When we first set out to be Professional Makeup Artist, it was in a time where the competition was scarce. There was maybe 2 at most Makeup Artist already established and taking clientele in our area. When we got together as TAOM, it was very rare to have a team of Makeup Artist under the same umbrella working along side one another, and truthfully there still isn't many.
With the growing population in the makeup industry there's bound to be competitors. Some tend to look at competitors in a negative light, and feel it necessary to bash their competitors or have some irrelevant issues that create stupid and awkward situations. We've always stood in a position of being open and having an open platform to connect with other artist. Truth be told, it's amazing to have other great artist you can refer clients to when you're not available, or just down right tired and need a break!!
Back 6 years ago I always said, the more makeup artist that there are, the more popular makeup will be and the more people will start valuing and treating makeup as a service that they have to have! And behold, that's exactly what happened. More makeup artist are coming up, and more and more people are requesting to have their makeup done. We literally get tagged in multiple posts a week about who does makeup.
A lot of people say that the industry is over-saturated, "oh gosh, another makeup artist" and this really discourages aspiring artist from getting out there, which is unfortunate! Yes, there are a lot of makeup artist coming up, but the main thing any aspiring artist should know is that finding your niche is what will keep you going. You have to hone in on what your niche is in order to not loose yourself in the idea of the over-saturated industry. It allows you a clear guideline of who your target audience is and helps create a signature for what kind of artist you are, and helps you create your own lane!
We've spent many weekends booked back to back with at least 8 clients per artist. And as our artistry grew, our mindset shifted, our goals changed, and our niche started to become more clear. We noticed the rapid growth in the industry in our area alone, so we couldn't just be Makeup Artist that serviced people back to back, we needed more. We had to re-evaluate ourselves as artist and as a company which further helped us find our niche.
I think it's okay to have more than one niche as long as they make sense collectively. Currently our niche is Bridal & Content Creating. Back then our niche was just doing appointments back to back and low balling our prices to stay booked and busy...But, Bridal season is year round in Florida so there's always an opportunity to capitalize on that so why not? And working with models and targeting brands we can partner with for content will help us with so many aspects of exposure. So, that's our niche right now, will it change? I'm sure it will. What we want for our company always changes, but It's so much weight lifted off of our shoulders being able to do what we love and still love it without the pressure of having back to back clients that leave us crippled the next day!
Do what's ultimately best for your brand and best for YOU! You need to love what you do, not become a slave to what you do. Find your niche!!
-TAOM