Working from home Beautation advice please!

I'm a beauty therapist (for 15 years) so I'll give you as much advice as I can.

1. it is best to go to the best beauty school that you can. Not one of the dodgy 'short courses'. A good course could take 1-2 years to do part time.

2. it is best to get experience before starting up your own business. Someone fresh out of beauty school can make sooo many mistakes. And they can be very, very expensive. With waxing you can burn or bruise someone. With nails you cause permanent damage to someones nail bed and cause infections. With facials you can damage someone skin.

3. Which brings me to the next things that you MUST do if you consider setting up a home based beauty room. You have to get permits from the council and you MUST get special beauty insurance. It is just not worth the risk if you do treatments without insurance. And if you don't get council approval (which includes health permits) - not only do they close it down immediately, but fine you a lot of money too. Beauty treatments fall under the health code - just like restaurants. I get a health inspection every year from council, unannounced.

4. Other things to take into account are costs like: taxes, advertising, products and equipment, health permits, insurance... and probably a heap of things that I can't remember right now.

I love the beauty industry, and I have owned my salon for 14 years. But over the years, it has been incredibly stressful at times. I would love to sell my salon, and if I had the right set up I would love to do home based beauty therapy. But with my knowledge now, I would never recommend anyone do it without a couple of years experience under their belt. And I would never risk doing any treatments without insurance. Believe me, people will try to sue you for the most inane things... and if you don't have insurance - they will sue you personally.

Massage is probably one treatment with the least risk... although it is physically hard work, and it's not really possible to do hour after hour of massage treatments. Insurance is still advisable, as people could claim that you damaged their back or reacted to the oil you use (especially if you use essential oils). But again, you can tell someone who is fresh out of "massage school" as they don't have the experience or strength of a long term masseaur. Another thing is the risk involved in doing male massage - particularly when you are working from home.

I don't want to give you all the negative aspects of the industry - but let you know that it's not a case of doing a short course, buying a wax pot & bed and making lots of money. There is sooooo much more involved. If you make the financial investment to set it up properly and do the right training and get the right insurances, and the right marketing - it can pay off in the long term. But if you are not experienced, you not only risk insurance claims - but it's very hard to keep clients if they can tell you don't have experience (and believe me - people can tell).

If it's a career that you persue - then go for it - and look at a home based business in a few years after doing a good course and getting a bit of experience. It's a career that you can continue right into your 50's.

If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to pm me, or contact me via one of the emails in the web links below.

cheers,
Jodie