Self employment in hair salon with business support

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Successful24

Well-Known Member
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Hi everyone


Recently ive been looking for work in a hair salon as a senior stylist i have 9 years experience and i am mainly looking at employment however, I recently came across an employer who is looking for self employment. Now normally I would turn it down straight the way as self employment scares me.

Here is a break down of how they would like the self employment to be ran within their business...

£32 rent a chair (a day)
30% commission
This includes the salon supplying the products, lights (etc) and training and apprentices
Support in building up clientele i.e leafleting, and social media posts
Business accountant contact details charging £120 a year
Clientele waiting (use to belong to graduate stylist) cut and blowdry starting from £22

Whats made me decide to post is because im thinking is this too good to be true?[emoji848] Or is this too good to be true [emoji849]... and what questions could i ask to dig a little deeper for information.

Pricing plays a huge part in self employment so I would “roughly” offer services such as a cut and blowdry starting from £35-£39
Colour £45-£55+ (depending on what it is) and an introduction offer for myself

Should i take the opportunity or run for the hills

Please help thank you in advance x
 
Hiya.

It does sound like it could be too good to be true, but you never know. If i was you I would try it out and see how it goes. By the way, what is the 30% comission on? Products?
 
Hiya.

It does sound like it could be too good to be true, but you never know. If i was you I would try it out and see how it goes. By the way, what is the 30% comission on? Products?

Hey riane,

30% commission on takings x
 
I’d be wary. That sounds like a potentially scam employment arrangement because the salon sounds a bit too involved in how you run your business.

Is it staffed by only self employed stylists or are there some employed staff?
How are walk-ins allocated.
Usually, you pay either a daily rent OR commission on earnings but not a mix of both.
You should be responsible for managing your own business within the salon and free to choose your own products and set your own prices.
You should be organising your own appointments and keeping your own client data secure.
The salon can’t pass on their existing client details to you without breaching data protection law as you are a separate business entity operating within their salon.

What’s with the Business Accountant offer? They shouldn’t have access to your financial data.
You need your own separate accountant.

With your level of experience, there’s no reason to be scared of self employment.
 
I’d be wary. That sounds like a potentially scam employment arrangement because the salon sounds a bit too involved in how you run your business.

Is it staffed by only self employed stylists or are there some employed staff?
How are walk-ins allocated.
Usually, you pay either a daily rent OR commission on earnings but not a mix of both.
You should be responsible for managing your own business within the salon and free to choose your own products and set your own prices.
You should be organising your own appointments and keeping your own client data secure.
The salon can’t pass on their existing client details to you without breaching data protection law as you are a separate business entity operating within their salon.

What’s with the Business Accountant offer? They shouldn’t have access to your financial data.
You need your own separate accountant.

With your level of experience, there’s no reason to be scared of self employment.

Hey thanks for taking the time to reply.

So this salon isnt your typical backstreet salon. Its in a “well to do” area and earned a few rewards with loreal.

The reason they wanted to set up employment this way was because the owner wants to help their staff earn a great income. Good income = happy staff.

3 self employed staff (one including the owner) 2 apprentices

The agreement would be
£32 per day rental
30% commission a month

The rental is cheaper than most and i am assuming commission is the cover training, apprentices products that they will provide.

We have discussed that if i was to be employed for 3 months as a new stylist to build a good group clientele then convert to self employment. Client details are stored onto salon data base. Which personally for me i ain’t bothered im not looking to take business away from the salon even if ive earned it, im planning on changing career later in life.

The accountant is the salon’s accountant that do their books ,however they asked if they employed a self employed staff member would they manage there accounts to they said yes for £120 a year

I asked whats the average earnings of the staff member who is leaving they said £528 for a 3 day week before any deductions (as they were an apprentice there weren’t any)

Hopefully this makes sense.

Would this be a good job opportunity?
 
“The reason they wanted to set up employment this way was because the owner wants to help their staff earn a great income. Good income = happy staff. 3 self employed staff (one including the owner) 2 apprentices

The agreement would be
£32 per day rental
30% commission a month
The rental is cheaper than most and i am assuming commission is the cover training, apprentices products that they will provide.

You pay commission based on your takings so if you charge £40 for a cut/blow, you’d pay £12 to the salon on top of your daily fee.
Looking at it this way, if you do 6 c/bd a day taking in £240, you will pay out £32 daily rent plus £72 commission.
That is £104 a day, therefore keeping £136 to cover your tax, NI, pension payments, personal liability insurance, accounting costs etc.


Combined with a set daily rent, that’s not particularly cheap!

We have discussed that if i was to be employed for 3 months as a new stylist to build a good group clientele then convert to self employment. Client details are stored onto salon data base.

This isn’t how self employment is meant to work.
The salon is keeping their client data so you have no legal right to it as you will be an entirely separate business entity. If you left to set up elsewhere, you would lose the client records that you have built up.
This is also potentially illegal as it breaches the GDPRegs.


The accountant is the salon’s accountant that do their books ,however they asked if they employed a self employed staff member would they manage there accounts to they said yes for £120 a year.

No I wouldn’t agree to this. I think you really need to keep things separate.
This way you are allowing the salon the opportunity to control how you run your business.


I asked whats the average earnings of the staff member who is leaving they said £528 for a 3 day week before any deductions (as they were an apprentice there weren’t any). Hopefully this makes sense.
Would this be a good job opportunity?”

——————————————

I think it could be viewed as a useful learning opportunity for you starting out as a self employed chair renter and it might work out fine.
You do need to understand that HMRC would be likely to view this as a sham employment arrangement, especially as you will be starting off being employed initially. However, if they did, it would be the salon that would be prosecuted, not you, so you’ve less to lose in that respect.
 
Hi, id take a slightly different view to AcidPerm. There are guidelines to self employment which have been agreed with the NHF but even if you don't stick to all of these, it doesn't mean it's a sham employment exploiting you and breaking the law.

You may be classed by HMRC as a "worker" essentially a freelance person not entitled to employee social security benefits but also not operating a separate business. It's a very common arrangement in other industries. It's a bad (illegal) arrangement in low paid, unskilled sectors and can be a way for business owners try to avoid paying minimum wages and all the other benefits, but it works very well in skilled work sectors. It's a way of earning more than the going rate as an employee without all of the risks of self employment. To be classed as a business you have to have costs (risks) associated with the business besides not having enough work. This puts off a lot of people.

There's no GDPR drama. If you want to keep a bank of clients that belong to you, you'll need to maintain your own treatment records and register with the ICO and them know that you share data with the salon. (The salon needs to do the same). At your first client consultation you explain that like most experienced stylists you are self employed and that client records are also stored securely by the salon so that they can manage your bookings for you. As clients will need to consent to marketing contacts the salon will probably ask clients if they would like to be notified of any special offers, new services, events or promotions running for their stylist or the salon. If a client hasn't consented to marketing, you can't text them if you move on - even if you have their records.

Frankly it's much better for you not have to to be contacted by your clients when they want to book.

If the salon's accountant is a separate professional - rather than an employee of the salon, there's no problem with using the same accountant. The accountant will be able to guide you properly and help both you and the salon impartially.

As AcidPerm has pointed out, the risk that HMRC will reject this arrangement will be on the salon, so I wouldn't worry about the legality of this arrangement. You're not doing anything wrong.

If your daily takings are £320 a day you would be paying the equivalent of 40% a day. The arrangement will penalise you if you take lots of time off and incentivises you to turn up and put the hours in. If you are the conscientious, hardworking type you should do well.
 

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