Self-employed Holistic Therapist

Nickimoo

Hi MSE peoples!

After being a regular browser here i've finally decided to dive in. I was wondering if anyone has experience of renting a treatment room or doing home visits for holistic therapies such as massage and aromatherapy? If so how long did it take to build up clients and after tax/nat insurance/materials etc is the money worth it?

Nudge me in the right direction if i've missed something like this already posted!

The_Edible_Dormouse

Hello!

No experience myself, but the girl that "does" my eyebrows (and the parts that tweezers do not reach...) rents a small room which is nevertheless ideal as a treatment room, in one of the more upmarket local hairdressing salons.

This might be a good way forward for you, as you'd have a bit of a captive audience.

Hope it's of help

miffyhugmuffin

Hi,

I am in a similar situation to the OP so would also love to hear from someone about this!

Nickimoo

What things are you qualified in Miffy?

And thanks Edible Dormouse, ive gotta look through the good ol yellow pages and start finding places with rooms to rent.

Miss~fit

Nicki,
maybe try local hotels, if you have any in your area.
The posher ones often have rooms to rent for HTs but i've heard from a HT that they charge quite a lot, not sure if this is right but about 50% of your income goes to them
The Ht i know gave it up as she wasn't making enough to cover her outgoings. Sorry, not very positive.

Nickimoo

Ouch 50%!?! And you still have to bear in mind that tax needs to be put aside so that really isn't worth it! I'm looking round a HT centre on Wed's...fingers crossed the charges aren't too high!

Nickimoo

Anyone else have any self-employment tips?

Purple_Sparkles

I have done this both working from home, mobile and renting a room in the past.

Working from home if you have the space, silent pets and kids can work quite well. I had both male and female clients but would only treat male clients when I had somebody at home for obvious reasons.

Mobile can be hard work, having to lug the couch round and most of the time there wasn't enough room to work round the couch properly in other peoples homes. I only did mobile for regular clients and referrals - from a safety point of view I would never visit a male client in their own home.

Renting a room is great if you can get somewhere quiet, when I first rented a room it was great but then a nail tech moved into the room next to mine and the noise could be quite a nuisance when carrying out holistic treatments. The rent wasn't too bad and from week one I made a profit. Clients from the hairdressers downstairs would became regulars and the business worked well. I was lucky as the only competition was a hotel down the road and of course my charges were much more appealing along with a more personal service for my clients.

Building a client base can take time and I know a lot of therapists who for years have just one or two clients that they treat in their own homes. I no longer work in the industry due to ill health but I would advise to start slowly, build up your client base (which is the hard part) and then find a suitable room.

I hope that helps.

andan

Hiya, i am about to go self employed with my holistic therapy business, part time. The best thing to do is get over to healthy pages, its www.healthypages.co.uk It's designed specifically for holistic and therapy people. It's also got a section for business and marketing where that question has been asked loads already. After spending hours on that site and trawling through the posts, i now have so much more knowledge in order to be able to set up my business.

Now, i'd better go as i'm meant to be reading posts from that website for advice on creating my own website:rotfl: