Single therapist businesses - how do you cope with being extremely busy?

[ellideb]

With most training providers these days you don't even have to pay them (apprentice/junior) for the time their training towards their level 1 it's usually when they go onto level 2 you pay them, it's a no lose situation I believe! I've got 2 girls with me at the moment it's really good for me as I haven't long opened and am not yet making enough to pay them wages contact your local jobcentre or Carreras office they'll tell you what's available

Hi Kahuna,

I'm in a similar situation myself, i'll be opening a new salon soon and have spoken to the college about apprentices. I am going to interview a few girls next week but it's all new to me. Could you give me some advice on the process please?

 

[surf girl]

Best thing to do if your going via a college is ask for a probation period, the first girl I had was all attitude and "swag" lol! I really could have sent her home the first week! I threatened her with going back to college if she diddnt abide by my policies and now she's by far the best junior I've ever worked with! I think within a couple of weeks you'll see if their a keeper or not, my girls are with a training company called ACT at the moment, with the one junior I contacted them and asked for a junior and the other was a girl I know who wanted an apprenticeship so she contacted them herself directly, the trainers will come out and do an interview with you and the trainee and go through h&S with you and do risk assessments then if all is good they give the trainee a start date and they come and start work with you that day, my girls have to do 30 hours a week so they work with me 3 days and have a day at the training centre, they have to attend work and ACT to get their money each week but I could choose their working days/hours to suit my business, is there anything specific you were wondering about?

 

[carleensnails]

Thanks I was looking into this today gonna ring tomorrow

 

[Gina Ballerina]

I'm glad I'm not only one feeling like this.
Today I worked 9:00-9:30 back to back (had 15min to eat) by the time I finished my texts and emails that have come through this afternoon and sent reminders for tomo it was 10:45. So many bleeping messages. I've just got home at
I work tue 9-6, wed 10-7, thur 9-9, fri 9-6, sat 9-5. I don't have a single appt free till 2nd July.

I can't take anyone on as I rent a room I need to expand but I can't as I need to buy a house. I put my prices up this week and no one batted an eye.
I don't mean to complain but I feel like I'm going insane and I feel trapped now in my room. It's so stressful. I turn down 15 or more clients a day and I have a cancellation list.
I was on holiday the first week of May and I feel like I haven't had a break at all.
I did take my diary with me but it's only 40 mins or so diary work a night.
I just don't know what to do

 

[Gina Ballerina]

I'm sorry Lovelee Lady my post wasn't helpful at all, just whiney!
I feel your pain though x

 

[little-miss-owl]

Hi

would love to hear advice and tips from those who work on their own and have became extremely busy

How do you manage the phonecalls, texts, emails, call ins, facebooks messages bookings and run the salon and do your treatments to a high standard?

Are there any strategies, plans, ways of working, techniques that you have found help you manage it all better?

Would like some practical tips

Do you stick to your set hours, do you take a lunch break?

We work so so hard to get busy and then we get busy and its intense!

At the moment I'm not getting any breaks and yesterday in salon I was that tired I just wanted to lie down on the floor and go to sleep lol the phone was ringing had customers everywhere my mobile was going and Im trying to stay focused and be entertaining and do amazing treatments

I'm turning away customers and could work to all hours yesterday did 11 hours customers back to back no breaks

I had to go out running at 10pm last night to try and stop the buzzing in my head and it worked was fabulous

I don't want to take on staff but would love to hear from those who have experienced it and any tips I could learn from

Im going to watch this thread like a hawk, thanks so much for posting it.
Havent got time to read it just this sec but I was so rushed off my feet in Jan Feb March Ive now got the most horrendous stress eczema that Ive been referred to a specialist about. My arms and hands and now my face are bleeding with it! I do not cope well at all when it goes manic, any advice from this thread, well I'll love you lot forever!

Sent from my SM-G900F using SalonGeek mobile app

 

[WaxGirl]

I'm glad I'm not only one feeling like this.
Today I worked 9:00-9:30 back to back (had 15min to eat) by the time I finished my texts and emails that have come through this afternoon and sent reminders for tomo it was 10:45. So many bleeping messages. I've just got home at
I work tue 9-6, wed 10-7, thur 9-9, fri 9-6, sat 9-5. I don't have a single appt free till 2nd July.

I can't take anyone on as I rent a room I need to expand but I can't as I need to buy a house. I put my prices up this week and no one batted an eye.
I don't mean to complain but I feel like I'm going insane and I feel trapped now in my room. It's so stressful. I turn down 15 or more clients a day and I have a cancellation list.
I was on holiday the first week of May and I feel like I haven't had a break at all.
I did take my diary with me but it's only 40 mins or so diary work a night.
I just don't know what to do

omg your wayyyyyy worse than me lol!!!

