Going it alone!

[bruc123]

hi everyone i am wanting your advice on going mobile! ive worked as a beauty therapist for approx 6 years now and would love to go mobile! Im just scared of making the first step! is it financially rewarding? i would need to make an income of 200 a week?! whats the best form of advertising?

 

[Ruth Mills]

Do you mean a profit of £200 per week (after paying out for expenses such as products, mileage, insurance, etc)? And is that before or after tax?

You could probably work out how many treatments you need to do per week to make the business viable by calculating your profit margin on each one (by deducting the amount spent on products from the amount you would charge for the treatment), then deduct a nominal amount for mileage at 40p per mile, based on the average distance you expect to travel to and from each client. Then work out how much recurring expenses such as insurance work out per day.

Also factor in the average time taken to do each treatment, so you will know how many treatments you can fit in per day, as well as travel time between clients, and definitely add some contingency time too in case a particular treatment overruns or you get stuck in traffic.

Also bear in mind that you won't be able to guarantee filling 100% of your time with bookings especially when just starting out - you will need time to build up a client base.

As for advertising - you will probably want to focus on your immediate area and perhaps a radius of say 5 miles or so - think of advertising in the local paper, or put up flyers in shop windows, or even a leaflet drop.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[bruc123]

thats really useful thankyou i need 200 after tax and product useage does that sound ok?ive got a leaflet drop going out and got 26 clients already ive thought about putting 5 pound charge on treatments over my local area distance?and im getting writing on my car?

 

[Ruth Mills]

Maybe you could speak to Business Link about the tax side of things? You certainly need to register with HMRC as being self employed. I am guessing you will be working as a sole trader?

Only you can decide whether a net income of £200 per week after tax is sufficient for your needs.

As for mileage - why not charge per mile outside of your area rather than a fixed fee of £5? Unless it is just easier to budget with the £5 charge rather than having to faff about working mileage out.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[bruc123]

that sounds better actually.. yer thats what i need as an income im just hoping i can get enough clientell to give me that income?! ive spoke to hmrc i got 3 months to set up and ive got to record everything do you do your own accounts?

 

[bruc123]

by the way your nails are fab on your profile pics are they foil?!

 

[Ruth Mills]

that sounds better actually.. yer thats what i need as an income im just hoping i can get enough clientell to give me that income?! ive spoke to hmrc i got 3 months to set up and ive got to record everything do you do your own accounts?

I'm self-employed myself, but work primarily in IT. However, considerations such as making sure you take things such as overheads, products, expenses and taxes into account are going to be common to most if not all businesses.

The way I record things will probably be different to you, as I always invoice people for the work I do, and then record payments received against each invoice (normally by cheque or bank transfer). Whereas you will likely be dealing primarily with cash payments and perhaps the occasional cheque (or eventually perhaps one of those mobile card payment machines when you get more established). And my accountants provide an online accounting system that I enter all my details in (as well as me submitting receipts for expenses together with a summary of expenses in an Excel spreadsheet). But the expenses themselves are also entered in the online accounting system that my accountants provide.

So I would advise you to speak with someone with more experience in the beauty industry for specifics about how you would need to record and manage your accounts for your situation.

 

[Ruth Mills]

by the way your nails are fab on your profile pics are they foil?!

That's not my work! Those Minx nails were done by a lady called Sue (Catsaremad on here), who lives in Wolverhampton! But I was her guinea pig for Minx, along with my wife Sonia and her carer Debbie.

 

[bruc123]

ok thats great help thanku do u like it better being self employed

 

[Ruth Mills]

ok thats great help thanku do u like it better being self employed

Definitely! Although the sort of work I am mainly doing at the moment is on clients sites, I'm hoping to "go it alone" properly in November on my own pet projects instead... much more fun and I can choose which hours I work and don't have to put up with all the faffing about and politics that goes with working in an office!

 

[bruc123]

yer thats the same im thinking about im just scared to make that move! atleast with working i no ill get paid a set amount each week but then i look at how much i make thekm and think why am i working my butt of soo hard for someone else!?