It was a pretty talkative Sunday post this week because Miska has been gone since Wednesday and I have worked from home alone in our cabin since then, so I have a bit of talk-abstinence haha!

Beauty articles and new energy!
I really got a fresh start for blogging now! I wrote last week that I left ”am I even valuable to the company anymore?"To"now we are making a big investment in marketing!”And the biggest external marketing will take place this autumn (because the summer is always fully booked anyway), but already now we are collecting materials and creating structures for how we will work this autumn.

I have always wanted to invest more in the webshop and my posts, how the tips are connected to all products etc. But the time has not been enough when I worked 200% for the salon to work as it has been a little half-hearted if I may be self-critical.

But now I have had time to both feel, reflect and work with this and realize that it is still something I want to invest in. I was a bit lost at the beginning of the year, and then another toss a while ago;) and just felt that I spend so much time on the blog but how much value does it really contribute? At the same time, I felt that without all the salon work I did before and without the blog - then there are only boring tasks left, and I do not want that either. What do I do then?

Anyway - after I decided to invest more in this again and think more "beauty articles that can be made ads of" and not just "a make-up for the blog", I realized that no I have not actually tired of it here!

I have worked on three beauty articles for the webshop now that feel really good (all are basically ready but not published yet) and it has been great fun! I'm not a blogger but a beauty writer;)

My blog became a makeup blog in the summer of 2010 so now it's 9 years since I started writing about makeup and it's still fun!

One of the posts I will publish shortly is a guide that shows 5 different smokey eyes step by step made with black eye shadow. I am very happy with the post myself and think that many will like it!

Service & additional sales
In principle, all my customers at the salon are regulars, but on Wednesday I first had a customer who wanted to dye her lashes before she did an eyeliner tattoo at Annika and then I stood at the reception and received customers for a while.

What was so fun about having new customers was talking about our makeup and our other treatments! When you have regular customers, they already know our range by heart, so there will be most talk about other things then.

Additional sales for us does not mean that you should be a salesperson who teases customers about things they do not need, but for us it is a service to give recommendations and if they want to shop then it is a bonus!

My client was so happy because she had only booked lash color but after talking for a while I had time to pick and color her eyebrows as well - then I showed her tips on how she can fill in the eyebrows herself at home when the eyebrow color starts to drop and she was so glad I showed a good pen that she can use. Soon she will book a make-up consultation because she thought it was so fun!

I also received Annika's next customer and while her numbness ached, we tested out a lipstick color and a shimmery eyeshadow palette in purple tones that are a nice complement to all her earthy colors at home.

I had so much fun then! I was at the salon for an hour and had already sold three products and an eyebrow pick and color extra :)

Here are the eyebrows of the customer before she tattooed the eyeliner as well.

Teamwork with marketing
3 years ago, Miska and Annika and I went on business development with Peragenda.se (their EPR package) and then had great difficulty with the communication and cooperation in the company because they were doing notes, lists and saying things to each other in passing that were forgotten the second after.

Then we started with the program Quip and I can recommend it to all small business owners! It is not part of the business development or so, but we found it on our own. If you have less than 10 users, it is quite cheap, it costs monthly.

Here we have chats, to-do lists, information, statistics and key figures etc. I would not have survived without this structure, then I would probably have gone into the wall haha!

Many people wonder what Malin works with in our company because she only works from home with the webshop etc. and it is a mixture of her relieving me of work tasks so that I have time to do more things + that in the future she will work even more with marketing. As an example, I can show you what I wrote in her checklist in Quip last Thursday (yep no red days for an entrepreneur höhö) with things she would work on on Friday:

When you read a post, you can easily believe that it is quick to throw one up, but if you do it properly, it takes time!

I fix all the pictures and all the texts but there is a lot of work around it like linking to products, adding SEO tags to get more google hits, cutting together collages, posting the same posts in the webshop, then there are different formats on the pictures on Instagram, Facebook, our website, etc. Things should be published regularly, etc., etc. All that's Malin's job! :) So I can instead spend time on other parts of the company and produce more material for new beauty articles.

Development meeting with Tommy
Speaking of Peragenda's business development and marketing, Miska and I had a meeting with Tommy again on Monday. He helped us with our company and now we have changed roles and help him with his! :) Great when you are good at different things!

What we help Tommy with is his marketing and how he is the face of his company. Miska has helped some other companies with a website and marketing help before and each person has already had help from a company before but it is the same show every time: a half-baked website and good marketing tips but with poor guidance.

