Would you get beauty treatments in someone else's home?

several cases in the news, right? In June last year, for example, a beautician was unfortunately jailed and fined for performing aesthetic procedures without a practicing certificate, despite being worn by a Authorities and then earlier this year, another one offered treatments outside of outside of her home and she was jailed for performing a medical procedure on a customer even though she was not a licensed practitioner. So these are quite severe cases, isolated as they are. So it begs the

question still, right? How do home-based salons insure and assure potential customers. that they do observe high standards of hygiene, they have the necessary skills, qualifications. Let's find out more now from one home-based owner. Her name is Cleo Chang. She offers eyebrow embroidery services at her home. Cleo, good to have you on the show. Uh, I, uh, have to apologize for the state of my eyebrows. They're not they're not the best at this very moment.

It's called drawing with a pencil every single morning. OK, so, um, I need to ask you, what made you decide to start a home-based salon? I mean, it's something that requires a lot of equipment, a lot of hygiene practices. It seems like a whole lot of trouble, so why did you decide to move to a home-based business? I think um from the start, I have always been in an enclosed area like I was a bridal makeup artist before, so then I had a studio space rental

with a photographer. So it's by appointments only. So it's a space for me to do makeup trials and eventually I brought embroidery. So when during COVID, it sort of transited fully to eyebrow, so I decided with rental costs increasing, I don't want to pay a space that isn't mine, so I decided to buy my own house and then it's just a natural phase for me to go into a home-based business. Cleo, the services you offer, they require a lot of trust because the eye area, they're quite sensitive, right?

You're handling chemicals as well. What kind of certifications did you have to obtain and how do customers know that you are trustworthy? Uh, certifications will be from the different teachers and different schools that I've been to. So I went to different teachers in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, and after every course, I will get a certification from the certified teachers. So that part,

I think I'm quite safe. Then for hygiene and safety is really based on my own standards, so I will have I will clean, standardize everything and I will wear gloves, masks, and I make sure I use disposable needles for every single client, and I will prepare the needles right in front of them so they know that they get the new needles. And then because it's in my own house, so I keep my house really clean and tidy. So that's one thing I don't think you get in the shop. OK, OK. So I guess,

I guess it's like a visual testimony, right? They come in, they see that, OK, she's doing what's right and what's expected. Uh, of anyone in that kind of role. So the other thing that I wanted to ask you, Cleo is the issue of security. So these are complete strangers walking into your home. I mean, your home is your private space. I I don't know.

I have an ick about this. I'm so sorry. But I, I, I want to get your perspective on this because you run a business from your home and trust goes both ways, right? You are opening as much as the customers need to trust you, you are also opening your door to your home, to them. What do you do to ensure that they, these new clients are trustworthy? Do you screen them? Do you do any sort of thing like that?

Oh, I think it's difficult to screen every client. I don't do that, but what I do is that before. Before they book the appointment, they do have to place a deposit with me to confirm the appointment, and it's not a really small sum. So I think if they are willing to put the money down, then they are serious to show up to do their eyebrows. So that is my security, yeah. And I don't allow men in

the house. So if they are worried about their own personal safety, I allow them to bring in a Female companion to sit with them during the whole process. And for their part, because I'm quite active on social media, so you can see my videos. I do skincare videos with my husband who is an aesthetic doctor, so they actually know more about me before they come. Yeah, so I think they should feel quite safe. OK. Just out of curiosity, do you do these eyebrow treatments on men as well?

I know. So after I got married that I decided just ladies only. OK, fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. So, uh, Cleo, there have been several cases of home-based salons having run into the law in the news. Andrew was mentioning it as well, you know, the few rotten apples. Sometimes also customers, they leave bad reviews, which may not necessarily be the fault of yours. How do you manage these?

Um, I'm not so worried about the illegal services people are providing because, uh, I'm not doing them myself and it's quite clear cut what services I'm providing. Um, for some people, they do, um, maybe a little bit older people, they don't really have that much trust on home-based business. So I do have a lady who came and then she saw, Hey, this is Homebase. And then immediately I can feel her confidence levels just drop. And then during the consultation, it's just we are just not wiping.

