The Roles of a Starting Brow Artist

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1. Background and goal of the article

Stepping into the world of brow artistry is not just about mastering the art of powder brows, microblading, or hairstrokes. For those launching their careers in this dynamic field, the roles to be played go far beyond the procedure itself. From overseeing finances to developing a marketing strategy, the scope of responsibilities is diverse and often complex. In this article, we'll explore the critical tasks that a new brow artist must navigate, offer guidance on managing them effectively, and discuss what can be outsourced. We'll also provide a ballpark figure for the costs involved in each area as an indication to help the starting artist navigate the field better.

Foundational Research

The insights shared in this article are backed by a large, ongoing research project from 2021 to 2023. This research includes data collected from 124 powder brows, hairstrokes, and microblading artists, primarily located in various EU countries but also extending to the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of these artists are affiliated with prominent academies, while many operate independently. Yet, regardless of their location or affiliation, our research indicates that the range of roles they must perform is strikingly similar.

2. The 10 Key "Jobs to be Done”

Reality

Through our data collection and consultations with artists, we've honed in on ten roles that emerge as essential for any starting brow artist. While artists initially proposed a broad range of responsibilities, a closer analysis revealed that these ten roles could encompass the majority of practical tasks new artists face.

Expectations

Another noteworthy observation pertains to the artists' initial expectations. More than 71% of starting artists admitted that the variety and number of "jobs to be done" far exceeded their initial estimates. Additionally, over half of the artists indicated that their training programs did not adequately prepare them for a significant number - or even the majority - of these tasks.

So, for those considering or beginning a career in brow artistry, it's essential to be cognizant of these roles and plan accordingly. This knowledge can serve as a roadmap, guiding you on what to manage in-house and what can be delegated while also providing an estimate of the associated costs.

3. The Artist

It's fundamental for a powder brows, hairstrokes or microblading artist to focus primarily on the artistry of brow creation. This role usually consumes most of an artist's time and energy.

In 2024, it's apparent that marketing and social media content creation roles have become increasingly important for success in the pigmentation industry. However, it's crucial not to lose sight of the primary goal. While these additional roles are undoubtedly significant, reaching the heights of top artists in the field is practically unattainable if the primary focus isn't on crafting excellent brows. This holds regardless of the technique chosen by the artist. Perfecting the art of eyebrow creation should remain at the forefront of a pigmentation artist's priorities.

Practical Advice: Dedicate more time

Allocate a substantial part of your working hours specifically for performing brow procedures. Failing to do so may lead to mediocre results. Your artistry always suffers if you spend excessive time waiting for clients or managing issues in other business areas. Remember, the hands-on skill of creating brows is unique and cannot be outsourced or delegated like other tasks. Focus on honing this craft to ensure the highest quality in your work.

4. Accountant

Many brow artists have experienced moments of panic during audits or when faced with tax declarations and payments. Although tax systems vary by country, there's a significant relief in knowing that all accounting and reporting responsibilities can be taken off an artist's shoulders. It's essential to consider your core identity when making this decision. Ask yourself, "Who am I really?" If you're not an accountant who also enjoys creating brows, then accounting is a task you shouldn't even consider handling yourself. Practical Advice: Outsource, avoiding fixed cost

Practical advice: outsource entirely

Opt to outsource all your accounting responsibilities entirely. To further safeguard yourself, consider an arrangement where your monthly accounting expenses are closely tied to the actual number of procedures you perform. Why is this important? As you allocate your time and money, it's crucial to factor these expenses into the net cost of each treatment. When you're starting, minimizing fixed costs is critical. Many experienced artists emphasized that paying a higher per-invoice type of charge often makes more sense but maintaining lower fixed monthly expenses for accounting services.

5. Real-Estate Broker

Choosing the perfect work location isn't likely when you're just starting your career. Interviews with seasoned, successful artists reveal many stories about selecting their initial procedure spaces, ranging from amusing to unbelievable. So, what can you learn from their experiences? First and foremost, avoid long-term commitments. Steve Jobs once said, "The future is long," and many variables can come into play. The time will come when you can negotiate an annual lease, but in the early stages, shorter-term arrangements are advisable. There's broad agreement on one aspect: minimizing fixed costs. When it comes to renting a salon or workstation, over 78% of seasoned artists recommend a "pay-as-you-go" structure tied to the number of procedures you perform. This way, you avoid committing to a long-term lease before your bookings can justify it.

Practical Advice: Stay flexible and avoid long-time commitments

When asked, "How often should a new artist look for a new workspace?" most artists advocated for continuous vigilance. The consensus is that being flexible and constantly looking for new opportunities is better. Don't tie yourself down to one location that could limit your future options. In essence, every two weeks, put on your real-estate broker hat. Scout new locations or find reasons to renegotiate existing commitments. The critical takeaway is to "avoid fixed costs like the plague.”

