Fair wage for aesthetic practitioner/massage therapist?

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Would you prefer paying a higher hourly pay or a lower hourly pay with 10% commission on treatments?

  • Higher hourly pay

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lower hourly pay + 10% commission on treatments

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Total voters
    1

cali-dude

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2020
Messages
123
Reaction score
55
Location
Gloucestershire UK
Happy holidays all,

Banging out my business plan at present and am currently pondering the thought of employing an Aesthetic Practioner/Massage Therapist as there will be two treatment rooms. The business would be offering advanced facials as well as massage. I know what it's like to not be paid a dignified wage and could not ponder even doing that, I want the best and want to offer an appropriate wage to reflect that. I have thought about calling up similar business to ask the hourly wage...but thought against this as I don't think they would appreciate this from a potential competitor...which brings me here!

I've not worked in an aesthetics clinic here in the UK and would love to know what hourly wages you've seen in your experience and what appears to be the average.
I would ideally prefer to pay a handsome hourly rate OR pay a lower rate (most likely £9.50-£10.50) for the time they aren't doing a treatment/unbooked/booking cancellation, and offer 10% commission to this lower rate when they are doing a treatment (average treatment is £75.00 ph)

For some more context I would want someone with more experience, someone when I'm away from the business (like holiday) I can have confidence that they would step in with operating the business when I am not there.

Can't wait to hear your opinions/experiences!
 
Where did you work previously? Is this your first salon to open?
 
Personally I wouldn’t recommend this route. The main reason is that 2 therapists will go over the VAT threshold quite quickly and you’ll have to charge your clients 20% on top of your service charge.

The other reason is that, from my own experience, people don’t go into beauty for the wages! Sadly, most beauty therapists cannot do sums and for that reason they’re not particularly motivated by bonus structures. They may even suffer from a pessimistic cynicism and disbelief about their ability to earn which will have the opposite effect on morale.

I tried really hard to pay staff as you outlined - only to discover they were resentful over their “bad wages” In the end I just averaged out their commission based pay to calculate an hourly rate. Everyone reacted like they’d had a pay rise even though I explained that their take home would remain the same and it was just the method of calculation that had changed, not the amount.

There’s another concept you need to grasp which is that an employee - even one on a performance based commission structure - will not run your business for you. Entrepreneurial people go self employed. Those that are not ready or do not want this pressure look for employment.

if you want to make a profit on your room not only will you need to take on an employee, you’ll also need to manage all the responsibility for generating income for both of you. Expect to support your employee to hit client retention targets, monitor rebooking rates and up and cross selling. Expect to generate business for their column and not to get much back the other way.

You’ll be better off finding a self employed therapist and asking for commission based rent. That way you’ll attract someone with the get up and go you’re looking for and you can bounce marketing ideas off each other and share business insights.

Even self employed therapists can fail to correctly calculate value though. I know lots of hairdressers that happily work on 50% commission and think it’s a good deal, but I know therapists that have left set ups where they pay 20% commission because they’ve found a room somewhere for £50 a day. if you have a very successful therapist in the future you might want to reflect on this.
 
Where did you work previously? Is this your first salon to open?

Happy New Year, I previously have worked as an Esthetician in California. The place I worked offered massage and aesthetics services. The payment structure was minimum wage + 10% commission plus gratuities. My UK experience was working as a "Spa Therapist" which over here means massage therapy and beauty services. This however was national minimum wage for my age with odd gratuities which are a lot less dependable working in the UK. I certainly felt at the time making just minimum wage was quite demeaning as I've spent an awful lot of time training - so to receive a wage on par to the (very hard working but untrained) laundry porters was not condusive to feeling valued. However, with the low wage + commission, I remember a feeling of understanding that I was more or less twiddling my thumbs and that I couldn't expect to make a hefty pay during these hours. The commission also made me more enthusiastic when it came to working on clients and investing in them returning.
 
Last edited:
Personally I wouldn’t recommend this route. The main reason is that 2 therapists will go over the VAT threshold quite quickly and you’ll have to charge your clients 20% on top of your service charge.

