How to influence your visitors to make them buy hair

How to influence your visitors to make them buy hair

How to influence your visitors to make them buy hair

The great thing of selling hair extensions is you can be busy all day with beautiful products and interesting people. But of course, at the end of that day you want to be sure you also sold beauty products and hair extensions. You want to make them buy hair!

You can’t hurry clients to buy

It might take some time, especially if the number of visitors to your shop is still below the required level, before you get a deal done. You can´t hurry love but you can´t hurry clients in buying your hair either! True, but you can help them in making that decision and by not turning their eyes to another shop in the meantime.

The decision-making process of purchasing

The decision-making process of purchasing an iPhone, a can of milk or your hair extensions is for all people the same. They only make other decisions at the end. The process to make your clients buy hair is similar and here you can enjoy if you want to offer great products like your hair extensions.

Know what your clients think that will make them buy hair

Step into the head of your customers and see what they think:
At first, in the early stage of buying your new visitors wants to know what you do.

(1) They are on a discovery journey to know what you are selling.
They perform some initial research (2) and
gather information (3). In this stage, the potential client is getting aware of you and your shop.

All-In-One Package to start selling hair today

Hair Samples, supporting material, templates and coaching, all you need to start your hair business

Tip One to make clients buy your products

Make it easy for your new visitor to remember your shop. Hand over a business card or put a flyer on the counter in a way even a shy person can fetch a copy. For your website do not forget to include social media buttons on your home page. And of course, select a name for your (web)shop that will impress.

In the next phase, people want to know if your product offering is an interesting one for them. Now they are going to

(4) compare your selling proposition with offers from other shops, and they will come back to take a
(5) closer look at your hair extensions and to (6) compare prices.

If visitors return to your shop, they are becoming more important to you. They are interested by your offering and they are not buying yet, but it is for sure you made a good impression. Well done, you are most likely to succeed to make them buy hair!

Tip Two turn them into returning visitors who will buy hair

Let returning visitors feel you appreciate they returned to your shop. Have a chat and let them know you have seen them before. For your website, you should have buttons that allow people to share your offer with others. Many people do not make the decision to buy something all by themselves; they want the opinion of their best friends for example. Check google analytics on the evolution of returning visitors.

By the way, if you look for a professional webstore to sell your hair, I recommend to try 14 days for free with Shopify

Now they are ready to make their first buy in your shop, but before they hand over the money they want to be sure they can trust you and the extensions you offer.

They will (7) ask you even more questions or
they (8) want samples. At this stage, it is important to
have some (9) testimonials. How did other people feel about their purchase of your hair?

Tip Three convince with before and after images to make them buy hair

Come with some beautiful before and after pictures or pictures about a hair event or hair party you have organized. The more people on the pictures the better, if they smile! Or consider a professional photoshoot! If you have certificates in the field of hair dressing and extensions, please mention them. This is also the moment to refer to your return policy.

And now they are ready, 10 steps in their mind further, but you made it till the end, congratulations!

And now on your way to the next client!

You can Start Your Own Hair Shop , Because I Believe in You!

You can Start Your Own Hair Shop , Because I Believe in You!

You can Start Your Own Hair Shop, Because I Believe in You!

If you are launching a hair business or managing your hair shop for growth, new business ideas run through your brain each and every day. A better after sales idea or an awesome design idea for your webstore! Sometimes, we come across a few particular ideas that we just can’t stop thinking about – because they are that good!
Constant brainstorming, rapid note taking and visions of success are all symptoms of this.

Many times, however, after a couple of days or even a couple of months, the motivation behind these great ideas just seems to die out and never evolve into the next step. It’s kind of sad, because for sure many of those ideas were awesome, money-making ideas and would have helped your future clients. It would have helped you to start your own hair shop.

If we can understand why this happens, then I think we can stop the momentum from slowing down and start taking things to the next level. Here are 5 main reasons why I think ideas in our head take a turn for the worse:

1. We’re Not Seeing Any Results

We live in a time where we all want things to happen FAST. For example, a search for Brazilian wefts takes only 0,00014 seconds in a Google search and it’s what we’re used to.
Ideas take time to materialize, so quitting or giving up before anything even begins to happen is a sure-fire way to kill a great idea. Remember what your goals are and why you were so excited about your idea in the first place.
One trick I learned is to map out a road map. Write down the steps you think it takes to get to where you want to go and you’ll see that you’re only in the beginning phases of the entire process. But, seeing the rest of your “roadmap”, including your goal, on paper will definitely give you the boost you need to keep going.

