Diary of a Freelance Hair Stylist

FANTASTIC HAIRDRESSER

2009-02-06T21:14:00.000Z

Are you a FANTASTIC HAIRDRESSER? If I am honest I don't think my answer would be yes... but then that just may be my perception and not my clients! Have any of you ever come across Alan Austin-Smith? Well I have borrowed the title of this blog from one of his books and it is called "the fantastic Hairdresser".

I met up with Alan back in 2007 at Salon where he had a small stand selling his books as well as some dvd's - oh and he was giving away his time to give a taster to his seminars. I bought two of his books as I felt the guy really had something to say though I confess I have never completely read them through. Now that is in no way anything to do with his books being bad - it was more to do with me and the fact I was going through a bad time & not really being receptive enough to his work due to a personal crisis.

Alan has now opened his own academy in Chiswick which can be found on his website & whilst I have not yet attended one of his day courses I feel the time is coming when I should! Over the last five years or so I have realized that hairdressing is not just about cutting hair - it's also about being good in business. This is something I should have explored years ago - I only wish I had. I only hope that it is not too late but then as we are in a recession I am sure the best thing any of us can do is to hone as many skills as possible - customer service, cutting & colouring techniques and any others that can enhance our business and what we have to offer our clients.

Look up Alan's book today and start improving your serve.

SENSITIVITY - ARE YOU SERIOUS?

2007-06-23T11:02:00.000+01:00

I have been off work the past week - basically to try and catch up on all the things I wanted to do - should have done & relax! Sadly I have failed miserably and I would like another week off and just turn off my phone and chill out.

All this week has been taken up with chatting to my group from the FHBF and other friends about skin tests and colourstart. It would seem that most are still unclear in certain areas about the situation; some are waiting to see what others are going to do before they make a decision and the odd one or two.... nothing.

My dear mother had a saying that she would use every so often - obviously it must have come up quite a few times over my childhood as it is ingrained in the cells of my brain.... 'if so & so put his head in the gas oven - would you do the same'?

Most of you seem worried about the whole thing and to be honest so was I; one thing has become clear to me. For years I have wanted to be considered as a 'professional' and not 'just a hairdresser'. I have fought to maintain a professional image and worked on this over the years. Sadly not everyone looks upon us as professionals. A lot of people hate change and never see the positive in a situation - only a negative. Well nows your chance to change all that.

Now wouldn't life be easier if we didn't have all this skin testing lark - we could get on with our job as easily as possible and not worry about a thing. Now I would like you to imagine a scenario I am about to put forward.....

You have been colouring peoples hair for years and nothing has ever gone wrong - in the past; you get a new client call you and she wants her hair cut & maybe a colour to go with the new image she wants.... great I have a three hour gap and I was going to have to sit at home and do nothing and I could do with some extra money this week as things were a bit quiet last week. Fit her in and grab the dosh. So you get there & have a consultation; the colour is not a problem as you have already bought some stock from the wholesalers - easy peasy. Slap it on and away you go. She has coloured her hair for years - so no problem there - she has both dyed her own hair in the past as well as having it done in a salon.

After a while she starts to complain it is feeling a bit uncomfortable but you reassure her not to worry - you have done this loads of times on people and nothing has ever happened. By the time it is due to take the colour off your client you can see clearly she has had some sort of reaction. So you finish quickly and take the money and run! Maybe you even tell her to visit her doctor if it gets worse. A couple of days later you hear that she has gone to her doctor because she had huge raised blisters covering her whole scalp, itching, redness, lumps behind her ear and a swollen neck!

How would you feel if that happened to one of your clients? Would you feel like carrying on hairdressing. Now you knew that you should have skin tested but hey my friend Danny never does skin tests so why should I? After all it is a pain, its hard enough with all the traveling I have to do without having to drive over to someone 48 hours before to do a blinking skin test. I don't earn enough as it is - and the price of my tints are cheap anyhow - so why should I do skin tests too! After all they don't pay me for it!

