Do I really want a Saturday job?

[laurakate]

So Im a few weeks away of launching my business as a self employed mobile beauty therapist. I have just moved to a new area so I'll be getting a client base from scratch but I know a lot of people (so I'm worried but not ultra worried).

My target is to get 2 clients a week. I am a secondary earner in my relationship and I've always tried to live off a small amount of money. I have about 3 months worth of living expenses saved up behind me. I'm telling you this so you can get an idea of where I'm coming from.

Ive chosen to go self employed because I am better able to meet my career goals this way in terms of self development, time off and just generally the way i want to work. I left my last job because like my job before that (both spas), I was finding the immaturity of the way it was managed to be a source of frustration on such a frequent basis. I decided to remove myself from a situation to make things better for myself.

However, now I find myself looking for spas in my area that I could apply to for a Saturday job. It would give a guaranteed days wage every week and it would pretty much take the heat off if I struggled to meet my weekly client target with my business.

I enjoy a reliable income, working with other people, meeting new clients everyday, gaining new experiences for the cv, working with new products and I would really appreciate a guaranteed days wage each week. On the flip side though, I don't want to have to put up with being pressured to work extra hours and just the general not being treated very well that comes with being in a spa (you'll know what I'm talking about if you've done spa lol!).

On the one hand I don't want to go back to a similar situation that I very specifically sought to remove myself from but on the other hand money talks and I always like to have some that I can try to save.

In working for others I'm more spa than salon and even for a Saturday job i think something industry relevant would be best because I want to teach beauty so may as well keep it relevant.

Advice please!

 

[Steph86]

I haven't worked in a spa, do their contracts allow you to work outside of the spa as self employed therapist? Will they be expecting you to help out & cover holidays/sick leave etc?

Where will you be working self employed... Are you renting a room or going mobile? If you are in a room Saturday has a great earning potential.

I have a part time job for the reasons you mentioned, it covers the bills. Id hate the uncertainty. That said, I have gone down from full time to part time though as my business has grown. Xx

 

[EmJ]

Why don't you see how it goes for a month or two? If you have saved 3 months living expenses then maybe do a 6 weeks trial basis, see how busy you get and what days are your busiest. The thing with taking on work on a set day is what happens if Saturday turns our to be your most asked for day in your mobile business?! Xx

 

[laurakate]

I haven't worked in a spa, do their contracts allow you to work outside of the spa as self employed therapist? Will they be expecting you to help out & cover holidays/sick leave etc?

Where will you be working self employed... Are you renting a room or going mobile? If you are in a room Saturday has a great earning potential.

I have a part time job for the reasons you mentioned, it covers the bills. Id hate the uncertainty. That said, I have gone down from full time to part time though as my business has grown. Xx

In my experience spas tend to be a bit different to salons when it comes to doing self employed work outside of the spa. Both spas I've worked in have had a good handful of people who are also running their own business (openly) without it being an issue.

I guess in salons there's more fear of clients getting poached (which is fair enough) but most spas are big cheese type of companies that don't see people working as self employed to be a threat. Offering a mobile massage service for example is probably not seen as a threat to the spa because people come to a spa for the full experience (use of facilities and to say they've done it). Perhaps the two experiences are so far apart for clients that it's not seen as a threat to the spa. I know of lots of self employed therapists who work in spas either as employees or through an agency. I don't think a lot of spas are bothered as long as they've got enough therapists on board to get bums on seats.

If employed in a spa it's pretty similar to working in a shop...you come in, get a set hourly wage for hours worked and go home. You're paid through PAYE as an employee at regular intervals (and if you ain't then they ain't doing it right! lol).

If I chose to apply for a job at a spa I would outline my circumstances and what I was looking for very honestly because otherwise it wouldn't be a good choice for me anyway ("Saturdays only please because I'm self employed").

Edit: Definitely mobile for me...won't be renting a room.

