marie-louise costerwrites
roomfor hire?
Marie-Louise Coster asks whether self-employed beauty therapists are good or bad for business
A lot of beauty salons, along with many other businesses, have really started to favour self- employed staff over the years, but this trend has become even more popular since the recession.
Self-employed beauty therapists can be very appealing, largely because it is considered that there are many benefits, mostly financial, to having self-employed staff or therapists.
The main reasons for taking on self- employed therapists are: • The therapists only get paid for the work they do – therefore if they haven’t got any bookings you don’t pay them.
• Self-employed therapists don’t receive holiday or sick pay – this can save you a substantial amount of money – a minimum of four weeks’ holiday a year, not to mention days off sick which can soon add up.
• Being an industry that is predominantly staffed with women, maternity pay can sometimes be an issue.When a therapist is on maternity leave you have to pay her, alongside this you also have to pay the replacement therapist who is covering the maternity leave – which can be very costly. If your therapist is self-employed and falls pregnant you won’t be liable to pay for their maternity leave, so although you will need a replacement whilst she is off it won’t cost you any extra.
• It is the responsibility of the therapist to pay his/her own tax and National Insurance – saving you payroll costs,
not to mention the actual cost of the National Insurance and tax.
• It is often considered that self- employed therapists are more motivated – after all the busier they make themselves the more they earn, and likewise the less pro-active they are the less they earn.
But these reasons aside, are self- employed therapists really good for business?
weighing up the pros and cons
Having employed staff myself, I can appreciate entirely how frustrating it is when you are paying staff an hourly rate and yet they have no bookings and are doing nothing to ‘earn’ their money. This frustration is further accelerated when the therapist in question is the type of employee that you have to continually suggest jobs to all of the time instead of those who use their own initiative to find work to do and fill their time.
It is also frustrating when staff are sick or on holiday, not that these can be helped – and the therapist is certainly entitled to her holiday – but in such an event not only do you have to pay them but others have to either cover their clients or worse still (in the event of sickness) clients have to be cancelled. This alone causes you many other problems including re- scheduling, risking the opportunity for the client to book elsewhere, appearing unreliable as a salon etc. For these reasons alone I can see that self- employed therapists would be desirable financially but what about loyalty to the business?
Self-employed holistic therapists, nutritional therapists, sportsmassage therapists etc. can add another dimension to your salon andmay attract a newaudience for your regular salon services.
GUILD NEWS 91
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