The initial idea for my Final Major Project was to come together with a photographer and a makeup artist to create a coffee table book to showcase our best work. As the project progressed and after speaking with my various tutors, I applied some changes to the idea. Contemplating the future and thinking about what I wanted to pursue, instead of a coffee table book, I came up with the concept of creating a company that would allow me to pursue my career as a makeup artist. This idea seemed more feasible to me as I could see myself developing a business in the future.
By collaborating with one other makeup artist, Jasmine Willis, we will work together as a hair, make up and nails duo in creating a company website that will showcase our individual portfolios. Together we will work to build up our client base by hosting a blog and a YouTube channel that of course can accessed on the website. We hope to gain popularity as a high class hair, make up and nail service for women of all ages. We have decided that our company name will be Kohl Face and our website blog and other social media will provide a detailed insight into our line of work. With YouTube becoming an ever growing community for beauty and fashion bloggers, we will also have our own Kohl Face channel that will help and guide our clients into keeping up to date with current trends. Weekly visual tutorials will be given on how to achieve popular celebrity looks and trends.
We faced various struggles at the beginning of this project. At first we could not decide whether to collaborate and keep to our original idea in creating a coffee table book or a magazine. When developing our research and ideas, the concept of creating a company appealed to both me and Jasmine. With hair styling always being my strong point and makeup being Jasmine’s, we anticipated that our collaboration would be an excellent way to offer both mine and her skills to prospective clients. Throughout the project, I have documented all of my ideas, errors, improvements, research and new ideas on my reflective journal. In doing so I have kept up to date with my work and planned what my next steps would be in developing the website. In creating our company, promotion and advertising through various online media such as Facebook and twitter was the focal and major focus of our project. Not only did we showcase our portfolios on our website, but also created other social media pages to promote us as an upcoming hair, makeup and nails company, suitable for any related event. With Facebook, twitter, instagram and more, our company is set for a successful future and hopes to get recognition through the World Wide Web pages created.
After collaborating as a duo, arranging meetings and discussing the company in further detail, it became a lot easier to work together once the outcome and our decisions became clearer. Although we are a duo, the main issue was making sure we kept our work and portfolios separate. We made this clear on our website, with links to our individual portfolios. We did this in order for prospective clients to be aware that although we are a duo the company can provide separate services and we can be hired separately to provide our own individual expertise to the assignment the client was seeking.
Updating these sites on a daily basis is vital to the promotional process of this project. I learnt that it is vital to keep clients periodically informed about the services offered by the company. Online surveys were done asking people what else our company could provide and YouTube came up on several responses. YouTube was a big step in allowing us to film individual tutorials on a personal level to help clients keep up to date with current hair, makeup and fashion trends and tutorials on how to achieve celebrity styles and looks.
I have throughout this project, kept organized and up to date with my work by keeping an online reflective journal. By jotting thoughts and ideas daily the journal has helped me with my research and has helped me come up with new concepts and ideas to further promote and expose the company into the hair and makeup industry. The journal is up to date with past and current photo shoots done with photographers, stylists and models. By showing clients what we do on a daily basis, it gives them an insight into our daily routine and professionalism in our work.
Our website shows a wide range of events that Kohl Face can host. Business and comp cards have been printed and handed out to prospective clients, which further promotes the company. Deciding on a name for our company proved the most difficult and challenging as a company name is vital and can prove detrimental if wrong, in any business venture in this industry. We came up with our company name as the name is relevant to what we do and straight to the point. Our project is aimed in planning and promoting the company further and expanding our portfolios. A survey was generated in which women were asked what their most preferred hair and makeup tutorials would be. This helped to get a better understanding and an insight of what should be offered to prospective clients. The website will constantly be updated with separate blog posts on keeping up to date with current trends and mini makeup and hair tips.
Throughout the course of this project, I feel like I have flourished and grown more confident in my makeup and hair skills. With photo shoots constantly being planned this has given me a chance to develop my makeup skills and to experiment with new styles and techniques. I have always focussed more on hair styling and have always thought this my strong point, however, this project has allowed me to ‘come out of my shell’ and has given me the confidence to apply my skills with assurance to produce some really amazing, in my opinion, results. I am extremely lucky and immensely happy to be doing work that I thoroughly enjoy and can see myself in continuing to do for years to come.
We strive to be professional when it comes to our business. Creating our own company has been something that we have always wanted to do since we met. With Jasmine having over 4,000 subscribers on Facebook and YouTube, this will be an excellent start in introducing Kohl Face. In the future, we hope to expand and develop our company by eventually opening our own salons whereby services such as, semi-permanent makeup, hair styling, hair extensions, nails and makeup will be offered to clients. We hope to achieve this by pitching our ideas and projections to the university and applying for grants to help us get started. We are focused and determined to make this work and are ready to face the many challenges and hurdles I am sure we will face on the road to success.
I think throughout the course of this project, there have been both positives and negatives; however I am very pleased with the final outcome. I feel I have done the best I can to better our company and I will always strive to do more. I have taken feedback from my tutorials and applied them to the final outcome of my project. I also took the opinions of other important people such as family, friends and most importantly our audience. The aim of this project was to work on something that I could see myself pursuing as a career. After working on the project with Jasmine, I decided that this is the route I definitely want to take. With the University offering loans for new and upcoming business ideas, it seems like a perfect opportunity for the company to go ahead and apply.
We make sure our website and other social media advertising is kept professional and relevant to what we can offer. We only post on our social media topics and tips that relate to hair, make up and nail art. I am very pleased with the outcome of this project, mainly because it has given me focus and clarity in what I want to achieve in the future. I have worked extremely hard in making sure this project comes together satisfactorily and have dedicated myself completely to further the company’s future. Both I and Jasmine have major plans in making Kohl Face bigger and promote it further by starting to offer our services in Newcastle and London. Once we built up a good client base there we aim to open other branches around the UK.
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