Journal of Body Piercing — APP
Table of Contents
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Marina Pecorino
Managing Editor of Content & Statistics
At this year’s Exposition, Tawapa won the multiple booth award with their dark unicorn themed display. I had the opportunity to interview Phoebe, owner and designer for Tawapa, about how their processes and ideas have evolved during 20 years of producing jewelry for the industry. Manufacturing and distribution to over 200 countries is a huge job, and it sounds like Tawapa is constantly fine-tuning their processes to meet demand and introduce new designs.
Marina: Tawapa has been producing jewelry for our industry for 20 years. How have the manufacturing and order processes changed in that time?
Tawapa: 20 years is a long time. Everything has changed, and then changed back, and then changed again. The manufacturing process used to be much much simpler. In the beginning we only produced carved jewelry. Ideas were communicated to the carvers via my drawings. I started Tawapa in 1996 working with the carver who was making buttons for my clothing line at the time. I loved him, but the industry grew quickly in the beginning; he began taking on a lot of clients and our quality and security were compromised. So I started the Tawapa carving workshop in about ‘98 or ‘99. Building our own workshop made it possible to hire a team focused only on Tawapa. This meant, better quality, consistency and prices. It also gave steady jobs to a small team who really got to know our product and our vision. These are the guys who still carve all of Tawapa’s organic jewelry. Our relationship has been long and prosperous. It’s been great growing up together.
We are now, clearly, more focused on metals which is a huge shift in manufacturing (and designing). I started the Tawapa metal workshop about 7-8 years ago. This was the next major milestone in our production capabilities. I learned so much in this process and was once again able to provide solid jobs to a strong team who could grow with us. Here we have our master wax carver who works beside me on new designs. She is, incidentally one of the only female wax carvers in Bali. She is highly skilled and can work sometimes up to one month on extremely complicated designs. Her finished waxes go to casting and then come back to the workshop for finishing. Besides our wax carver we have 2 amazing sample makers. These guys make hand made samples that don’t need cast pieces for the design. They are also the ones who finish our “masters” for casting and who consistently help me problem solve; they are our engineers. Their skill surpasses most silversmiths I have met, so their time is precious.
Next we have our production team. These people are piecing every item of jewelry together with their hands, their bench, a torch and some solder. Our team is stellar and coincidentally predominantly female, which is very uncommon in the jewelry business. They come to us with different degrees of skills. It’s been amazing to watch these women excel, deepening their skills while sharing, teaching, and learning from each other. The intent is that everyone who works for us learns greater skills for the future while they become experts working piece by piece on Tawapa jewelry.
Using metal is infinitely inspiring to me. Every day and every year I learn more about the process, while creating new processes and transforming old ones.
Regarding the ordering process, we have gone from producing stock and selling what we have, to primarily taking orders and filling them, to finding a happy medium. Producing quantity and quality to fill orders in a timely fashion is an inherent challenge in this business where everything is handmade in small facilities. Through the combination of in-house stock and taking orders, we are able to hone in on this great conundrum and continue to fill orders better and faster.
Marina: Tawapa is woman-owned and operated. Has Tawapa chosen to always employ only women and why?
Tawapa: This has been a natural evolution of the company. We do not exclude men. We love men 🙂 I think energetically, the environment Jenella and I have created over time is more feminine, and therefore we attract females. I know that in our production studio, since we have balanced the gender scheme, it is a much gentler environment for everyone to work in. Incidentally, this choice was not at my request, it just happened naturally.
Marina: Tawapa offers a huge selection of designs and materials, which must require a lot of space and a wide variety of skills. How is quality control handled within the manufacturing process.
Tawapa: As I mentioned earlier, we have a carving workshop and a metals workshop. We also have started sampling ourselves here in Los Angeles, which helps speed the whole process along.
