Self-employed in beauty salon

[Beetree]

Hey,

I’m asking on behalf of my sister as she’s a bit confused with her new job.

So she’s recently fully qualified and her friend kindly offered her a job in her salon which she owns. She has been ‘working’ there a couple months now but barely has any shifts at all. My sister is apparently self employed with the salon and gets given a percentage of whatever she makes that day. The problem is she’s not making anything. She doesn’t have set days to come in and the days she does have they tell her not to bother coming in as she has no bookings.

When looking through the diary they don’t even have a column for her appointments and when she’s been due to have appointments her ‘friend’ / owner says she needs the extra money and takes that shift. I told my sister to look at her contract but she says she hasn’t been given one yet.

Can anyone suggest what she should do? Any help would be greatly appreciated! X

 

[Zoey92]

Friend or not she's taking her for a fool...tell her to look elsewhere. A contract should be set in stone employed or self employed then everyone knows where they stand. Taking her clients off her in my eyes is not being self employed. But as o say no contract no leg to stand on. To be honest I'd tell her to look elsewhere...i find if it's like this from the get go it never changes.

 

[AcidPerm]

Sounds like the ‘friend’ is using her to fill in for any overflow of bookings.
However, I think your sister has misunderstood what being self employed within a salon actually means.
If she is truly self employed, she needs to spend every spare minute trying to build her own business within the salon. That means having her own business name, advertising her services as widely as possible and taking bookings directly from clients.
She also needs to be saving money from the commission she receives to cover her national insurance and tax costs.

The question is, does she want to run her own business or would she rather be fully employed? Sounds like she might be better off looking for paid employment whilst she gains some experience.

 

[Beetree]

I think she’s confused and her ‘friend’ is doing what suites her. Her friend gives her her wages after tax etc. And is claiming she’s self employed but said she’s not allowed to advertise herself as it’s her business. I feel like she’s using my sister for when it works for her.

My sister was originally going to do treatments mobile to fit around her family but then her friend offered her a position but I think my sister believed it was going to be employed for a certain amount of days a week and this hasn’t been happening. That’s why I wanted to double check where she stood as neither of us have worked ‘self-employed’ and as soon as she told me what’s happening I knew they had been taking the mickey out of her.

I will make sure she raises this and hopefully they can sort it out!

 

[SalonSanctuaryCoach]

This is horrible! She can never build a clientele if she doesn't have set days and they means she will never make money. She needs to find anther salon that will help her grow!

 

[AcidPerm]

Have a read of this thread and suggest your sister prints a copy to discuss with her ‘friend’. If her friend is paying her wages, she must provide her with a payslip. However, from a legal perspective, she isn’t employed if she’s not being paid at least National Minimum Wage for the hours she’s worked there.

https://www.salongeek.com/threads/hmrc-guidelines-for-determining-self-employment.295298/

She can always telephone ACAS for advice. The number is at the bottom of the first post.

 

[Rachael.V]

Wow great friend. I would tell her to move on and find something else quickly!

 

[Rachael.V]

Wow great friend. I would tell her to move on and find something else quickly!

 

[Mstango]

Your sister isn’t self employed I am self employed in a salon I pay for the room per day I only use it two days I have all my own equipment and stock. I have a column in the appointment book. Your poor sister is getting ripped off big time it’s time for her to move on. Can’t believe she’s been putting up with this.