Starting a beauty business from home. Help please?

[vicki6158]

Hi all.

im an aspiring beautician, I’m going to be doing a selection of short courses starting with waxing.

im currently a single mum of three. Youngest about to start year 1.

I know it’s a shaky start but il be working out of my living room at first. I know it’s not ideal but I have limited space and no driving license so il work with what I have until I can afford a cabin.

im currently putting together a sort of business plan for myself and need a whole range of advice.

i have a rough price list in mind but what are everyone else’s suggestions?

how long should I leave between clients?

how much time should treatments take?

anything else I should know?

are the hours of 8:30 start to 2:30 last booking realistic? I have to pick my kids up at 3:15 however it’s a two minute walk.

thank you xxx

What prices were you thinking? Just as an example, I pay £30-£40 for a Hollywood wax, I’d expect to pay less in someone’s home than a salon. I’d also (and I don’t want to offend) be a bit concerned hygiene wise if it was obviously a living room and not even a spare room that was only for doing beauty treatments.

I had Hollywood at £29. I was working with lower prices as it’s not in a salon.

yeah I understand. I would make a point of cleanliness and sanitation but if it’s going to be a concern for many then maybe it’s not the appropriate route.

I agree, I don’t think your living room is ideal. A lot of women go to a salon for the experience as much as what they’re having done, they won’t want to see your tv and pics of kids on the wall! Unless you can turn that room into an actual salon room?

I can’t advise on the last appointment time, but it’s worth keeping in mind that a lot of people are poor time keepers and are often ten minutes late. Nails and waxing for instance could take longer than a half an hour

Good luck with it.

You will find out timings of treatments from your training.

If your kids are at school then maybe consider mobile treatments?
I would rather have something like that done in my own home rather than someone else's if salon isn't an option. You won't constantly have to tidy up and make sure everything is perfect for clients to see. Obviously you'll need insurance too. Does your home insurance cover you for running a business from home?

Do you own your home? Do you know if you are able to operate a business from the home?

Have you looked at insurance? Do you have any existing training?

Could you wait until you had a bit more cash to get somewhere? Get a small business start up loan? Or rent a chair in a salon near you, you could still be SE and choose your own hours. Sometimes councils have grants for small start ups.

Our local college has its own hair & beauty salon where the students work while training, people book in as it’s a lot cheaper than salons and all work is supervised by tutors. I’d imagine they could be flexible about hours too.

The cheapest salon I use for waxing (I go between 2 depending on my shifts) is £32 for a Hollywood, not sure a £3 reduction would tempt me to go to someone’s house.

Alot of girls around where I live have a shed in their garden they use for beauty treatments/hair dressing. They aren't massive sheds either!

When my DC were small I used a beautician in our road who worked from home, she used the spare room which was OK but a bit off wandering through a house and up the stairs, the space and treatment bed were not ideal and it was very much a needs must convenient option. Her charges were at least 25% lower than salons in our town. I would not use someone who didn’t have a dedicated room, sorry.

First thing I will say is check the courses you are doing qualify you to be insured to carry out treatments. A lot of short courses don't.
To start with honestly your prices need to be low there is a lot of competition now especially seen as people are not doing two year courses anymore in order to be qualified.
Start by asking for models for free and then once you have got your confidence and timings up to scratch then go to maybe 50% of what others are charging then once you are getting repeat bookings set your prices. I can’t comment on prices as I’m not in the U.K. you need to be competitive to your area and that can differ greatly tbh.
At first I would leave 30 mins in between so that you have time to clean and sanitise everything and also give yourself a little breather toilet break etc. it also helps knowing you have that time when you are new incase you over run it stops you feeling as flustered.
Because it’s in your home you don’t want someone knocking on your door while you are in the middle of a bikini wax. Would probably be wise to implement a system where people wait in their car or outside and message to let you know they have arrived.
Tbh a living room isn’t ideal. What flooring do you have in there ? Waxing is incredibly messy and also you really do need to be able to have surfaces that are easily cleaned.
The one thing I will say is having people in your home day in day out feels like a never ending cycle of cleaning. I have a dedicated room but every morning I am still clearing and cleaning the entrance way/ living area because people are walking through these areas and having toys or just general household clutter around does make things look a bit unprofessional. If you are back home at 8.30 from school I would be giving myself half an hour to tidy up first before any clients.
I don’t want to put you off because it can be a great career but honestly it takes years to build up a client base. I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years and moved to a new area 6 years ago I would say it’s only the last year where I feel I am earning a good wage.
If I had my time again I probably wouldn’t go into the beauty industry I would say with all the short courses and online courses that didn’t exist when I trained supply is outstripping demand.
If you are going into it knowing that you will be making a loss at first with all the equipment you need to buy and all the clientele you will need to build then you won’t be disappointed.
I hope this isn’t too negative reading it back it seems a bit negative I’m just being realistic really. If you want to make it work then you will lots of luck with it all 🥰