Well why are you not charging for skin tests? Is your time not worth it? Don't you think you should get paid for what you do? Maybe it's our fault we are not making enough money - we are not educating our clients that 'Time is money'. Did you know that Toni & Guy are now charging for using straightening irons on their clients? Next time you are passing one of their salons - ask for a price list. For some years now I have made it my policy to go into salons and ask for a price list. After all I AM in business and I need to know what the market forces are.

Here now is your opportunity to not only safeguard yourself from a disaster and feeling like crap but you can turn it round to not only making yourself look professional but BEING PROFESSIONAL! If it is not practical for you to go to your client 48 hours before to skin test then there is another way round this.....

Colourstart - Taking sensitivity Seriously. Now I am not going to do your job for you - I have spent enough time the last few months talking & debating over this to friends & colleagues. So if you want to know more - RTFM - (Read the Flipping Manual). Hilights has covered this the last two issues; the federation has brought out new consultation leaflets and record cards to reflect this too. So phone Head Office to buy some. Colourstart is available from Trichocare Diagnostics Ltd. Their telephone number is 01525 288 881 (Web address is in earlier blog)

They will send you out an informative leaflet with a sample of the patch test so you can see exactly how it works. Anne Plunkett usually answers the phones & her husband is the trichologist. They will tell you the prices of the tests (£37.00 for 50 tests) and they get cheaper if you bulk order. So of you get a few of you together then it will work out cheaper for you! Anne has stated that it is possible to order a bigger amount and not take all of the order out at once - so in essence they will hold the stock for you. That way you don't have to worry about the 6 month use by date expiring.

Also I would like to share with you some other info regarding this area. I attended a meeting with the Surrey branch of the FHBF earlier this week and I was talking to one of their members; she told me of one of her neighbors that recently had a colouring disaster... she had recently put a colour on her own hair - nothing unusual in that as she had done the same thing for years - only this time she had an allergic reaction. The same member that related this story to me had recently been diagnosed as having a wheat allergy and had spent some time in hospital as a result of this. I myself developed an allergy to certain nuts after years of not having any problems whatsoever.

A few people have asked me what I think about how to broach the subject to clients about skin testing. I think you have just got to tell them that you are doing it for their protection. Ask them if they are aware that more people are having adverse reactions to colour. A client only this evening said to me.... 'but I have had colour for years now - I cannot ever see me having an allergic reaction'! I told her it was for her benefit that I was doing it and there was the possiblity that she could become sensitive to tint. Some become quite indignant when told that you need to do a skin sensitivity rest saying 'but I have had my hair coloured in salons for years and never had a test. I always ask them why and point out that it is a requirement from the colour companies and that all professionals SHOULD test.

Just think about how you are going to present this to them and make it in a positive light that will make you good & show that you ARE professional & that all Professionals DO skin test.

Good Luck! I have done two patches already :-)

FREELANCE OR MOBILE?

2007-06-18T08:19:00.000+01:00

I am afraid this one has been a 'bone of contention' with me for some time. I personally hate the word 'mobile' and I do not feel it allows 'us' to break out of that cheap mould that hairdressers or hair stylists have been stuck in for some time!

When I decided to go freelance around thirty odd years ago one had to be cheaper than the salon (note the word cheap used here). Also hairdressers that worked in salons and did a bit of work after hours for cash were cheaper because they were doing it in your home. People didn't expect to pay the going rate because you were in their home; using their electricity and their shampoo. Basically as far as they were concerned you had a job and so you couldn't expect to get paid as much as the salon.

Now where does the term Freelance come from? Well as far as I can see it's root goes back to medieval times when there were mercenary's. The word comes from free lance. Basically you rented your lance to whoever paid you! You had no allegiance to one particular person. ORIGIN early 19th cent.(denoting a mercenary): originally as two words.

I have looked in a few dictionaries as well as online and this is what I have found:-

freelance |ˌfriːlɑːns| (also free-lance) adjective working for different companies at different times rather than being permanently employed by one company : a freelance journalist. • independent or uncommitted in politics or personal life. adverb earning one's living in such a way : I work freelance from home.

freelance adjective freelance writers are invited to submit articles self-employed, independent, contract.

freelancer noun a person who works freelance.