We have at least 3 stages of QC. The carving workshop quality controls everything they produce, then they deliver to the metal workshop. Here, we have full time QC people dedicated to checking the quality while also checking and testing and double testing everything that is produced in the metal workshop. Next, all of that jewelry lands in our studio in Los Angeles, where we have 1-3 people checking every single piece of jewelry that comes through here…. again. It’s a very important process that takes a lot of time and employs several people.
Marina: Where do you guys find inspiration for new designs and jewelry lines?
Tawapa: I am inspired by everything all the time! It’s limitless. But I like to focus on a few important topics every year or every season.
We did a large collection of geometric inspired jewelry a couple years ago. This year I was inspired by gothic and deco stained glass. I mean, it is infinite, and this inspiration is what drives me.
Marina: Tawapa has released all sorts of new designs within the last year. Which new designs are the Tawapa pirates most excited about this season?
Tawapa: Oh wow… so much! To begin with, we are excited about horn again for the first time in awhile. The simple sophisticated geometric shapes that are a long way from previous “tribal jewelry” are really changing our current outlook on carved jewelry. I wear horn again! Besides that, the bondage eyelets are super innovative and new. (We love all the new eyelets.)
We are thrilled about all of the septum jewelry and push pins. The black nano coating has added a refreshing new look to everything. A few favorite designs would be the Minona, Valkyrie Shield, the Owl, Origami Weights, Unicorn Weights, and Notre Dame (inspired from the window of Notre Dame). We are also excited about the inclusion of stone in so many of our new designs.
Marina: Where does Tawapa find inspiration for the Conference booth displays?
Tawapa: We LOVE creating displays! We spend way too much time, effort and money on it, because we enjoy it so much. This year that unicorn (previously a horse) came to us magically, and we sort of built the display around her, deciding that matte black was this year’s color choice. I’ve also been really inspired by street art lately. I’ve been learning screen printing, so some of that carried over to the overall look of the campaign. Every year is different depending on current inspirations. #currentmood Going all white a couple years ago was a bold move for a dark industry that I think everyone found surprisingly refreshing.
Marina: Does Tawapa have any suggestions about how to handle and display your jewelry in the shop?
Tawapa: Be innovative with your materials. Think outside of traditional “displays” and use unusual items and materials for your displays. Creating multiple levels is really important to us. The key is to create a visually stimulating display that maintains an essence of simplicity so that it does not overwhelm the viewer. It’s a thin line. You need to wow your customers with an amazing display that doesn’t take focus away from the jewelry, but rather, draws them in and makes it easy for them to digest, and want to buy.
Marina: Is there anything else you’d like to share with the Point readership?
Tawapa: We are just really humbled that we are still here after 20 years! It has been an exciting ride. It is awesome to be 20 years in and feeling more inspired than ever. We are so grateful to all of our shops, piercers, friends, and community who have stood by us all of these years. I think that in this industry more than most, there is a very symbiotic relationship between all of us. All of us at Tawapa love and respect the relationship we have within this greater community that goes beyond manufacturing jewelry. It is a relationship that has withstood the test of time… and it feels great! So, thanks, you guys! We love you!
Stephanie Hill
Prysm Body Piercing – Business Consultant
Alicia Cardenas led a well-attended round table at this year’s APP Conference titled, “Women in Piercing.” The group in attendance explored the past, current, and future experiences of those identifying as women in the piercing industry. As we went around the room hearing from people describing their situations or that of others in their shops, we learned that as an industry we still have opportunities to improve, especially in the following areas:
• Harassment, discrimination, and abuse
• Objectification
• Language norms
• Active presence of female role models
• Leadership positions
Coming from a corporate background, I was surprised to hear how prevalent harassment, discrimination, and abuse based on gender still are within the body modification industry. I have always had to go through mandatory training and regular reminders of what is (not) acceptable and what is (not) legal. Yet, many of the stories I was hearing sounded accepted with no one taking action whether or not the person being victimized spoke up about the treatment. Experiences by managers, coworkers, and clients (male and female) included verbal degradation, persistent sexual advances, and physically inappropriate acts that in many cases traumatized the female piercer victims. We all have a legal right to not experience that from any individual that interacts with the business (staff, vendor, or client).