I simply wouldn't go to someone in their front room, because of security, privacy, hygiene, etc

Pricing - no one on here can advise you as it's highly location dependent- you need to look at equivalents in your local area to get any real idea.

I think you need to do a fair bit more research and planning before committing to this.

I have a home salon. But it's a dedicated room. I don't use it for anything else.
Can you do that?

Many short courses are a bit rubbish and hard to get insurance for. Do your research for the good ones. The guild of beauty therapists is a good place to have a look for fully accredited ones.

You need business insurance and you need to let your home insurance know so they insure you sufficiently.

Building up a client base takes time.
Using a booking system, lots of social media, a website, leafleting all helps.
Refer a friend schemes are good especially for home salons.
Focus on getting really good at particular treatments. Do extra training and specialist courses if needs be. Use good quality products.
There's loads of groups on FB for beauty therapists that can be really helpful.

I have had nails done at someone's home because she went self employed and I followed her.

She had a dedicated room though, set up as a beauty room.

I wouldn't want treatments in someone's lounge even if it was cheaper. Nails maybe but that's about it.

You need decent lighting, a clean sterile environment and an organised work space:

Also, without wanting to be rude, you need to get your training and work out times etc based on how long you take to do treatments. Asking randoms on here is a bit weird.

So thank you all, I’ve read all your replies and I think you are all right. I will not be working out of my front room. Il go mobile until I’ve got enough money behind me to get a shed. I’m in a council house so it’s not the biggest. The short courses are from an accredited beauty school so insurance won’t be an issue.

so far this is just putting pen to paper and I really appreciate all your replies x

Sadly I would put money on your housing authority not allowing you to run a business from your home/garden.

Sounds like you've got the making of a plan though. Get the courses done, practice lots and aim high.
If you want it to work, it will once you've got everything put in place. Good luck!

I would say out of all the mobile treatments waxing is the one I always found such a faff. Transporting wax and waiting for it to cool down etc. You will need a mobile beauty bed for waxing too and will have to carry that around with you. You will have to be fastidious with covering any of your clients furniture or flooring. Honestly nails is an easier option when mobile. Most people have a table if they don't most people have an ironing board. Even then a small fold up table is far easier to transport and a case for your equipment. I also found you could carry out a nail service in a kitchen which means harder floors etc so less chance of any damage to anything.

And deffo think about taking your driving test and getting a car first. Public transport is unreliable you don't want to be late for appointments and I can't even imagine how much hard work it would be to carry everything around. Unfortunately taxis will cut massively into your profit. Also be prepared to think am I prepared to travel miles away for a £10 bikini wax and then have the next client however many miles away again and they only want a top lip so that's £5 and you have spent a fortune on petrol.
What about renting a room in a salon maybe two days a week and trying to build up from that ?

You are unable to run a business from a council house, if they find out you could lose your home. Before you do anything you need to get quotes for Public Liabilty Insurance, product and treatment liabilty insurance. There are others you may need but check 1st.

Interesting that it's illegal to run a business from a council house, I didn't know that! There are so many around where I live and all in council estates. I suppose because they just look like garden sheds they don't get found out, unless someone reports I guess

Google says you just need permission from your landlord/Council

This is incorrect. I have permission to run a nail business from my council house