For example, Tommy said that he put a lot of marketing on Facebook before (with the help of the other company) but it has not yielded anything. The is a good tip to say ”market your posts on Facebook“But you have to cave in a lot more than that to build a brand! To think "I want to market this education", make an advertisement, publish and put 500: - on the spread - it may generate a few clicks but certainly not so many customers. You see so much advertising on social media already, you just scroll past! If you have a website that is nice but unclear and creates zero relationship with the customer because it only contains purchased pictures and nice words - then an advertisement for an education in this company will generate zero interest as well. So it is not Facebook's fault, but the execution.

We talk a lot about lifting Tommy as a person, because he is the best! I can listen to him how for a long time! The website must be built around him, he must show what he is good at. We asked Tommy to write some articles on his website on various topics that are interesting for entrepreneurs and this week published this post on his Facebook page:

You can read his post here! An excerpt that I love in the text is: "The escape our brain tries to deceive us is - "But they are adults, they should take responsibility". Sure it is. But now the world is not always so simple that adults always behave like adults. It's not because we do not want to. This is because our brains love fast rewards. Getting away from an activity that requires energy provides faster rewards than putting in the energy and concentration required to do what I promised. Even though that reward is far much greater, it is further in time.”

At the end of the meeting we talked a bit about the "meaning of the job" and what makes the staff feel comfortable and it was lucky that it was a lot of time and we had to go home because I could get stuck for any length of time.

But do you know what? This fall, Tommy and I will start a podcast! :) If everything goes as planned in any case! The purpose is marketing for Peragenda and I'm a sidekick when he has no guests. I long so much, not because I dream of having a podcast without being able to delve into these topics with him haha!

Here we sit and have just mocked Tommy because his Instagram was so old haha. I talked about Insta stories and he did not understand anything "I do not have that"He said and I was shocked when I looked at his mobile and saw a brown analog camera in the corner"That logo was replaced in 2016 Tommy! You really need our help with this!" Hahaha.

If you also want help with a website (and / or other marketing), contact Miska at hillside.media! :)

Survival strategy: Swallow praise with holes and hair!
I'm so weak for praise, haha! But it's a positive trait, isn't it? :) It's not hard to make me digest and get knee weak haha.

I truly believe that the 50% of my blog enthusiasm soared is thanks to this comment I received last week:

Another thing I still live on is a sentence my client told me about a year ago. We talk a lot about jobs because she has been eager to change jobs + that she has managerial responsibility where she works now and sometimes ventilates various problems that have arisen as a result.

So one day she said like this "Every time I face a dilemma or have to solve something, I think: what would Helena do?”

That's probably the absolute nicest thing anyone has said to me! So wow! I'm just her "brow picker" I think but think I inspire her in everyday life too :) Or it's me who reads in for much in a sense haha, she might just be joking as well. But I swallowed that praise with gusto and hair and live on it even today!

"Hi my name is Helena and I have decision anxiety"
Before, I listened to a podcast episode of the Shulman Show and there they said that Barack Obama never chose his tie himself to cut back on the number of decisions. That is, he makes so many decisions all the time that he must not put his energy into unnecessary decisions because then the brain does not stand by the important decisions.

That's my new dream! Imagine having an assistant who makes all the unnecessary everyday decisions for you, great! The day Malin goes to work, I will write it in her duties "always be available via text message to answer Helena's decision dilemma".

I have always had decision anxiety, I had not thought about it until I went to boarding school in high school and people started pointing it out. I remember once in the dining room when I sat for a very long time and talked to my friend Hanna about "is it smarter to pick up the math book first, then go back here and drink coffee and study in the dining room, or should I drink coffee here first and then go and study math in the room”And also rabbled out all the pros and cons between the various options. How annoying person?

But it has not passed yet, last Friday I really sat down and talked to Annika on Snapchat if it is best to wash my hair today or on Sunday. How can that even be a problem? Just do it!

I was going out dancing with Frida on Saturday and have not learned how my newly permanent hair behaves yet - is it nicer when it is dry shampooed for several days and gets a lot of volume? Or is it nicer freshly washed?

This is how it ended:

I get tired of myself haha!

Permanent makeup clients & babysitting
On Wednesday, I first had my own customers + fixed in the salon and then when Annika had customers, I was responsible for children and tried to work a little at the same time.

Here I am, updating our hair styling pictures on the website while Mileya is playing:

She was happy for about as long as it took to take this picture. Then she was very kind - tore my hair and forced me to carry her until my muscles trembled with lactic acid. I had exercise pain for two days afterwards haha.

My humor: Snapchat filters on children (preferably as awful as possible but when she became an old aunt she screamed straight out) and animals that do human things, like sitting with glasses and reading the newspaper at the kitchen table :)

By the way, this week I have written my book in the evenings, I have got real flow now! I deleted pictures from the computer because I needed to open a program but it did not work because "memory is full" wow, is there anything more boring?