2. We’re Unsure of What to Do Next

This happens all of the time, but it definitely shouldn’t stop us. We’ve just reached a hurdle, and we just should do a little more research or simply ask someone for help, in order to jump over it.
Also, you can go back to your “road map” and see what the next steps are. And remember to take things step by step.

3. We Just Don’t Care Anymore

For whatever reason, you’ve lost sight of why you’re working so hard. When it comes to motivation, here’s what you can do:
o Remember why you were so excited about your idea in the first place! Imagine what life will be like at the end of the tunnel.
o Read an inspirational book or watch an inspiring movie.
o Display your favourite quotes. On my PC I have a post-it with: “Fall seven times and stand up eight” written on it and seeing this gets me going again.
o Talk it out with someone. If you’re feeling low on energy, sometimes all we need is a pick me up from a friend.
o Take a quick break. We often work on something so much that we forget why we’re doing it. Take a day or two off and you’ll often see the motivation come back in no time.

4. We’re Not Sure if Our Idea is as great as We Thought it was

Maybe you’re having second-thoughts about your idea. Maybe it’s not as awesome as you thought. This is the thought that pops into my head more often than the others and it’s definitely a downer. But here’s what you can do to keep your idea alive.
Simply put – think positive thoughts if you think positively, positive things will happen to you!
Also, you should realize that you’re not going to succeed unless you give it a try. What’s the worst that can happen?

5. We See Someone Else Doing Something Similar and It Seems Better

Okay, so someone “stole’ your idea, but it doesn’t matter. Because:
o That fact that you see someone else doing something similar to what you had in mind is actually a good thing!
In fact, it shows that it was such a great idea, that others are already using it to make money for themselves. There’s a proven market for it and now it’s your turn to join in. All you have to be better.
o The Website Designers Theory: Ever noticed how many website designers there are in your neighbourhood and most of them are in business for many years already? This proofs: you don’t need have a unique idea in order for it to succeed. And if there a need for something, there’s always room for more options and solutions in the market. For this I always recommend to compete on service and quality. You can more easily differentiate on these selling points than on price.
o Lastly, all you have to do is make yours better. Learn from the competition and think about why people will choose to visit your extensions shop and purchase from you, instead of from someone else.

I know this was a rather long post and I do apologize about that. But I hope you would agree that staying on course is essential to achieve your goal to start your own hair shop. Jumping over hurdles is the backbone for the success of any business or blog, which is why I spent some extra time on this post.

Good luck with the start of your own hair Store

Start now with the all-in-one hair business package

Hair samples, supporting material, coaching and templates, all you need to start your own hair shop

Sell more hair with the same number of visitors

Sell more hair with the same number of visitors

There are two ways to generate more hair sales. One way is to try to attract as many visitors as possible to your website. The other way to improve the effectiveness of your hair webstore to boost sales with the same number of visitors. With conversion rate optimization, you aim on the latter.

Of course, you can do both. Let’s first focus on how to get more hair extension sales with the people who already visit your website.



Test, test and test

Conversion rate optimization is not a one-off exercise, you should keep on testing the path your visitors follow before they convert into a client. This is the sales funnel.

Thanks to conversion rate optimization you will be able to learn how to adapt your:
– website pages,
– font,
– images to earn more money.
You will test every or option, until you find the best converting, read sales generating page.

It will surprise you even a small change might have a huge impact. Changing a word in your call to action button can increase the conversion ratio to 200 percent or more. Or change color, from read instead of green!

Do not trust your gut feeling. Better to use the possibilities of Google Analytics to read the mind of your clients and to sell more.
There is no limit in the number of tests you can run, you can test headlines, button colors, other images and much more.

Why would you spend time on conversion rate optimization?

The competition on the internet is fierce, especially in the hair extensions business.

To drive a growing number of visitors to your website will need a growing budget for advertisements or time create content.

If you manage to seduce your current visitors to buy more, you do not need to invest extra money or time. Once you found the best conversion option, your investment in advertisements and content will generate many times their investment. It’s the best of both worlds.

Suppose your hair extensions store has 1,000 visitors a month. You can find this number with Google Analytics. From these visitors, 5 (or 0,5%) buy hair and generate $ 1,500 sales. Increase this conversion rate to 8% and you will be able to get 8 clients from the same 1,000 visitors generating $2,400 sales. Wit the same number of visitors.