If your business does not have a sexual harassment policy, please adopt one and ensure that your staff has been properly trained. If you (or your manager) is not sure where to start or what your rights are, there are many companies that can provide this expertise and training. First and foremost, everyone in your studio must feel safe at all times. Several people in the round table suggested ways to express this violation of safety. Saying to a client, “you are making me uncomfortable, so I need you to change how you are speaking to me in order for us to continue,” is a great way to set and follow-through on ground rules. If they continue, all personnel must feel that it is appropriate for them to refuse service to that client at any point in the interaction. No client or sale is worth sacrificing anyone’s emotional or physical safety. Finally, know that you have legal rights. If you experience abuse, contact your police department. If you have questions about harassment or discrimination, investigate government agencies that provide support or speak with a lawyer. I have always been taught to write allegations down as you experience them. Sometimes, the pattern of behavior is more telling than an individual incident, so having a log of what you have experienced, along with dates, can provide the evidence needed to tell your story.
Objectification often seems subtler than other mistreatment based upon gender, but it quickly damages a person’s potential in their career. While many people assume this word means to treat a woman like an object, like a piece of meat, it goes beyond this. “Object” contrasts the word “subject,” like in a story: the reader only has interest in the subject of a story. The objects of a story merely exist to add background and interest to the subject. The object alone does not play a role of interest to the reader. Anything we learn about those people are merely to embellish what we know about the subject.
As women, we play this role more often than we notice, but we deserve the spotlight, too. If we bring that into daily experiences in the piercing world, whenever a female is discredited in a shop, often by a client, that female loses the opportunity to play a star role. A client may ask a male piercer the exact question he just asked the female, even if she is the owner, because the client may assume the male has more authority or knowledge. The group in the round table suggested to the men in the group that if a client asks a woman a question and then turns to them or another male asking them the same question, to avoid the tendency to give them the answer. Instead, say something like, “she just answered that question for you.” That type of response empowers the female, and she jumps into being the subject, not the object.
Now, let’s talk about the term “counter girl.” When do we hear the term “boy” used for males over 18 years old? Historically in the U.S., “boy” has been a derogatory term to imply a subservient position or to sexualize a male. We have heard the term “boy” used during slave times or in other racially degrading manners, and we hear “pool boy” when middle-aged women plan to have an illicit affair with a young man. Other than sexualizing or demeaning a male, I do not hear the term, “boy” used to refer to a man. So, unless we intend to sexualize or demean our vital studio role, why does any shop continue to use the term, “counter girl?” If you still do this, please stop immediately. Change your job description. Change your postings for counter positions. Change your policy and/or procedure manual, and communicate this change to staff and clients, if necessary. There are no girls who work in your shop. People work in your shop. If you are a woman who is referred to as a “counter girl,” inform your manager that you would like a new title and why. Show that person this article if you need more of an explanation… or have them give me a call.
While I did hear some discouraging stories in the round table, I found it refreshing that many of the males in attendance encouraged and supported female piercers. We heard of several males who act as role models for women, but often that relationship has a damsel-in-distress/knight-in-shining-armor feel to it, whether that was the intent by either party or not. Two things that can remedy this are:
1) If men stop solving women’s problems for them and, instead, set the expectation for women to think critically and answer questions/solve problems through their own knowledge and research, they decrease the reliance on a male to hold control over that mentor-mentee relationship.
2) Provide a network of female role models who should do the suggestion from #1, but also demonstrate first-hand how critical thinking and self-reliance leads to increased respect, expertise, and leader-ship in the industry. We love having the male support, but we absolutely need to see and engage with the female leaders in the industry to help shape future female leaders.
