Anybody in the room who hasn’t worried about somebody copying your business? That a new stylist is going to come up and threaten everything they’ve built? Who hasn’t hesitated on executing some kind of marketing strategy or new idea for fear that somebody might copy you? Anybody who never got bitter or upset when a client chooses to see another stylist?
Yep. Me too.
All of us, at some point in our career, have all kinds of nerves and feels about business copycats and clientele poachers. It’s the scariest thing in our industry because it threatens our livelihood.
And sometimes, when we see somebody poaching our business, we look around and realize that we have a good thing going. But it doesn’t change the fact that it makes you feel frustrated that somebody would put you down to put themselves on a pedestal.
You can spin your wheels, worrying about what desk job you’re going to take if you lose it all, or you can get to a better place with it. I want to walk through four steps to help you fight all the feels and release the fear around business copycats and clientele poachers so you can push forward.
1. Your Business Cannot Be Sabotaged by Another Person. Ever.
It’s actually impossible for anybody to sabotage your business or steal your clientele. If you’re properly serving your guests, marketing your brand, and educating yourself year over year, you are unbeatable.
You are the only person that can tarnish your own brand. And you should be working every single month to improve that brand, so it is not possible. When you have built a big, strong, beautiful reputation for yourself, nobody can take you down. One angry person, one bad stylist who wants to take your business down, is not going to be able to do it.
Don’t worry about somebody having that much control and power over your business. They just don’t. All you can control is the way that you showcase yourself and serve your clients.
2. People Will Always Try to Steal Your Marketing Ideas
As human beings, we should walk through the world turned on and engaged, constantly finding inspiration around us. And I’m not saying you always have to be looking for marketing inspiration, but when you walk your dog, go to the grocery store, take your kids to the dentist, take notice. Look at what other successful businesses do to market, build, and grow, and turn that into ideas you can use.
If you live with eyes wide open and are constantly figuring out how you can better market your own business, people are going to steal your ideas, because they’re not a dummy and you’re somebody who’s up to big things. And if that doesn’t give you peace of mind, it should.
Let’s imagine another stylist is copying you word for word. Her website looks just like yours, even her brand, her service menu, her promotions, her Instagram. It still doesn’t matter. She can copy that superficial stuff all day long, but she’s not you. I’m certain that she doesn’t talk like you. She doesn’t care for her clients like you. That’s your X factor, your secret sauce, what sets you apart.
And if it does get her somewhere, isn’t that great? Because we’ve also recognized the fact that there are plenty of clients to go around. There’s no shortage of human beings needing haircuts, and there are not enough stylists to serve all of them.
Live in the mindset that nobody can steal your marketing ideas to the point where they put you out of business.
3. Always Stay Four Steps Ahead
It’s a little bit frustrating that as soon as we learn how to market ourselves as hairstylists, some new layer is added on. Like as soon as we figure out Instagram or Facebook, they change the algorithm or the rules. As consumers, we love and demand it, but as small business owners (which, P.S., if you are a hairstylist, you’re a small business owner), we hate it because we’re constantly having to adapt.
The key to overcoming all this is to look four steps ahead. Even if another stylist is copying you right now, she can’t copy the six ideas that you’re executing on next year. She’s always going to be four steps behind you because she’s copying what you’re executing right this second. Meanwhile, you’re planning for the months and years ahead, and she can’t compete with that.
The way to stay four steps ahead is to keep up on education, live with eyes wide open, and don’t be afraid to fail. Those who stay ahead in marketing try scary stuff. They try things that might not work, and then if it doesn’t work, they pivot and do something different.
Instead of holding onto those brilliant marketing ideas for fear that somebody else might copy it, launch it but have six more in the queue so when somebody does copy that, it’s all good because you’ve already moved on to the next.
4. Haters Gonna Hate (And That’s Okay)
Let’s imagine that another stylist’s business model is centered around sabotaging you. She is doing work equivalent to yours, and the result is phenomenal, but she’s charging $200 less. You’re able to do clients, charge more money, and grow your business. Meanwhile, she is desperately trying to skim all of your clientele and making less money on it.
If that’s how she wants to run her business, that’s her choice. We have to let that hater hate.
You don’t have to forgive her. Just move on and say, “Haters gonna hate.” You don’t have to write her a letter, send her an email, show up at her salon, or get your lawyer involved. Let her continue to build in the best way she knows how and you continue to build in the best way that you know actually works and you could both end up as winners in the end.
I hope this has been helpful if you worry that someone’s going to steal everything you’ve already built. It’s impossible. Nobody can be you, nobody can do you, nobody can steal anything that you’ve created for yourself.
Continue to elevate your brand and dream big about what clients you want to serve and how you can show up in your biggest, best way to serve them. Dig deep and ask yourself what do you do that nobody else can and how do you share it with the world. That one thing will help you grow so much faster than you can even believe.