And so I left blood samples last Monday but they got no blood when they stabbed me so they gave up and I had to leave? I who hate blood tests were stabbed and dug in both arms unnecessarily! But luckily my friend works as a nurse and steered it behind the scenes;) so the blood test was left and I was told that I do not have HIV tjoho! I had some other values that were elevated that I do not know what they mean but nothing that you need to do anything about, said the doctor. So now it remains that they want to try to operate on my tonsils - but I do not want to. So we agreed that I should wait six months and continue with self-care and rest, then I will get a new call later. Thinking of trying healing again, and letting wonderful summer days and rest do their thing. For me, surgery feels like the last resort in any case ..

And I have worked from home for three days this week and worked a lot in my make-up / photo studio! In addition to producing beauty articles, I have also tested new blush shades from Paese :)

Viktoria's favorite pastime is to hang on the backrest of the chair and disturb me as much as she can.

That was all I had to offer from this week!

Miska is fishing for half a week and I will "take the opportunity to enjoy my own time" as everyone says. I absolutely think it's good with free time, but for me it's enough to be upstairs when he's downstairs haha.

But when this is published, I will eat hotel breakfast in Stockholm after a dance night with Frida! You should not only rest in your free time, you should have fun too! :) So this post was written and timed yesterday morning.

No, but now I'm done babbling :)

Hugs are! ♥

Now Sunday is here again and it's time to recharge your batteries before we welcome a new week tomorrow! :)

But first a summary of the week that has been, with some content from the week before that also because I did not write a Sunday post last week ♥

Hi, my name is Helena and I'm disturbed in a good way
When it comes to lists and planning, you could call me a little work-injured;) If I do not work with anything special on the weekend, I usually write my Sunday posts already on Saturday and Miska laughed when I saw today's to-do list:

Quite reasonable planning anyway! Now I sit here and write while my newly permed hair is lying and snuggling in wrapping and when I'm done I will go out in the spa and boil a little before rinsing out my hair. LOVE!

Two weeks in the same Sunday post
This Sunday post is for two weeks because I got sick again last weekend. Next week there will be a new blood test and will be tested for diseases related to the immune system, such as HIV and such. Not because they suspect it but to exclude :) A tip though - if a doctor asks "Is there a risk that you may have HIV?"So do not google the symptoms because when the first three points are" fever, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes "you did not immediately become charred haha.

They would rather just have surgery to remove my tonsils, but since they do not find streptococci or bacteria in cultures, I think it feels insecure, do not want to have surgery unnecessarily if it could be due to something else? A little hard that the decision is on me, hard to say no to something a doctor thinks you should do.

But now I'm as alert as a nut again! :)

I have very close contact with my sister Linda who wrote and asked how I felt last Sunday:

Haha when snapchat stands still and my holy Sunday post is missing, you know that something is wrong;)

Aja, now you have received an update on it too! Now to what my weeks have looked like:

Restructuring and new investment in marketing!
In two weeks, a lot has happened in my little brain. I then wrote that I felt a little unnecessary in the company and that I needed to get to grips with the way I work. I work a lot but it felt like I could not have the same focus and tasks as a year ago. I also wrote that we have increased staff times, which means that we now have a little too much staff compared to the number of customers.

What is the solution to all that then? Well marketing!

As you know, we have an employee who works from home with an online shop, pictures and such. In the past, Malin's main task has been to relieve me because I would never have time for everything else. But now I do not need relief in the same way so we had a long conference call on how we should develop her job so that she can continue to work but earn her own salary anyway.

Part of the answer is still to relieve / be an assistant, you must not be stingy at that point because the more time I and the staff have to do what we are good at - the more money we can draw in and then we earn to have Malin even though she does not have a direct sale in the cash report like the others.

But she will also take a greater stance on marketing! The sum is that I and the staff collect all material while she handles publishing, routines and structure so that all our channels are updated regularly and with the same design language etc.

A really big job was to go through our marketing statistics. We keep a close eye on reports and statistics in terms of revenue, costs, occupancy, etc., but how many views we have on each post, the statistics on the website, link clicks, etc., we have not kept track of at all - until now. Very interesting indeed! For example. it is different which posts get more interactions on Facebook compared to Instagram.

It is partly important to keep track of to know what works best and what to invest in. But above all, we must be able to follow the increase now that we are making an investment in this area. Now our high season begins so we can not only compare marketing with revenue but we must see that each post gets more views and link clicks and that the visits to the website actually increase in number.

It will be so exciting!

