How to Cold Call to Get Hair & Makeup Jobs

So what is a cold call you might ask? A cold call is a common term used in business that refers to calling people you don’t know in order to find work. I know it may not sound appealing. To some of you it probably sounds down right frightening. I once had an assistant who didn’t even feel comfortable calling up new members of The Hair & Makeup Artist Network to welcome them to the network. She said, “I don’t like those types calls where your are telling them, hi I’m calling you, you don’t know me, but….” It was simply too far outside of her comfort zone to do it. But what if you don’t have any clients and you really don’t know a whole lot of people who can refer you work? What do you do? This is something you will have to face at some point of your career if not many times. We are self-employed. This means we have to hunt down the work. I don’t care if you are just getting out of school or if you have been working for a while. You will have to hustle to get the jobs and it doesn’t stop. Clients come and go. Production companies open and close and production people change jobs everyday. So the job search never stops. Here is how you find the job through cold calling:

1. Decide what type of work you really want to do (film, TV, print, commercial celebrity)
2. Make a list of companies or photographers you would like to work for
3. Call the company and find out who hires for Hair or Makeup (if you already don’t know)
4. Ask the person if they are crewing up for anything in the near future or ask if they have any projects coming up
5. Tell the person you would like to send over a link to your website
6. Only send a link to the page/ pages that are most relevant to the work the company or photographer does (if you can)
7. Ask what is the best way and time to follow up
8. Add this person or company into your contact database (outlook or entourage is really great for this)
9. Make a note to follow up at the time suggested in the conversation
10. Make sure you follow up on a regular basis (this is best either once a month or especially when you have new work to show)

It may sound scary or dull to do but this is how all businesses operate across the globe. If you want the clients you have to be proactive and persistent! If you aren’t willing to do this and the phone isn’t ringing with job offers, you have no one but your self to blame for your lack of employment. You can convince yourself there isn’t any work and blame it on the economy but the truth is that you create your own reality so make the cold calls. You will be glad you did.

Michelle Lee
For more career advice visit: www.hmartistsnetwork.com