Best Practices After Graduating Cosmetology School

click image to zoom You can plan for success, but sometimes failure happens, says Patrick McIvor, artistic & techniCulture director for Goldwell and KMS California. Even though we rise and we fall, when we hit a speed bump in the journey to success it doesn’t mean you should give up. Remember your short-term and long-term goals as you enter the wide world of beauty. Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? Remember that success doesn’t happen overnight and doesn’t get handed to you—it’s earned. Here, McIvor shares with FIRST CHAIR his six best practices you should be doing after you graduate from cosmetology school.

Find a Mentor: Learn from the best. You cannot repay great experiences and knowledge learned.

Create a Professional Online Presence: Utilize Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter. It’s free advertising!

Put your work on the right people: It gets talent noticed and noticed talent gets famous.

Learn how to shoot a photo, video and write blogs: If you can't capture your work and ideas, no one is going to see them.

Don’t worry if you’re not doing it right. Just worry if you’re complaining about not doing it: If you want to do something, do it—a photo shoot, fashion show, expansion, renovation or attract more guests. Don't sit in the backroom complaining about it, GO DO IT.

Try everything once, figure out what you love, and then be the BEST at that: When I was in beauty school, I was so bad at color that I was not allowed to foil. I actually have a trophy for styling hair, so I am so glad I tried everything and fell in love with color.