MEREDITH SABIR: Professional Makeup Artist & Entrepreneur

Meredith Sabir is a local professional makeup artist with 13 years of experience in the beauty industry. She does makeup for all occasions (weddings, events, beauty, and fashion) and has worked with some of the most celebrated figures in the entertainment industry. Meredith’s celebrity clients include Kindred the Family Soul, Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, and Will Downing. Empowerment Group sat down recently with the makeup maven to chat about being a female entrepreneur, balancing career and family life, and how she made beauty her business.

As she describes it, Meredith fell into makeup. “I always wore makeup, did friends’ hair… I was always a girly girl.” Prior to working as a makeup artist, Meredith was a model; during those days she gained valuable experience doing her own makeup and creating looks on herself. She would watch professional makeup artists who worked on models and knew she was capable of doing a much better job. Unfortunately, she never realized when she was younger that makeup was a possibility as a career and business. No one talked about jobs in the arts when she was growing up in West Philly. “Parents don’t really tell you that because they don’t want you to struggle.” She does stress that being a makeup artist and entrepreneur is difficult, especially when freelancing and aren’t receiving a regular paycheck.

She worked at Strawbridge’s at the Prescriptives counter. “That was my first job,” Meredith reminisces. She was very fortunate, only spending a short time at Strawbridge’s before being recruited to work at MAC Cosmetics. “The trainer from MAC came and sat down in my chair at the counter. I did her face and didn’t even know it.” MAC has an extensive interview process, but she eventually landed the job and stayed with the company from 1999 to 2003. Sabir says that most MUAs (makeup artists) don’t work at MAC for long unless their goal is to move up within the company. “If you really want to be a makeup artist you start to get frustrated because you’re in the store all the time selling makeup.” She began freelancing and soon realized that what she made is one day is more than what she would earn in a week working at the store. When Meredith left MAC in July of 2003, she already had some major connections in the industry. She did make up for BET’s hit television show Mad Sports. Though shortly after leaving her job, she had her first son. She states that had become pregnant earlier, she doubts that she would have had the courage to quit her job and make the leap.

It was a while before she saw the first signs of success, juggling both her family and burgeoning career. She was a stay-at-home mom for the first couple years. “Women go through this with having children. “That’s one of the challenges women face with having children and running a business. You kind of have to put things on hold.” For her business, she tries to set smaller goals which bring her closer to large goals. Her next goal is to sign with a larger agency in New York. Meredith feels like she’s accomplished a lot in Philly, but she’s more than ready to go to the next level and she’s not losing sight of her ultimate dream. “It’s so easy to lose sight of where you want to be. You don’t have a manager, or an assistant manager… you report to yourself!”

To keep her creativity sharp, Meredith turns to numerous sources when she needs inspiration. “The internet is great…old movies, old pictures of my Grandmom, my mother…” She says.  Meredith loves classically beautiful makeup and creating glamorous looks for her clients. While she’s capable of avant garde and edgy looks, the beauty pro most loves making women look pretty and feminine. We asked her what skills are necessary to succeed in the industry. She said 20% of what you need is skill, and the other 80% is personality. Eight-five percent of her work is from referral. In order to build your business, Meredith states that it’s imperative to maintain a good reputation so people will want to work with you. Reputation is everything in this industry, and being nice goes a long way.

However, Sabir says her greatest mistake thus far is being too nice. She has come to learn that in business, you sometimes have to be tough. “People will take everything they can get from you.” She’s learned the hard way to always protect herself with contracts. She says that sometimes people expect her to work for free in exchange for exposure. She’s learned through the years to be more business minded.

In the next five years, Meredith would love to be in New York working. When her youngest son enters school this fall, she has plans to do more work in New York and elsewhere outside of Philly. “I would call myself super successful,” Meredith states, but she already has an impressive resume. She’s in the process of building up her contacts in the Big Apple. We asked her if she had any advice for women looking to turn their hobby or passion into a business. “Know your worth,” Meredith stated. She strongly believes it’s important to know so you’re not scared to charge for what you do. “If you don’t know your worth, you won’t be respected.”

To learn more about Meredith Sabir, visit her website www.meredithsabir.com or check her out on Facebook.

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