Thinking of starting up as a mobile therapist doing manicures & pedicures...need advice!

[detoxdiva]

I have been looking at starting up a mobile beauty therapy business, concentrating mainly on nail work.

It's something I enjoy doing and am good at - the plan being that I could work it around my current job as a way of earning some extra money and building a bigger business for the future.

What do I need to know? Where are the best training courses? What about insurance costs? Where's the best place to buy supplies? Etc etc etc - you get the picture

Any advice gratefully received. Thank You

Anyone?

It mainly depends on where you are based as to how much you can charge. Nail work is extremely profitable,however it is a very competitive market. You would need a licence in some areas,certainly public liability etc along with training course. Building up clients takes a long time,you need to advertise so there are lots of hidden costs. Get yourself to the next big beauty show. They are held at Olympia/excell/Brighton etc. Colleges,suppliers etc all under one roof. It can be a long process & you need to be pretty determined. How about looking at what the local nail techs charge. Factor in petrol & time going to client before you jump in.
Very best of luck!

Thanks - hadn't thought of the beauty shows...will check out when the next ones are.

Insurance isn't too expensive. I'm a mobile make up artist and pay around £45 a year for insurance-I think it's the same for nail technicians. I'm insured with Professional Beauty:

www.professionalbeauty.co.uk/site/default.aspx

I buy some supplies from Capital Hair and Beauty. They also run training courses. You can also try Sweet Squared. They run the CND courses and are highly thought of:

www.sweetsquared.com/

You might also find the Salon Geek forum useful for various bits and information, guidance etc:

www.salongeek.com/forums.php

Hope this all helps.

Thanks misspentangle - great links, cheers!

Has anyone got any recommendations around training courses? The CND ones on the Sweet Squared seem to be highly rated from what I have read, but are there any other good ones people have used?

...or costs to set up with the equipment I'd need? Trying to work out a budget!

Or indeed what basics I'd need to start off with [hconfused]

Anyone tonight?

detoxdiva - what exactly are you wanting to do? Is it just manicures or will you offer acrylic and or gel nails? Many nail techinicians also offer both Shellac and Minx too.

Initially I'd like to offer 'regular' manicures and pedicures, as well as Shellac & Mix, as these seem to me to be the biggest areas of work at the moment.

Areas that I would then like to move into as I build the business would be gel nails and nail art, but I appreciate that this is an area that requires time and practice!

If you're quite used to doing nails then I think you'd probably be ok doing one of the more basic manicure/pedicure courses which are available from Capital. You could also check with your local college. One thing to bear in mind when choosing a course is to check the course is acceptable for obtaining insurance. Capital courses usually are but you'd have to check about ones from local colleges. A lot of the courses give you the option of buying a starter kit which would contain a lot of the tools you need, and some varnishes - you'd then just need to build up your varnishes with more shades. Capital sell both Sinful and OPI varnishes at around half the price you'd normally pay. Here are Capital's nail courses:

www.capitalhairandbeauty.co.uk/training/nail-courses

Shellac and Minx are both only available from Sweet Squared (or the Fingertips Centre if you're in Scotland). If you buy the starter packs from them then you also get free training.