The other reason is that, from my own experience, people don’t go into beauty for the wages! Sadly, most beauty therapists cannot do sums and for that reason they’re not particularly motivated by bonus structures. They may even suffer from a pessimistic cynicism and disbelief about their ability to earn which will have the opposite effect on morale.

I tried really hard to pay staff as you outlined - only to discover they were resentful over their “bad wages” In the end I just averaged out their commission based pay to calculate an hourly rate. Everyone reacted like they’d had a pay rise even though I explained that their take home would remain the same and it was just the method of calculation that had changed, not the amount.

There’s another concept you need to grasp which is that an employee - even one on a performance based commission structure - will not run your business for you. Entrepreneurial people go self employed. Those that are not ready or do not want this pressure look for employment.

if you want to make a profit on your room not only will you need to take on an employee, you’ll also need to manage all the responsibility for generating income for both of you. Expect to support your employee to hit client retention targets, monitor rebooking rates and up and cross selling. Expect to generate business for their column and not to get much back the other way.

You’ll be better off finding a self employed therapist and asking for commission based rent. That way you’ll attract someone with the get up and go you’re looking for and you can bounce marketing ideas off each other and share business insights.

Even self employed therapists can fail to correctly calculate value though. I know lots of hairdressers that happily work on 50% commission and think it’s a good deal, but I know therapists that have left set ups where they pay 20% commission because they’ve found a room somewhere for £50 a day. if you have a very successful therapist in the future you might want to reflect on this.

Happy New Year you helpful soul :) ! Yes, if there was two of us we would quickly go past the VAT threshold (I've saved your post on price adjusting to offset this which is VERY helpful). I find it fascinating with you going into the sentiment that a beauty therapist can/do have towards their pay and overall value.

I pose the question about commission/performance based incentives as I recall myself benefiting from this structure in the past as an employee as it made me eager to get clients in the treatment room but I respect that not everyone may share this view. I could see how they may become resentful towards me if they aren't fully booked as the burden would be on myself to bring clients in. They may also grow resentful if I have clients who come to me which means they miss out on a potential commission.

Avveraging the commission based pay and paying that to start sounds like the right compromise. It would help them from growing discouraged, especially if I may need to offer only a part time role to start off. Most beauty therapists I imagine would happily take a higher wage and work a bit less..at least that's what I hope.

I absolutely agree that I would benefit from the entrepreneurial spirit of someone who is self-employed, and understand I may very well not get that back from an employee arrangement.

My only hesitation is that I'm working really hard on the marketing, brand identity, service offered, opening hours and pricing and I just want that to be consistent for all of the guests that enter the space. I know there would be ways to agree on not undercutting, but I am going to spend an awful lot of time marketing the business and hate the idea that this self employed individual would pick up my overflow and being very "entrepreneurial", could easily leave and take some of the business' clients with them. I think in somewhere as small as two treatment rooms I really want a control of what hours we operate for consistency sake as well as approach to treatments and I feel I could get that with an employee, albeit with the *drawback that they will undoubtedly not be as invested in the business.

Goodness this has been such a great insight, thank you!
 
Last edited:
Personally I wouldn’t recommend this route. The main reason is that 2 therapists will go over the VAT threshold quite quickly and you’ll have to charge your clients 20% on top of your service charge.

The other reason is that, from my own experience, people don’t go into beauty for the wages! Sadly, most beauty therapists cannot do sums and for that reason they’re not particularly motivated by bonus structures. They may even suffer from a pessimistic cynicism and disbelief about their ability to earn which will have the opposite effect on morale.

I tried really hard to pay staff as you outlined - only to discover they were resentful over their “bad wages” In the end I just averaged out their commission based pay to calculate an hourly rate. Everyone reacted like they’d had a pay rise even though I explained that their take home would remain the same and it was just the method of calculation that had changed, not the amount.

There’s another concept you need to grasp which is that an employee - even one on a performance based commission structure - will not run your business for you. Entrepreneurial people go self employed. Those that are not ready or do not want this pressure look for employment.

if you want to make a profit on your room not only will you need to take on an employee, you’ll also need to manage all the responsibility for generating income for both of you. Expect to support your employee to hit client retention targets, monitor rebooking rates and up and cross selling. Expect to generate business for their column and not to get much back the other way.