To be honest I've realised I'll wreck myself if not careful

I'm such a healthy fit strong person but just don't seem to have the energy for it all

I think my head is still where it was when I started... the mentality of take all the business to build be perfect and amazing

Sooo took onboard advice from here and put in 30 min lunch this week it was hit and miss - today I wolfed my porridge when a tan customer was drying lol o god but its a start

I get what you mean about feeling trapped in your room

I've also decided to stop doing treatments that are less profitable, not as popular or I don't enjoy as much - starting to streamline down and be more focused

I'm putting my prices up on certain things - today after a facial one of my lovely customers told me that I should charge more for them haha she even advised how much I should raise it by and weirdly that was the figure was in my head

I've been turning away customers .... BUT... I feel loyal to my regulars who supported me in the early days and really were amazing so I try my best to look after them

I'm spreading the word book in advance (here people are notoriously last minute - very laid back)

I'm going to be better re facebook and text bookings late at night - I'm resisting the urge to reply tonight lol

It's hard!! I love making money

I have a holiday coming soon that will give me time to recharge and think

But basically I want to stay loving what I do and financially I'm in good position so I'm going to work at a more controlled pace


Gina - how can you physically cope with all that? What do you think you could do?

I used to dream about being this busy and I'm so grateful I am.

 

[souz]

Heres what i have implemented so far!
I now go into work early with a flask of tea already made so that whilst im setting up for my day and turning everything on i can at lewst have tea and boscuits while walking around!

Before i get to the salon i am putting dinner in the slow cooker!

Im booking an hour lunch out but using that time to eat and reply to messages and phone calls. This means at the end of the day not so many to get back to.

I go home early two days a week but work longer on the other days!

I have one girl working one a day and upping that to two days and another hopefully starting soon that will do 2 days also, this will hopefully mean less turning people away and less of me working longer on the other days!

And lastly i sm learning to switch off at least a couple of evenings!!

Oh and nearly forgot i am learning to say no as i am pushing the fact people need to book in early by telling them as well as putting on facebook, regulars are booking well in advance , some booking 10 appts at a time!!

 

[cloughers]

I'm in the same boat! Worked until 11:30 last night then needed to unwind so watched TV until nearly 2am! Worked again today from 11-9 then had to feed 3 kids and put them to bed before eating myself. They are usually in bed by then but my husband was out and a tan client was late so put me behind. I've been doing every night and Saturday for months building up clients so that I could leave my office job which I finally did yesterday. The trouble is because I only had limited hours to work and didn't want to turn anyone away I've been fitting everyone in and it's just too much. I'm going to start doing mornings after half term while my littlest child is at preschool and just do 2 evenings and Saturday. She goes to school in September so I'm going to give myself Mondays off and do school hours 4 days and then do 2 eves and Saturday. I need structure because I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. I have also started to resent some treatments like nails which take an hour and cost £20 when I could be doing intimate waxing and earning so much more. On the other hand it's quite nice to have a sit down and a cuppa and a chat while doing nails, variety is the spice of life as they say! My salon is at home so I find whenever I have a little gap I end up walking the dogs or putting washing on etc. Instead of having food and a rest.

 

[WaxGirl]

Heres what i have implemented so far!
I now go into work early with a flask of tea already made so that whilst im setting up for my day and turning everything on i can at lewst have tea and boscuits while walking around!

Before i get to the salon i am putting dinner in the slow cooker!

Im booking an hour lunch out but using that time to eat and reply to messages and phone calls. This means at the end of the day not so many to get back to.

I go home early two days a week but work longer on the other days!

I have one girl working one a day and upping that to two days and another hopefully starting soon that will do 2 days also, this will hopefully mean less turning people away and less of me working longer on the other days!

And lastly i sm learning to switch off at least a couple of evenings!!

Oh and nearly forgot i am learning to say no as i am pushing the fact people need to book in early by telling them as well as putting on facebook, regulars are booking well in advance , some booking 10 appts at a time!!

those are good steps!

how did you find the employing staff?

part of me dreads it because of the hassle I've seen in the past

 

[WaxGirl]

I'm in the same boat! Worked until 11:30 last night then needed to unwind so watched TV until nearly 2am! Worked again today from 11-9 then had to feed 3 kids and put them to bed before eating myself. They are usually in bed by then but my husband was out and a tan client was late so put me behind. I've been doing every night and Saturday for months building up clients so that I could leave my office job which I finally did yesterday. The trouble is because I only had limited hours to work and didn't want to turn anyone away I've been fitting everyone in and it's just too much. I'm going to start doing mornings after half term while my littlest child is at preschool and just do 2 evenings and Saturday. She goes to school in September so I'm going to give myself Mondays off and do school hours 4 days and then do 2 eves and Saturday. I need structure because I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. I have also started to resent some treatments like nails which take an hour and cost £20 when I could be doing intimate waxing and earning so much more. On the other hand it's quite nice to have a sit down and a cuppa and a chat while doing nails, variety is the spice of life as they say! My salon is at home so I find whenever I have a little gap I end up walking the dogs or putting washing on etc. Instead of having food and a rest.