Found on Wikipedia:-

A freelancer or freelance worker is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer. The term was first coined by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) in his well-known historical romance Ivanhoe to describe a "medieval mercenary warrior." The phrase later transitioned to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was then officially recognized as a verb in 1903 by various authorities in etymology such as the Oxford English Dictionary. Only in modern times has the term morphed from a noun (a freelance or a freelancer) into various verb forms (a journalist who freelances), and an adverb (she worked freelance).

The Internet has opened up many freelance opportunities, expanding markets and helping to build it into one of the largest economic segments for many economies. Development for freelancing has been especially high for software development, website design, information technology, and business documentation.
Freelance practice varies greatly. Some require clients to sign written contracts, while others may perform work based on verbal agreements, perhaps enforceable through the very nature of the work. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients.
Payment for freelance work also varies greatly. Freelancers may charge by the day or hour, or on a per-project basis. Instead of a flat rate or fee, some consultants have adopted a value-based pricing method based on the perceived value of the results to the client. By custom, payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or upon completion. For more complex projects, a contract may set a payment schedule based on milestones or outcomes.

Mobile adjective |ˌməʊbʌɪl| able to move or be moved freely or easily. Traveling; transportable. A sculpture or a toy

A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. The objects hanging from the rods balance each other, so that the rods remain more or less horizontal. Each rod hangs from only one string, which gives it freedom to rotate about the string.

A mobile telephone or cellular telephone (commonly, "mobile phone" or "cell phone") is a long-range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication.

So are we 'portable' and able to move around freely & easily or are we freelance and rent our lance to whoever will pay for it? The term seems to have a more professional connotation to it in the 21st century; obviously the type of person using this term to explain away their job description. Interesting that IT people & journalists (usually highly paid fields) have adapted it to describe their 'profession'.

Call yourself what you want - but I know what I prefer ;-)

SENSITIVITY TESTING

2007-06-17T23:22:00.000+01:00

Yes this is a 'Bone Of Contention' for most of us. We all got freaked out at how this change has affected us and the way we do business. As most of you know our previous insurers allowed us to skin test once a year to cover ourselves and fulfill our 'professional obligations' as freelancers.

Now thanks to the FHBF (like it or not) WE ARE aware of our position as far as skin tests (See Summer 2007 HIGHLIGHTS magazine); now there is NO excuse for NOT reading YOUR copy of HILIGHTS - remember it's your job to keep abreast of YOUR responsiblility to your clients. This information is to protect both yourselves as well as your clients & fulfill your obligations as far as Health & Safety requirements.

Now this IS NOT A THREAT but to help YOU and make your life easier! By now you should be aware of what colourstart is about and if your not then look up now http://www.trichocare.co.uk/colourstart/ and read up what it's all about.

Like me you might find it a bit difficult to lay out a load of dosh on this product - in which case why not get together with friends or others in your regional group and buy in bulk. That way you might then be able to take advantage of the discounts available for bulk orders. Just remember if you DO this then make sure you cough up the money to the person taking the trouble to buy the goods on your behalf - DONT LET THEM DOWN! They are not just doing it for themselves but your benefit too ;-)

You could even get together with other groups and not just members in your own group. I have spoken to colourstart and they are out to try and help us to 'buy in' to their product.

I hope this info is of help to you and may just encourage you to think of how your business is affected by this situation. Both Sheila and John Huscroft stated both the FHBF's situation as well as Wella's over this issue at INSPIRATIONS 2007.

REMEMBER - If you don't follow the manufacturers istructions then your Public Liability is NULL & VOID! Colourstart might cost a bit but it fills this gap - remember your training from your Profile On Potential course and build the cost into your bill!

My How Time Passes By!

2007-06-17T20:04:00.000+01:00

well it's been a while since my last posting. A lot has happened; I have been ill with a cold/chest infection and so I felt wiped out and didn't feel like writing anything.

The West Middlesex Group of the Freelance Hair & Beauty Federation (FHBF) that I run has had a training event using the new Koleston Perfect tint at the Capital Hair & Beauty Wholesalers in Hayes. This was great as it enabled us to find out what difference there is with the new formulation. Our thanks go out to Claire Dackombe from Wella for her help in making this possible along with Roger Withers at Capital for allowing us to hold the event at his branch in Hayes.