You’ll be better off finding a self employed therapist and asking for commission based rent. That way you’ll attract someone with the get up and go you’re looking for and you can bounce marketing ideas off each other and share business insights.

Even self employed therapists can fail to correctly calculate value though. I know lots of hairdressers that happily work on 50% commission and think it’s a good deal, but I know therapists that have left set ups where they pay 20% commission because they’ve found a room somewhere for £50 a day. if you have a very successful therapist in the future you might want to reflect on this.


To this original post, in your opinion/experience what hourly wage have you seen or even settled on for a beauty therapist? I can understand if you don't wish to advertise the figure for your own employees, but even from what you've seen through experience would be very helpful.
 
Happy New Year to you too! I think it’s important to realise that whilst a future self employed/salon owner might be motivated by commission structures, in general that personality might not be typical of a Spa/wellbeing therapist.

I totally understand the dilemma of not wanting to let go of your brand. it’s the reason I have employees. Regarding loosing clients when staff leave - I wouldn’t worry too much. I have found that when staff leave their absence barely causes a ripple. This is because I am the brand and my salon is distinctive, well located and quite high end and I’m a good match for my client niche. Clients enjoy their visit. I doubt anyone striking out on their own could seriously challenge the client experience - and if their client returned to my salon and booked with me...no contest (blowing own trumpet emoji)

Regarding pay, you need to benchmark in your locale. I usually do this every six months. Google Search for vacancies in your area. Take into consideration the hours and schedule so for instance a Spa requiring 40 hours over 7 days a week between 6am and 10pm should pay more than a small salon with more social hours. Inexperienced therapists might be attracted by the offer of training in popular brands/treatments or other worthwhile benefits.

it’s always worth finding out what people want. I’ve got one therapist on school friendly hours - I’ve had others that come to me for my training and support (I had one lady ask if her sister could work for me for free, just to get my training!). One girl hated my uniform and said she felt like “housekeeping”, we switched to high end clothes and everyone was thrilled. I sulked for a while because it was an expensive investment - but performance improved...

I’ve found that if I sit staff down and explain performance targets, no matter how well I break it down into “add one brow tint a day” staff get very stressed and anxious - even angry and defensive, insisting that their clients can’t possibly afford anything else. If instead I focus on client service and say the measure of how much a client has enjoyed their experience is that they try out other services or buy products and are looking forward excitedly to their return - then I get up and cross selling! Staff love coming to work if they feel appreciated by their clients and Boss.

Last time I benchmarked in Bath in the Spring/summer there were jobs advertised at up to £10.50 an hour in nearby Spas.

The industry standard suggests you should pay staff a maximum of 35% of their gross revenue. (Spas are a bit different). I always divide the revenue generated by each therapist by their gross pay when I calculate wages and I adjust wages every three months if I see consistent growth. If your room occupancy rate is over 60% and you’re spending “too much” on wages your prices might be too low or your service length too long. If your room isn’t 60% occupied you need to cut hours - or spend more time front of house yourself. Your least productive person is rarely your best Booker.
 
Agree with what the Duchess said regarding expecting an employee to run your business for you if you're not there - I think it works fine if you have very occasional time off, when you can perhaps recompense them with a higher rate of pay for doing extra, but on a regular basis, from my experience it didn't work. One of my former employees seemed to be very resentful at my not being there for one day each week, even though when I asked her about it on several occasions she insisted everything was "fine", and negative things got back to me from clients who had gone to the salon on days I wasn't there. I've given up trying to please employees now and I work pretty much on my own, and when I'm not there I rent the space to another business. Regular income and a lot less aggravation.
 
Happy New Year to you too! I think it’s important to realise that whilst a future self employed/salon owner might be motivated by commission structures, in general that personality might not be typical of a Spa/wellbeing therapist.

