Eyelash Business Start Up Tips

Eyelash Business Start Up Tips

When you’re starting out after getting out of beauty school, you may be thinking about doing hair, nails or skin. Those are the most popular avenues but also the options with the most competition. You may look at eyebrows but that is also a high competition avenue. If you look just below your eyebrows, you’ll see that your eyelashes can be just as lucrative with less competition.

Now that you decided to start doing eyelashes, how do you start? This guide will tell you what you need to start your own lucrative eyelash artistry business.
How To Start An Eyelash Extension Business

- Are Lash Extensions Good Business?

Lash extensions by themselves or added to make up artistry can be very lucrative. You will be dealing with women doing performances, photoshoots or for special occasions. You may want to incorporate it into a full service make up artistry business, or partner with a make up artist.

As you improve your skills with lashes, you can charge higher prices and some lash artists make over 70k a year lashes alone. Even if it is alone, it can be a very lucrative business.
Eyelash Extension State Requirements

- Do You Need A Business License To Do Eyelash Extensions?

In most states, you will need a business license if you are doing a service or selling anything for payment. It’s always best to look up your state’s licensing laws prior to signing up. It normally just costs a small fee and you can register your business name. You do need a name first. You may or may not need a federal EIN. If you don’t plan on hiring people, you may just need to use your Social Security Number. You will need to report any income (along with expenses) on your federal and state taxes.

State taxes sometimes give you three ways to pay. Every quarter, every half a year and once a year. Some states do it by how much you make per month, so it’s best to look at your state’s income/self-employment tax division to make sure you do everything legally.

- Eyelash Extension Business Logo

Logos are the memorable pictures that people will come to associate with your business so you want to make sure the logo catches attention and helps people remember your name. When you pick a logo, you want to make sure the image is clear, simple, and it’s obvious what your business is about.

If you’re unsure about how to design a logo and can’t or don’t want to pay someone to design one, you can go on these apps or websites to DIY your logo:

1.  Canva is one of the bigger names in logo design. It is a super easy app to use and even free gives you tons of options for great designs.

2.  Logo Maker is another decent free app but not the best. If you co not pay, you have very limited features. It’s simple and good for simple designs on your phone or tablet, though.

3. Tailor Brands offers a free sign up and with a few answers to a few questions, will design both logos and social posts for your brand.

Here are some example logos for an eyelash business:

- Eyelash Extension Business Insurance

When looking into the insurance you will need as a beautician, aesthetician or make up artist offering eyelash extensions or treatments, you will need liability insurance. The insurance will come in handy since you are working on peoples’ eyes and there are potential accidents. Accidents cannot always be avoided. Here are a few sites where you can compare the prices and find the right coverage:

1. This site tells you what insurance you will need and you can determine what is right for you.
2. Beauty Bodywork Insurance
3. If you’re Canadian
4. Marine Agency Insurance
5. Auzi Insurance
6. Associated Hair Professionals

- Names For Eyelash Extension Business

If you’re thinking about going into a lash extension business, you probably already have a name in mind. Your business name is extremely important to your business. You need to make sure you are able to pick an easy to spell, easy to search and easy to remember name. It also needs to be small enough to neatly fit a logo or business card. Some examples of potential names: (as found on a generator, at this site you can also check the availability)

ï Luscious Glance.

ï  Natural Eye Flutter.

ï  Butterfly Lashes.

ï  LashXtend.

ï  Sexy Eyes.

ï  Longer n Thicker.

ï  Bling Bling Lashes.

ï  Sultry Lash Studio.

Of course, choosing the name is personal, but there are sites to help come up with names and choosing one is one of the most important decisions you make in your business. You can change the name, but people will already know you by the name you originally chose.

- Eyelash Extension Business Plan Example

Your business plan is the single most important aspect of starting a business. Your plan gives potential financers, banks, the SBA or anyone else you may want to get involved with a full, laid out plan for your business. The business plan includes the executive statement, which includes what your business stands for, your type of business (if you’re a sole practitioner, partnership, LLC or corporation) and what your business is all about. This is best done at the end, once the rest of the plan is put together and you have a stronger grasp of what you stand for as a business.

The second part of a business plan is the company description. This is where you talk about who you will need to hire and how many employees you will have. You will also put the costs associated as well as what benefits you plan to offer. If you do not plan on having employees, this is describe what you will plan on doing yourself, legal structure, your company’s history and how you came up with it, overview of what you will be offering and what room will be for growth as well as any services you may plan to add later and your short (1/6 month, 1 year and less than 5 year) term and long term (5 and 10 years) goals and where you see your business in the future.

The third part is an expansion of what services and products you will be offering. You will go into detail about what products you’ll be selling as well as what you will be doing service wise. If you’re planning on adding new products and services, this will also be an area to go into detail with what you’re planning on adding. This section introduces the products personally. You will give a detailed description of what and why you’re planning on selling the exact items you’re selling and go into detail about what services you’re going to offer now and in the future.