The great thing is you do not need to lower your price or to sell other hair to get more sales. You optimized your sales funnel and you can make more money. Without spending more money or time per client. In fact, your expenses to get a client will reduce and you can use this money not only to generate more profit but also to invest in advertisement.



How to test

A/B testing is the method where you use two different variations of a web page or landing page. Each page should get the same number of visitors. After several visitors have visited page A or page B you then measure the conversions for each variation. The page with the highest number of conversions, this can be email sign up, but also sales is the winner. Now you will only use this page to enjoy the high conversion rate of this page variation.
This method is not the same as a before and after test, you change a page and see the number of conversions of the new version to be higher or lower. Because you do not test the page at the same time with the same audience, every before and after test has less quality. Image you get in one week a lot of visitors but they are not the people that will buy hair.

Check on the competition

Of course, you can check what others do, learn from the competition, but this is not without any risk. You do not know the kind of visitors who visit the website of the competition, or the number. Your website will have another design and colors. Any change should be considered in line with all the elements of the website.

When is the test useful?

Every modification of your website that influences the conversion should be tested. If the page is a part of your sales funnel, please be sure you include this page in a test. Never ever trust your own gut feeling, better to ask all your website visitors for their opinion. The test results can be used to back any discussion or brainstorm session. Make sure to only focus on the goal of your website. If you want to increase the hair sales, analyse the steps from the landing on your website to the cart.

I would like to start hair business

I would like to start hair business

Have you been thinking about “ I would like to start hair business ” more than 3 times last three weeks, I fear you should start to act. Thinking so many time about “ I would like to start hair business ” means you are serious and have the passion to start selling hair extensions.

Step One, start dreaming

The first step, if you are serious and you like to start a hair business, is to start dreaming. Imagine how your store will look like, how will it be different from the other hair stores. Dream about how you will make your clients happy and turn them into loyal clients.



There are no boundaries, everything is possible in this dream. Use your right hemisphere of the brain. On the right side, all your creativity and tasks that are involved in arts are located on this side of your brain.
You can help yourself in this creative part of the start of your own hair business by searching on the internet of all kinds of available stores, or treat yourself on a tour through your town and visit some existing hair businesses.

Click on the ads on this page to get inspired by sample stores

In this step, you will visualize your store and your clientele and the hair you will be selling. This is very important because all the next steps will only be the road towards this ideal store you have been dreaming about.

Step Two, use the left hemisphere of the brain

Dreaming is good, to start creating is better. In this step, you will write down your dream, this is the start of your business plan. So now “ I would like to start hair business “ will change to “I start a hair business “. In this step you challenge your dream, is it possible to create this business? Do the first calculations to see if the dream can be realistic. How much money and time will you need to make it work?

No need to calculate everything, but do your first reality check, and finetune your dream. Do not forget the basic idea, because that is the core of your new business. But shape the dream into a plan selling hair that might work.

Step Three, find your ideal client

You will only sell hair, or anything else if there are people in the market in need for your hair. In this step, you will create a profile of the client that will always buy your hair. Do not use a fantasy person, because this person will never come to your store. Better to connect with your friends and people that you consider as potentially interested in your store. Understand their needs, their preferred way of communication and what lines you will use to introduce your store and the solution you have.

Get a free template to find your ideal client as extra gift of my eBook “From Dream to Your Own Hair Extensions Business, in Only 10 Days”

If you have a good profile of your ideal client you have done 50% of a successful launch of your business, now you only need a good supplier and an online store to start selling.



Step four, wholesale hair extensions

For a wholesale supplier and hair sample all you need is go to the special page for hair suppliers and get hair suppliers in your inbox. One supplier for free or more for a small fee. With the hair, your clients need you can open the doors of your business. Do not forget the most creative task of opening a hair store

Last step of ” I would like to start hair business “, open your store

You need a good name to start selling, a name for your store people will not only notice, a name that they will find if they are looking on the internet for a hair extensions business that will take care of all their needs. Because you built your hair business around your ideal client, the name and the website will make sure you will get the right visitors to your hair store

Check store names

I need all the support I can get on how to start hair extension business

I need all the support I can get on how to start hair extension business

Home ( Page 23 )
“I have a cosmetic store and I want to go into the sale of weaves and wigs. I need all the support I can get on how to start hair extension business”.

This question Eva left below a post, and she is not the only one in need of support to start to sell hair extensions. In this post you, and Eva, will not only find the support available but also what you can do yourself.

