116: How a Virtual Receptionist Helped Me Stop Working 24/7 as an Esthetician

Still answering client messages at dinner?

If your phone never stops… your business doesn’t either.

In this episode of The Esthetician Podcast, I’m sharing the one thing that completely changed my business, helped me stop working 24/7, and gave me boundaries with clients again: hiring a virtual receptionist.

If you’re an overwhelmed esthetician who feels like you’re doing everything yourself, this episode is for you.

We’re talking about:

• How to stop answering client messages all day

• Why solo estheticians get stuck in burnout

• How a virtual receptionist helps you create boundaries

• Why this is smarter than hiring an employee too early

• How better client communication improves client experience

• How to grow your esthetician business without working more

Most estheticians think they need more clients.

The truth is? Most need more support.

This episode will help you understand how to create more time, reduce overwhelm, and start building a business that doesn’t rely on you for everything.

👉 Want the exact step-by-step system?

If you’re tired of answering messages all day and want your time back, I created a simple system to help you hire and train a virtual receptionist.

https://stan.store/EstheLaunchAcademy/p/get-started-with-this-amazing-course-n7vbc

This is the exact system I used to stop working 24/7 and grow my business.

Sponsor:

If you’re tired of dealing with the same playlists, awkward songs during treatments, or your phone interrupting your vibe, there are music systems built specifically for spas that fix this for you.

Check it out here: 

https://musicforbusinessfinder.com/music-for-spas/

If you’re booked but not making money, you need to start with your numbers.
Download my FREE  “Diagnose Your Business” tracker in the show notes and I’ll show you exactly what to track.

Are You Ready to fix this in your business?

Apply for a free Business Breakthrough Audit:

https://forms.gle/Jkr27yUb6n6PYcba7

Transcript

A Client Shares A Win

Phe 0:00

Working with Kari Jo Patterson has been such a game changer for me as a solo estition. As someone that doesn't work under anyone, she helps me keep myself accountable with our one-on-one calls. She's put things in perspective for me as far as the what I'm trying to do in my business. She helped me put into words what I'm trying to do. And she also keeps me accountable with our one-on-one calls. Every time I we implement something in my business, I'm like, I have to do it because I'm going to have a call with her next month. So it really keeps me accountable. And she's just so sweet. She's loving, and she has so much information. And I can ask her anything. She's always available for me to message, and she doesn't make me feel bad about it. And yeah, I just love working with her. She has just been such a blessing in my business.

