Yeah... Bridal trials are a bit tricky to begin with, and to start a promotional period may sound like a good idea to get practice in, but in reality, in terms of marketing yourself, you need to promote yourself in a confident way. If you start offering free trials or money discounts, this will just send the message to any potential bridal customer that this MUA is new or not confident, so they will just end up going to the competition instead, in a heartbeat. Also she'll end up low balling the wedding industry and the wedding MUA's will just squeeze her out, as word-of-mouth is very effective. And wedding MUA's are a very small community in any city. Trust me on this, brides want the consultation done right the first time. Ever. Most times their "second opinion" will be there... As in their bride maid. Even then, there is a 30% chance they will go to another MUA. I also disagree with offering free make-up at events. Because make-up is expensive to begin with, especially when you're a free-lancer. The only time you see this type of promotion at events is when a make-up brand is a sponsor. And there are ways of getting into this as well, but too long for this post. I agree with the last part of displaying your rates and offering group discounts, however, this is best negotiated with each bride. I say let missyxoxo get her practice in on the one to two people she is doing now, who knows, in two months from now she could be working at a counter gaining experience, getting paid, and building her kit, and she could be doing bridal consults and weddings on the weekends... As there are a lot of potential new brides that visit counters... Good effort though on how do I make money as a fresh newbie option. Perhaps at festivals and at special community events, but not for bridal consults... Too risky to loose this cash cow in the beginning.