I totally understand the dilemma of not wanting to let go of your brand. it’s the reason I have employees. Regarding loosing clients when staff leave - I wouldn’t worry too much. I have found that when staff leave their absence barely causes a ripple. This is because I am the brand and my salon is distinctive, well located and quite high end and I’m a good match for my client niche. Clients enjoy their visit. I doubt anyone striking out on their own could seriously challenge the client experience - and if their client returned to my salon and booked with me...no contest (blowing own trumpet emoji)

Regarding pay, you need to benchmark in your locale. I usually do this every six months. Google Search for vacancies in your area. Take into consideration the hours and schedule so for instance a Spa requiring 40 hours over 7 days a week between 6am and 10pm should pay more than a small salon with more social hours. Inexperienced therapists might be attracted by the offer of training in popular brands/treatments or other worthwhile benefits.

it’s always worth finding out what people want. I’ve got one therapist on school friendly hours - I’ve had others that come to me for my training and support (I had one lady ask if her sister could work for me for free, just to get my training!). One girl hated my uniform and said she felt like “housekeeping”, we switched to high end clothes and everyone was thrilled. I sulked for a while because it was an expensive investment - but performance improved...

I’ve found that if I sit staff down and explain performance targets, no matter how well I break it down into “add one brow tint a day” staff get very stressed and anxious - even angry and defensive, insisting that their clients can’t possibly afford anything else. If instead I focus on client service and say the measure of how much a client has enjoyed their experience is that they try out other services or buy products and are looking forward excitedly to their return - then I get up and cross selling! Staff love coming to work if they feel appreciated by their clients and Boss.

Last time I benchmarked in Bath in the Spring/summer there were jobs advertised at up to £10.50 an hour in nearby Spas.

The industry standard suggests you should pay staff a maximum of 35% of their gross revenue. (Spas are a bit different). I always divide the revenue generated by each therapist by their gross pay when I calculate wages and I adjust wages every three months if I see consistent growth. If your room occupancy rate is over 60% and you’re spending “too much” on wages your prices might be too low or your service length too long. If your room isn’t 60% occupied you need to cut hours - or spend more time front of house yourself. Your least productive person is rarely your best Booker.

Thank you so much for taking the time to shed some light on my conundrum !


I can certainly see why you wouldn’t worry about losing clients to staff leaving as your probably all too familiar of the initial outlay costs and that for someone to match what you are offering (before the treatment is even had) isn’t a task many can meet.

I think like yourself I really don’t want to let go of the branding so I’m making the decision to employ.

I’ve spent the last few days going over numbers, if we are to go over the VAT threshold, which even with conservatively projecting occupancy (50%) and retail (10%) it looks like we would still be 20%+ above the VAT threshold at minimum.

I’ve kept in mind what you’ve mentioned about paying a maximum of 35% of the total gross sales after VAT in wages.

I’m being very cautious and projecting for 50% occupancy and 10% added for retail for the first year. I know the occupancy seems quite low, but with a 6.5 hour shift only 4 are treatment hours (30 mins set up, turnover and shut down). The 10% retail is very achievable also as that would be (product average at £40) 3.25 products a week to be sold between the two of us.


The guideline you’ve given has been very instructive on wages, so luckily, this has helped me gain a number for the hourly wage. This is great as it feels more grounded as opposed to just looking at what others may be paying as it’s more reflective of what I can offer. Like you, I’ve factored in if occupancy % goes up consistently over a quarter, I can up/adjust their wage to reflect this.


Again, thank you for being such a gem! I’ve been singing your praises whenever I talk about SG!
 
Agree with what the Duchess said regarding expecting an employee to run your business for you if you're not there - I think it works fine if you have very occasional time off, when you can perhaps recompense them with a higher rate of pay for doing extra, but on a regular basis, from my experience it didn't work. One of my former employees seemed to be very resentful at my not being there for one day each week, even though when I asked her about it on several occasions she insisted everything was "fine", and negative things got back to me from clients who had gone to the salon on days I wasn't there. I've given up trying to please employees now and I work pretty much on my own, and when I'm not there I rent the space to another business. Regular income and a lot less aggravation.

Good afternoon,

I'm sorry that has been your experience and I can certainly see why you have made the decision to find another business/self-employed individual to take up this space.