Speaking of female leaders, we could all rapidly identify amazing current and past women in the industry who could be wonderful resources for providing guidance for other women. We also shared several experiences in which female leaders had taken on traditionally male qualities to “fit in” and establish the respect prior male leaders already had. Unfortunately, these more aggressive qualities often backfired by treating females in those workplaces more harshly than others. Some female leaders in the group expressed past feelings of losing themselves and their femininity as they attempted to gain acceptance and respect from their male community. They helped us learn that a significant number of female leaders perpetuate the disrespect and verbal/emotional abuse of women who enter this industry desperate for a strong, positive female role model to help her navigate the rough roads she will inevitably encounter. We need female (and male) allies. We need to maintain and celebrate our femininity in a way that centers on ourselves and not men.
The group left Alicia’s round table empowered, connected, and prepared to take action. One action we committed to was to change our language and expectations to match the level of respect and appreciation we deserve. Since Conference, we have supported one another through several positive changes. Many attendees shared their experiences, both positive and negative. A few others have shared tips and resources for developing ourselves as business women and leaders. I am excited by the future of this group and other females in the industry who may be joining us. And thank you to the men who have encouraged and supported us as we have paved our way in this industry.
Frankie Pistone
Self-employed Piercer
The opportunity to guest spot is a great way to learn and grow as an industry professional. Spending time behind the scenes in studios away from your own home studio allows you to get a first-hand view of how other reputable shops operate day-to-day, as well as how other artists apply their knowledge and skills. It’s also a great way to be exposed to a broader range of personalities while learning about piercing in varying geographical areas with a differing client base.
Of course, one of the main goals while guest spotting is to always be respectful and accommodating to your hosts, the clients, and other employees at the studio. It is important to keep in mind that the routines in the studio you are visiting may be different from what you’re used to; do your best to follow existing policies and procedures. You should make sure that your tools are consistently and correctly processed and your room is kept stocked. It is important to show up early, focused, fed, and ready for the day. The way you carry yourself and the work ethic you apply is an extension of who you are as a professional, so give every guest spot your best and appreciate the opportunity you have been given.
Being open and flexible with different piercing techniques can be an essential attribute when guest piercing. Every studio will have different techniques and some of the tools you normally use may not be readily available for you, so it is important that if there’s an item or tool you can’t live without, you are prepared by bringing it with you.
Also, if you have any stipulations regarding pay rates, or commissions, guarantees, lodging, tips, special accommodations, travel, transportation, etc., it’s best to discuss everything pertaining to your guest spot before you decide to accept the position. Do what you can to make sure there is no confusion surrounding any of the details for your guest spot. Outlining everything in advance is a good idea. However, shared written documentation between you and the studio you are visiting will help clarify expectations and avoid miscommunications.
For those artists covering for a conference attendee during the week of APP Conference and Exposition, don’t be sad that you’re missing out; think of guest spotting as an equally valuable learning experience. This exercise in versatility can be a very helpful trait to have, it is a great chance to test your ability to adapt to new environments, techniques, and people.
Julie Taylor & April Thomas
Outreach Committee
If you or other piercers in your studio are going to be at Conference for a week, it is best to take stock of how this will affect your studio as soon as possible. The sooner you do this the sooner you put into place a plan for while you are away.
There are a variety of approaches to determining what will work best in each studio. Communicating with your entire team and making a plan in advance can reduce your anxiety about what is happening in your studio while you’re enjoying your time at Conference.
If most of your staff is going to Conference it could be a time to close the studio and give your tattoo artists a week off. If your entire staff is away, you might consider hiring someone who can answer basic questions and book appointments for you.
It could also be a time to have a guest piercer come into assist your clients while you’re away. If you are not the studio owner, offering to fill the spot with another piercer could be greatly appreciated. APP Member Woodstock Bader, owner/piercer of Crow’s Nest Tattoo, says, “quite simply, we find a piercer we trust to live in our house and [work] at the shop.” Woodstock offers this piercer a guaranteed minimum to ensure they will make money while they cover for him.
