Caffrey Francis of Grow Hair Clients: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry
Being truly happy is beautiful it radiates out of you. Being happy comes from being grateful and liking who you are. You’re truly only as beautiful as the person you are on the inside. Being a good person, doing good for others, and having positive healthy relationships is key to keeping your happiness glow. When someone is happy, they are beautiful.
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years ,I had the pleasure of interviewing Caffrey Francis.
Caffrey Francis is the CEO of Grow Hair Clients. Through her business coaching program, she shows hairstylists and salon owners how to gain up to 10 clients in 30-days.
Growing up with a family of small business owners she’s witnessed first-hand the trials and tribulations of growing a successful business. As a successful entrepreneur herself Caffrey’s strengths are exhibited in marketing and sales. Caffrey has combined her business degree and experience to become a successful business coach.
When she isn’t coaching or building businesses you can find her on the tennis court or hanging out with her Chihuahua, Holly and her Irish Setter, Dublin.
Caffrey holds a BA in business administration from Oglethorpe University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I am a business coach for hairstylists and salon owners. I show them how to increase their clients and sales through my nine-step growth roadmap. I have a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Oglethorpe University where I also played tennis as their number one singles player.
I’ve always loved business and growing up in a family who owned several successful small businesses gave me the opportunity to learn a lot from my parents. I was able to witness firsthand the trials and tribulations of growing a successful business especially in the financial crisis.
When I was 16 years old, I created my first business as a tennis coach, teaching tennis to kids. The business was very successful. During this time my mom and I fostered hundreds of dogs which we later pivoted from and created a successful dog boarding business. I had to temporally withdraw from Oglethorpe due to health issues. When I came back to Oglethorpe to finish my degree, I became part of group called Team Wildlife which was a movement of high-reaching individuals who share a belief in living life to the fullest without the use of drugs, abuse of alcohol or inebriation. We coordinated events with colleges and provided entertainment in a safe environment that allowed participants to enjoy themselves without reckless behavior while also supporting a good cause. During this time I was able to meet a lot of people within the entertainment industry, learned a ton about social media, events, and creating professional content. During this time my long-time passion for hair and make-up started coming to light as I began creating my own how to content and sharing it on social media. At this time I wasn’t sure of how I could combine my passion of the beauty industry and make it into a profitable business.
So, after graduation I quickly got a job as a leasing agent at a property management company. A few months later I was promoted to assistant manager but as time went on my health started to decline and impacted my job. Due to my health I knew I would need to create another business so I could work my own hours. So, one day after work I’m in the salon chair at Ulta like I always am every four weeks and I’m getting an incredible blow out from Drew, my go-to person to do my hair and he was talking about how he was thinking of creating an Instagram account so he could start marketing his services to increase his clientele. However, but the only thing that he really isn’t interested in is social media. And, then it hits me that I should create a business that shows hair professionals how to grow their business. This is a great way to combine my love of the beauty industry with business and have a positive effect on people’s lives.
Forward to a few weeks later, I am fired from my job and I know it’s an opportunity to put my education and experience into a program that will grow hair professional’s clients and sales. I sold everything I had and moved from my nice apartment to my parent’s home. I was excited. I finally knew what my purpose was, and I was going to make it happen.
From the moment I got home I started working, learning, and implementing. I pulled out old textbooks, researched things off the internet, looked at old business plans, and identified what I could have done better in the past, and this was just on the business side. I also taught myself all the technical stuff such as creating a website, sales funnels, and marketing through Facebook and YouTube. I knew I had to figure out how to do these things so I could make a short cut version for the people going through my program. This way they don’t have to go through all the technical confusion and set up to have success. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. After 13-months working 12–15 hours a day, I was finally done but as I looked at my program, I knew there was something missing. I needed a clearer, more defined path for my clients, so, then enters my now mentors, Aaron Fletcher and Matt Lopez. With their knowledge and continued support I was able to come up with a clear nine-step roadmap for hair professionals to continuously grow their clients and sales. Of course, this is the same process that not only I use but every business owner has to go through to grow their business.
Before launching this I also launched an inspection business with my father called GA Custom Home Inspections that followed the same nine-step roadmap.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I wouldn’t say it’s the most interesting story, but I’ve spoken to so many kind people who have been working so hard trying to stay afloat in their business and are just at a loss on what they need to do to increase their clients and it’s been such a great experience being able to help these people.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
I would say the tipping point was a few months ago when I launched a home inspection business with my father. Immediately after we launched the phone was ringing off the hook and it was hard for us to keep up with the demand plus the other businesses that we imminently had to scale back. The same happened with Grow Hair Clients the first week I launched. I was completely booked and for me to keep up with the demand I decided that I could only speak to extremely qualified prospects so before someone would schedule a call with me, they were notified that if they don’t at least complete the required pre-call homework one hour before their client and sales growth mapping call their appointment would automatically be canceled and the next person in line would get their call slot. I’m happy to say that the demand has only increased, and I only work with people who are highly motivated to gain up to 10 clients in 30-days and build a business that automatically grows by itself month after month.
What did I do differently — I implemented my 9-step proven process which is the exact process I show hairstylists and salon owners, how to apply this process to their business. For anyone trying to grow their business I would tell them to go to my website and watch the 9-step roadmap video — you’ll quickly be able to understand how to grow your clients and sales. My 9-step process works for any business.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the continuous support of my parents. I’ve learned from them that you are the only person who can put limits on yourself and if you continuously work towards one singular goal you will achieve it. I’m lucky to have them.
