” Then she’ll explain RevitaBrow® Advanced’s benefits, like how it protects against breakage and improves brows’ moisture and shine, and subtly turns the client’s chair toward the display.
5. Be realistic.
Clients always want to know if RevitaBrow® Advanced is going to work. Meri says that this is where the trust comes in. “Anything I have on my wall, I have tested, tried and smelled before I offer it to a client,” she says. “I tell people, ‘This is an investment, so if you’re not going to use it every night for six months, then it’s not worth it.’ And clients know that nobody would actually say that if they were just pushing a sale.”
6. Give her a back-up plan.
Meri tells every client who purchases RevitaBrow® Advanced that if they use it as instructed—that means applying it every single night—and they don’t see results, she will let them apply the price of purchase to any other service or product in her shop. About 40 percent of her clients use RevitaBrow® Advanced and she has given every one of those clients this option. “If you’re using it every single night for six months and you come back and say it did nothing—well, that’s never happened,” she says. By giving clients that option, they feel more comfortable making the purchase, and they know you’re serious about how well it works.