When bookings start filling up weeks in advance, and the thought of owning a salon becomes appealing, resist the urge to make impulsive decisions based on the desire for significance. Many successful artists have exercised restraint in their role as "real estate professionals," avoiding binding contracts for extended periods. Additionally, it's worth noting that the first space they have used for their work, including their salon station, has often been part of their own home. Consider this carefully before committing to any long-term agreements that might seem appealing at the moment but could lead to unnecessary burdens.

6. Marketing Strategist

For those beginning their journey in brow artistry, mastering the role of a marketing strategist is essential. The emphasis here must be on the word "strategist." Gone are the days when merely creating an enormous amount of content was enough to capture attention. As organic reach has dried up, a strategic approach has become more important than ever.

From a practical perspective, you need to understand that you won't generate leads if you don't reach people. When formulating a marketing strategy, it's crucial to separate your efforts into two main categories: offline and online strategies. Next, we shall explore these examples to illustrate the importance of strategic thinking over just mindless content production.

7. Sales Negotiator

The roles of the Marketing Strategist and Sales Negotiator are closely tied together. Let us analyze those in the context of Offline and Online marketing strategies.

Offline Strategy - The Hunt for Unicorns (Negotiator)

What do experienced artists emphasize about offline strategy? The standout recommendation, often discussed in other articles on powderbrows.com, is the concept of "capturing unicorn models." This involves identifying influencers with subpar brows who boast a significant and credible following of around 30,000 or more. Additionally, reaching out to beauticians and salon owners who offer services other than brow pigmentation but cater to your target demographic is crucial.

Beyond these targeted outreach efforts, you can also tap into your network of friends and family. Take advantage of gaps in your schedule to offer them free treatments, allowing you to capture valuable before-and-after images. This forms the foundation of your offline strategy.

Many seasoned artists reveal that in their early stages, they dedicated a staggering hour per day to this "unicorn hunt." This typically involved researching potential contacts like nail and lash artists or salon owners, scrutinizing their brows, and then making irresistible offers. The most notable offer is "free brows for life." This level of initiative and strategic negotiation defines your role as a Negotiator.

Online Strategy - Maintaining Reach (Marketing Strategist)

Regarding online strategy, the equation is relatively straightforward: the goal is to "maintain reach" to ensure a constant inflow of leads. Depending on your local market's size, you must maintain a social media reach of between 50,000 and 300,000. This usually translates to a fixed marketing budget ranging from $500 to $3,000 monthly. As many seasoned artists put it, this isn't just a cost you might want to incur—it's a cost you absolutely have to bear.

Practical Advice: Rise above blind content production

The actual expense can vary widely based on the value of your existing digital assets, such as your Instagram followers, Facebook business page, and TikTok audience within your target demographics. Regardless, maintaining this reach is essential. The good news is that having a substantial organic following - generally 25,000 followers or more - can significantly reduce your marketing spend.

The roles of Marketing Strategist and Negotiator often overlap. Especially in the initial stages of your career, expect to dedicate at least an hour each day to these activities, and likely more.

8. Copywriter

The role of the Copywriter is closely connected to the role of the Visual Designer, and we shall explore those two next. When it comes to maintaining reach, selecting the proper channels for boosting posts is critical. However, knowing where to boost is meaningless if you have no value-creating content to amplify. One area we've extensively researched is the effectiveness of various types of posts across different social media platforms. Research indicates that starting from the second quarter of 2022 and especially into 2023, quality has overtaken quantity in terms of importance, at least on Meta platforms.

Practical advice: Create value not digital trash

So, what does this shift mean for you? As we discussed, the days of generating a post "just for the sake of posting" are over. Such posts now have minimal organic reach and offer limited value. Their only effect might be to signal to potential clients that your business is still operational. It's vital to focus on creating high-quality content, both in terms of copy and visuals, to genuinely engage with your audience and elevate your brand.

Content is Both King and Queen

Content has evolved; it's no longer just "the King." In today's digital landscape, content is the King, the Queen, and the entire royal court—it's everything. The question isn't whether you need to post but rather where you will find compelling content to share.

9. Visual Designer

Role of the Visual Designer: Crafting Flawless Design

This is where the interplay between your roles as a visual designer and copywriter becomes critical. Gone are the days when you could quickly juxtapose some before-and-after pictures and consider your posting duties done. Our research suggests that a strong post comprises a carefully designed mix of images. Specifically, all before-and-after shots must be flawless. In most instances, seasoned designers rely on tools like Adobe Photoshop, as quick-fix apps often compromise image quality for future use on other platforms.

Role of the Copywriter: Crafting 300-400 Words Per Post

The accompanying text to a post gains impact when it follows a straightforward plot, presents a central idea, and contains around 300- 400 words. This means it can't just be a spur-of-the-moment "flow of consciousness." What works best are messages that check three essential boxes: they provide valuable information to clients, offer fascinating insights about the artist, and highlight a specific product or service the artist is offering.

The challenge, then, isn't merely filling a 300-400 word count but rather encapsulating all the well-thought-out ideas you have within that confined "word budget." If you're considering using AI-generated text for these captions, it's worth noting that while better than having no text at all, our research confirms that AI-generated text is less effective than genuinely informative and engaging human-written content.

