Advice for having a massage therapist in my shop

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Michelle810

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Hi everyone, thanks for this excellent forum I have learnt lots, but still need some advice if anyone can help please,

I make my own skincare products and have recently opened a shop. There's a room in the back that I'm thinking about renovating and offering beauty treatments in - just facials and back massage etc, all using my products. I have a good friend who's a therapist that has been using my products in her treatments for years and she's really up for being the therapist to carry out the treatments.

At first I thought she'd just carry on being self employed and we'd work out a rate she would take per treatment, maybe 60/40 as its my products, but having read these forums now I don't know if properly employing her would be more of an accurate way of doing things, based on what i'm envisaging...

I'd like to design the treatments with her, using the trained skills she already has coupled with the products that I make, i'll probably design a new face mask or similar to use in the facials etc. I guess the main way to take bookings would be me taking them as I work in the shop, and taking the payments as I have the till and card machine. I also am up for providing all of the products, the towels, the bed, and of course electric, wifi, herbal teas cups etc.

So does that all sound like I should employ my friend? She can probably only do 1 day a week and i'm not sure i'd have a full day of bookings for her every week so if I employ her would i have to pay her even if there are no bookings?

I was really up for doing it as a partnership - she can dictate her hours, keep all client data, do the consultations and then just split the treatment costs with me. Can we just agree to do this between us being both self employment people, or would HMRC see it as employment?

Thank you for any thoughts or advice!
 
I can see 4 options; maybe there are more:
  1. rent a room- she pays for the room and does whatever she wants there; with any product (including yours). You'd provide space, furnishings and towels etc. Not sure how it would work with consumables. So you get a guaranteed income and she's self employed.
  2. what you're suggesting- a split of 60/40. 60 to whom? To her presumably? Not a bad way to go initially, say 3-6 months for both to get a feel and for both to take the risk ie no money if no clients. But assuming she does really well and want to change to rent-a-room after this, it then becomes awkward for you. The income per hour should really work out to be similar to rent a room. So this is good if its a start up and great for owner of premises if things go well. Its fair as both parties take the risk. She'd be self employed here too to me.
  3. employed. You pay her a set salary whether there are clients or not. She has to be be work in case there are walk ins.
  4. partnership. To me this is the least attractive option as you have taken all the risk and trouble of getting your products to market (congrats btw! That's really commendable). You're also risked getting premises all the pallava that goes with it incl solicitors cost and time-cost (not to be under appreciated). Then you're happy for her to have all the benefits eg clients data etc. It seems short sighted to me. I personally would be inclined to keep full control, think of it as an investment, and go the one step further and make that room pay for itself at least 5 days of the week.
My 2 cents anyways. Hope that helps and maybe others may join in and we can debate this. Its an interesting question.
 
Hey Riva thank you for your reply and time,

I think the 60/40 split sounds the best of the options, I was thinking 60 to me as I'm providing all of the products and towels etc etc? But that is just from reading other forum posts here, I hoping that would be fair to the therapist. I don't see my friend wanting to rent the room as she can only offer treatments one day a week and some weeks she may not be able to do any, so if it's just paid-per-treatment she can have that flexibility. Maybe I should look into having another therapist on the other days to make it worth it. The only thing is I expect I would take all of the bookings as i'm in the shop and I wonder if this would blur the lines of self-employed / employed, again this is just from previous forum posts.

Thank you on your thoughts on the Partnership, that makes a lot of sense! Perhaps the 60/40 split is best and somehow just have to make sure the self-employed boundary is clear.

Thanks again Riva :)
 
Hey Riva thank you for your reply and time,

I think the 60/40 split sounds the best of the options, I was thinking 60 to me as I'm providing all of the products and towels etc etc? But that is just from reading other forum posts here, I hoping that would be fair to the therapist. I don't see my friend wanting to rent the room as she can only offer treatments one day a week and some weeks she may not be able to do any, so if it's just paid-per-treatment she can have that flexibility. Maybe I should look into having another therapist on the other days to make it worth it. The only thing is I expect I would take all of the bookings as i'm in the shop and I wonder if this would blur the lines of self-employed / employed, again this is just from previous forum posts.

Thank you on your thoughts on the Partnership, that makes a lot of sense! Perhaps the 60/40 split is best and somehow just have to make sure the self-employed boundary is clear.

Thanks again Riva :)
You're correct regarding bookings - she needs to take and manage her own bookings as well taking her own payments from clients :)
 
Thank you Banner Penguin I thought so, I'll look into getting a till and second card machine in the room :) Thank you
 
Thank you Banner Penguin I thought so, I'll look into getting a till and second card machine in the room :) Thank you
I wouldn't worry - that's her responsibility and cost to bare :)
 

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