Scared to go it alone!

[holllllyx]

SO, I’ve been toying with the idea of going self employed for a little while now. I’m currently employed in a beauty salon and love where I work, but having recently bought my first home a little bit of extra money certainly wouldn’t go a miss!

I A) don’t want to put my bosses nose out of place by going on my own and B) am terrified it goes wrong with a house, bills, car etc all to pay for and no money to pay for them!

I’ve thought about maybe doing it in the evenings outside of work in my spare room but to be honest I just don’t know where to start, which insurances do I need? Who needs to know? How do you learn how to do your own books? Business names? How to advertise? Do people even LIKE coming to home salons? I’m completely at a loss.

So what did everybody else do & how did you start out? Any stories and/or tips would be MUCHLY appreciated!! X

 

[Passionate about skin]

SO, I’ve been toying with the idea of going self employed for a little while now. I’m currently employed in a beauty salon and love where I work, but having recently bought my first home a little bit of extra money certainly wouldn’t go a miss!

I A) don’t want to put my bosses nose out of place by going on my own and B) am terrified it goes wrong with a house, bills, car etc all to pay for and no money to pay for them!

I’ve thought about maybe doing it in the evenings outside of work in my spare room but to be honest I just don’t know where to start, which insurances do I need? Who needs to know? How do you learn how to do your own books? Business names? How to advertise? Do people even LIKE coming to home salons? I’m completely at a loss.

So what did everybody else do & how did you start out? Any stories and/or tips would be MUCHLY appreciated!! X

Do you intend to leave your employer and go out on your own as self employed or are you intending to work on the side as well as work in the salon ? . If so please be very careful . You will need to ask your boss if this is ok as it may state in your contract that this is unacceptable and a conflict of interests .
You can’t really advertise and promote yourself if your boss doesn’t agree to you working outside of the salon . Please look at this very carefully before even considering all the business decisions that you will need to do to become self employed . Good luck

 

[holllllyx]

Do you intend to leave your employer and go out on your own as self employed or are you intending to work on the side as well as work in the salon ? . If so please be very careful . You will need to ask your boss if this is ok as it may state in your contract that this is unacceptable and a conflict of interests .
You can’t really advertise and promote yourself if your boss doesn’t agree to you working outside of the salon . Please look at this very carefully before even considering all the business decisions that you will need to do to become self employed . Good luck

Thank you for your reply! My manager is extremely relaxed and doesn’t actually have any contracts in place! I wouldn’t poach clients from the salon, so I’d be looking around my area, which is about 20 minutes away from the salon! And yes, I’m thinking to start with outside working hours! X

 

[jamiereid92]

Have a look on direct.gov that's where all the things for setting up a business or going self employed.

You may need to get council approval aswell if you're setting up a business from home.

I wouldn't like to work without contract, you're not very safe x

 

[BannerPenguin]

Thank you for your reply! My manager is extremely relaxed and doesn’t actually have any contracts in place! I wouldn’t poach clients from the salon, so I’d be looking around my area, which is about 20 minutes away from the salon! And yes, I’m thinking to start with outside working hours! X

Regardless of contract or not, if she finds out and you didn't discuss it with her, I can imagine you'd be out of the job so that's a REAL risk you need to be aware of.

Congrats on buying your first home. I'm not trying to be negative but in my opinion, it's probably not a good time to try go it alone. It can take over a year to turn a profit let alone build up to what your current wage is. If you have serious financial commitments it's hard to start a business as you need a nest egg of money to live on and use for marketing for your new business.

 

[holllllyx]

Regardless of contract or not, if she finds out and you didn't discuss it with her, I can imagine you'd be out of the job so that's a REAL risk you need to be aware of.

Congrats on buying your first home. I'm not trying to be negative but in my opinion, it's probably not a good time to try go it alone. It can take over a year to turn a profit let alone build up to what your current wage is. If you have serious financial commitments it's hard to start a business as you need a nest egg of money to live on and use for marketing for your new business.

Thank you for your reply! Yeah, that’s something that I’ve thought about and one of the reasons why I’ve held off doing it for so long, I love my boss but I’m not sure how she would take it, so I’m still thinking of how to tell her or what I would even say to her.

Thank you! No it’s not negative at all, it’s also something that’s been putting me off it for a while, which is why I was possibly thinking of just doing it a couple of nights a week to start with and build it up gradually, I currently have a few of homers I do (friends of friends, neighbours etc) so I think if I started to let them mention to people that I’m doing it, and put out a few flyers or whatever it would maybe help, but I still manage to talk myself out of doing it every time haha! Again, thanks for replying! X

 

[CFBS]

Good advice given above.
Definitely check out your local council with regards to planning permission. It seems to vary hugely across the UK!

From your post, it sounds like you have purchased your house on your own? - in which case, firstly, well done you! but on the other side, a mortgage and utility bills are amounts you have to pay. Have you left some leeway in your budget in case the mortgage rate goes up?
Maybe wait a year, save what you can and then start self-employed part time plus employed part time to keep a basic amount of wages coming in.

 

[AcidPerm]

Plenty of staff work extra hours to increase their income as generally, pay levels are pretty low on this industry. I think your idea to ask your existing home clients to spread the word locally is probably a good way to start. Best of luck.

 

[holllllyx]

Have a look on direct.gov that's where all the things for setting up a business or going self employed.

You may need to get council approval aswell if you're setting up a business from home.

I wouldn't like to work without contract, you're not very safe x

Thanks for your reply! Really helpful, I’ll have a browse through that all! I know, it does worry me a little! X