Do you have a main job too? (home based or mobile question)

[Sunflowerspray]

Hi
I was wondering how many of you have a regular job part or full time , which brings in your main income ?

Then you do nails / beauty along side ???

I’m very new to the beauty world , I have a working space at my home , which I do nails - lash lifts & tans .

But I also have my regular job as a teaching assistant in reception class .

My long term goal would to primarily just work from home .. this my dream!
How many of you have achieved this ???
Thanks

 

[Pearlmoonnails]

Hi,

Yes, I work full time as an admin and part time Thursday-Friday after work and Saturdays
I am only starting out and will probably branch out once I start getting a steady client base.
I started out last month so I am very slow at the moment and only have 1-3 clients coming back every 3-4 weeks.

 

[RhiainPittam]

Hi! I'm a newbee too and have a part time job working in a college. Totally lost my passion for education, all about data now, not about the students.

I'm trying to build up a client base on my days off and hoping I'll have enough to be able to do nails full time. Word of mouth is the best way I've found clients. I did a colleagues daughters nails, who was thrilled with them and now loads of people from my main job are asking for apppontments.

As you work in education like me, presuming you have the summer off. Could be a good time to do some promos to get your service out there.

It definitely takes time

 

[AlanyaMackie]

I work full time for myself. I worked in a salon for 3 years prior to making the plunge xx

 

[Freelancetrainer]

I’m working full time from home. If it continues to do as well as it is then I’m hoping not to need another job on top. I just started up at home 5 months ago and month on month it’s got busier and busier.

 

[linzi]

I work from my home salon. I moved over 400 miles away from home and had to start from scratch in a town practically overrun with nail salons and where I knew no one, save for my OH. It can be done but, like any other business, it takes time.

As you want to work from home, you need great branding and a professional, easy to find website. You can learn how to make sure your page makes it to the top of Google (SEO). This is imperative as this together with your Facebook page is your shop front. This is the first impression that your prospective clients are going to get from you.

I had flyers made up (it helps that my OH is a graphic designer!). I created eye-catching nails and took good pictures (no badly-lit, blurry pictures) And he created the flyers, which we printed on Vista print. If you're not so handy, I've seen people recommend canvaa (think that's how it's spelt). I then delivered these all around town. It took ages, but it passed my time in the early days when I wasn't fully booked out.

Join any local Facebook groups and advertise your services, if they allow it. Mine allows an advert on a Saturday.

I would also urge you not to undersell yourself just because you work from home. No, you don't have the overheads of a high-street salon, but you are a professional providing specialist nail treatments in a private, relaxing environment.

Create your USP (practically already done: providing excellent nail treatments within a relaxing private salon room. Give them a cup of herbal tea, or a nice coffee (I use coffee bags which are individually wrapped. I find these are cleaner And taste like really nice filter coffee) and a biscuit/small sweet (I've used borders biscuits and now have mini kinder buenos), make the room smell delicious and it will become an experience and not just a 30 minute nail appointment.

Decide who you want as your client (I would recommend that you aim for the ladies with high-disposable incomes who will actively seek out the very best and are happy to spend money on doing so), and target your marketing towards them.



My business has grown pretty organically through word of mouth using the above.

It's hard work, but you'll get there.

Good luck.

 

[House Beauty]

Hi
I was wondering how many of you have a regular job part or full time , which brings in your main income ?

Then you do nails / beauty along side ???

I’m very new to the beauty world , I have a working space at my home , which I do nails - lash lifts & tans .

But I also have my regular job as a teaching assistant in reception class .

My long term goal would to primarily just work from home .. this my dream!
How many of you have achieved this ???
Thanks

I used to. When I first trained I was in recruitment so i did 7am-11pm then spray tanned my shift workers when i got home! It was crazy!!

Then I got a nice 32hr job over 4 days. It included weekends but as it was shifts I finished at 1/2 everyday so I did that 5-1, had a break then started at 4-9 at home.

Eventually it got too much and I cut down to 3 days, no weekends so I could do more at home.

4/5 years later and i’ve been full time at home all this time! It goes by so fast.

I definitely recommend having something to fall back on to start with. Going self employed is rarely just a yes i’m going to do it, we are usually pushed and it’s out of our hands because it’s either doing really well or something is going wrong personally and you have to do it.