My mentors, Aaron Fletcher and Matt Lopez, I thank for sharing their knowledge, providing me clarity, and guiding me as my company grows.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
I show my clients how to us an online business platform that also assists in handling customer data through a CRM, or customer relationship management system. It helps my clients understand how their customers interact with every aspect of their marketing and sales — this enables them to see what is and is not working in their business. Although this technology is not completely new, it is to a lot of business owners because they have never used an online business platform before.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
I believe technology is just an easy object for us to point blame at instead of looking at ourselves. It’s not technology but people’s actions and moral compass that we should be focusing on.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
1.) Today consumers want personalized products that solve their particular beauty problems and AI is able to give customers their exact solution all while creating a custom experience the consumer craves. This combined with AR that allows potential customers a future peek into exactly how they will look once they purchase that product or service will not only bring a flood of new customers to you, but you will easily be able increase your customer’s average cart value when they are able to see in advance how additional up sells will make them look.
By showing someone their future self, you will be able to dramatically increase a consumer’s desires to buy your products and services — they are no longer looked at as an option but an immediate necessity. This will dramatically increase all stages of a customer life cycle but especially your customer retention rate because you have given them exactly what they wanted and now your customer has a higher level of trust, therefore the likelihood you will retain them increases.
As AI and AR continue to advance, we will continue to see more of an authentic and detailed look of how a product will actually look on a customer.
2.) Incorporating skincare into make-up.
3.) I’m excited about alternative offline distribution channels such as vending machines for make-up and skin care. Due to the pandemic, companies have had to look at more efficient and effective ways to make money and one of the ways companies are doing this is replacing their employees with machines that already exist, such as vending machines. Although many companies such as Benefit, MAC, and Sephora have been doing this for many years and Kylie Cosmetics joined in on it in 2019, I believe we will start to see them everywhere not just continuously in crowded spots such as airports.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
1.) Since artificial intelligence and augmented reality will continue to increase beauty companies’ bottom line, we now need to look at how we are packaging these products. Companies need to pivot from plastic to a more ecofriendly packaging material. Today’s consumer is more informed on the environment and we will continue to see a shift in consumers gravitating to more ecofriendly, but always budget-friendly products. A beauty company making the move on using more ecofriendly packaging, more people will buy because they not only want the product but feel good that they are doing something good for the planet, which intern makes them feel good about the brand.
2.) We need transparency on the ingredients that are in make-up and skin care products and how it affects our health. Consumers have no idea what they are putting on their face and body much less how to pronounce it.
3.) Although I’m a big fan of AR, we need more transparency on the data someone is collecting on us. Its’ not just what we are typing into a computer, it’s a camera capturing our facial reactions to everything we like and don’t like, and they are capturing not just our face but the grounding areas. People think that money is our number one source of currency, but data is, and they need to keep this in mind. We also must know who and what country owns it.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1.) Being truly happy is beautiful it radiates out of you. Being happy comes from being grateful and liking who you are. You’re truly only as beautiful as the person you are on the inside. Being a good person, doing good for others, and having positive healthy relationships is key to keeping your happiness glow. When someone is happy, they are beautiful.
2.) Working out even if it’s just for 20–30 minutes a day. I love Beachbody workouts! I’ve been doing them for years. My favorite is T25!
3.) Never stop learning! I’m constantly evolving as a person because I never stop learning and implementing what I know. Education enables people to make better and more informed decisions about their lives and with that we have the option of living a life that best suits our wants and needs, leading to an increase in overall happiness.
4.) Don’t limit yourself. Beauty is so much more than what you look like. It’s more about the mindset that you allow to create for yourself.
5.) Take care of your skin — always wear sunscreen.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
When I was 12 years old there was a lady who I was close to, she was a mom of my sister’s softball teammates. She had terminal cancer and died quickly. It was heart breaking as she was such a kind woman. Before she died, she gave me a gold coin and told me this coin serves as a reminder to always smile at, at least five-people a day no matter how you feel inside. You never know the positive affect a little bit of kindness can do for someone else, and who knows, maybe your smile will be contagious and have a ripple effect. Never underestimate what kindness can do for the world. I still smile at, at least five-people a day.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“If you want something bad enough you will find a way to get it.”
“There is more than one way to skin a cat.”
“You’re the only person who can limit yourself.”
When I was six, I came home from school crying and so upset it was another day I realized how bad and hard school was for me and it made me so upset because I really wanted to go to college and play tennis. If you looked at my grades it looked like an impossible dream, one that so many people constantly told me that I couldn’t achieve.
My parents dedicated their lives to helping me get there. They gave me so much support and poured so much of their time, money, and recourses into me achieving it.
I had to put twice the amount of work and time into schoolwork and I barely made passing grades. It was difficult. My mom would often tell me, “if you want something bad enough you will find a way to get it,” and “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” I ended up going to college and playing tennis.
Through the time of me accomplishing that goal and many others — I’ve had a ton of people try to sit me down and tell me what I am capable of. As they spoke to me, I realized more and more that they were telling me a lie, one that was passed down to them by someone who also told them what they were capable of, and they accepted someone else’s limitations over their life. I decided a long time ago that I am the only person who can limit myself and I’m never going to do that.
How can our readers follow you online?
www.facebook.com/growhairclients
Caffrey Francis of Grow Hair Clients: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.