Now, you mention any trademarks or copyrights that are on the items and services. Go into detail if you have created the service or made the products by hand, if you own a patent or if you plan on using something with written permission from someone else.

The fourth section contains the market analysis. You will go into what the target market is and how you will reach them. Are you looking primarily for women? Yes. They are the ones who typically want to get eyelash extensions, so you will target women and you could even add drag queens in to your target.

In this section, also describe your industry and the future you foresee the industry having. Describe how you will evolve in the future to retain your customer base as well as remain competitive and come up with a full list of your major competitors and how you will differ from them in order to attract your target market. Make sure this section is detailed and you have a full profile of whom your target is.

The fifth section will detail how you plan to reach out.  Put in a detailed marketing analysis as well as a marketing plan. Consider all the ways you can advertise and plan out advertising and detail your whole ad campaign. Look at how your target consumes media, try to reach as much as you can but if you’re looking for a younger audience, TV or radio may be a waste of time. Pandora radio may not be, same with advertising on Youtube. Consider who you want to reach and look at how they are being entertained so you can place your ads in front of them.

The sixth section is the hierarchy of management. Are you a corporation? You wil place stock options in this section and if you are a sole proprietor, you won’t have much in this section but if you have a manager or CEO/COO. It all depends on how big you are starting out but detail all staffing here. In the next section, you will be dealing with their pay but this section is to determine what the hiarchy will be.

The seventh section may be the most important section for a plan. You will need to find out how much exactly you will need for everything when you start out so you can detail it here. Once you decide what you are including and all the costs, create a chart showing your expenditures.

Put down the 1 month, 6 months, 12 months and 24 month (or as far as 5-10 years in the future) financial projections for the business as well. How much do you think you’ll grow? How much do you want to grow? Put in place financial goals and stretch goals. A stretch goal is the high goal you would like to achieve, even if you do not hit it. It’s kind of the dream goal.

Here are some websites that offer business plan templates:

1.  OGS Capital

2. Business Plan Template

3. The Lash Professional

Mobile Eyelash Extension Business

You may want to start a business where you travel to your clients. If you want to go that route, look up any and all laws pertaining to the sanitation and type of vehicle you will need to drive. You may want to drive a truck and do the extensions in the back. If you live in a major city where they have a lot of street vendors, you may want to set up on a major tourist spot. Otherwise, you may want to just book appointments and go from house to house.

You will need a special bag that you keep your supplies in and make sure you have an area set up to properly sterilize your products between clients. You can set up a jar in your van or car so you can soak your tools in between your clients, if you’re going from house to house.

Eyelash Extension Business From Home

One way to save money on your start up is to start the business from home. You do not always need to rent a storefront. You need to make sure your room in your house is allowed legally by both zoning laws in your area and the state board (most salons and spas are required to have a certain amount of ventilation and a certain amount of sanitation for health reasons.

Make sure you have a room you can devote to running the business.

- How Much Does Eyelash Extension Cost In The Us?

It depends on the details. If you get a full set of extensions, it will run between 150 and 300. Those will take several hours and will involve gluing separate extensions to each eyelash. If you do filler lashes where you glue a bunch of lashes in between the lashes, they can be done faster and will start around 50 and you can charge up to around 100 for a very good quality lash.
- Eyelash Extension Consent Form/Waiver
As with all things you do that may have a negative impact on the face, especially since there are risks with lashes, you will need to have waivers on hand to prevent any kind of law suit. As long as they sign the consent and waiver, they waive you of responsibility for anything that may happen- including if they do not take proper care of their lashes after you do the extensions. Here are a few sample waivers and consent forms you can use to create your own or even print and hand out:

1. Here is a sample that shows what you need to include on your own forms.
2. Here is another sample from another business.
   
   

   Eyelash Extension Technician Jobs

- Lash Technician Salary

Most technicians will make between 30 and 50k a year but some can go up to 75, or even 100k depending on how busy they are, how experienced and where they are located. Running your own business is going to pay higher but going to a good salon can also make a major difference. If you’re interested in finding a lash technician job, any of these sites will help with your search.
- Jobs Websites
*3-4 websites for job search

Professional Eyelash Extension Supplies Must Haves

- Eyelash Extension Supply Vendors

Finding your supplies will be one of the most important factors to investigate. You don’t want to go with a cheap and low-quality product, but you also don’t want to price yourself out of profit or competition. Some of the more well-known vendors are:

1. Novalashes, they boast being voted number 1 more than other companies.
2. Bella Lashes
3. The Lash Professional
4. You can go to Sally Beauty for some of the supplies if you have one close by. They may not have everything, but they are a well known and trusted beauty supply company.

