Get to know our educator's - Beauty
Posted on 14th April 2020 at 14:58
1. What inspired you to become a beauty therapist?
I have always wanted to be a beauty therapist since I was young. When I was about 10 my cousin and I would do beauty treatments for our family, pretending we had our own beauty salon.
I enjoy making people feel good about themselves. Even if it’s just 1 hour per month, that ‘me time’ can make such a difference to a client’s wellbeing.
2. Why did you choose to go down the Freelancer route?
I chose to work as a freelance therapist because I love the flexibility it gives me. Being my own boss enables me to work around my family life and also my teaching commitments with Training Solutions.
3. What do you love the most about your job?
What I love most about my job as a therapist is it never feels like work. Some of my clients I have been treating for just over 14 years. They are no longer just clients, they are friends. I get to see them regularly and make them feel good about themselves, whether that’s with anything from a massage to a simple tinting treatment. They support me through both my business and my personal life, their loyalty means a lot to me and I appreciate that every day.
4. What advice would you give to others starting out as a freelancer?
Be Patient!
It can take time to build up a thriving business from scratch. You will learn what works best for yourself as a therapist and what interests your clients. It can take time to build up enough loyal clients as a base of your business as there is always competition from other therapists and salons. Your clients need to feel comfortable and confident when coming in for treatments with you and this doesn’t always happen overnight. There are enough clients for everyone but its just finding the clients that suit you and your business.
Eventually you will get there and all the hard work will pay off.
5. What is your favourite product you couldn’t live without?
Without doubt it has to be Salon System’s Multiflex wax!
I provide a lot of waxing treatments as a beauty therapist, including intimate waxing. This product saves me so much time and guarantees me perfect results after every application, not to mention my client’s getting a more comfortable waxing treatment. The Multiflex wax is a hot wax that can be removed in any direction, which is perfect for those awkward intimate areas with different hair growth directions. The berry Multiflex wax is my favourite as it smells amazing and the bright colour is always a conversation starter.
6. How do you build up your clientele as a freelancer?
I have always found that word of mouth is the best advertisement as a freelance therapist, a good recommendation goes a long way. You will usually find that once a client recommends you to somebody they know, this new client will also be reliable and loyal to you. We now have social media as method of free advertising. I use Facebook quite a lot for my business as I can limit my posts to my clients and their friends to see. I have found if I do a paid advert on Facebook or an advert which is set to public, I seem to get a lot of new clients who don’t attend their booked appointments. To prevent this, I now take a small deposit for all appointments booked by new clients. You will then find that all those clients who have no intention of attending their booked appointments will not leave a deposit, which also means no money is lost for yourself.
In the past, before social media, it was more difficult to advertise without spending a fortune. I have spent many hours walking the streets posting leaflets through letter boxes. I found out the hard way that this was a big waste of time and money so my advice is not to put yourself through this. Instead maybe try putting an advert in a local magazine if your area has one, this way you can target more clients who may be interested in your services in half the time.
7. How do you stay up to date with the latest trends?
I often use apps such as Instagram and Pintrest to keep myself updated on new trends and treatments. Talking to my clients also helps me a lot as it gives me a realistic opinion of what may interest them in the future. This way I can choose to attend training courses which suit my current clients and are more likely to be popular with new clients. Having friends who are also in the beauty industry also helps me a lot as we can discuss new treatments and trends, their positives and negatives.
I like to constantly either be learning a new skill or updating my old skills, I think this is so important in the beauty industry and is it constantly growing and changing.
8. Your best piece of advice:
Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life!
~ Confucius
Tagged as: Beauty, Hair, Teacher, BLOG
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