Use your social media and email contacts to let your clients know about Conference. Get them excited about your trip, so although they will miss you when you’re gone, they know you will return full of inspiration and knowledge, and in turn they will even support you being gone. APP Member Brian Fowler, owner/piercer of Brand X Piercing, says he lets people know that he will be away for months in advance online as well as when they come in to get pierced. He says that those who stop by when he is away “receive a fancy coupon to entice them to come back.”
If you regularly answer your studio’s emails or other messages, have someone else take this task over, even if they have to refer some questions and troubleshooting to you. Vegas is not the best environment for replying to clients in a timely fashion. Pat Pierce, owner/piercer at Mauve, says he creates an email out-of-office message which “responds to anybody that emails me, stating that I am away with the dates that I am gone, what I am away for, when I will return, and that the reception staff are available.” Pat will also try to look through his messages as time permits so that he is able to respond to any urgent client concerns.
An invaluable way to ensure that your clientele appreciate your absence, is to promote the jewelry you will be returning with. Take special orders for any vendors you only shop with while at Conference. Once you return with your goodies, plan to do things like organize a trunk show and/or update displays to show off the year’s new releases and designs. This is a great way to showcase the designs that may be unique or new to your studio. There’s nothing like sharing your post-Conference glow with your favorite clients!
Caitlin McDiarmid
APP Administrator
I’ve been asked to write an article about how technology has changed over the course of my tenure with the Association.
When I first started working for the Association, I worked exclusively on a desktop computer in my home with a phone line, a credit card machine, and a small closet full of supplies and brochure stock.
That is how it remained for many years. During those years we contracted out our Registration Staff (and processes) at Conference and each instructor brought their own computer for their class. It was a great leap forward a few years down the road when we bought laptop computers for both the registration desk and our classrooms.
Back at home in the office I went from a desktop computer to a combination of desktop and laptop computers. Now I work solely on a laptop computer which moves with me whether working in the office, at home, or at Conference.
We have certainly utilized programs such as Cvent for registration in the past few years and have added to the Cvent family of programs with the CrowdCompass app starting last year. These programs have allowed us to register people ourselves, and even have them register themselves onsite. With these advances, we have also been able to compile statistics over a period of years which help us make decisions about each year’s Conference. We’ve gone from stamping cardboard cards, to collecting paper tickets, to bar code scanners, to scanning with smartphones (OnArrival) at our classroom doors. This has made the collection of data in our classes more accurate and streamlined the certificate production process.
However, in the office, software has stayed fairly consistent for us until this year. We have continued to manage our databases exclusively with Excel. As we have grown, this has become increasingly cumbersome. Information is transferred from one spreadsheet to another or maintained on multiple documents, which not only takes a lot of time, but comes with an increased risk of error.
After Conference last year I became frustrated with the problems facing us in the office and the overwhelming amount of time devoted to tasks which I felt could be automated. I did some preliminary research and began pitching the idea of the Association adopting a management system. Jef Saunders was also looking for ways to automate the application process by taking it fully online. While it took a lot of work and we looked at a lot of systems, we were able to narrow it down and select one (with approval of the Board) which we feel very excited about.
I am happy to announce that the APP is on the cusp of implementing an Association Database Management Software system. When fully active, this program will change the way we do our “day to day” work. It will streamline almost all of our office processes, consolidate all our databases into one, provide a structure for committees to work from, establish a member portal where members can access their record, upload documents, pay dues, get member notices, provide an online application process, automate many of our communications, and more!
This is a big undertaking and will result in big changes. At this point in the office pretty much every day, I think to myself “this would be so much easier if the system was already in place.” I was probably about a year later than I should have been with my push for us to look at an overhaul of how we manage things in the office and with our membership documents applications and other matters. I know that Jef also cannot wait for these processes to be fully active. Like with all the projects this will take time; we want to do it right the first time.
The office has already taken its accounting program online. Members are experiencing the benefits by being able to pay their dues directly from their invoices. We see the benefits as those payments get recorded in real time, saving Paul King, Emily (our clerk), and me a lot of data entry. Paul and I can also both work in the program whenever we want, which keeps us from getting too behind on the growing workload.