Time Investment for Crafting a Post

If you're under the impression that quality posts materialize out of thin air, you're sorely mistaken. We've observed across multiple locations that when even one artist adopts a well-crafted, aggressive posting strategy, it's only a matter of time before competitors lose customers. Many artists report that creating and publishing a high-quality post can consume up to 2 to 3 hours of combined effort in a best-case scenario with no hiccups.

Optimal Posting-Frequency: Strategy Matters

Different artists describe three general strategies for posting frequency: the "defensive strategy," which aims to hold your existing market share merely; the "slow growth strategy," which focuses on maintaining and slightly improving your market position; and the "aggressive strategy," which can be viewed as an offensive approach to gain new clients quickly. The number of posts required per week for these strategies varies, ranging from 3 posts for the defensive strategy, 5 for slow growth, and up to 7 for an aggressive approach.

You might be thinking, "This is madness!" And yes, you'd be right. When you're starting in this field, if you want to grab any slice of the market pie, you need to be ready to compete in the big leagues. Posting just a few light posts per week won't cut it. In the aggressive strategy, for example, you could deduce at least 3 hours per day solely to marketing. Admittedly, that's a significant time commitment.

Outsourcing this task isn't straightforward either. While our Holistic Account model on powderbrows.com does offer this service, it's worth acknowledging that generating 5 unique, non-AI-produced posts, complete with high-quality visuals, comes at a cost. If you opt to hire a reputable digital marketing and PR agency, you can expect monthly expenses to range between USD 5,000 and 10,000.

10. Branding Professional

Branding Expert and Full Stack Web Developer with SEO skills When you think the workload can't get any heavier, guess again. To indeed launch a successful powder brows business, you must consider the long-term aspects, like brand development and website management.

That all must, however, take place under the umbrella of your brand and differentiating name. This is a subject that we have discussed a lot in our other articles on the Powderbrows.com platform - reading those may also help you. When it comes to delivering this brand image to target demographics, strong digital development is needed.

These aren't daily tasks, but they're essential. For example, it's an excellent practice to repurpose your social media posts into longer articles for your website. Not only does this enhance your content offerings, but it also sets the stage for search engine optimization and strategy development. While this won't demand daily attention, it can still consume a considerable 3-5 hours per week.

11. Developer

This brings us to the role of the developer, who also knows a lot about search engine optimization. One may outsource this competence if that is financially viable, and there are many agencies that provide this service. The key is that this role must be filled, and the job hast to be done. The trends in 2023 and 2024 are moving in the direction of utilizing organic search results from search engines, and this is absolutely impossible without strong full-stack website development.

When you tally up all these responsibilities, the scenario looks pretty daunting. And while we'd love to offer a magic bullet solution, the truth is, there isn't one. Local competition is fierce, and each lead is a prize for the local top artist with the most effective marketing strategy. The unfortunate reality? There's no shortcut or magic formula; only hard work remains. Roll up your sleeves, focus, and prepare to grind. There are no easy answers or low-hanging fruits left to pluck. The path to success is paved with diligence, and your toolkit isn't filled with silver bullets - just a load of tin ones to fire off, one by one.

12. Manager

The Capstone Role of the Manager

So, what ties all these multifaceted roles together? The final, crucial role is that of a Manager—in the truest sense of the term. Mastering time management is the linchpin that holds all other roles in place. The most successful brow artists have this skill honed to perfection.

This brings us to a pivotal question: Is it humanly possible to handle all these responsibilities single-handedly? The straightforward answer is yes, it is feasible. However, even if you're the most adept "ninja warrior" in the field, you're often pitted against formidable forces. The top artists in the industry aren't going it alone; they have a talented team behind them to fill these diverse roles.

In summary, while individual prowess is essential, collaboration often becomes a game-changer. Even the most versatile artist will struggle to wear all these hats effectively without a supportive team. So, while you may start solo, consider building a team as you scale your business because no artist is an island.

13. Conclusions

Embarking on a career as a brow artist involves wearing multiple hats, many of which are indispensable for establishing yourself in the industry. While some roles can be outsourced or delegated, others must be managed personally because they're integral to your artistic identity or because outsourcing is cost-prohibitive.

To recap, the primary roles are:

Artist: The creative force behind brow designs.
Accountant: Manages invoicing and financial records.
Real-Estate Broker: Secures optimal rental spaces.
Marketing Strategist: Navigates digital marketing channels effectively.
Negotiator: Forges offline deals and identifies high-value "unicorns" or influencers.
Visual Designer: Crafts visually appealing posts, requiring 3-7 per week.
Copywriter: Composes engaging 300-400 word captions and texts for posts.
Branding Expert: Builds the brow artist's brand over the long term.
Full-Stack Developer: Manages website development with SEO in mind.
Manager: Synchronizes all these roles for seamless execution.

It's a daunting task to manage all these roles single-handedly, mainly when competing against well-equipped teams. The complexity of these responsibilities may seem overwhelming, but it's the harsh reality of the highly competitive brow industry. This paints a challenging yet realistic picture for anyone contemplating entering this field.