I feel like I must be from another planet reading their reaction! I've worked in places (when I did retail) where it would be normal to open up the shop on my own, answer emails, phone calls, look after clients, take payments, cash up and close the shop...so I find it bizarre to think this would be an issue in a aesthetic/massage/spa setting?

I absolutely agree that I shouldn't expect an employee to do tasks like market, manage social media, stock management and accountancy prep ...but surely the minimum of opening the space, perform treatments, take payment, odd housekeeping (laundry), cash up and close for the day would be manageable/normal as they would be doing this alongside me when I'm there

I'm hoping that this happens to be more of an issue with this particular employee.
 
I've also been playing with this in my business plan. I think I've now settled on % basis pay. 50/50 for hair treatments and 40/60 (60 to business) for massage/waxing/other treatments.

However I have also decided that I want control over advertising etc and the percentage I receive will cover a receptionist full time who I'm going to pay a higher rate hoping to get someone who's studied marketing to run social media channels. And as I'm hoping to be based in a high footfall city centre location I'm planning on having a small coffee house in the front of the business. Somewhere that partners of the person receiving treatment or parents can wait and buy a coffee and also offer these as takeaways. This shouldn't be more then 20% of sales so doesn't need a separate licence.
 
I've also been playing with this in my business plan. I think I've now settled on % basis pay. 50/50 for hair treatments and 40/60 (60 to business) for massage/waxing/other treatments.

However I have also decided that I want control over advertising etc and the percentage I receive will cover a receptionist full time who I'm going to pay a higher rate hoping to get someone who's studied marketing to run social media channels. And as I'm hoping to be based in a high footfall city centre location I'm planning on having a small coffee house in the front of the business. Somewhere that partners of the person receiving treatment or parents can wait and buy a coffee and also offer these as takeaways. This shouldn't be more then 20% of sales so doesn't need a separate licence.

Good evening, I'm so happy to hear someone else is looking to the future with enough optimism...or madness to create a business after experiencing this last year! I have to tip my hat to all salon owners as the services vary wildly as well as treatment times and prices, as well as respective differences between different categories in this field (nails, hair, beauty, massage).

Are you going self employed and doing a percentage split with these individuals? Or employing and offering this as a commission? Sorry for any simple questions as the salon world is very unfamiliar to me.

I'm aware of some people on here saying that % splits can be hard to manage for self-employed individuals and that they tend to lean on people renting their space at a fixed rate.

I imagine a receptionist is quite crucial in such a large business so it's great to hear you are wanting to make an investment into them. It sounds like quite a bit of gap to bridge between someone who is happy to take on the laborious role of a receptionist AND have an advanced degree. I have to say, I work in another field to tie me over and I had an interesting conversation with a colleague while in the office today.

My colleague has a son who is 23, just dropped out of a Chemistry degree at Uni. He has managed to get a job (1 day after lockdown..lucky sod!) which is assisting a wealth management company with their social media...with NO marketing background! I say this because his age group almost innately tends to be more social media interested/savvy. My comment is made just to say that your ideal candidate may very well just be a wicked receptionist who has a nag for instagram.If that is the case you may be luckier than you think as I imagine a lot of receptionist candidates may be a younger demographic.

I will be taking over socials for my business which is daunting, my husband employed a marketing consultant earlier in the year and after just a few months of working together on a weekly basis on and off, he has managed to take all of her instructions/notes and has grown his social media presence by over 250%!

I'm lucky to leech off of my husband's newly found social media savvy, however I would definitely recommend you maybe do something similar just in case your receptionist/marketing genius takes their talents elsewhere or simply is rammed looking after/well informed on beauty services, massage treatments, hair and a coffee service.
 
Good afternoon,

I'm sorry that has been your experience and I can certainly see why you have made the decision to find another business/self-employed individual to take up this space.

I feel like I must be from another planet reading their reaction! I've worked in places (when I did retail) where it would be normal to open up the shop on my own, answer emails, phone calls, look after clients, take payments, cash up and close the shop...so I find it bizarre to think this would be an issue in a aesthetic/massage/spa setting?

