Mistakes to Avoid if You Lash From Home
8 minute read
So you’ve read our Starting a Lash Business Checklist and you’re ready for the next steps of operating your lash business. Big hurrahs all ‘round! However! As a beginner lash artist, at some point in time, you may come across these mistakes at the beginning of your career. We’ll guide you through on how to avoid these hiccups, like setting boundaries with you and your client, taking proper breaks and most importantly abiding by your local council regulations. Set yourself up for success from day one!
Mistakes to avoid if you lash from home:
1. Not checking regulations
2. Not taking a proper break
3. Not setting boundaries with clients
4. No set business hours
5. Accepting no-shows & late clients
1. Not checking regulations with your local council
Each council will have their own set of rules and regulations you will need to abide by, to operate a business from home. It is essential that you do your research, and apply for the appropriate permits so that you can operate from home, legally. Some common regulations that you need to consider is, if your flooring is carpeted or tiled, wash sink needs to be in the room etc. (again it’s best to contact your local council for these regulations). If you don’t have the required permits to set up at home, you could be fined thousands of dollars, which can be very disruptive to your business and cause you a lot of headache.
Save yourself some time and energy in the long run, and do your homework before starting your business.
Register your business with your local council
Source: www.gleneira.vic.gov.au
2. Not taking a proper break
Have you ever felt a little woozy or lightheaded halfway through a set? Yes? It probably means you need to refuel your body so that you can continue working throughout the day. Sustain yourself with a proper meal and drink lots of water throughout (no, drinking just coffee doesn’t count)! To ensure you give yourself substantial time, block out 30min to an hour to eat something other than ramen noodles, a muesli bar and guzzling down some coffee.
If you’ve got any spare time left, go outside soak up some vitamin D, or wander through the neighbourhood to get the blood flowing through your legs. Since we are sitting down all the time, a short walk can benefit our health and get those steps in!
3. Not setting boundaries with clients
It’s important to create a relationship with our clients since we do spend so much time creating their perfect set so that they feel comfortable. But clients also shouldn’t overstep their bounds in your own home. Clients shouldn’t be arriving at your house more than 5 minutes before their allocated time (or whatever timeframe you’ve set out in your rules and policies), if they can do that, what’s to say they can’t come a few hours in advance to see if you can squeeze them in earlier. Just because it suits them, does not mean it will suit you or your business.
Setting out clear rules for all your clients from the beginning is important. If it starts to feel like they are invading your home or your personal time, it may be a good idea to just remind them that this is your business that you operate from home, and would like to keep business within business hours.
4. No set business hours
As with setting boundaries with clients, having set work hours should be put in place from the beginning also. Do not deviate from these hours otherwise you could get new clients or even your regular clients messaging you at all hours of the night, requesting to squeeze them in last minute when it should be your downtime. Having set hours will help differentiate your time spent in the business, as a lash tech, and your time spent at home.
It also means that once it hits closing time or after you finish your last client of the day, you can leave work at work (in your lash room) and end your day. If there are no set working hours and you continue into the long hours of the night (this doesn’t mean just lashing clients, but also your administrative work) you’ll eventually burnout. You’ll constantly feel exhausted, swamped by all the tasks ahead of you, which will be a direct result of prolonged emotional, physical and mental stress. In turn, you won’t have the energy to keep up with producing good work and your regular day-to-day tasks.
5. Allowing clients to be late, accepting no-shows and bringing guests to appointments
It is important to know, that even though you operate out of your home, you have your own set of rules and boundaries that all clients should abide by. If you accept their actions once, you accept their actions every time.
Make it clear from day one that you won’t allow for no-show appointments (clients not turning up at all, with no notice), arriving late without informing you and clients bringing extra guests. Most salons these days will charge 50% of the service fee for late cancellations, they may even charge 100% of the service fee for no-shows.
The majority of beauty salons such as laser appointments, facials or hair salons won’t allow you to bring in other guests unless they are getting a service as well, so why should it be any different if you do it from your home? It wouldn’t be productive for you or your business and can have a negative impact on your day.
There are some great booking systems out there that can assist in creating policies for beauty businesses. They can even be customised to your preferences, some booking systems are Fresha, Timely, Acuity and many others. Each one requires the client to sign off on the policies after reading them. It may be a good idea to write down all the policies and rules you can think of, that you’d want for your business, choose the most important ones that resonate with you, and put them in place from day one.
Timely Booking Software
Source: www.gettimely.com
If we allow clients to arrive at their appointment late, they miss out on valuable lashing time. You’ll feel like you have to rush through the set, and the client may not like the end result. Gently remind clients to arrive on time to utilise the full time of the appointment.
Now that you’ve started your lash biz and we’ve told you about the common mistakes to avoid when starting out. It’s time to re-evaluate, go through the checklist and make sure you’ve planned everything out so that you can run your lash business smoothly from day one!
Best of luck, lash babe!
The Lash Jungle Team
xx