Eyelash Extension Brands

Novalashes are one of the better brands, they have been voted number 1 multiple times.
If you’re looking for extensions, go for Mink or fauxmink. Those are the most popular and widely available.

Eyelash Extension Training Kit

Novalashes sells training kits as well as other supplies needed. As mentioned, they are one of the top brands out there for eyelash extensions.

Eyelash Extension Tweezers, fan, brush, eye pads and Magnifying Glasses

These are some of the supplies that really don’t need to be anything fancy, any brand of tweezer will work. Brushes and eye pads are in the same position. You don’t need to spend hundreds on specialty tools just for the name brand. Just make sure they are made with a higher quality material.
You can get the supplies and tools you need from Sally Beauty. They sell a wide variety of tools for different beauty treatments.
Eyelash Extension Shampoo, Glue Remover, sealer and wash/cleanser

Some people use baby shampoo to wash their new extensions. The best brands are Novalash and Bellalash. Both offer a wide range of all the products, including teaching kits. The Lash Professional also offers each of the items needed.

Nova offers cleanser and so do Bella, the Lash Professional and Sugarlash.

There are options from Nova Lashes as well as the Blink eyelash extension glue is another good, professional use glue.

The Lash Professional offers another glue and primer. They also offer remover and the tools you will need.
Novalashes also has a line of both removers and glue. They have everything needed to perform the actual eyelash extension procedure itself and they have the stuff for customers to buy after having the extensions put in as well.

Eyelash Extension Bed and pillow
Most people will suggest a massage table for doing lashes, but a facial table may be better. Make sure it’s one you can lay the client down on but also prop up a bit so you can get a better reach on their face.

Pillows can be necessary, and you do not want them to be too big or too small. A pillow really is not necessary but if you want to buy one, buy one like these. Make sure it provides back and neck support so the client isn’t straining their neck while laying in the chair for up to 3 hours.
Lash Extension Training And Classes
Eyelash Extension Online Training and Certification

Most of the time, you get the training you need in beauty school. If you study either skin (esthetics) or the full cosmo course, you will have training on eyelashes and extensions. There are shorter courses you can take for specifically lash technician. Those training courses take 1-3 days typically and you only study lash extensions.
There are online live classes you can take if you can’t find a school locally. Here are a few of the better options:

1. Xtreme Lashes®
2. Classic Lash Extensions through Lashscouts
3. Frankie Widdows has a course, he is an extremely experienced and widely known eyelash “master”
4. The Beauty Academy has an online lash course and offers live training for an extra fee as well.
5. Last, Yegi Beauty’s online course is also available.

Eyelash Extension Schools

If you’re looking for in person training, looking up local beauty schools can be a good start. If you’re lucky enough to have a makeup artistry school locally, those are good schools to look at as well.

1. Indeed has a list of schools that offer classes. 
2. The Beauty School Directory
3. Nova Lash
4. If you google beauty schools in your area and call around, you should be able to find a school that offers lash training. It’s included in skin and cosmetology courses.

FAQ and Answers For Your Clients
- How To Remove Eyelash Extensions
Many types of eyelash extensions will fall off on their own, but you will likely have clients come in who want you to remove them before they fully fall off.  In order to do that, you need to remove the glue that sticks them to the eyelash without pulling their natural eyelash off.
- How Long Do Eyelash Extensions Last?
It all depends, some last just a few weeks and higher quality can last up to 6 weeks.

- How Much For Eyelash Extensions?
A good base cost to consider would be 100 with a higher estimate hitting or even exceeding 300. Some would be custom, and you would work that out with the beautician beforehand.

- How To Clean Eyelash Extensions?
Eyelash shampoo may have been provided or sold where you got your extensions, but if you didn’t get the oil free shampoo, you can use an oil free make up remover and clean gently from the base to the tip with a qtip. You can also use a very gentle baby shampoo to wash.

- How To Shower with Eyelash Extensions?
After the first 48 hours, it is safe to shower as long as you do not use an oil based product around the extensions. For the first 48 hours avoid showering

- How Are Eyelash Extensions Applied?
Extensions are applied by gluing lashes to the base of the natural eyelash one lash at a time. The entire process takes a couple hours from the start to finish.

- How Long Do Eyelash Extensions Take?
Typically at least one to three hours

- How To Wash Your Face with Eyelash Extensions?
Once you pass the first 48 hours, you won’t have as much to worry about. You will need to keep an eyelash shampoo, baby shampoo or oil free make up remover to keep the extensions clean. You just need to be gentle, so you won’t pull them off.

- How Long Eyelash Extensions Last?
They can last from 1 month to about 8 weeks depending on quality, aftercare and how permanent they are. Most last around 6 weeks before needing a touch up.

- How To Brush Eyelash Extensions?
Find a high-quality lash brush and make sure to not brush too much from the base. Brush gently from the middle of the lash to the end and avoid brushing too much from the base.