I absolutely agree that I shouldn't expect an employee to do tasks like market, manage social media, stock management and accountancy prep ...but surely the minimum of opening the space, perform treatments, take payment, odd housekeeping (laundry), cash up and close for the day would be manageable/normal as they would be doing this alongside me when I'm there

I'm hoping that this happens to be more of an issue with this particular employee.
Hello Mundo,
how perceptive of you to pick up on this, you are absolutely correct. I have never had an employee quite like this one, in 25 years of having my salon. So perhaps I have been a bit soured by my experience with her. All my past employees seemed quite happy to work as a team, doing all the tasks you mentioned above (reception, cleaning, bookings, etc) as well as occasionally being there without me, and if there were any problems we managed to talk them over and sort them out. Whereas she was one in a million, in a bad way!
On reflection, if I were just starting out again, I would probably do things exactly the same as you and employ. But as I'm looking towards winding things down in the next few years, I guess that's one other major reason why I decided not to replace her. But every cloud has a silver lining, and I was fortunate she resigned a month before lockdown which has saved me a lot of worry!
Good luck with your new venture, I'm sure with an informed and motivated boss like you, your therapist(s) will enjoy their role at your salon.
 
I've also been playing with this in my business plan. I think I've now settled on % basis pay. 50/50 for hair treatments and 40/60 (60 to business) for massage/waxing/other treatments.

However I have also decided that I want control over advertising etc and the percentage I receive will cover a receptionist full time who I'm going to pay a higher rate hoping to get someone who's studied marketing to run social media channels. And as I'm hoping to be based in a high footfall city centre location I'm planning on having a small coffee house in the front of the business. Somewhere that partners of the person receiving treatment or parents can wait and buy a coffee and also offer these as takeaways. This shouldn't be more then 20% of sales so doesn't need a separate licence.
What an absolutely fantastic idea - having the coffee shop at the front, I love that. Also, you would be able to keep that space open during any future lockdowns, for takeaway. But let's hope we'll all be out of this situation once your business is open. Good luck!
 
Hello Mundo,
how perceptive of you to pick up on this, you are absolutely correct. I have never had an employee quite like this one, in 25 years of having my salon. So perhaps I have been a bit soured by my experience with her. All my past employees seemed quite happy to work as a team, doing all the tasks you mentioned above (reception, cleaning, bookings, etc) as well as occasionally being there without me, and if there were any problems we managed to talk them over and sort them out. Whereas she was one in a million, in a bad way!
On reflection, if I were just starting out again, I would probably do things exactly the same as you and employ. But as I'm looking towards winding things down in the next few years, I guess that's one other major reason why I decided not to replace her. But every cloud has a silver lining, and I was fortunate she resigned a month before lockdown which has saved me a lot of worry!
Good luck with your new venture, I'm sure with an informed and motivated boss like you, your therapist(s) will enjoy their role at your salon.

I'm happy to hear that this employee is in your rear view mirror now! I can't understand absolutely as I haven't the experience you've had at this stage, but I can certainly empathise with the feeling of one bad experience spoiling the mostly great ones.

From my observation, many business owners on here invest so much financially and employ a huge bandwidth of dedication and burden of the business, so to have an individual seemingly be resentful - I can see why you would be put off.

Very pleased that she has not been a normal employee out of your vast experience.. it give me some hope on getting a good candidate!

Thank you kindly darling, I will will need all of the luck (and great SG advice) I can get ha-ha! :)
 
Tog, I’ve also seen the bad attitude you mention in the beauty world. It’s not uncommon and it’s exhausting. I had a friend who dared to work only 5/6 days a week in her salon and her staff just took the mik on the day they knew she wouldn’t be in. Opening late, not being in uniform, poor grooming, turning the salon into their private common room to chat and drink coffee with friends.

if you can’t change the person, change the person!

I employ people who want to work, I need to see an eagerness and commitment from them which makes it worth my while investing effort and time in them. I want a student/graduate that has juggled study with a part-time job, someone who has taken the early mornings and Friday/Saturday night shifts. My ideal candidate will have waited tables, I’ll ask them what else they did - if they say that they also scraped plates, loaded the dishwasher, plated up deserts and started helping with starters...that’s the employee for me, someone who is always looking for ways to add value.

sadly, in a minimum wage role the most sensible attitude is to put in minimum effort. You just have to keep looking until you find the right fit for your team and business.
 