So while it has taken us 13 years to really change how we handle our daily tasks, our databases, and our office procedures, we ARE doing it this year. I am happy to help steer the Association to this new level of efficiency and growth. I am sure that every member and every potential member will benefit from this new system – this new technology – and the changes that result.
This management software system will change my job. How it will change my job is not yet fully known. I am prepared however to go with the flow and tackle new challenges that come with new systems and any kind of change. I hope that those who are reading this will watch as the Association takes this great leap forward. We encourage our membership to provide feedback on how these changes affect the Association, its members, potential members, and the greater community of the piercing industry.
Marina Pecorino
Managing Editor of Content & Statistics
It’s been a while since I have had the chance to browse the internet for piercing shop websites in my spare time; it’s actually fairly intriguing to me. The design of marketing materials has a lot to say about how each shop is choosing to present itself to (potential) clients.
In Issue 73, I shared some tips and tricks for taking portfolio photographs. In this issue, I’m going to get down to business (excuse the pun #sorrynotsorry) talking about online marketing. These days, it’s so easy to get sucked into the glowing screen in front of you without putting it to use as a powerful marketing tool. I’m hoping this article will help make the time you spend online for business more efficient and effective, so you can get back to posting pictures of cats.
For the sake of “print” space, I’m going to assume that most readers already have a basic grasp of marketing on social media. For those of you that feel there’s more to learn, many social media platforms offer a convenient business resource guide: Facebook Business, Instagram Business, Pinterest Business, and Tumblr Business. Some of them also offer forums and communities where business users can discuss their experiences and ask questions. If you have a question about using a particular feature, there are lots of articles available directed at businesses with how-to guides like this beginner’s guide to hashtags.
Like anything else on the internet, a quick search for terms like “Tumblr marketing strategies” or “social media tips for small businesses” will yield innumerable articles with a mix of good and not-so-good information. Here is a small list of my favorite Dos and Don’ts:
Hopefully, after reading the points above you have discovered something about social media marketing that you weren’t aware of previously. That means it’s as good a time as any to discuss websites and search engine optimization.
Although websites have the disadvantage of associated cost (web design and development, hosting, domain registration), they have some serious advantages that aren’t as feasible with their no-cost social media counterparts. The main advantage: total control over style and the inner workings. The overall appearance is certainly important if you’re particular about aesthetics, and let’s face it, we’re in the body modification industry; how things look is pretty much our business. More importantly though, total control includes using the elements of web development to make your website easy to find for the clients seeking your services and products; this is essentially the basics of search engine optimization (SEO).
The total number of websites currently on the World Wide Web is mind boggling, and new sites are being added every day. For this reason, search engines need a way to keep track of and catalog what’s available. To do so, search engines send out web crawlers (also known as bots or spiders) to methodically index websites and return information to the search engines about what text and images were found on each website and where those elements were located in the coding. Search engines use this information along with complex algorithms to determine the relevant results for a search, even tailoring the results based on a particular user’s past search history.
Consequently, web developers have learned how to build websites to make pertinent information more available and meaningful for web crawlers, to improve the chance that their site will have a high ranking in relevant searches. Search engines often provide guides on improving SEO, but information about the algorithms used are generally kept secret to reduce exploitation by dishonest developers.
There are now more services available than ever to make web development possible for beginners. Here are a few tips to help you along the way:
As I mentioned before, search engines use complex algorithms to take all of the elements (included the ones listed above) of a website and determine how relevant it is to a user’s search. Unfortunately, there are dishonest web developers who know these tricks and will manipulate them to increase the ranking of their sites, even with searches that may not be relevant. This is precisely why search engine penalties are used to counteract potential misuse. One of these penalties, particularly common for beginners, is known as keyword stuffing. This is when a web developer crams as many keywords into an element as possible. This isn’t generally done maliciously, but in an attempt to reach all possible audiences; I have to admit that I was guilty of this early on. Instead of using “gauge”, “plug” and “stretched lobe jewelry” as keywords for the same entry, it’s best to choose one term that is likely to reach a wide audience, while encouraging appropriate language. It’s also a great idea to diversify terms where possible, only reusing the most important. If a particular site is especially spammy or dishonest, it can even be de-indexed, meaning that it no longer appears in search results. Avoid these penalties by being conscientious during development and do research throughout the process.
