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Beauty Means Business Radio Booking Out 6 Months in Advance with April Kayganich @_thehalfrican  April Kayganich is a stylist, mentor and owner of The Curl Whisperer in Westgate, Austin TX. She’s an educator and has taught both salon and barbershops in Austin including Milk + Honey, The Shed, Hairstory and Bayou St Blonde. April is creating quite the name for herself as The Curl Whisperer, opened her own suite in less than three years and is consistently booked out for 6 months. She has been featured in Austin Woman Magazine for her expertise in natural, curls and waves. In this episode, we immediately plunge into a reaction common to many aspiring hairstylists that “Hairdressers are dumb.” A remark that originally deterred her from the industry. But, as a part of the generation that chooses purpose over the image that professional security only comes in one form, April found herself never letting go of the dream to be in the hair industry – and entered the industry at 26. Her extensive management experience in food + beverage before the salon industry taught her the importance of stylists and salon owners taking business classes. This experience in the food and beverage industry taught her how to manage her finances, inventory, and to be a strategic forward-thinking stylist.  April discusses her strategy to fill her books 2 months in advance before ever even getting on the floor. She’s taken full advantage of free marketing, a concept that was unheard of 10 years ago, and the power of word of mouth - which is highly underutilized. April has advice on automating responses to clients, the laws of booth rentals, when and who to require 1099s from, and her views of COVID-19 being a very high speedbump, but she’s preparing for the industry snap back.    Takeaways:  The free marketing generation is just getting started, it’s up to you to take advantage of what it has to offer  Free marketing includes word of mouth, a strategy that is highly under utilized  Understanding business in beauty is imperative to both the individual’s and salon owner's success, take this down time during COVID-19 to educate yourself   Handsome App is a free professional network for the beauty and barber industries to build a digital portfolio, find career advice, education and jobs. You can find April Kayganich in the Handsome app.