 

[JessS]

I can’t add too much other than definitely don’t undersell yourself as Linzi has said. I’ve made that mistake to my cost.
I’m mobile and I love being my own boss and knowing the money I earn comes from work I’ve generated myself is a great feeling.
I work part time in retail but wanted a new more flexible direction. I’ve been building my mobile work mainly in a Care Homes since January and it’s grown well enough to reduce my hours in the other job. I intend to give things another six months in which I hope to grow enough to make this my main work and leave my retail job. I’ve found doing it this way doesn’t feel so scary and a big leap as it’s been gradual. All the best!

 

[Beautiful-you]

I started out with another job 2 days a week, Just for a bit of regular income but have been solely working for myself from my home salon for nearly 2 years. Although I am available 5 days a week and work evenings I have chosen not to work full time or weekends and I am quite fussy about which clients I will take on, which won't work for everyone, but at 51 I'm at the stage that I don't want to be working with clients back to back.

My daughter has done it a bit differently though. She made the decision in January to go all out and work from home (we have converted our double garage and workshop into a beauty and nail salon) and very quickly she has built up a loyal regular client base, and is often working up to 15 hours a day!! She posts on Instagram and Facebook several times a day, which has really helped. She is mainly doing lashes though, not nails, but I honest think both are equally popular and if you are good at what you do, word soon gets around.

I also agree about not underselling yourself. Occasionally we will do a special offer for a limited time, but if I'm honest, these offers don't usually bring the loyal clients in. They attract the bargain hunters who go to whoever is cheapest at the time. However, during quiet periods it's worth considering to keep you busy.

 

[Anna Ljungberg]

I work full time making computer games.

I'm probably the odd one out here as I'm not really looking to take on a lot of new clients. I do word of mouth recommendations, friends and colleagues and that suits me very well as I would struggle to keep a healthy work-life balance.

My only advise that noone else bas previously mentiined to doing nails as well as another job is to not overdo it and burn yourself out, it's important for you to have downtime and relax from both careers.

Also use it to your advantage, try to get your colleagues from school to book in. I give mine a little cheeky discount as I can normally fit them in during my lunch breaks or straight after work.

 

[jools8]

I work from my home salon. I moved over 400 miles away from home and had to start from scratch in a town practically overrun with nail salons and where I knew no one, save for my OH. It can be done but, like any other business, it takes time.

As you want to work from home, you need great branding and a professional, easy to find website. You can learn how to make sure your page makes it to the top of Google (SEO). This is imperative as this together with your Facebook page is your shop front. This is the first impression that your prospective clients are going to get from you.

I had flyers made up (it helps that my OH is a graphic designer!). I created eye-catching nails and took good pictures (no badly-lit, blurry pictures) And he created the flyers, which we printed on Vista print. If you're not so handy, I've seen people recommend canvaa (think that's how it's spelt). I then delivered these all around town. It took ages, but it passed my time in the early days when I wasn't fully booked out.

Join any local Facebook groups and advertise your services, if they allow it. Mine allows an advert on a Saturday.

I would also urge you not to undersell yourself just because you work from home. No, you don't have the overheads of a high-street salon, but you are a professional providing specialist nail treatments in a private, relaxing environment.

Create your USP (practically already done: providing excellent nail treatments within a relaxing private salon room. Give them a cup of herbal tea, or a nice coffee (I use coffee bags which are individually wrapped. I find these are cleaner And taste like really nice filter coffee) and a biscuit/small sweet (I've used borders biscuits and now have mini kinder buenos), make the room smell delicious and it will become an experience and not just a 30 minute nail appointment.

Decide who you want as your client (I would recommend that you aim for the ladies with high-disposable incomes who will actively seek out the very best and are happy to spend money on doing so), and target your marketing towards them.



My business has grown pretty organically through word of mouth using the above.

It's hard work, but you'll get there.

Good luck.

Hi, I too have moved 400 miles, trained to do gel nails and worked in a friends salon temporarily before moving in the hope of starting a home salon & I too have moved to a town overrun by salons!! was gutted as I thought it might be the end of my dream, but then figured there must be demand out there. - ( I have a separate garage I can convert, with driveway for private parking, close enough to a train station to hopefully attract after work clients) - Currently toying with the idea of going for it anyway, your post gives me hope that with a bit of hard work and determination it may be possible!!