Support for every stage your company is in

A company evolves, from idea to multiple shops. For every stage, you can find relevant information on the website. On the home page, you can find 6 different buttons, every button is the portal to information fully dedicated to the different stages.



For example, if you are in the initial stage of starting your own business, you can find a lot of practical and inspirational information under the light bulb. If you are ready to plan the start of your business click on the toolbox and find all the information on how to prepare the launch of your hair business. Here you can read all support on how to start hair extension business.

For business owners, who already are selling hair extensions there is the dollar sign. Click on the dollar sign and learn how to deal with unhappy clients and to let the world know you are in the hair business.
If your hair business is stable, you can go for growth, sell more hair and make more clients happy. Click on the symbol of a graph to learn how to grow your hair extensions business.
To multiple your success, click on the button with the two pictures, scale your business into a higher level, a second store or second home market.

eBook about how to start hair extension business

If you want a guide to start selling hair extensions, you can read how to start your hair extensions shop in the eBook “From Dream to Your Own Hair Extensions Business, in Only 10 days”. Read about all the important steps to take to start your own hair business. How to define your ideal clients, learn from the competition and much more. This eBook is a great and very affordable guide to support you to become a successful hair seller.

Hair Extensions Business Coach

If you prefer a swift answer on your questions on how to start a hair business, call your own personal mentor. For only 1 dollar per minute you can get a direct answer on all your questions, from the design of a website, to attract more clients or on how to find a good supplier. You are your own boss, but you are not alone. All you need is to schedule the call at the time convenient for you, transfer the fee and get all the support you want. Benefit from the experience of many hair extensions store, wholesale and manufactures. From all over the world, available for you thanks to your hair extensions business coach.

Save money on support on how to start hair extension business

If you run your business you always look on how to improve your bottom line and to save time. If you want the eBook, business plan templates, hair suppliers and a coach, try the Hair Extensions Business Package our all-in-one solution for everybody who want to save money and support on how to start hair extension business.

Start selling hair extension products

Start selling hair extension products

Do you dream about selling hair extension products? Like wigs, weaves, clip ins or any other extension method? But you lack the funds to start your business?

If you have the idea to start selling hair extension products, we give you the hair to start! How would that be?

Invalid reasons not to start

Too many good business ideas never make it to the market because the person with the idea thinks, it’s:

– too risky

– too expensive

– too much time

HowToSellHairExtensions does not want you to be that person. We want you to succeed to turn your dream into a store that sells hair extension products.

No risk

First, the only risk you run is to meet a lot of new people. People that want to talk hair with you. People interested in the hair extensions, wigs and other products you sell. If you have the right plan we can help you to put the business structure in place to turn enough of these people into clients. A business structure that will support your growth.

First hair for free

You have a great plan to change the market for hair extension products for ever? HowToSellhairExtensions will help you if needed with a supplier and free hair. This will reduce your start-up expenses and you can focus on selling as from day one!

Mother’s Day Gift, till the 20st of May you can get a free website if you find a great name and register your company name using our support page for shop names.

Save time selling hair extension products

There is a lot to-do when you start your hair business. But if you create a community around your brand and with the right plan you will not only save time, you will also create a business ready for growth.

What’s next? Step back and think about how you can change the hair extension market. And visit our Free hair 4 start ups age. If you need support to find a good idea you will find ways to support you too,

Tell me are you ready to change the hair extension market?

Mother’s day Business Ideas

Mother’s day Business Ideas

Home ( Page 23 )
All over the world this is the time to say thank you to your mother. If you run a hair store this is a great opportunity to help your clients find what they need to show their mothers how grateful they are. Read how to sell more hair thanks to Mother’s day

Here are a few creative Mother’s Day business ideas for hair business owners:

1. Help your client to find a present for the mother that has it all! Share suggestions for children, spouses and others looking to buy something for Mother, but have no clue what to buy! Have a special flyer within reach.

2. Offer a special combination of products or services for moms, offered at a discount over each item purchased .

3. Free gift-wrapping is always handy and welcome (especially for busy spouses with limited time to sneak away to wrap mom’s gift).

4. Create an event for children to come inside your store and select items for mom. Offer a special discount to children, or offer a special low-priced selection to kids. This will bring spouses into your business that may also be looking for a gift.

5. If you’re offering a service, consider creating a tangible gift that a spouse or child can wrap up to give to their mothers. Ig you are a salon, you can offer a gift basket with the purchase of a hair treatment.

