Nail tech work from home - legal aspects

[Miledy]

Hi

I'm a nail technician and I'm exploring an opportunity of working from home. I'm not a beginner in the profession, and I've been specialising in nails and have relevant certifications and insurance. This is not my only source of income and so I'm not looking to create a true salon experience for now. All I need is a small area with a table, two chairs and some typical things like lamps, dust collector, a steriliser, nothing fancy.

I was told that working from home requires some permission from my Local Authority. Also, I don't own a property so will have to rent and landlords don't usually welcome this kind of work from home. It looks like it's really difficult to do even this "micro business" from home in my circumstances. But if I have 5 clients per week and most of them are my friends and friends of my friends, does that qualify as a business at all?

Could anyone share their experiences or thoughts about my situation? Is there hope I can legally work from home? Or may be, with just a few clients per week it's not worth it, and I just have to get more serious and either work in a salon, or focus on nails as my main source of income and invest in it just to overcome the legal burden of working from home? Or may be I should turn into a mobile nail tech?

 

[TheDuchess]

If you are trained and insured and have a main source of income elsewhere don’t worry about seeing 5 clients a week at home. It will be fine. Don’t be put off,

It won’t class as carrying on a business and a landlord shouldn’t fuss - maybe mention to the agency when you view, but be very casual, stress it’s a sideline.

Check out the local Council website - you won’t need planning consent or anything, as long as the area is mainly used as your home - but make sure you keep proper records and declare your income to HMRC.

Make sure you tell your home insurance that you see a few clients at home - you might be able to get a combined home and business insurance, but usually you need two separate policies.

And think through all the practicalities - where will your clients park (you don’t want the neighbours complaining)? Where will they wait if they are early and you’re still with a client? What about the client journey through your personal space to the nail area? What about toilet facilities?

You need to think about the risk that an unsupervised client steals from you, breaks something or has an accident and you need to think about food smells and disturbance from other family members.

Good luck!