So then I told her, why not we just cancel this service, I return you a deposit, then you can find someone else you have more trust with. So this is the I guess the worst experience I have. OK, and and it's about managing their expectations as well, yeah, uh, because they don't necessarily know. So, um, you are not only competing with brick and mortar stores, you're also competing with other uh eyebrow embroideries out there on social media, on in home-based businesses. So how do you,

how do you differentiate yourself? How do you market yourself to be different from the rest amidst all of this competition? I think for me it's quite unique because I started out as a bridal makeup artist. So that is my first clients are my brides who hired me for their wedding day and then they came back for their brows. So from there just word of mouth just took off. So So my clients are new referrals and as mentioned, um, I did a lot of social media reels. I'm very

active there. So I guess uh a part of them just make them trust me a little bit more from there. Yeah. So, uh, and just really quickly here, how many clients on average do you get a month? New clients. New clients. I didn't count, so probably new clients, maybe 3. OK. Yeah, that's pretty healthy. OK, Cleo, uh, this has been really great. Uh, stay on the line, we'll get you to chip in at the end here. I want to bring in your customer apparently, uh, she

It's Stacy. Uh stacy Cheng is one of Cleo's customers, uh, and there's a little bit of a surprise at the end, but we'll save that for later. Stacy, uh, good to have you on the show, by the way. Thanks for joining us. So what made you decide, what convinced you that it was all right to get your eyebrows done in someone's house? Hi, good morning, guys. Oh, so for me, uh, I got introduced to Cleo by our very good friend, Jeremy Jumanzi, who's a photographer.

So he was very closely with makeup artists and he has a great eye for beauty. So when he recommended me Cleo. I trusted his recommendation completely and we're just curious, so your first time visiting Clio, what was that like? What was the biggest concern you had going in? I understand that, of course, you know, it was a recommendation, but I suppose you have a bit of, you know, like what to expect apprehension. I didn't think that much because I think it came from.

My very good friend. So then I was, yeah, I trusted him completely and I went in, uh, feeling very confident that I'm going to have like really good eyebrows. Wow, OK, have you heard of experiences from friends or peers, other customers who may have had, uh, apprehension, maybe bad experiences as well? For me, I think I've seen like my friends or people online that like don't really have very good brows and then when I found out oh they went to

another home base salon. So then that was a bit scary. So I think having a very good portfolio before you go, um, should be one of the the factors before you choose to choose a homebase. Are there any other home-based beauty businesses that you've patronized, since Clio. Um, so we did go for facial at a home-base salon, me and my friends, and it turns out very well, and then I also recommended my mom and my mom

recommended her friends. Ah, the separation. So you only strictly go to a home-based business if it comes highly recommended by friends. Word of mouth is a very important testimony for you. Yeah, for sure, because I don't know like uh you're going to someone's house and you know they're going to close the door behind you and you just never know what's behind that door, right? That is exactly my apprehension. OK,

so here's the surprise bit here. We understand that Cleo has somewhat influenced you and motivated you to go start something of your own as well. Tell us more, Stacy. Oh yeah, OK. Creo is like super supportive and encouraging about learning and always constantly upgrading herself. So she is the one that actually motivated me to take a leap of faith and start something new. So I am newly launching my lashli business. It's called Lash Mason. So it's

newly launched. I'm pretty excited about that. OK. OK, congratulations. Are you operating based of your home out of your home or what is the model like? So right now my services is a house call, so I go to your house so we can be comfortable in our house, but then you would have a lot of gear to bring with you, right, every time. Yeah, I would have to, yeah, so I mean, I drive and I would just have to be a very good packer, I guess. And any plans to start your

own home-based business? Maybe brick and mortar if it's successful. I would still go, I would still rather choose the home-based business. Yeah, I think it's just more convenient like time wise you get a lot of flexibility. You don't have to wake up that early. For me, that's like the biggest problem. Oh trust us, we know we know. So, we just

want to bring you into the conversation now. Would you say that, you know, uh, one of the biggest takeaway or one of the takeaways rather, you know, uh, is that you are able to share your knowledge with your customers and build a bond. It seems you guys started out as a customer, uh business relationship and now you guys are good friends as well. Mhm. Uh, yeah, uh, actually our relationship, my relationship with a lot of clients started off that way.

And uh from brides to eyebrow clients, so I get to meet them every year. Yeah, so it slowly blossom and we always keep in touch on social media. And would you say this is what makes it the most rewarding part of running your home-based business? Oh yes, because it's very personalized. I mean, some clients doesn't have to talk to me 2.5 hours procedure. sorry to me a lot. So that's why she broke me down and we are friends now. But a lot of my clients will choose

not to talk and I'm totally fine with that. So we just sit in silence. It's OK. OK, so you have to ask, Stacy, so the first time when you went to Cleo, you pressurize you pressured as well to have conversation with Cleo, Stacy? I'm just a really chatty person and I didn't think that I wasn't supposed to talk my eyebrows, right? Because I think when you talk, it just moves the whole face. It just does. It does, it does. You know what, uh, we hope that we didn't break this

friendship of yours, but ladies, you have been wonderful. Thank you so much for talking to us about home-based businesses, the ins and outs, and what to watch out for, especially just in case, uh, you know, you. End up with a botched job. You know what to look out for testimony always. Uh, thank you very much to you both. Uh, all the best to you, Stacy, and all you all the best to you as well, Cleo. Thank you, thank you. OK, that was, uh, Stacy Chung.

She was a customer at Cleo Cheng's home-based eyebrow embroidery business. It's a home-based business.