 

[laurakate]

Why don't you see how it goes for a month or two? If you have saved 3 months living expenses then maybe do a 6 weeks trial basis, see how busy you get and what days are your busiest. The thing with taking on work on a set day is what happens if Saturday turns our to be your most asked for day in your mobile business?! Xx

That's what my partner says; he says that if I have to keep all of my Saturdays aside for an employed job then it could alienate clients and be a bit of a self fulfilling thing :S

Giving it some time sounds like a healthy option. I think I'm just worried that after getting used to a financial shot in the arm at the end of every employed pay day, I am now facing a financial life where I can no longer afford the things I want. Like I tell myself "it's ok, I'll get used to spending less in life in the name of the business" but then I'll see something that I want (car expenses/shellac/training courses) and be like hmmm....

 

[EmJ]

But then after a few years of building up a good client base you'll be able to afford your lifestyle and more.. I was in exactly the same boat as you 2 years ago and I'm so glad i went for it. I am now in the position where I'm buying a house next year, I own 2 cars and I buy what I want when I want. Obviously not a mega millionaire but I'm comfortable. Much more so than I would be if I was still employed xx

 

[laurakate]

But then after a few years of building up a good client base you'll be able to afford your lifestyle and more.. I was in exactly the same boat as you 2 years ago and I'm so glad i went for it. I am now in the position where I'm buying a house next year, I own 2 cars and I buy what I want when I want. Obviously not a mega millionaire but I'm comfortable. Much more so than I would be if I was still employed xx

Wow! I'll be honest and say that maybe I'm too much of a realist because I could never imagine achieving that for myself. Hope I'm not being too open here but a lot of the time I still feel very much under the thumb of my lack of faith in how much money I can make. I've not been the same since I finished Uni and had a range of spells of unemployment and short spells of unpleasant minimum wage type jobs.

Rightly or wrongly, I don't think I see self employment as a long term choice...it is just part of my plan to be in industry for enough time to be able to teach. I love doing treatments BUT I'm much more in love with wanting to teach. I would like to be doing self employed for a year to eighteen months perhaps (I initially planned to only be employed in this industry but having seen what's out there and lived it for the last two years, I have become a lot less tolerant to things). Hmmm, maybe this is posing as a barrier with regards to how I feel about promoting my business....like I'm really worried that people will think "go away you annoying self serving person, you're nothing special".

Hmmm, I hope my post here didn't come across as dark and selfish and whingey here. I think I'm just surprised at what could be done vs what I feel I can do.

Did you feel this anxious and apprehensive before it happened for you?

 

[Steph86]

In my experience spas tend to be a bit different to salons when it comes to doing self employed work outside of the spa. Both spas I've worked in have had a good handful of people who are also running their own business (openly) without it being an issue.

I guess in salons there's more fear of clients getting poached (which is fair enough) but most spas are big cheese type of companies that don't see people working as self employed to be a threat. Offering a mobile massage service for example is probably not seen as a threat to the spa because people come to a spa for the full experience (use of facilities and to say they've done it). Perhaps the two experiences are so far apart for clients that it's not seen as a threat to the spa. I know of lots of self employed therapists who work in spas either as employees or through an agency. I don't think a lot of spas are bothered as long as they've got enough therapists on board to get bums on seats.

If employed in a spa it's pretty similar to working in a shop...you come in, get a set hourly wage for hours worked and go home. You're paid through PAYE as an employee at regular intervals (and if you ain't then they ain't doing it right! lol).

If I chose to apply for a job at a spa I would outline my circumstances and what I was looking for very honestly because otherwise it wouldn't be a good choice for me anyway ("Saturdays only please because I'm self employed").

Edit: Definitely mobile for me...won't be renting a room.

I see, well you don't really have anything to loose, then if you start getting requests for Saturdays you can leave... 12 weeks is good for you to start earning money but initially I think you need a little longer to be able to rely on the money as an income. So having the saturday job would give you a minimum amount you can rely on & even if your business does well to start (I dont see why not December isnt far away) you can save.

Xx

 

[Leely]

You've come this far Laurakate!! Don't go back to a spa. Remember you left for a reason, think of what you have done and overcome to get this far. I'm sure as soon as you start your business up you won't have time to work 1 day else where with all the admin / accounts / marketing you'll have to do.