that's hard! I really admire women with children who do it all

re the nails - yes this is what I've thought so I will take the odd set of gelicure but I'm not going to overbook on them

I had planned to drop normal nail polish then had a customer want it and by the end of the drama I was like to myself 'its going!!' lol

 

[Shiv9mbs]

I'm glad I'm not only one feeling like this.
Today I worked 9:00-9:30 back to back (had 15min to eat) by the time I finished my texts and emails that have come through this afternoon and sent reminders for tomo it was 10:45. So many bleeping messages. I've just got home at
I work tue 9-6, wed 10-7, thur 9-9, fri 9-6, sat 9-5. I don't have a single appt free till 2nd July.

I can't take anyone on as I rent a room I need to expand but I can't as I need to buy a house. I put my prices up this week and no one batted an eye.
I don't mean to complain but I feel like I'm going insane and I feel trapped now in my room. It's so stressful. I turn down 15 or more clients a day and I have a cancellation list.
I was on holiday the first week of May and I feel like I haven't had a break at all.
I did take my diary with me but it's only 40 mins or so diary work a night.
I just don't know what to do

Omg this is exactly me too! I'm cracking up on my own but it's my only option at the moment!


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[LieLash]

Interesting thread and some very good points.
It seems there's no happy balance.
This time last year I was scratching around for clients - now I'm turning away daily and fully booked till 20th June it's crazy.

I make sure I take a Monday and Thursday off otherwise I work back to back 9am - 9pm for the other 5 days.So by time I've finished, sterilized and set up It's 10pm.
Eat a ready meal on my lap whilst I text a clients back, before on my laptop doing all the additional stuff before popping some sleeping tablets to try to sleep at midnight with a hundred things going through my head that keep me awake.
Get woken up by oh at 6pm when he gets up and that's it for me - awake.

It's nice to be busy but it's crazy, to the point I can't even fit regulars in! Would love to take someone on but who could I trust / I work from home and unfortunately my clients want me and not an apprentice.

My back kills from lashing all day, my mind goes at 100mph, if I get an odd 30 mins spare I can't sit still as not used to it, and even on days off I end up doing work related stuff,

Oh says leave it for the night but if I don't do it then it won't get done and will just pile up so twice as much to sort the next eve / arghhhhhh

 

[ellideb]

Best thing to do if your going via a college is ask for a probation period, the first girl I had was all attitude and "swag" lol! I really could have sent her home the first week! I threatened her with going back to college if she diddnt abide by my policies and now she's by far the best junior I've ever worked with! I think within a couple of weeks you'll see if their a keeper or not, my girls are with a training company called ACT at the moment, with the one junior I contacted them and asked for a junior and the other was a girl I know who wanted an apprenticeship so she contacted them herself directly, the trainers will come out and do an interview with you and the trainee and go through h&S with you and do risk assessments then if all is good they give the trainee a start date and they come and start work with you that day, my girls have to do 30 hours a week so they work with me 3 days and have a day at the training centre, they have to attend work and ACT to get their money each week but I could choose their working days/hours to suit my business, is there anything specific you were wondering about?

Thanks hun it's just interesting to hear your experience as im just a bit nervous. I want to do it right, strike the right balance of being a good teacher but also having boundaries. How do you bring them up on something if it's done incorrectly without soundi g harsh, and if you just cant work with a girl for whatever reason, how would you go about letting her go, what would you say to her?

 

[lktanning]

I'm in exactly the same boat!

I find myself most days doing 11 hours and then having to respond to 1000000 messages when I finish - which are much harder than calls because then you have people responding to you all hours of the night.

I've become more strict on myself and often turn my phone off for an hour just to wind down!

I'm thinking of changing my working hours to 9-5 during the week and 9-12 on a Saturday.. does any body have any advice on this?

I just think I'm fully booked until June 16th right now which is great but thats 9am-8pm most days, if I changed this to 9-5 working hours I might be booked a couple of weeks more.. ?

I feel strongly that if people truly want a treatment they will wait for it..?

Also, I'm thinking of putting my prices up and not sure how to go about it..

Would you ladies up it gradually or all at once? (With plenty of notice)

I would love everyones input!!

