Starting up

[Marta87]

Hi all , I am totally new in all this forum thing and freshly qualified hairdresser (lvl2 ) yeyy so please be kind ..... and completely don't know where to start .
I am mum of two and lets just say I am mature student (31) with my age is really difficult to find full time salon work due to my mum commitments( already working part time) and there isn't much part time jobs going for people freshly finished course :/ so it seems to me like mobile hairdressing is best option for now,therefore I am looking for any advice you can give me ! From the prices to insurance and legal stuff ... advice on how to really start I am aware it is not over night thing and will take some time I am planing on doing level 3 too

 

[Eloise86]

Hi all , I am totally new in all this forum thing and freshly qualified hairdresser (lvl2 ) yeyy so please be kind ..... and completely don't know where to start .
I am mum of two and lets just say I am mature student (31) with my age is really difficult to find full time salon work due to my mum commitments( already working part time) and there isn't much part time jobs going for people freshly finished course :/ so it seems to me like mobile hairdressing is best option for now,therefore I am looking for any advice you can give me ! From the prices to insurance and legal stuff ... advice on how to really start I am aware it is not over night thing and will take some time I am planing on doing level 3 too

You’ll need public liability insurance, I use salon gold. Prices depend on what products and service you intend to give. When I do mobile I take my own towels, shampoos conditioner, products etc. So I charge what I charge in the salon, as it’s just as professional but in their own home. Last year I did a Schwarzkopf business course and there were lots of mobile hairdressers attend too. When they were asked what they charged they always said less than salon. The ambassador LG’s asked why.. they replied because the client wasn’t getting the salon experience and had to clear up afterwards that they felt they couldn’t charge the same as salons. The ambassador replied if you had your favourite chef cook for you at home do you think they would charge less? Absolutely not, you would pay more and still have to clear up after them. The same should apply. The way traffic is nowadays you’ll have to leave plenty of travel time (and fuel is not cheap these days) therefore don’t be able to do as many clients in a day as what you would in a salon. Time is money. Remember when you’re self employed, you don’t get holiday or sick pay... that needs to be accounted for. Annual training courses are expensive too and should also be taken into consideration in charges. Regular training is so important in our game and when mobile it can be easy to not do it. You are running a business and you need to make money it can be easy to get friendly with mobile clients as you are in their home. Be strict with the hours you want to work or you’ll end up with work taking over your life.
Mobile clients who respect you will pay the going rate for a professional service in the comfort of their own home as they are paying for your expertise and the convenience of being in their own home. Good luck xx

 

[Marta87]

Thank you for coming back to me. I would love the idea on "home salon" where I could use my conservatory and turn this into home salon For now I do only have one option so I will leave at that. I thought the prices need to reflect on your level of skills as I am just level 2 I would have to charge much less then senior stylist (mind I don't have much experience , so I need to work still on my timing ).

 

[vintagelover91]

Hi lovely!
One of the hardest things, aside from all the technicalities, is building a client base.
Whilst I agree with the above about charging for mobile services, I’d do a few bits and pieces cheap for friends and family and style it and take photos. Make a facebook page, spend some time putting everything on there, prices, information etc, and post your work on there. Everything you do, take before and afters, and work on a good blow dry and styling technique - it’ll make everything you do look a bazillion times better!

Have a few introductory offers and ask friends to share a price list (I make my price lists with a phone app called “PicLab” and find iPhone wallpapers as backgrounds). Don’t worry too much about timings initially - just let clients know on booking how much time it’ll take. A lot of my clients are parents, so I’ll start them after the school run at 9.30ish and most of them are usually free
Until 3. When you’re producing good work and you are ready to speed up (because clients want good hair over fast hair any day), wear a watch. I used to give myself times for each section of a full head foil, and timing is so much easier to keep an eye on in small chunks!

Personally, I have never gotten my level 3, but I have been on tonnes of courses and always follow pages such as BehindTheChair and read up and practice every new technique I can - you don’t have to be a level 3 to be a good stylist, you just need to be creative and have the ability to learn and teach yourself. Keep yourself and your clients up to date, post about new trends and techniques on your social media, and have fun with it - hairdressing can be loads of fun and if potential clients can see how much fun you have and how much you love it, they’ll flock to you.

I’d also recommend when you start, getting just an a4 notebook and start working out what you pay out and in for work. Register self employed on the HMRC website. I started off by each month having an “incomings” page - where i drew out 4 columns, date, client, location, and cost. I also had an outgoings. From my incomings I could work out everything I had taken, and also work out my mileage to claim back at the end of the tax year. Outgoings, I put in everything I’d spent on the business and staple in any receipts or invoices. At the end of the month I’d tot up all my incoming, and then all my outgoings, and then take one away from the other to work out my profit.
If you keep this up through the year, it makes it SO much easier to do your tax return - and likely if you’re only working part time you won’t need to pay much tax anyway.

I’d also recommend investing in a “basic” colour kit. I’ve had a lot of colour experience so mine was bass shades and then additives but just every other base shade, 10/20/30/40vol, a couple of toners and highlifts, a bleach and some foil. With gloves and capes etc. And you can start with that. Replace what runs out, do colour consultations before you do a client and order anything else you need. Before you know it you’ll have a colour bar from your car [emoji57] (also, depends if you’re going to be permanently mobile, but I quite literally do have a colour bar in my boot and use old Royal Mail crates to store all my products, meaning I can just reload my bag whenever I need to between clients - worth thinking about getting something similar!)

Insurance wise I’m also Salon Gold - it’s cheap, easy and I’ve only heard good stuff!

Finally - if you’re worried about experience, try sacrificing a day a week or half a day or whatever you can and get some salon experience in the best local salon you can find. Ask to do it for free for some shop floor experience - you might be making coffees and sweeping floors but watch the stylists work, watch how they foil/balayage/blow dry, ask questions. You’ll be free help to them which they’ll love but you’ll learn so much for just a couple hours of your time!

Put the work in and you’ll soon be able to give up that part time job and be a mobile stylist and honestly you’ll love it - and if you love what ya do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life [emoji12] cheesy but true!!