6. As the entrepreneur, if you know your customer or client is a mother, why not recognize them with a special gift, card, or invitation?

7. Host a special event for mothers at your store. Make it a big event (and kid friendly) as to drive traffic and interest.

Let me know in the comments if you are a mother yourself. Happy Mother’s day from me too and a free website if you select a domain name on the hair store name page!

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Owe an online hair extensions business, that does not owe you!

Owe an online hair extensions business, that does not owe you!

You run an online hair extensions business, so you are your own boss, right? Question, how many hours a week does this business owe you? How long is your working week? Do you want to run a business, or do you want to be self-employed for the rest of your days?

You need to factor in all the time you work. Including answering emails on your smartphone, while waiting in the queue. Or the time at night you worry about the sales. This is all time that the online hair extensions business takes from you.

Do you still feel the passion for running your own online hair extensions business? Or does it feel like you are working for a boss again, like you are a slave of your business? Do you belong to the people who thought business owners have complete freedom? That business owners can decide when they work and when not? Now you are in business, does it still feel like that? Or is the hair business, dictating your calendar?

Holiday

One simple question? When was the last time you did not work in the weekend? When was your last holiday that lasted longer than 2 days and felt like a holiday?

Do you feel your online hair extensions business has taken over control? If the answer is yes, you did not build a business but created a job with less days off than your previous job!

An online hair extensions business does not have to be a job.

In the beginning of your own hair business you must work long hours, that’s the bitter truth. Everything is coming your way and you should deal with everything. No freedom, no control, no day off. Fun, excitement, doubts and disappointments is filling this time.

After this stage, you will start to get your grip back on life. You will learn the tasks to perform and how to embed them in your business. But you will still have to work long hours, because you cannot delegate this to anybody else.

If you feel you are in control and you know what tasks you can delegate to others, or automatize, you will also get back your freedom. Now you are your own boss of your online hair extensions business. This hair business will operate also when you are not around.

Stop driving sales!

It seems odd but the best way to regain control and freedom is to stop being the machine that feeds your business. Stop driving for sales, all by yourselves. If you do not manage to halt being the only source for new business, you will never be able to scale your business.

You need to have a business that is generating value for your clients but also is ready to grow.

I mentioned it before, you get the best ideas when you can relax. Step away from day to day business. Is it clear WHY you want an online hair extensions business? It’s amazing how your brains will work for you if you imagine, what the goal is of all the effort you put in the business.

What would be in it for you, your loved ones and clients if your business was a machine build for growth? A hair business that was not consuming all your time?

Wrong ideas that keep you from your own online hair extensions business

What can hold you back from the big step to create a business that runs like a machine?

-The risk.

A real business might fail because a huge number of businesses do not make it their second or third year.

Okay, but that is because most of the business owners have:
no clear model, few skills, no mentors or advisors, and an inadequate support system.

In other words, it’s not the businesses that fail them. They fail their businesses because they don’t invest the time and energy in themselves as owners. They work hard, but they work hard at the wrong things. They work at the job of doing their business, not at their role as a business owner. It’s not about hard work, it’s about smart work!

Create a community around you of people that support you. Invest to strengthen your skills, this will reduce the risk you fail as a business owner.

– Too much time

You need to invest time to turn an idea into an online hair extensions business. But you need to create a hair business, not become self-employed. This means you should build a business that will function well without you. With every step you take, think on how it can be done without you. This is the great thing of an online business; many operations are constructed you do not even have to be there! Like an automated shopping cart on your website, or payment module.

– How to stay in control of all this?

Stop to think you need to be in control of every detail of your online hair extensions business. Instead, learn to build your business with the systems, team, controls, and scalable solutions in place that enable it to operate independent of your autocratic control. The more you build for personal control, the more you’re trapped into being there daily to exercise that control and to run your business. If all decisions and key actions must come back through you, then you become the single greatest bottleneck inside your own business.

– I do not have the money

Again, an online hair extensions business has many advantages, you can not only automate many tasks, you do not need too much money to start. Many business started with a capital of $ 10,000 or less. Focus on your expenses and see how you can create a community of business owners where every business owner helps each other with the tools and expertise in house. Or what about crowd funding?

Ready to start?

Are you ready to grown your online hair business? Check the Business Package now!