When Dinner Turns Into Work

Treatment Room Music Made Simple

Hiring That Changed Everything

Boundaries You Actually Keep

The Client Experience Upgrade

The Math Behind The Cost

Why Not Hire An Employee Yet

Course Offer And Final Ask

Kari Jo 0:49

Welcome back, guys. So I want to ask you something. Have you ever been sitting at dinner and your phone goes off and you like already know it's a client? And so like you pick it up, you look at it really quick, and it's like just a really quick response. So you respond to her really quickly. Then she messages you back, then you message her back. All of a sudden, it turns in from like a really quick message to now you're not even sitting at dinner with your family. You are back at work. If that's you, this episode is going to hit today because today we are going to talk about something that completely changed my business. Well, actually, it didn't just change my business, it completely changed my life. Okay, real question: What are you playing in your treatment room right now? Because this is something I see coming up with estheticians. Let me guess. You're either using Spotify or you're using the same playlist over and over, or you're constantly trying to find something new because you're tired of hearing the same songs. I get it. It should just run in the background. It should match your vibe, match your brand, and it should feel the same every single time. That's why I like music for business finder. It helps you find music that is actually built for treatment rooms. So you don't get those random, awkward songs. You said it once and you stop messing with it. So if you're tired of overthinking your music, go to musicforbusinessfinder.com slash spa. Check it out, see your options, and guys, let's simplify it. Guess what? It wasn't hiring an employee, it was hiring a virtual receptionist. Okay, so I remember this exact season in my business, 2 AT. I was working so much. I was passionate about what I was doing. I was like seeing all these clients, I was answering text, I was booking appointments, people were messaging me like, what did you say during that appointment? All of the things, right? And the problem wasn't just that I was busy, the problem was my business never turned off. I would go home and my phone would be going off. Partially because when I was working, I was like back to back and I couldn't respond to anybody. So then by the time I was done doing all my treatments, I just wanted to go home instead of like stay at my studio, right? Because I hadn't seen my family or my kids. So I go home. But then there's all these messages that I didn't even get to during the day. So now I'm responding to the messages. And my husband and my daughter at the time were so frustrated. My husband would always be, you're always on your dang found. You know what I mean? Or do like high mimic them. Um, or like I would be doing something, and I just felt like they always thought that I'm on social media or doing something. But if I was on my phone, trust me, maybe 10% I was doing something to just relax my mind. But the other 90%, I swear it was worked. I will die on my grave that I was working on my phone. So yeah, so I would go home and my phone would still be going. I'd be with my family, but like I wasn't really with my family. And it's because there was this part of me that was always working 24-7, even if I was wake, even if I was asleep. Sometimes I'd wake up having dreams about something with my business. And I remember I got to this point where I was so frustrated because it was my husband was almost, I don't know if I don't know if disgust is the right word, but like he just would give me this look and talk to me. I don't know, like kind of he was disgusted that I was like always on my phone, right? And I hated that feeling so bad that I was letting him down, but like really I was just working that I just hated ultimately how I just felt stuck in the middle that I literally I remember thinking I would have done anything to get out of that situation. I don't even care if I made money at that point. All I knew was I could not keep living in that situation anymore. And so that is when I hired a virtual receptionist. And I am telling you, that is the one decision that changed my whole entire company. And I literally believe it's also the one decision that had I not have done that, I don't know if I would have built the company that I built. Now, I want to explain this in a really simple way. A virtual receptionist is not a big team move. It is not something that you do when you actually make it. It's something that you do when you're tired of doing everything yourself. And if you are to that point and you are tired of doing everything yourself, this is your next move. So if you are a solo esthetician, I want you to know that this matters way more than you think. Because right now, I'm telling you, you're the provider, you are the scheduler, you're the front desk, you're also the problem solver, you're also the laundry, you're also the cleaner, and you're doing all of that all at the same time. And that is not just busy, that's actually unsustainable. Now, here is what happens so much is you think that the problem is I just need more clients. I feel like everybody says that. The truth is, is you don't have boundaries. Your business literally follows you home when you leave. Your brain never gets to shut off and rust. And because of that, you have no space to actually grow. This is the part that nobody talks about. You cannot grow a business if you do not have time to think. So when I hired my virtual receptionist, everything in my life shifted. Number one, I finally had boundaries. Let me tell you what that looked like. That boundaries looked like when my clients asked me if I could come in at eight o'clock at night. Nope, I sure can't. Because if they were to ask me, am I gonna do it? Yeah. If they're asking my virtual receptionist, she's gonna say no. The funny thing is, is like we're so afraid to say no to our clients. But like my virtual receptionist would say no all the time, and the clients never had any problem. And they always came back and they always booked. You want to know who's gonna hold the boundaries for you, is your virtual receptionist. So that when you are off, you are actually off. Number two, the reason why is because my business actually started feeling like a real business. It's not just me doing everything. You have somebody else that's in it carrying the load, trying to help you win. So, for example, when I'm sick, do I want to call all those clients and tell them I need a reschedule? Nope, I sure don't. But my virtual receptionist will, right? If I have a gap on my schedule, am I gonna just keep the gap because I don't want to do the work? Yep, I'm gonna do that. Will the virtual receptionist do that? No, she's going to try to fill that gap for me. Number three, and this one is big. My business grew because I added a virtual receptionist. And here is why. And this is just the plain truth straight across the board. I'm not lying about this. Go put it in your chat GPT. This is not a lie. You will show up for someone else faster than you will show up for yourself. I guarantee you. So when I hired my virtual receptionist, I felt this almost a little bit of a pressure that I need to make sure that I could pay her. I need to make sure that I can sustain her because she's counting on me. So I have to show up and I have to show up differently because when it's just me, I can disappoint myself all the time. But when it's like somebody else, I don't