I’m always telling our community of Personal Stylists and the Personal Stylists I mentor that the end of the year is a great opportunity to reflect on what’s gone well in a business, what could have gone better and what’s coming next. So…I’ve been following my own advice, and thought I’d share a few of my thoughts with you here in case it’s useful as part of your own process, and to let you know a little bit more about The image Consulting Company.

COMMUNITY & COLLABORATION…

Community has always been at the heart of what we do and I’m celebrating our incredible Personal Stylists Community this December. 

Unhealthy competition in business isn’t in my nature, I see no reason why we can’t help each other be the best we can be in whatever we want to do. That has been my ethos for as long as I can remember and that’s why I do a happy dance every time I think about the incredible stylists who joined us and let us help them with their journeys this year. And what a year they chose to join us with over 20 experts in their field sharing workshops, power hours, co-working sessions and useful information and bringing new ideas, inspiration and expertise all aimed at helping our members grow their businesses. 

We’ve got even more amazing content planned for our members in 2022, kicking off the year with a focus on business basics and getting your client to feel a connection with you. This content is designed to help existing stylists refine what they do so they can maximise the benefit of their efforts and to inspire and support anyone starting up a Personal Styling business or side-hustle, and we’ll continue to invite our members to feature in our blogs and on our social media channels, helping them to get exposure for their businesses. 

I’ll be honest, I wish I’d had a support network of people to be in my corner when I started out – somewhere I could get help to refine my ideas, to learn some technical ‘know how’ around marketing and a space to ask those questions that only someone in the industry could answer. I’d love nothing more than to help you get your feet off the ground or, if you’re already part way there, help you develop further and excel as a personal stylist – want to know more, take a look here.

BUILDING CONNECTIONS…

Spending time with like-minded people is so valuable, and so many of our most successful members say it was key to their success. That’s why we set up our Personal Stylist Network events in Bath and Bristol in late 2021 and it’s something I’m really proud of from 2021. Anyone from the Personal Styling industry is welcome- it doesn’t matter who you trained with, whether training is your main career or side hustle, or whether you only work in one area of personal styling, for example colour consultations. 

Our events are as relaxed and friendly as we are, with opportunities to talk to the group about what you do, and also to have a mini one to one with the people that resonate most with you – maybe for future collaborations, for example, and there’s also time for asking those burning questions that you need answered to help move your business forwards.  

Want to join us at a future event – take a look here.

SUPPORTING STYLISTS…

In addition to running our membership community and setting up networking opportunities, we also decided that we wanted to energise our industry. We gave away 12 value packed downloads in our 12 Days of Christmas advent calendar to help existing and aspiring stylists to learn from our experience; those things we wish we’d known at the start and the things we know keep us focused on what really matters every day. 

I can’t even begin to tell you how huge a feat this was. From learning how to use new technology, to getting all my ideas out of my head and into 12 (if I do say so myself) amazing videos and documents. There were days that it felt like it wouldn’t come together but it did, and that’s in no small part down to the teamwork in our business (Darcy, especially a massive thanks for everything you did to make this all happen!). 

The feedback has reminded me why I wanted to do this in the first place – hearing people tell me about their lightbulb moments, the changes they’ve made and the difference they’ve felt in their business has meant me ending the year on a (very tired!) high. 

TRAINING…

2021 definitely created challenges for us at times, with less opportunity for face-to-face training than in previous years, and I found myself really missing being out there training as often as I usually would.

We’ll always be passionate about personal stylists having the right skills to really make a difference for their clients and so we delivered a range of courses and one to one sessions designed with today’s clients in mind (no colour sessions that make women feel old and frumpy!)

I want to do even more in 2022 and I’ve already planned and started to book people into our Spring training in Bristol and London – take a look at our module and whole course options here.

And wow, when 2021 started with a lockdown, we were glad we’d set up virtual styling training in 2020 as it helped so many stylists to keep working when everyone stayed home! We poured all our passion and expertise into designing online styling processes for wardrobe edits, colour consultations and personal shopping sessions to help stylists work with clients virtually. We even created all the documents a stylist would need to make sure that everything works just as well as it does face to face – and the stylists who trained with us raved about it! We’re running virtual training sessions in January and there’s a handful of spaces left so if you’d like to start the new year reaching a new market, in a new way, find out more and grab your space here.

FANCY SOME MORE READING?

Browse our latest three blogs here, and catch up with the brilliant guests we’ve sat down with to talk about Body Confidence, Transformations and much, much more!