So grateful I saw this post today xxx

 

[surf girl]

A good balance is essential i can have a laugh with my girls but they know just by the look on my face when it's time for business, that might sound harsh but I think you need to be firm but fair when dealing with youngsters, especially teenage girls, one had attitude at first and we couldn't really connect but I liased with the trainers and they suggested she ask me about my family etc and that I do the same, turned out even tho I'm a lot older than her we actually have a lot in common, which was also useful in discussing her behaviour, I try to relate with them my own personal experiences as a junior and a teenager and explain how it affects my business when they don't behave as expected, they felt a bit attacked I think when I had to speak to them the first time but now I just call them out lay down any issues, we come to a solution and move on, I never hold a grudge and praise changes (I'm a mum of 3 too and believe putting issues out there and praising good results is the best way to deal with young people) the other junior is a stropper.... She is far worse than any other person I've ever known, I constantly have to show her the impact of her behaviour upon the salon it's a struggle because sometimes I just wanna scream at her but obviously I can't lol! I spoke to the trainers and they gave her a warning, I could have just sent her straight back but I thought I'd give her another chance like I did with the first one so hopefully things will improve now, if they don't ill just tell her I've given you a chance and you haven't corrected your behaviour so I'm going to let you go and find another salon where you might feel more happier. I have policies put up on the wall in the kitchen of what's expected of them and if they're slipping with certain areas like keeping the reception area clean or are chatting random nonsense to paying clients ill just quietly point out on the wall a sentence and let them think about it for a min lol! Yesterday I let them help with applying a colour (it was a friend of mine so no real nightmare if it wasn't perfect) I told them 3 times to apply the hot cross bun first. They both diddnt do it so afterwards I took then out the back and asked why no one did the hot cross bun when I told them 3 times they both apologised and blamed each other to which my response wAs a raised eyebrow lol! I just reminded them again they have to do what is asked in order to do the job properly as it turned out a bit was missed on the hot cross bun area, it always feels harsh when an older person points out your faults I think but as long as you back that up with a positive course of action to make it better it eases the blow slightly, you'll need lots of patience but put yourself in their shoes occasionally and you can be firm but fair x

 

[surf girl]

Thanks hun it's just interesting to hear your experience as im just a bit nervous. I want to do it right, strike the right balance of being a good teacher but also having boundaries. How do you bring them up on something if it's done incorrectly without soundi g harsh, and if you just cant work with a girl for whatever reason, how would you go about letting her go, what would you say to her?

That post above was in reply to you hun x

 

[souz]

those are good steps!

how did you find the employing staff?

part of me dreads it because of the hassle I've seen in the past

I thought about an apprentice and i did have a saturday girl for a while but i dont have time to spend with them so i have taken people on on a commisson basis. I didnt really want the extra hassle of tax/ni/holiday pay etc plus this way i also believe people work harder as the harder they work and upsell snd get people in the more they earn and so do i!! When there are two of you working st same time its much easier and iu dont need to work such long hours. I LOVE what i do BUT i also have a family and want time to go out for dinner or chill etc, of your working all hours when you do have time off your knackered!!!

Jo who works for me i met through salon geek, she has a home salon but its also nice to be in a salon part time (gets her out the house as she would put it) the second girl im talking to is also from here but i dont know her. For me what works in my salon is the personal approach, so the fact i knew jo before she worked for me i knew she was like me in that she does the same training as me, she loves the beauty shows, demos, is on here etc

 

[souz]

I'm in exactly the same boat!

I find myself most days doing 11 hours and then having to respond to 1000000 messages when I finish - which are much harder than calls because then you have people responding to you all hours of the night.

I've become more strict on myself and often turn my phone off for an hour just to wind down!

I'm thinking of changing my working hours to 9-5 during the week and 9-12 on a Saturday.. does any body have any advice on this?

I just think I'm fully booked until June 16th right now which is great but thats 9am-8pm most days, if I changed this to 9-5 working hours I might be booked a couple of weeks more.. ?

I feel strongly that if people truly want a treatment they will wait for it..?

Also, I'm thinking of putting my prices up and not sure how to go about it..

Would you ladies up it gradually or all at once? (With plenty of notice)

I would love everyones input!!

So grateful I saw this post today xxx

Its amazing how clients can fit in with you.....when i changed from working till 9pm every night to more daytime hours i was worried BUT clients have fitted in with me.they want their nails done with me and even wait a week longer sometimes just ti get in!! Yes we are providing s service but ot has to work for us...even doctors close!!

I am busy putting my prices up on certain treatments, i will announce it on facebook and have printed something off which a lovely geek on here helped me to word!! They are going up by about £3 and i am giving two weeks notice!! When i go to the hairdressers i turn up one week to a sign on desk saying xyz stylist has been promoted and her prices have gone up, no one questions it!!

 

[ellideb]

That post above was in reply to you hun x

Thanks, read and absorbed! Policies on the wall? That's not something ive done before due to working on my own but can you give me an idea what things you put up in writing? Thank you for your time hun x