Proper planning: here's how to avoid December stress.

With December approaching, a challenging time lies ahead of you as a beauty specialist. After all, most women want to look their best at Christmas dinner. Fortunately, by taking the right steps in time, you can effortlessly avoid the dreaded December stress.

Whether you are an eyebrow specialist, hairdresser or nail technician, December is busy, chaotic and often stressful. This is only natural, since it is tradition that people want to look their best at Christmas and New Year's Eve, and no expense is spared. So it's up to you to provide your clients with beautiful brows and/or lashes in one month.

Good preparation is part of the solution to minimize stress. Read our 6 tips.

Encourage your clients to book their appointments for the holiday season. After all, you don't want regular clients to miss out.

By reminding your clients of the importance of booking on time, you can assure them of the perfect eyebrows. After all, there's nothing more annoying than regular clients who want to schedule an appointment at the last minute when you're already completely booked up.

At the end of their treatment, ask them to book now, send out a newsletter and dedicate a post or story to it on Instagram.

Lots of appointments also means lots of products going through. That's why it's important to keep your stock up. It would be a shame if that one jar of Brow Henna just ran out when you need it for the next client. It's better to buy a little too much product than to end up finding out you have too little. Also, because the mail is often a bit delayed in December: order on time, and avoid stress.

Even more than usual, make sure your workplace is neat and organized. So that you have everything you need in your hands in no time and appointments run out less. And make sure you have plenty of supplies of cotton ball, cotton swabs and gloves on your work table. Plus a supply of clean tweezers, brushes and scissors.

The better prepared, the less you have to leave your place to restock supplies, or - worse - search for them, and the less stress.

If possible, plan some extra days in December or regularly work 2 extra hours to be able to help all your clients. But if your December schedule is booked up, you'll always have to deal with clients wanting to get in between jobs.

Still, stick to your predetermined times to avoid getting overworked. After all, you're already making extra hours, and there are limits. Especially if you've gone out of your way to let your clients know they need to book on time.

In any case, don't feel obligated to help everyone. You only have two hands, and at some point full really is full.

Around the holidays, it is always nice to give your customers something extra as a token of appreciation. Think about it now, so you still have enough time to buy or make presents. For example:

• Nice card with a photo of you and/or the team and a New Year's greeting on it.
• Nice Christmas ball with a card.
• Lip balm with your logo.
• Face mask in a nice pouch.
• Samples of skin care products.
• Nail file.
• Chocolates with your logo on them.

Your work days will be quite full in December, leaving little room for walk-outs. Therefore, it is important that your clients arrive on time. Don't be afraid to point this out to your clients. Put this in the confirmation and reminder so that you minimize walk-outs.

A gift certificate always does well under the Christmas tree. Don't have them yet? Consider having them printed. For example, at Drukzo. Are you already selling gift vouchers? Make sure you have enough in stock. Nice extra income in December!

It's actually the same every year: early January is quiet in the salon. Most clients have just gone for Christmas and can take January off. To avoid having a lot of gaps in your schedule: consider taking a vacation the first week of January, or shut down some days. That way you can rest from the busy December month.

You can also use the quiet days to do bookkeeping or other jobs that were left over in December. Or decide with the team to give the salon a good cleaning, take a course or learn a new technique.