The topic of online marketing is certainly not a simple one and is not something that can be learned from a single article. I have tried to provide you with a quick overview, but there is much more to learn, even on the topics introduced here. Throughout this article, I have provided additional resources, but there is far more information available, like this basic website term glossary. We have the advantage of infinite access to instructional websites and tutorials available to explain the basics and more advanced techniques involved in online marketing and web development. Instructional websites like these are where I have collected my knowledge over many years. If all this talk of tutorials has you excited and ready to learn, here’s a great resource of free web dev tutorials. I encourage you to dive in and enjoy the adventure. The greatest feature of a website is that it can be developed over time, starting off simple and small, and building into something full of information, images, and content to make your clients excited to come visit your shop.
Julie Taylor & April Thomas
APP Outreach Committee
We don’t use machines to create beautiful piercings, but for most of us, being a piercer involves much more than the installation of jewelry. As our jobs as body piercers become more multi faceted it is now common place to find more efficient and economical ways of doing all of the parts that now make up our job. This is where we can use technology; it can make many of our tasks more efficient and improve workflow; the integration of multiple technological tools can provide even more benefits. In this article we will take a quick look at some of the ways piercers can currently use technology in their studios to improve efficiency.
Point of sale system (POS)
– Create your next order automatically based on custom targets
– See inventory instantly
– Manual counting of each piece is required less often
– See sales in real time from home or away
– Track a variety of statistics, from best sellers to busiest time of day
– Use reporting features to identify business opportunities or trends
Client tracking software (sometimes integrated with POS)
– Set up and maintain client reward program
– Single out groups for marketing (birthdays, top gold purchasers in the last 6 months, all nostril piercings this month, etc)
– Generate contact list for an email newsletter
– Send reminders for check ups and other appointments
– Access sizes, wish lists, dates of services and other details for individual clients
– Commit phone clients by booking and scheduling appointments
Accounting software (also may integrate with POS)
– Track even more statistics
– Have year end figures ready at tax time
– All calculations are done by the software
– Handle payroll
Digital waivers
– Nothing to file or store, saving time and space
CCTV cameras
– Watch business from afar
– Added security
Online appointment booking (sometimes integrated with POS)
– Access schedules from home or away
– Clients can book themselves, reducing phone calls and emails
Social media
– Lower priced or free, targeted, advertising
– Easily respond to clients in a frequently used platform
– Scheduling software allows the streamlining of posts to multiple platforms over multiple days in one session.
Website
– Showcase all your info and portfolios together with aftercare, driving directions, links and more
– Collect data from here to shape marketing efforts
– Digitally book appointments to commit online shoppers
– Integrate with search engines for higher SEO results
– Integrate with social media (provide links between)
Cloud storage & file transfer systems (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc)
– Share photos and documents among team members
– Work on projects from home
– Less (or no) risk of losing work as a result of hardware failure
Google maps
– Show business by name
– Makes clients’ experiences easier
– Reduce calls for directions
Mobile phone
– Take photos to help line up paired piercings, show clients ear or other placements that are hard for them to see, as well as portfolio photos
– Access your portfolio anywhere
– Use software for many of the above tasks while at home or away, including POS, CCTVs, Google, social media, and more (this article was written entirely with the Google Docs application)
Each one of these categories of technology could have an entire issue devoted to it. This quick reference was not meant to provide you with the information to best implement and utilize each of these technologies within your shops and business models. Instead, we hope this quick reference will help readers determine which technologies could make a meaningful impact in their studio. Hopefully this reference guide will allow you to isolate an area or procedure that can be improved upon and give you the tools to begin the research process.