Sell More Hair on YouTube

Sell More Hair on YouTube

Sell your hair on YouTube, this is an awesome channel for selling hair. If you show only hair extensions on images, you miss the opportunity to share the real beauty of your hair.

Let’s check how this work

Take Jack for example. Jack sells hair extensions from China with very entertaining videos on YouTube.

Make a YouTube video only for one person

It’s very important to connect with your audience, make them feel you recorded the video only for them. This makes it again very important you know your audience, who is your ideal client?

If you are on the market and you see somebody you know, isn’t it fun if she waves only at you? Getting noticed, is the feeling you need to give to your audience. It’s not that difficult, all you need to do is to imagine, your ideal client sitting in front of you.

Get free template to find and connect with your ideal client template together with our eBook

So, record the video for only one person, your ideal client and you will notice the connection.

Focus

Try to focus on one hair product, one topic or one service in every video. Do not try to put all your knowledge and all your expertise in one YouTube video. First you do some research, the same as for your website search engine optimization. What is it your audience is looking for. Use Google AdWords, or your own newsletter to get input. If you know what the struggle is your clients are facing, the next you should do is to do some research on the solution. Show them you are the expert who can solve all their problems.

Make it entertaining

Jack is using small jokes to make the information he is sharing easier to digest. Remember College, where did you learn most from. The teacher who was very strict and followed the book, or the one that made you feel good and relaxed?

No need to be Trevor Noah. Or my personal favorite team member Jordan Klepper. A small joke will do miracles. The longer they wait the better conversion ratio’s. This could be a higher number of subscribers, or even clients.

Subscribe

Do not forget to give your audience a clear call to action at the end of the video. If they like what they see, their unconscious will keep on asking, what’s next? Use this inner voice and give your audience a clear action to do. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, or sign up for the newsletter. Or what about try our special hair test offer!

Your own YouTube Channel

Share with me your thoughts about the clips from Jack. Does he gives you inspiration for your YouTube channel?

No Mother’s Day?

No Mother’s Day?

For some Sundays now you can find me, after church, on the soccer field. There is a group of nearly 30 young men and adults who were forced to leave their home country. They are refugees from Syria, who found shelter in our town, as many do whole over Europe and North America.

In January, I met a small group of them, and they told me it was so hard to integrate in my home town. When they wished good day to the neighbors, they did not get any response in return. When they shared cards with new year’s greetings, they did not receive any card in return. The people from the community want them to integrate. They want to get something in return for the hospitality offered and the expenses made. But they do not make it easy for them. At least not all of them.

The Language

The main hurdle to participate with the local community is the language and the understanding of our culture. So, we started to look for activities the language was not that important and there would still be a common place to work, to play and to meet each other. And as there were only men participating, the answer was … let’s play soccer.
The charity foundation I run organized a soccer field managed by one of the soccer teams in our town. We agreed to use the field and facility’s every Sunday afternoon, for three weeks in a row. We had to pay, to avoid inequality with the other members of the facilities. The regular visitors of the soccer club already asked a lot of questions about the new users of the fields. It was important to avoid any feeling of discrimination.

Church sponsored the games

It did not take me long to convince my Church to sponsor the use of the soccer field. I am very grateful and started to think on how to repay them.
This Sunday the regional newspaper came to take pictures and to write an article. Because it’s very important to have the right publicity about the refugees and guests in our community I invested a lot of time upfront to make it work. I asked the board of the soccer team to join the interview to explain their position, I invited some people to watch the game and organized the press contact.

The press

This afternoon the press was on the soccer field and they shot a lot of pictures of the men from Syria. It was nice to see the refugees talking Dutch during the interview, with a little help from their kids who are much more fluent in the language. The board members of the soccer club shared their frustration about the limited freedom the refugees had to do work, paid or on a voluntary basis. They had many difficult talks with the city council to work with the refugees. But the good thing was they all agreed this opportunity to play soccer and learn Dutch was the right step towards participation in the local community.

No Mother’s day this year

After the game, I had an idea on how they could do a return favor to the church. Next week in The Netherlands it’s Mother’s Day. I would ask them, or their wives, to bake cookies for the church. But first I had to tell them about how special next week Sunday was. I told them about Mother’s Day. But I was surprised by their response. The expressions on their faces changed. The happiness was gone, Mother’s Day? My mother is back in Syria, where every day the regime drops bombs. I understood to integrate is less easy as it seems. I decided to think of another way to do a favor in return. Mother’s Day is not a day to celebrate for everybody this year.