- Are Eyelash Extensions Safe?
Yes. Putting eyelash extensions on requires training and knowledge, so getting them done by a good professional is safe. As with all procedures that are performed around eyes, there is a risk of accidental injury to the eyes or lashes could come loose and get in the eye. Infection or allergic reaction are very rare but are possibilities.

- Can You Put Mascara on Eyelash Extension?
You do not need to, but you can if you want.

- Side Effects of Eyelash Extensions
As with all things done around the eyes, there are potential side effects to watch out for. Infection is rare, but possible. If you notice signs of infection (pain, redness, swelling and even fever) you need to see your doctor. Allergies are also rare but possible. Underlying medical conditions could also have an affect but that’s why it’s important to notify the tech of any and all medical problems you have- and if you have any concerns, talk to your doctor.

Do Eyelashes Grow Back After Lash Extensions?
Yes. They do not destroy the eyelashes.

How To Maintain Eyelash Extensions?

How to Promote and Grow Your Eyelash Extension Business
Search Terms People Using in Google To Find Your Business
You may want to start a blog and either hire or write your own eyelash related posts. You also may just want to get seen in search, either way, you will need to know some key words. Google has a section called “trends” where you can search a term and common searches come up.

If you’re interested in doing an informational blog, blog about topics people tend to search. According to Google Trends, common questions and queries about eyelash extensions that would make interesting topics to cover are:

• how to clean glue off
• Who invented eyelash extensions
• Why people should get extensions
• How to upkeep extensions so they last longer
• How to make sure they last long
• The history of extensions

If you’re looking for ideas to use for Google search to pick your site or blog up to be seen, here are some ideas for phrases to use when you’re working on your site:

• Lash Bar
• Lash Studio
• Eyelash Extensions Near Me
• Eyelash Extensions + City
• where to get eyelash extensions
• wispy lash extensions
• how do eyelash extensions work
• Eyelash bar
• Eyelash Studio
• Lash extensions
  Promote Your Posts on Instagram
  When you’re looking to promote your eyelash extension business on social media, it’s best to look at what each social network is best for. If you’re looking to advertise for a visual business, like in the beauty industry, Instagram and Tik Tok are the best bets. Instagram now lets you post videos and you can post your TikTok videos directly to Instagram.

Eyelash Extension Hashtags

When it comes to marketing your business, Instagram is one of the best social networks still for beauty or art related (any visual) marketing. In order to rank and be seen on Instagram, you need to compile a list of hash tags. It’s also important to put the hashtags in the proper location, you don’t want to be seen as just advertising and using a bunch of hashtags just to gain likes or follows, you want traffic and potential customers. Some potential hash tags to consider are:

• Eyelashextentions
• Eyelash lift
• Eyelash tutorial
• Eyelashes
• Eyelash training
• Eyelash extension + your area

Do an extensive search for the area you’re looking for and find less common phrases as well. The ones listed are some of the top eyelash extension tags on Instagram but sometimes using the moderate used tags help more, they don’t become as overly populated, and pictures aren’t pushed down as much.

- Create Before and After Pictures

Get clients’ permission to take pictures when you do their lashes and make sure to always show off your best work. There is an app called “Layout” that lets you combine pictures on your phone for Instagram that can be used to quickly create “before” and “after” photos.

Take pictures of the extensions you’re using and also take videos of performing the actual procedure.  If you take a video of doing the service, you can attract more attention to your profile. Make sure to put your business Instagram on your website and even business cards.

- Eyelash Extension Quotes

Find phrases that are “in style” with the group you’re trying to attract. One motto that some eyebrow technicians have used is “eyebrows on fleek” and it attracted attention to what they did. “On fleek” was a slang term that a lot of young women who like beauty services and make up artistry have used.
Eyelash Extension Aftercare Cards

Aftercare is an extremely important part of the upkeep. If you get their extensions perfect but they start out with a shower using an oil-based cleanser immediately after the extensions were glued on, they won’t last. If you educate them and let them know, then the extensions can last. This is where the cards can come in handy. If you follow up with giving them a paper or card that gives instructions, you will help them have something to remember what they need to do.

When printing them, keep in mind to add in the following information:

1. What type of cleanser and shampoo to use to clean them?
2. What infection may look or feel like?
3. A phone number to call if they have problems.
4. The basic amount of time the extensions should last.
5. When to come back to have the extensions fixed or removed

Make sure to mention all the signs you feel they need that they may have an infection or another complication. There aren’t high risks with extensions, but anything done around the eye can cause issues.

There is a lot that goes into starting an eyelash extension business, but it can be quite lucrative. You have to have the passion for lashes to go through training and devote hours of life to your customers on a day-to-day basis. They can get monotonous, but if you have the passion, it will be worth the work.