It's now a week since the FHBF INSPIRATIONS 2007 event in Solihull took place. I decided that I was going to go up the day before and make a weekend of it. This is a great way of networking with other members/friends that I have met over the years and discuss business as well as have some fun! If like me you have never visited Solihull - I can only say it was a pleasant surprise! The shopping centre was great and I wish I had discovered it earlier in the day. There were loads of good bars and eating places to go which gave us more choice of venues/budgets. I met up with Paul Evans as we were sharing a room to reduce our costs and we caught up on what had been going on with each other before the show started.

The Saturday evening about twelve of us met up and all had a meal together in our hotel (Holiday Inn) which was just £15.00 for three courses. After I went over the road from the hotel to meet up with a friend & her partner to have a few drinks and chill out.

Sunday morning we all strolled down for breakfast and then made our way to the Renaissance Hotel for FHBF INSPIRATIONS 2007. It was great to see Sheila and Heather and bump into all those friendly faces. There was about 130 members at the event. The Wella Team and the FHBF Artistic Team did us proud! Our brilliant compere throughout was John Huscroft & he did us proud with his great personality and warm greeting. Wella very kindly sponsored the day and boy was it a good one! Lunch was a very good with quite an array of food. In the afternoon we had Beverly C giving us a great demo.

For all of those that didn't make the event - you missed a good time! Why not make the commitment to come along next year. You owe it to yourself and remember it IS TAX DEDUCTABLE! If you saved just four pounds a week in a savings account you could guarantee yourself a great weekend as well as learn something over the weekend to take away and encourage yourself throughout the year with your career.

I bought myself a few good books; a great pair of scissors; a DVD & some fond memories as well as a few tips to try out in my working week. Also there was the opportunity to meet up with friends that I only see perhaps once a year. I can't wait till next year. Thanks to Sheila Abrahams for her usual hard work and all my friends for their company!

Sunday Again!

2007-05-13T20:27:00.001+01:00

Not much to report here as I have had the week off to do lots of admin stuff and catch up on those things I never got round to doing! Have been catching up on a load of work with my computers and trying to learn more about using the software to build myself a website. I am using iWeb on my iMac computer. It's a great bit of software and once you have learned a bit about the program you can go on and design your own web sites.

Friends of mine say to me - well you are really good with this sort of thing so it's easy for you! In my experience of life - nothing is easy - it's the application of your brain and just hard work which makes this sort of thing come together. Hairdressers are the worst with IT & computers. Half the time they never check their email and managing their accounts is something left till it's too late (and I can identify with that LOL). So unless you devote some time to understanding your computer - it will never do what you want it to. After all how can we cut hair unless we learn the fundamentals and then build on our repetoir to continue to do our job? So what is the difference with your computer? So play around with it and learn how to use the damn thing!

I am getting into this new program by Mark Bell at www.cutshort.co.uk - it's brilliant and the more I apply myself to using it the better picture I am starting to get of my business. I actually now know how many clients I have; how many are men and how many are women - most of us don't even know that information! I even know how much they have paid me this year :-) As well as how much I earn each week; month or on a daily basis. YES I am getting a better picture of my business and it's helping me to change my bad habbits and become more efficient. Why not give it a try? There is a free trial to get you started and give you a taster.

I am lying on the bed reading Saturday's Times newspaper & have just come across an article in the body&soul news section entitled 'Splitting hairs can detect skin cancer'. Basically it was saying that a strand of your hair may soon provide an early warning alert to identify people who are in particular danger of developing skin cancer!

Did you know that each year in Britain there are nearly 2,000 people dying from malignant melanoma. It would seem that this number is likely to treble in the next thirty years. Italian scientists apparently are developing a quick and inexpensive way to screen people and determine their natural suseptibility to melanoma Dr Stefano Rosso of Turin's Piedmont Cancer Registry, says his system examins the light spectrum refracted by hair to find out how much melanin it contains. Melanin is the stuff thats in our hair and skin & it protects us from the sun's damage. Dr Rosso has written an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology - for those that want to look this up further.