Good luck with it all, You can do it x


Leely x

 

[EmJ]

Wow! I'll be honest and say that maybe I'm too much of a realist because I could never imagine achieving that for myself. Hope I'm not being too open here but a lot of the time I still feel very much under the thumb of my lack of faith in how much money I can make. I've not been the same since I finished Uni and had a range of spells of unemployment and short spells of unpleasant minimum wage type jobs.

Rightly or wrongly, I don't think I see self employment as a long term choice...it is just part of my plan to be in industry for enough time to be able to teach. I love doing treatments BUT I'm much more in love with wanting to teach. I would like to be doing self employed for a year to eighteen months perhaps (I initially planned to only be employed in this industry but having seen what's out there and lived it for the last two years, I have become a lot less tolerant to things). Hmmm, maybe this is posing as a barrier with regards to how I feel about promoting my business....like I'm really worried that people will think "go away you annoying self serving person, you're nothing special".

Hmmm, I hope my post here didn't come across as dark and selfish and whingey here. I think I'm just surprised at what could be done vs what I feel I can do.

Did you feel this anxious and apprehensive before it happened for you?

If there's one thing you should know about me, I am very spontaneous. I don't tend to overthink big decisions at all I just go for it. You need to have confidence in yourself or no one else will!! Xx

 

[laurakate]

If there's one thing you should know about me, I am very spontaneous. I don't tend to overthink big decisions at all I just go for it. You need to have confidence in yourself or no one else will!! Xx

Thank you I definitely overthink a lot of things and although that's not a bad thing overall it can at best be a waste of energy and at worst a discouragement. I should just go for it. I've been building my website tonight...keeping the mojo going kinda thing

Thanks for all your advice people It's so confusing to know what to do but at the moment I'm leaning towards giving my business a chance without any other source of income and then if by the new year (which is 8 to 10 weeks away) I'm not making a comfortable income that I can live off I can look for work late January when there tends to be more hours/jobs available in the spa industry anyway (and I think they work you far too hard over the Christmas period anyways lol ). So I guess between now and new year I should try to look at it as a win/win situation in the sense that it would be awesome to get some clients but if I don't then at least I'll have had a go and physically and mentally I'll have had least of had a rest from what I consider to be the perils of working for other people lol!

Thanks for giving me advice that has helped me to reach a conclusion of sorts because for the past week or so I've been anxiously keeping a beady eye out for Saturday and temp jobs that I'm not sure that I want to do.

 

[EmJ]

Would love to hear how you get on xx

 

[laurakate]

Would love to hear how you get on xx

Thanks ill write back on this thread. ..I've done all the research i can do to make the business work so just gotta get out there and do it now. If I have to supplement my self employed work i might try signing up with an agency for better pay and less involvement/commitment in a spa. Hoping i won't need to though *touch wood good luck fingers crossed*

 

[EmJ]

Good luck!! Xx

 

[emma@lashes]

Hi Laurakate, Reading your post gives the impression that you are just getting a touch of cold feet! You have made the decision to go self-employed, set your target of 2 new clients per week, and are nearly ready to go. And now, understandably, you are thinking OMG what if it doesn't work and I have no money! But if you are committed it will work. If taking a spa job makes a more secure situation for you then do it, but definitely not on a Saturday. Saturdays can be really busy on the lead up to Xmas. Personally I wouldn't take a spa job just yet. As a self-employed therapist you will earn so much more per hour than you would being employed. Work on building your client base, promoting yourself, make sure you have gift vouchers available etc.. Just go for it Laurakate!!!

Lots of Luck x

 

[Nat-Nat]

Good luck! I've just given up my part time job to solely concentrate on my beauty business and although I'm only in my second week and have had a major wobble I know I've done the right thing.

I couldn't not work Saturdays as that's my busiest day! Yes it's hard to say no to stuff you want but you have to as the spare money just isn't there!!!!

I did a food shop this week and was ultra careful and bought mostly 'value' range and you know what it's been fine and last night I didn't miss our Saturday night take away!

All this is because at the back of my mind I know how much I want this, how much happier I feel already and how I KNOW it will succeed just not overnight!

It is a risk & I am the primary wage earner but any 'quieter' periods I spend working on my business!

Good luck & stay positive!!