What an absolutely fantastic idea - having the coffee shop at the front, I love that. Also, you would be able to keep that space open during any future lockdowns, for takeaway. But let's hope we'll all be out of this situation once your business is open. Good luck!

Just to tag on, I have thought of bring in someone who is a remedial/sports massage therapist. They have been/are able to work throughout lockdown.
 
Good evening, I'm so happy to hear someone else is looking to the future with enough optimism...or madness to create a business after experiencing this last year! I have to tip my hat to all salon owners as the services vary wildly as well as treatment times and prices, as well as respective differences between different categories in this field (nails, hair, beauty, massage).

Are you going self employed and doing a percentage split with these individuals? Or employing and offering this as a commission? Sorry for any simple questions as the salon world is very unfamiliar to me.

I'm aware of some people on here saying that % splits can be hard to manage for self-employed individuals and that they tend to lean on people renting their space at a fixed rate.

I imagine a receptionist is quite crucial in such a large business so it's great to hear you are wanting to make an investment into them. It sounds like quite a bit of gap to bridge between someone who is happy to take on the laborious role of a receptionist AND have an advanced degree. I have to say, I work in another field to tie me over and I had an interesting conversation with a colleague while in the office today.

My colleague has a son who is 23, just dropped out of a Chemistry degree at Uni. He has managed to get a job (1 day after lockdown..lucky sod!) which is assisting a wealth management company with their social media...with NO marketing background! I say this because his age group almost innately tends to be more social media interested/savvy. My comment is made just to say that your ideal candidate may very well just be a wicked receptionist who has a nag for instagram.If that is the case you may be luckier than you think as I imagine a lot of receptionist candidates may be a younger demographic.

I will be taking over socials for my business which is daunting, my husband employed a marketing consultant earlier in the year and after just a few months of working together on a weekly basis on and off, he has managed to take all of her instructions/notes and has grown his social media presence by over 250%!

I'm lucky to leech off of my husband's newly found social media savvy, however I would definitely recommend you maybe do something similar just in case your receptionist/marketing genius takes their talents elsewhere or simply is rammed looking after/well informed on beauty services, massage treatments, hair and a coffee service.

I'm looking at team being self employed but offering a sort of bonus/incentive of if you hit a certain turn over the following month you pay 5% less to the business. Not sure how that will go down but I hope we'll.

I'm lucky in that I've run 17 pubs/restaurants/hotels over the past 15 years (several at a time) but for a company. I've managed to get a grip over the social media and marketing but with a new venture I hope that a higher then average wage would hold onto someone to handle that role for the 1st year or 2 to allow me to focus on delivering the experience I am to provide.

I see lots of people saying set rent works for them but I want more control over what's offered and who offers it. I'm in a position that I don't need to break even in year 1, break even year 2 but not in need of profit and hoping for profit from year 3. However I'm hoping that having the side coffee shop style area will cover the basics. (gp is massive on such things).
My only concern for myself is will it be too small fry. I'm used to having 50 to 300 employees and 4 million turn over per year. And I know things won't be at that level with my venture.
But on a serious note until covid I didn't realise how much the basics affected my mental well being. Having my hair and brows done, getting a massage all benifit us so much and hopefully the industry will bounce back hard and fast.
 
What an absolutely fantastic idea - having the coffee shop at the front, I love that. Also, you would be able to keep that space open during any future lockdowns, for takeaway. But let's hope we'll all be out of this situation once your business is open. Good luck!
Any income is good during these times! And my hope is that it would encourage a more relaxed atmosphere. Im also thinking or adding more in the long run as the site Im trying to secure is 3 floors and several thousand sq ft. I'm thinking purhapse botox/laser hair removal and maybe a tattoo artist and tattoo removal.
As a new business I'm also looking at sponcering a local universitys swim team. Providing the swimmers with hair cuts and waxing hoping to push this to the 30,000 students.
 
Some fantastic ideas on here, and plenty of positivity - which is just what we need right now!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top