New to this today, and am looking for good advice from people who know! I am a fully qualified beauty therapist, NVQ 3 trained, i do not do acrylic nails however! I am currently working in my first beauty job in a small salon where i have completed my apprenticeship! I am now looking to move on in my career, but am unsure what and where to go?
I was interested in going to do a Cruise ship....but am unsure whether people have enjoyed there time onboard? I am very motivated and am full of my own ideas and ideally would like to become self employed but am unsure where to go with this?! I have seen an advert for a Beauty therapist to work on a self employed basis in Fitness First, but I don't know what this company is like to work for??? See advice needed desparately!!

Hiya

Dont know if my advice will be much good as Im a mobile therapist but I have a lot of friends in the industry who've done a lot of things so thought I'd give you what they've done and maybe that will help!!

From what I can gather, cruise ships are a great place to get experience but its long hours and hard work (as are most jobs!) and they rely a lot on retailing. Which is fine, if you're good at it! Also, the tips on some cruise ships are very good - obviously depending on the client. I would have loved to go on a cruise ship but I already had a little girl who was 1 when I started in beauty so obviously, the two dont go very well!

Fitness First, I think, are quite a good company to go for in that they help you with marketing and setting up and stuff but you rent a room from them, you dont work for them as such. So you'd still be self employed, be responsible for all your stock, appointments etc, but you have their clients that you can tap into. Obviously you're not restricted to just their clients though and can and hopefully will, bring in your own. Think this can be quite successful and you do have some support. I dont know what the rates are like though so thats something you'd have to look into.

You sound like you have quite a bit of experience in a salon but do you have any experience of running a salon e.g. accounts, stock ordering etc etc. Again, Im probably not in the best position to advise you of what that all involves as Im only small scale at the moment but Im sure there are lots of people on here that could.

All I would say is get as much information from as many places as you can, then you can make an informed decision!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

xx

Just wanted to say a quick thank you for taking the time to help me out and replying to my message! Much appreciated, will keep you updated when I have made my decision! xx