 

[linzi]

Hi, I too have moved 400 miles, trained to do gel nails and worked in a friends salon temporarily before moving in the hope of starting a home salon & I too have moved to a town overrun by salons!! was gutted as I thought it might be the end of my dream, but then figured there must be demand out there. - ( I have a separate garage I can convert, with driveway for private parking, close enough to a train station to hopefully attract after work clients) - Currently toying with the idea of going for it anyway, your post gives me hope that with a bit of hard work and determination it may be possible!!

Absolutely. It definitely takes a lot of hard work and determination, but it can be done.

Work out who you want your customers to be and design your services and prices for them. Set yourself apart from your competitors and push your unique selling point.

You will be doing a lot of late nights if you're pushing for the commuting clients.

Good luck

 

[shelgel]

Yes I work 4 days a week as a secretary, I am at home with my kids on a Monday so I work evening and weekends

 

[Subo]

I do 40 hours + a week as a warehouse supervisor, 6.30pm-9.30pm mon to friday plus all day saturday doing beauty from home and I'm.a tv extra when I can manage to squeeze it in sundays are my day off but usually end up having clients in.

 

[AmyLou81]

I work from my home salon. I moved over 400 miles away from home and had to start from scratch in a town practically overrun with nail salons and where I knew no one, save for my OH. It can be done but, like any other business, it takes time.

As you want to work from home, you need great branding and a professional, easy to find website. You can learn how to make sure your page makes it to the top of Google (SEO). This is imperative as this together with your Facebook page is your shop front. This is the first impression that your prospective clients are going to get from you.

I had flyers made up (it helps that my OH is a graphic designer!). I created eye-catching nails and took good pictures (no badly-lit, blurry pictures) And he created the flyers, which we printed on Vista print. If you're not so handy, I've seen people recommend canvaa (think that's how it's spelt). I then delivered these all around town. It took ages, but it passed my time in the early days when I wasn't fully booked out.

Join any local Facebook groups and advertise your services, if they allow it. Mine allows an advert on a Saturday.

I would also urge you not to undersell yourself just because you work from home. No, you don't have the overheads of a high-street salon, but you are a professional providing specialist nail treatments in a private, relaxing environment.

Create your USP (practically already done: providing excellent nail treatments within a relaxing private salon room. Give them a cup of herbal tea, or a nice coffee (I use coffee bags which are individually wrapped. I find these are cleaner And taste like really nice filter coffee) and a biscuit/small sweet (I've used borders biscuits and now have mini kinder buenos), make the room smell delicious and it will become an experience and not just a 30 minute nail appointment.

Decide who you want as your client (I would recommend that you aim for the ladies with high-disposable incomes who will actively seek out the very best and are happy to spend money on doing so), and target your marketing towards them.



My business has grown pretty organically through word of mouth using the above.

It's hard work, but you'll get there.

Good luck.

Hi Linzi,

I was just wondering how much business you got from the flyers you delivered?
Thank you
Amy x

 

[linzi]

Hi Linzi,

I was just wondering how much business you got from the flyers you delivered?
Thank you
Amy x

Hi Amy,

You traditionally get a very, very low return from flyers, but I managed to do quite well!

Every time we got home, I had Facebook messages or phonecalls for appointments.

I'd recommend it, but not as your only form of marketing x

 

[Cindy2021]

You do the same treatments as me and I have a home salon and this is my full time job.
I only intended it to be a hobby and a bit of “me” time but it took off much quicker than I anticipated.

 

[AmyLou81]

Hi Amy,

You traditionally get a very, very low return from flyers, but I managed to do quite well!

Every time we got home, I had Facebook messages or phonecalls for appointments.

I'd recommend it, but not as your only form of marketing x

Thank you Linzi,
Yes i keep heaeriing the traffic is slow from flyers but i think I might do them in the expensive areas around me.
I am advertising on Instagram and Facebook and have a website but I just need to push it more and post the right content.
I printed lots of flyers but the posh postcard ones so I might keep them for wedding fairs etc and make cheaper flyers and post those through the letter boxes.
Thank you for the reply x