Improvability Blog

“Hi Kim, I was so excited to receive my seasonal drapes set that I tested them on myself.

During the exercise I had some doubts that I’d already had in the past. There are some colours that it’s clear fit with my skin and eye colours – and some clearly don’t – but there are some others that are more related to my personal taste.

For example, I’m Winter (brown-eyed, dark brown hair and fair skin) but I like myself also with some Autumn colours (terracotta, coffee brown, deep tomato red, dark periwinkle, warm purple, dark yellow green) and a few Summer colours (light blue grey, cocoa).

What do you think? Is this due to my lack of experience? Perhaps I’m making some mistakes? Or might I be a mix of Winter and Autumn?” Silburga, Italy

Dear Silburga,

Colour is totally subjective and the colours you like to wear are always down to your own personal opinion.

There are no rules with colour. The labels on the drapes are meant as a guide only and were never, ever meant to be taken as gospel. They are not law. They are not written in concrete. They are open to human interpretation.

Follow how you feel – what you look and FEEL good in.

However, I would also add that you cannot ‘do’ your own colours.

No-one can be totally objective about themselves.

We all need someone else looking in from the outside to help us ‘see’ what we can’t see for and about ourselves.

I would always recommend that every consultant pays another consultant for a colour analysis in order to get a professional, objective viewpoint.

TIP: Treat this as an investment in your business and make sure you feed the receipt through your books.

At the end of the day, wear whatever you want, whatever makes you look and feel happy.

There are no rules. And all the systems out there that claim to be ‘accurate’ cannot possibly drop seven billion people on the planet into a mere 4, 6, 12 or 36 little boxes!

Every single human being is unique. And what your client thinks and feels MUST be taken into account before we open our mouth and foist what is nothing more than our opinion on someone else.

I’ve seen so-called professional image consultants do irreparable damage to some of their clients because of this but I’m not going into that right now…

You are not a lump of meat!

People who ‘style’ professional models to promote cars, watches, clothes, hair products, washing machines, etc. have to treat the poor darling as a lump of inanimate flesh because, in this scenario, she is nothing more than a prop..

But we don’t.

Our client should be the centre
of the service we offer

Silburga, you are a living, breathing human being with feelings, emotions, and a moral baseline. All of these will affect how you FEEL about the colours you wear.

I don’t know you personally so these are only suggestions (and feel free to slap me if I’m wrong here):

• You might need your Winter colours to help you promote your business
• You might prefer your Autumn colour choices when you want to demonstrate your strong nurturing side
• And the gentler Summer colours might be the ones you need to help regenerate your energy

I repeat – these are nothing more than examples as I have never met you!

Colour is a journey to be enjoyed

So please don’t be so quick to put yourself down.

Experience comes from practising, and until you have a go you’ll never know whether you’re right or wrong.

• Experiment with the colours you love
• Get a face-to-face professional opinion
• Discover the colours that make you look and feel fabulous
• And then you will have a living, breathing story of your own colour journey to share with your clients.

PS. You have no idea how powerful your own story could be in building your business, but that’s for another time.

“Hi Kim, I’ve trained as a image consultant but I feel stuck as I just can’t seem to get clients or know how to get them… I am in the final stages of lauching my website.

I read your article ‘Is your business at a standstill? ‘ and it has given me hope! I will be making that list. May I ask, when I speak to my friends should I offer a ‘deal’? e.g., 10% off?

What can i ask them? I would so so appreciate your wise advice. I subscribe to your website and do find your tips useful. Many many thanks.” Marwina, UK

Dear Marwina,

So glad that my article has given you hope.  I hope you’ve already made your list?

• In Step 3, I recommend that you contact everyone with your ‘offer’…

Sorry for the confusion.  Sometimes I get so carried away with trying to encourage and motivate you that I forget to modify my language.

I move in mastermind and mentoring groups where the word ‘offer’ is clearly understood to mean whatever it is that you are offering your existing or potential clients, i.e. your product or service.

When I say ‘offer’, I don’t necessarily mean that this has to be a discount or any kind of deal.

What I should have said is to ‘offer them your colour or style consultation service’.  Give everyone on your list the opportunity to work with you.

Yes, that may well include some kind of discount or deal, but just get what you have to offer – your service, your knowledge, your expertise, your product  – in front of every single person you meet.

Back to your question, Marwina…

Working with friends

I would suggest that you offer them a nice deal, because they are your friends.

However, let’s take a moment here to consider the consequences.

You need to know that most of your friends (and probably all of your family) will never become your customers.   And I speak from long, hard-earned experience!

Even if you start out by practising on your friends and family, they will never pay your full fees!  They will always expect you to give them some kind of discount or even to give them what you have to offer for free.

This is because of the existing relationship – the bond of friendship or blood – between you.

And if you persist in presenting what you have to offer to your friends, you may lose their friendship anyway.

So stop and think! Instead of waiting for the day when one of them blows a gasket because she’s finally had enough of you reminding her, “I’d love to do your colours.  Any time to suit you.  Just let me know when…”

Make a decision now.

Keep your friends as friends

Ask them to help you with your new business

Let them introduce you to the people they know.  Their friends and acquaintances are so much more likely to become your paying customers because there’s no existing bond of friendship to get in the way.

So your ‘offer’ to friends and family needs to:

• keep the friendship / relationship strong
• give them an opportunity to sample what you have to offer at a favourable rate
• allow you to collect testimonials
• provide you with as many opportunities as possible to practise your colour and/or style skills
• give them the opportunity to help you with your business
• encourage your friends and family to recommend you to their friends from a point of actual experience
• All this is covered in my Colour Analysis training course.  If you’ve already studied that, don’t reinvent the wheel – just use my feedback form which is in the online resources

Ask your friends to HELP you

And be honest with them.  Tell them you need full-paying clients and you’d love to offer them a great discount on their own personal consultation but the deal is that they msut do something to help you in return for the advantageous fee.

After all, this isn’t about friendship; this is YOUR BUSINESS

If they aren’t able to help you (it doesn’t matter why, and friends shouldn’t have to explain themselves to each other anyway), then leave well alone.  Retain the relationship intact and move on to the next person on your list.

Thank you so much for asking this question, Marwina.  I can see that I didn’t write clearly enough in my previous article.  So I’m really sorry to have confused you.

Let me know how you get on, won’t you?