Okay, here comes the essay:o
Hello, there are no hard and fast rules on renting a room or table, a lot depends on the location.
First thing I would do is get your yellow pages out and ring every hairdressers that is in the area's where you would like to work.
Once you've found a room the next bit is to sort out a contract between you and the owner.
There are lots of threads on this subject so I'll let you hit the search button and get reading rather than recapping it all here, but do have a pad and pen handy to write things down, you will need it
Part of that I think for you would be to try to negotiate a % rather than a rent. If you are supplying everything for yourself, products, tools furniture, than 20 or 25% of your earnings to the rooms owner would be about right. If they are going to supply everything, than their take would be about 60% See if you can get this arrangement for the first year. To be reviewed. That way if you don't have any customers for the first couple of weeks (or months) you won't have to worry about finding money to pay for the room.
Next you need to advertise, again there are a lot of threads on here, so I'll just say, Happy Reading
Oh and check out Lynn Barkers guide (on here) about marketing, also Sassy Hassey wrote a good one. They cover everything and how to do it.
Finally, don't make the mistake of going cheep. You get the chancer, this is the client who is always looking for the cheapest deal, once you put your prices up they are gone and you are back to square one, having to find clients all over again. The chancer is also the most likely person to not show up, demand a refund when they over spend after a night on the town leaves them with no money for their ciggys and they in general are just not worth the effort it takes to keep them happy.
Remember you are doing this because you have bills to pay.
Please, from the bottom of my heart, please, find out now how to fill in self assessment forms. Go to the HMRS web site, talk to your bank, take a book keeping course at your college, but don't come here on January 28th with a dead line of January 31st to find out how to fill it in.
There are some very well educated people on here, but if they get it wrong saying to the tax man 'but a geek told me to do it that way' will not keep you out of trouble.
Don't get me wrong, I love being self employed, no boss, except the one inside my head, I take my business in the direction I want. I work when I want to (at the moment I'm at college) But, do it right, plan it carefully, think of all the things that can go wrong and plan for them. It's a big step, do it right and you'll never look back, do it wrong and you could end up paying for it for years to come.
Good luck with making your dream come true.
