As a hairdresser or beauty therapist, there is a great choice of opportunities for employed careers and self-employment in the beauty industry. From owning your own salon to working in clients’ homes and putting in full time hours to going part time, you can choose the career, and the opportunities, that are right for you.
A lot of hairdressers and beauty therapists opt to become self-employed. Giving them added freedom and allowing them to benefit directly from the hours they put into their businesses, self-employed professionals in the beauty industry can really make their career work for them.
If you’re currently considering becoming your own boss, you need to make sure it’s the right move for you. To help you make your mind up, we’re taking a closer look at why self-employment works so well for hairdressers, beauty therapists and others involved in the beauty industry.
Flexibility
One of the main reasons people choose to become self-employed is flexibility. When you work for yourself, you have the freedom to choose your own hours. This means you can decide exactly when you go to work, when you clock off for the day and when you go on holiday.
If you have young children or other dependants that need looking after, this flexibility can make a huge difference to your quality of life. Having the freedom to decide which days you’re going to work and how many hours you’re going to work for means you can fit your career around childcare obligations, looking after elderly parents, studying and any other commitments you have.
If you’re self-employed, you can change your working routine from week to week and month to month, giving you a huge amount of flexibility and the chance to make your career really work for you.
Benefiting from your own hard work
When you work for someone else, they get all the benefits of your hard work. If you’re a talented beauty therapist with regular, loyal clients, it’ll be your employer, not you who benefits from your customer base.
When you’re self-employed however, it will be you reaping the rewards of your own hard work. If you have clients that come back to you week after week and month after month, it will be you, not your boss, who sees their profits grow. The more work you put in, the more your business will thrive. This gives you a real incentive to put the hours into your business and really take your career to the next level.
Alternatively, if you’re happy with your current work/life balance and aren’t interested in growing your career, you can choose to simply maintain your existing workload. Although most self-employed beauty therapists aim to grow their businesses over the years, you can just as easily sit back and enjoy a steady income.
Taking advantage of the opportunities available to you
When you work for someone else, it can be frustrating to see opportunities come and go without being fully realised. This is especially true if you’re business minded and can see how promotions, new products and services and other innovations could dramatically improve the fortunes of the company you work for.
As a self-employed hairdresser or beauty therapist, you’re free to take advantage of the opportunities available to you. You can decide to move location, work out of another salon, build a website, offer a special promotion or take advantage of any other opportunities that come your way.
If you don’t have any experience in business, you’ll find lots of information online about how you can expand your customer base, reach new clients and grow your venture. Putting extra effort in to your business can give you great results and help you to achieve your career goals.
Being your own boss
If you’ve ever dreamed of being your own boss, becoming self-employed is definitely the right move for you. As your own boss, you won’t have to answer to anyone else when you want to take a day off, book a holiday, change your uniform, up your prices or make any other decisions that impact on your business.
This freedom to decide the direction of your business can make a huge difference to how much you enjoy your day to day work and how you manage your career. If you’re unsure about becoming your own boss, you’ll find lots of help and support online to help you navigate the world of taxes, insurance, marketing and other issues that face the self-employed.
Low overheads
As a self-employed hairdresser or beauty therapist, your overheads are likely to be very low. A lot of self-employed people in the beauty industry opt to travel to their clients’ houses. This approach means that you don’t need to pay out for the cost of a salon, invest in expensive fixtures and fittings or pay for unnecessary accessories.
If you do want to work from a fixed location, you can always rent a chair in someone else’s salon. This affordable option gives you all the benefits of a salon setting without the overheads, something that’s great news if you’re trying to keep your expenses to a minimum.
Customer loyalty
One of he great things about the beauty industry is that customers are generally very loyal. Once they’ve found a hairdresser or beauty therapist they like, they’ll generally stay with them for years, or even decades. This means that, once you’ve built up a loyal customer base, you’ll be able to rely on your clients to give you an almost guaranteed income.
Offering a huge amount of flexibility and a fantastic range of opportunities, self-employment could be the perfect way to turbo charge your career and achieve your professional goals. Start planning your career move now and you could be enjoying all the benefits of self-employment before you know it.
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