I am looking forward to the FHBF INSPIRATIONS 2007 on the 10th of June 2007 in Solihull. It will be a great time to catch up with other freelance hairdressers (I hate that word 'Mobile Hairdressers') and see what is going on in the industry. I shall be meeting up with my old friend Paul Evans who I have known since I joined the federation. It's hard being a bloke in a profession that is mainy full of women. Wella are the sponser's this year (I love it when they do) and the guest star is Beverly Cobella!

Official - it's Sunday!

2007-05-06T03:06:00.000+01:00

Well it's just gone 3am and it is Sunday morning. I am wide awake and my dog Tigger is asleep beside me. So where shall I start... Oh yes Friday.... Well Friday was a good day; unfortunately my little sis went home so the weeding never got finished but she did most of my ironing & left just one pair of shorts for me to iron - so I cannot complain ;-)

My friend Carole came over for me to cut & colour her hair; I still find it fascinating how different a head of hair looks after you have done the regrowth. I am sure it is the way the light hits it and reflects up the shaft of the hair - all clever stuff eh! I use Koleston Perfect tint and most of what I am using now is the new formulation - definitely getting better coverage with it plus the smell really is much nicer as well as being subtle in perfume - well done Wella!

I had left a few hours free as my next client was new to me and he had recently lost his brother in a tragic road traffic accident. Whilst I had met him a few times before at a friends party - I didn't know him that well and I thought it would be nice - if appropriate to spend some time with him just chatting. His name is Matt and he is an extremely easy guy to have a conversation with. Whilst only in his early 20's and a real boyish way about him; he is quite mature in his level of conversation. Over a cup of tea... somehow 50 minutes vanished quickly! Suddenly we had been in one another's company for three hours and I had another haircut to do so sadly we had to part. :-( That was the end of a pleasant afternoon for me... still - hopefully he was pleased with his hair and just maybe we might meet up again.

Nipped over to see my mate Andy and fix his hair and he showed me how he had managed to get a really good global position on his MacBook Pro using Google earth - he just zoomed in on his house whilst he had the GPRS installed - all vary clever stuff. We were like two kids with a new toy - sadly I had another haircut to do and so we couldn't play any longer and I had to rush off - shame really as we were just getting into things. Poor Carole - when we get together we always end up playing computers and discussing the meaning of life! Yep - we do have intelligent conversation too. LOL

My last haircut of the day didn't fancy a coffee - but I did manage to get her to have a glass of red wine (Pauline will never say no to a glass of wine). After haircut she invited me to join her and the boyfriend for a meal & so we whizzed off to meet him at The Goat - I believe it has changed hands recently and we decided to go for the carvery and we all had the roast beef - gosh it is making my mouth water just thinking of it. Had all the trimmings - yorkshire pudding and lashings of horseradish sauce - now my mouth really is watering (sad at 3:38am eh). What a pleasant way to end the evening :-)

Well Saturday morning I just had to have a cooked breakfast before work - needed to be set up for the day eh! First two cuts just went so quick - nice conversations and two haircuts later & suddenly it was 12:00! My next was a friend that I was at school with - she now lives in Spain with her husband and daughter and we had a good old chat and caught up on some of the gossip - gosh and was there some of that! There was stuff I never went on and I was quite surprised - but I won't say what as I still cut her hair. Hmm - that will have to go in a book some day ;-)

Two more haircuts and I was finished for the day - last client was an 18 year old chap that really lacks confidence and yet he is a nice - good looking young man. For some reason he lacks confidence in his looks and how to wear his hair (and he uses shower gel to wash his hair). I had to sort it out with a conditioning treatment before I started and packed him off with a bottle of my shampoo & conditioner and give him some lessons in how to maintain his hair. Sadly he is not into products - I feel it is due to the old peer pressure of those around him at school. Well hopefully I didn't nag him too much and maybe he just might do as I told him. Gonna have to work on him a bit more but hopefully I just might get somewhere with him - maybe when he goes off to uni things might change.

