The 7 Personality Traits You Must Have to Make it As a Solo Artist

Being a solo beauty artist brings the freedom, flexibility and creativity you’ve always craved. But it also comes with responsibility. As a solo artist, you are also a business owner, and all decisions begin and end with you. You don’t have a boss, manager, front desk team or co-workers to pick up the slack. For some people, that independence fits like a glove. Makeup Artist Bobbi Brown, founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, once said about her time at the helm of her company, “I wasn’t good at a lot of things but the one thing I was really good at was telling people what to do.” Like Brown’s self-confidence, there are certain qualities that most entrepreneurs possess, and let’s face it—when you’re a solo artist, you’re an entrepreneur. Do you have what it takes to run a successful business as a solo artist? Here are seven personality traits that most leaders in every profession have in common!

You Are Decisive and Action-Oriented
When you’re setting up your business, and most days thereafter, you’ll be faced with dozens of decisions. What is the best location for your studio? What color do you want to paint the walls? Which payment software will you use? Should you create a website? An app? How many capes should you order? All these decisions will be based on your vision for your business and must be executed quickly, because time is money! If you have trouble acting on any of the decisions you must make, your business will suffer.

You Are a Self-Disciplined Self Starter
As a solo artist, no one will hand you a task list each morning. That’s up to you! And you’ll have to stay focused. That means being prompt and prepared for clients every day you work. It also means staying on top of all the additional responsibilities of running your business—like ordering or picking up supplies, keeping your books up to date, doing your taxes, planning and executing your marketing programs and even cleaning your studio. No one else will tell you what must be done—you must direct yourself.

You Persevere
Some days in business will be fun, easy and rewarding. Some won’t. The hot water heater may die, a freak ice storm will cause all your clients to cancel, the beauty supply store will have sold the last tube of 6N minutes before you pull into the parking lot. These are the times you must have the ability to dig deep, hang in and overcome! It may mean working an extra day to make up for the lost ice storm revenue. Maybe you’ll have to do some creative formulating to get the results you need for your 6N client. Perhaps you can work out a trade (three free haircuts for his wife?) with the hot water heater repair man to cover his service call. No matter what it takes, successful solo artists never, ever give up!

You’re Assertive and Confident
Here’s a secret. Many confident-appearing people are often nervous on the inside...but they never let it show. As a stylist it’s important to have confidence in your work, your talent and your recommendations for your clients. Your assurance builds trust with your customer. The same holds true in your business dealings. The more confidence you have in your judgement and your decisions, coupled with the willingness to stand up for yourself, the more others you deal with will respect you and cooperate with you.

You Love to Learn
You already know as a hairdresser how important it is to keep expanding your skills and stay up to date on the newest trends and techniques. As a business owner? Same! You must never stop learning and growing. So to succeed, you must always be open to pursuing education on essential business skills like marketing, data analysis or accounting. What’s more, you should always be ready and willing to learn from your mistakes, from your competition and from your clients’ feedback. Essentially, to make it, you must be open to input from anywhere and anyone, knowing that taken in the right spirit, it can only make you stronger!

You Have the Courage to Take Risks
Running any business—no matter how big or small—is not for the faint hearted. Hard work, know-how, persistence and talent will serve you well but there are never guarantees. So you must have a tolerance for risk and the willingness to forego complete security. Risks can be calculated for sure—you don’t want to be foolish when it comes to your business. But a successful solo artist understands that mistakes and failures are really just feedback as you move forward, and they’re not afraid to keep going.

You Have Passion
This is probably the most obvious trait for success...and the most important! Passion will propel you and help you overcome roadblocks and challenges. Do you wake up early, excited to get to work to try a new haircut on your first client of the day? Do you spend hours on Instagram and Pinterest looking for new hair color ideas? Do you love networking with other beauty pros? Do you think nothing of staying up until 2 a.m. to design looks for a fashion show fundraiser in your community? If your passion burns--for your clients, for your business, for your profession, for beauty—everything else will fall in place and you’ll slay all day.
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