Total Confusion. Can you help?

[LadyGray]

Hi All,

I've been reading the forums avidly for a couple of weeks now and I'm struggling to get myself sorted and need help! I'll try to be as brief as possible.

I am a stay at home mum wiht a passion for nails. I have wanted to be a nail tech for a long time and now is my turn to learn a new trade and I will in the next few months be learning Acrylic Nails with Ez Flow.

My plan would be to learn how to do the nails, start out doing friends and family and friends of friends for the next year, evenings and weekends, until my youngest daughter starts nursery for 15 hours a week when I will be able to increase my working hours a bit and by then should be well practiced, and then I will continue in that vein until both children are at school and increase my hours further.

So when I qualify it will be very loose and informal for the time being.

I know I will need insurance.

Anyway here are the questions I have:

I plan to add further strings to my bow over the years until kids are both in school, but as a start up business, is Acrylics alone enough or should I be looking at doing a basic manicure (or something else I'm unaware of) course as well? I can polish nails jsut fine, but cuticle care etc are things I'm not knowledgable about and I can do a decent french manicure on myself, but not professional enough to charge for...

If I were to do a friend in my home, would I need extra or different insurance?

I presume I will need to inform inland revenue and keep records of everything so should i have a business account? Can I get a business account without a business plan? Do I need a business plan for something that I plan to be so informal for the first year?

Speaking of finances, when I first qualify I will of cousre want to offer discounted acrylics...how do I find out what is enough to just cover costs or is this a rubbish idea? What do people usually do?

I have loads more buzzing around my head of course, just basically how do I make my dream a reality and what obvious things am I not thinking of or missing?

Thank you so much in advance for anyone who can advise!

 

[nicola90]

Hi,

I'm training at the moment, starting off with acrylics, then going to do a mani/pedi course and a conversion with NSI and I'm enjoying practising with their products at the minute.

Not sure how much advise I can give you about starting up, but I'm planning to start up as a mobile nail tech in the summer. As far as I know, if you want to offer manicure or pedicure services, you will have to take a course in it, so you can obtain insurance. Not sure about insurance for practising on models, I'm sure someone else will have the answer for that! I think you can do 1 or 2 day courses in manicures though, and they're not too expensive, so that's probably your best bet just to have the qualification.

You don't need to have a business account, I've seen some people who just put the money through their current account, but it's harder to keep track of incomings and outgoings that way (for the tax man!). You'll have to inform the inland revenue, or HMRC, that you're starting up a business, you'll probably register as a sole trader. You then complete a tax return once a year which determines how much PAYE and NI you owe. I don't think you need a business plan to open a business account (Santander do a free one fyi) but you will probably want one when you get a more formal set up going.

Regarding the prices once you're first qualified, you'll have to see how confident you feel. I did my sisters nails yesterday (I'm still training) and would no way feel comfortable about charging for the standard of them (they were good, but not good enough!) so you could maybe advertise for models or like you said just charge for your costs. Maybe half of what you will charge once confident and qualified will be a good starting place.

Hope that helps you a bit anyway, like I said I'm still training so prob not the best to give advice, but I'm sure there are some lovely geeks who can provide you with more info!

Nikki x

 

[LadyGray]

Hi Nicola, thanks so much for taking the time to reply!
Ok so you think that if I have insurance for acrylics that won't cover mani/pedi? So should really be looking at basic manicure courses as well as the acrylics in order to get insurance for both? You're right though, the more qualifications the better!

I definitely don't want to use my current account, that would be disastrous for me. Thanks also for the Santander recommendation, I suppose it'd be logical to just open one from the start rather than starting off with a current account and having to move it all over at a later date.

You're right I'm imagining only wanting to cover costs at the very start, how I will know what the costs are when I'm so inexperienced is anyones guess! Advertising for models is a great idea though!

Thanks so much for helping, it has realyl been a help. I've got loads of other questions but am easing myself in slowly! xx

 

[nicola90]

That's the best thing to do yeah. Did you say you were training with EZ Flow? I don't know anything about them, but I'm sure they do a mani/pedi course which is certainly worth having under you belt, as you'll possibly want to expand in the future. I'm pretty sure the acrylics insurance won't cover normal manicure, but that might be worth checking with some of the big insurance companies. The beauty guild is a good website to check for other useful advice. The other website you'll probably need is Business support, information and advice | Business Link I have been using it a lot over the last few weeks, as you'll find lots of the answers for your business type questions on there! They also run workshops for people starting their own business, free of charge, though I don't know about you but I don't think I have time for one haha!
This website is great for help as well, you can use the search bar to search for anything that might crop up either in your training or afterwards.
I think a good price for when you're practising would be about £10. That will more than cover your costs of materials, and also a bit of your time. You can advertise for models either on here, or on facebook or gumtree, they're both free!
Good luck, and welcome to salongeek
Nikki x

 

[nicola90]

PS forgot to say, if you're advertising for models at a cheaper price, make sure you are clear that it's only a price for whilst you're training. The models may well turn into clients for your future business, but make sure they don't only expect to pay that price once you're established! It's probably best to work out a pricing system you want to achieve once confident and fully ready, then you can maybe half that price for the services you're offering to build up confidence, then give them plenty of notice when the price will rise. Hope that makes sense, it did in my head, but that doesn't mean much!!

 

[LadyGray]

Fab thank you, have been looking at the Business Link site this evening and getting very confused which is why I gave up and came here!

Really appreciate all your advice, it makes lots of sense and seems very obvious

Great idea about the models and yes the £10 does sound good - thanks so much.