want to disappoint them. Isn't that sad how we're like that? Maybe you're not like that, but I'm like that. Still to this day, I work better if I have an employee working with me. But the truth is, is when you show when you have an employee, you will take things so much more seriously. You'll start running your business like it actually matters. There is an automatic shift. Now, let's talk about something that you might not be thinking about. Your clients. So this is something that I just was teaching one of my clients who is completely booked and we're talking about raising prices. There is only three reasons that a client will feel like you raising their prices is justified, right? One of those is when their experience with your business increases. Guess what? That's exactly what a virtual receptionist does. Your clients now they get faster responses. They don't feel like they're waiting on you. Have you ever called a company? Like this is me. I call a company and they don't answer, or I have to call them back, or I have to wait on them. The problem with that is that that problem or whatever I'm calling that company for has to stay on my brain and it carries weight, which means my plate can only carry so much weight before other things start to like drop off. Do you know what I'm saying? So, like that's the experience you're creating with your clientele when you're not there to respond right away. When you have a virtual receptionist, they get that instant response. They don't feel like they're waiting on you anymore. They have someone available to help them and they feel taken care of. I promise you, that is a different level of service for your clients. At first, you know, there's transition. My clients don't know my virtual receptionist, but eventually my virtual receptionist was sit on the phone and just sit there and talk to the clients. You know, especially those baby boomers. They love to sit there and talk. They loved her just as much as they loved me. There was a relationship with her too. And that is a different level of service. That is going to justify you raising and you hiring your prices. Now, I'm gonna make this really simple because I want you to think about this. Like, I really want you to like lean in. Okay. So a lot of people are like, I don't have money, like I'm not even taking home money myself, Kari. And you want me to pay for a virtual receptionist? Here, go with me for a second. Okay, let's just do math. Let's make it really simple. Let's say that you pay her $40 a week. That's what you pay her to be your virtual receptionist, and that covers a minimum of, say, like no matter what, if you're answering calls, not answering calls, you get like a minimum of like, I don't know, two hours, whatever. And I'm gonna pay you 40 hours or $40 a week. Let's say you just did that, right? You're telling, and let's say, and this is like where tracking your numbers would be really good, right? Because then you can figure out math. So if you're tracking your numbers, let's say you're making you're you're seeing 20 clients a week. All right. So if you're seeing 20 clients a week, you're telling me you can't raise your prices by $2 across the board. You can't raise all of your services by $2. You can. Your clients aren't even going to think twice about those $2 because this experience feels better to them. Now, here's the part I want you to really hear. Most of you think that your next step, because you're busy, is to hire an employee because you're exhausted, you need help, you don't have time. But the problem is you don't have time to actually train them. And guys, I am telling you, the training part of onboarding your employee requires a lot of your time. If you want them to stay, if you want them to have a good experience, if you want your clients to have a good experience, if you want them to represent your name, your onboarding is so going to matter. And if you don't have time to do that, then it's not going to go well. The employee is going to leave. You're wasting your time, you're wasting your money. That's what's going to happen, right? If you don't have the time to actually train. And when you're hiring because you're desperate, because you don't have time and you need someone to help carry your weight. Do you see the problem? So the right answer is you got to create time for yourself to be able to hire someone. Because the truth is, is if you don't have time to train, then you don't have the capacity to actually lead somebody. A virtual receptionist fixes that because guess what they do? They give you time, they give you space, and they give you breathing room. So when you're ready to hire, you actually can do it well. In addition, you now have a team of three people trying to build one person's schedule. It works so much better than you think. Listen, this does not have to be a complicated thing. You do not need full-time help, you do not need a big team, you do not need a big, huge system. You can start small and off-board just client communication. That's it. And that alone will change everything. Now, if you're listening to this and you're like, honestly, I think I need that, then listen, there's really only two ways to go about this. You can figure this out on your own. I did, right? Or you I have a course and it walks you through how to set this up, like the phone system and everything. You can go and use the code podcast for 50% off. Or if you're in a place where you're like, I don't want to guess, I just want to do this right. And I want to actually build a system in my business, then you can book a call with me and I will help you out with just this. But this is how you actually start building a business that doesn't rely on you for absolutely everything. Guys, that is your goal. Why did you my my mentor once asked me, like, why did you go into business? And I was like, I don't know. I'm gonna tell you there's only two reasons why people go into business. One, so that they can build a company and sell it and make money and make a profit, right? The other reason is so that they can hire people to do everything that they don't want to do so that they can do the one thing that they ultimately love. And when you're hiring people to do the things that you don't want to do, it needs to be something that they love to do, right? So if you're gonna hire a virtual receptionist, make sure that they like communications because that's their main role. And if this episode helped you at all, will you make sure to subscribe and leave me a review and keep on listening? I had an esthetician recently reach out to me and she's like, I google esthetician podcast, and your podcast didn't even come up. And then she's like, I heard you on a guest episode somewhere else. And so then I found your podcast, and I've literally been binging the last 50 episodes of yours. Guys, the reason why is because that's it's like a typical story because I need help with my Google reviews. And so if you're listening to this, help a girl out. Please go leave me a review on this podcast. And of course, subscribe. Oh, subscribe too. That's great too. But of course, keep listening because I'm gonna keep showing you how to grow this business of yours step by step. I'll see you guys next week on another esthetician podcast. Bye guys.

Announcer 17:25

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari's Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one on one VIP coaching opportunities, and more, visit www.karijo patterson.com. That's www.kar i jopatterson.com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.