FOLLOW UP
Call within a week of leaving or mailing your materials.
THANK POTENTIAL CLIENTS
by sending a card thanking them for their time and advice. Ask them if there are any available opportunities.
Fashion stylists or editors are often the key to being hired on a high profile shoot. The bigger the stylist, the better the artist has to be.Commit your goals to paper. Learn as much as you can about photographers who work in the industry, as they often decide which stylists to hire. To get print
work, start bringing your portfolio to magazine editors, photographers, and other potential employers. The only way to do this is to have an appointment, so be
prepared to spend lots of time on the phone. You can look on the mastheads of magazines to find the fashion and beauty editors and art directors to call. Find out the
drop-off days specified by the agencies. These are the specific days and times set up for portfolio reviews. A publication called The Black Book lists everyone in the
print world and is an invaluable resource for contact information (see Resource Guide).
Don’t be afraid to explore several avenues of employment at once. Saturate the market with your card, sending it to not only magazine editors, photographers,
and agents but also to local stores and salons. Contact department stores about doing fashion shows or other promotional events. Volunteer to do the makeup for
fund-raising fashion shows or productions at local theaters. To help break into the more prestigious and higher paying areas of makeup artistry, do whatever you can
to meet the top players in the field. Call or send a friendly personal note along with your promotional card. It will help if you keep up to date on the industry—read
all the fashion and entertainment magazines to keep track of the top photographers, models, designers, and makeup artists. Know who does which advertising
campaigns, study photographers’ and makeup artists’ styles, and be able to recognize their work.
Remember that in the fashion industry—like any other business—people hire people. So always be nice, smile, and say thank you. Potential clients will
remember you for it next time, when you come back with more experience and more photographs in your portfolio. Also, when you’re just starting out, don’t think
too much about what you’ll get out of a makeup job. Take all the jobs you can, because you never know what you might learn or what contacts you might make.
It’s also worth noting that when you are getting started and looking for freelance work, there are going to be dry spells. It’s important to be frugal with your
money, to learn how to budget when you do get paying freelance work, and to have another source of income to fall back on (waiting tables, working retail, dog
walking, etc.). And when you do have downtime between assignments, use it constructively—make calls, send out your résumé and promotional card, and do more
test shoots to build your portfolio.
MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS
It is never too early to begin to develop a business plan and system. On a computer, in a planner, or directly in your current scrapbook, create a simple log of all
your contacts and work completed. The log should include the date, name, company (when relevant), contact number, topic, result, and follow-up. Print your digital
photographs from shoots, labeled with the date and persons involved, to include in the scrapbook or log. Networking is such a huge part of being a freelance
makeup artist that it is important to keep a detailed record of all your contacts and previous work.
You will need to negotiate the terms and fees for each job, prepare confirmations to make sure that the terms and conditions are met, generate invoices, keep
accurate financial records, and collect all payments. Terms might include payments for travel and per diems, materials costs, and assistant rates. You need to know
the scope of the project before these terms can be set. Ask questions and take notes, only making your decision when you have all the information you need. Then
send confirmation, also called a deal memo. It is a document that includes the job description, day rate, overtime rate, the flat dollar amount if overtime is not
included, length of project in days, the number of assistants and pay rate, a materials budget, and for stylists, clauses regarding reimbursement for clothing damage.
Create job folders for each job, with copies of receipts, any advance checks, signed vouchers, and invoices. Prepare a professional invoice form, and send it to the
client at the end of the shoot. Send a credit sheet, indicating the job you worked on and how you want your credit to read, to the appropriate person. Templates of
business forms used in the industry can be found at makeuphairandstyling.com.
Remember that many expenses are tax deductible. Keep a categorized record of automobile, travel, and entertainment expenses, plus records of money spent
on office supplies and office equipment. Record the purpose of the expense on each receipt, and file it by category, with a copy in the job folder.
Maintaining and updating your portfolio and résumé is essential. Stay current. Know what is going on in entertainment, fashion, and beauty. Look at
magazines, fashion shows, and music videos. Always dress appropriately, be prepared and on time, be decisive and efficient. If you can’t say something nice about
someone, don’t say anything at all. Networking is a major part of the job, so make contacts, listen with interest, be positive, make phone calls, send thank-you cards,
and keep your promises.
AGENCIES
Agencies provide a wide range of services, including finding work for their talent, doing promotional work, negotiating and collecting fees, and offering career
management. In exchange for those services, the artist pays the agency 20 percent of his or her fee.
When starting out as a freelance makeup artist, you will undoubtedly experience frustration. You need a good portfolio to get an agent, but without an agent,
it may be hard to get the jobs you need to produce a good book. Having agency representation does help you secure the best assignments. Begin with research.
Take the time to learn something about different agencies. What is their philosophy? What type of work do they do? How many artists do they represent? Who are
these artists? Why is a certain one the right agency for you? Interview several agencies that seem to be a good match. Ask what you can expect from them. How do
they promote their talent? Bring a résumé that lists all the photographers, editors, art directors, stylists, models, etc., who have worked with you. Include all your