I myself will invest more in "beauty articles" for the website that can be sponsored in social media, it is still only my blog and instagram that gives sales in the webshop but I really think that the webshop is so good with all makeup tips etc. that it could be so much bigger with just a little more advertising! :)

For example. I did another make-up this week with the eyeliner pen Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in the shade Matte Mulberry - because then I can make a post where I show three different make-ups with the same pen! Fun right? :)

I have also photographed 5 different smokey eyes made with black eye shadow this week which will be a smokey eye post. But I have not had time to go through those pictures yet.

I have listed many ideas that I will write down! If you have any wishes, you are welcome to shout!

Meeting & salon work
Speaking of marketing, we also had a staff meeting this week and talked a lot about taking pictures and stuff. It will be easy so that when you are fully booked you graze by all customers on a conveyor belt and everything goes as on rails only, but when you get smaller bookings in the autumn / winter that is when you get a fire in the butt "now we have to publish a lot and bring in customers !! ”.

My plan is to take photos and market as much as possible already now so that there will never be a slump in the autumn and winter. This year we are prepared! :)

They were also very happy that they can only send their pictures to Malin who then takes care of the publication, luxuriously with help ♥

I myself was so tired of the meeting because it was my first fever-free day and I was still very tired. Had to fight a little extra, you are only human, but that kind of thing should not affect your job, I think, you can at least do your best not to do it :)

He did not take photos when everyone was in place because we only had one hour and every minute counts. But this is what it looked like before everyone came :) So nice that we have a staff room again now!

Speaking of the extra room, Annika had a test make-up on a customer with a baby there too! Perfect with a childcare room where you do not disturb other customers who receive a relaxed treatment haha.

I have some photo stuff I do not use and am thinking of taking them there and photographing beauty articles on other people? The posts I made with pigment spots and hooded eyes became so very popular!

My photo studio is at home, but you do not want to take anyone home, but to do it in the extra room would be spotless :)

At the staff meetings, there are always a lot of small problems that need to be solved. One of them is the lighting in the make-up studio on some lamps in the ceiling caused shadows, it says Miska and fixes here! In the background you can see another man fixing our AC. The fix list also includes buying indoor slippers, fixing fluorescent lamps and finding a solution for the wheels on one of the treatment chairs that does not roll efficiently. Soon it's probably time to hire a caretaker hahaha.

I have also fixed new employment contracts for all staff. The template that I used before was made by Annika a long time ago in the program Numbers and it was so hard and cumbersome, but you write agreements so rarely so I have never considered doing it again. But now that we have changed services + have two extra workers, I needed to rewrite them all at once and then I grabbed it and changed the whole template at the same time. Took only 3.5 years to get to grips with it haha.

This was a classic thing that looks like a small item on the to-do list "make new employment contracts" but which in the end takes a very long time before they are printed and signed.

Other
My perception of time is like this, so before I started writing today, I had to go back to the blog for 2 weeks and see what I did last Sunday post.

What has happened since then apart from what I wrote above is, among other things, that the autumn schedule has finally been nailed down and opened in the booking system! I have a problem with Dropbox and storage space to be able to easily send pictures between me-salon-Malin. I have set a new strategic focus and changed some measurement documents to reach our target picture in June 2019. I am reviewing our Paese range with news and products that are being discontinued / changed. I have also completed the stock purchase that I blogged about before; the investment in the start-up company to help people with alcohol problems. And I have had 4 customers at the salon as well and babysit Mileya while Annika had customers.

And I have answered as many emails as I can, it has really increased with questions about make-up tips, product recommendations, etc. I think it's so much fun! :)

I have been working from home for two days this week and my cat Viktoria loves it haha.

Coffee break with quality
I have a bit of a hard time with breaks because when I'm at work I do not want to break my focus. I do not enjoy a break so much either, I prefer to drink coffee at the same time instead of taking a whole break.

But now I realize why - when you work in the city, a coffee break is not very nice, if you do not have it at the same time as colleagues of course. But the days I work from home in the country and the weather is nice outside, it's really WORTH it! You take 15-30 minutes from your working day, but charge the batteries so much that the efficiency afterwards earns them those minutes without a doubt!

We are very close to a lake from our cottage so Miska and I brought a coffee thermos and two cups and took a coffee break there:

There are Canada geese with babies (!) Swimming next to one of the boats in front! I do not want to work from home full time but two or three days a week it is about now and it is perfect, it will be very effective rest on my coffee breaks this summer I feel;) The most important thing is just to have self-discipline to end the break as well Lol.

No, now it's time to jump in the hot tub and then rinse out my beautiful lock of hair!

Have a great Sunday everyone! ♥