Rushed off to good old M&S for a treat for dinner - ah yes let's have a curry! Boy was it nice & Tigger got to sample the delights of what was left. Thought I'd do a bit of surfing whilst I watched Dr Who and then saw Mark from CutShort online and got him to sort out a few transactions that I had entered incorrectly as well as change some code in the program so I could enter some transactions in a different way - good old Mark! Somehow I managed to fall asleep on the sofa with the dog whilst watching casualty and woke up to Jonathan Ross around 1:45am ish! And the rest as they say is history :-) Now it's 3:57am and I have finally finished my blog. I suppose I can now finally try and get back to sleep - I hate it when I fall asleep on the sofa as it's always difficult to get back to sleep after - now I know I will sleep in late on Sunday morning :-( TTFN

Thank God It's Friday

2007-05-04T08:27:00.000+01:00

Well it's Friday already! What has happened since last Saturday.... Last Sunday am my sister text me to ask if she could come and do some ironing for me - this is her way of escaping from her husband & the kids. Not an ideal position for her to be in but who am I to refuse getting a load of ironing done :-) I bought some plants to spruce up some hanging baskets outside the studio and the troughs outside as I want to create a nice impression.

Well Monday morning before little sis arrives I nip off to get the car cleaned at my mate Adam's new car wash business in Staines - if your over that way he can be located at TW18 1EH (Langley Road). What a nice job - all looks clean & sparkling now - took off the Hindhead Computers sticker as I want to advertise for me and not the Dreaded Dan!

Popped into Kingston with little sis & called into the Apple Store in the Bentalls Centre - my favourite place. What a shame they don't serve coffee there as I could then spend the whole day there soaking up the atmosphere. Last week I invested £79 in buying ProCare now I get one-to-one training for an hour a week and priority support - GREAT! So I decided to see if I could get a lesson booked & managed to have an hour tutorial in using iMovie. How great it is just to be able to have someone devote some time to teaching me new tricks ;-)

Tuesday morning I fitted a really nice client in for a cut & colour. She bought me some lovely roses for the studio and some really nice cakes from M&S. We had great fun talking about how to control kids with a cattle prod - we were only joking of course! Mandy (little sis) started digging up weeds on the patio which made it look much better. A friend of mine came over and mowed the grass for me & he got 9 full bags of cuttings - could only fit two lots in the compost as there wasn't enough room.

A friend of mine was over on his cousin's boat in Chertsey and asked us if we wanted to spend the evening on the river but Mandy's feet were killing her and she decided to stay at home and have a bath & chill out so I had to go alone.

Wednesday morning we discovered Mandy had lost a diamond out of her ring - well it was the only one actually as it's a solitaire :-( That has overshadowed the whole event and every available opportunity we looked around the garden or house. Its a reasonably busy day today with a couple of colours thrown in for good measure. Lots of nice conversations - busy making people coffee and washing up. Times like this I wish I had a personal slave! Managed to finish reasonably early and my neighbor loaned me his electric chain saw - no I wasn't going to use it on any client's - it was to chop off a few branches in the garden.

Kelvin came over early and discovered me & the neighbor chopping away at trees and so Mandy entertained him till I finished (actually I think it was the other way round). Off we rushed to the Weir at Walton for a Smart meet; Craig turned up with his new dog Eddie - boy is he cute. Of course we forgot to take any jumpers and got frozen and so Kelvin; MCC; Mandy & myself came back to mine for a coffee - just had to show MCC my 24 inch iMac running windoz to impress him.

Thursday I didn't start work till 4pm - I do hate these late starts but hey I must not complain. I knew it was going to be a pleasant evening as Sandra; Corven & June were coming over and we always seem to have a bit of a laugh and some interesting conversation. I finished the evening off with a BBQ but it was too cold to sit outside and eat. Mandy & I decided to have an early night as for some reason we felt a little tired - I don't think it was the red wine... or was it?

Week End Already

2007-04-28T17:44:00.000+01:00

Crikey - it's Saturday again already. I cannot believe where the week has gone already! Am in the process of moving the business on a bit and after chatting to a friend who is an art director I have decided to drop my previous web address and adopt a new one. I have bought www.kevinsgardenstudio.co.uk

The other morning I was perusing a load of hairdessing sites for freelancers - no mobiles on here mate :-) I couldn't believe how crappy they were and what was frightening is - somebody charged them to do it. So with my good old trusty iMac I sad down and thought I would play around with the software called iWeb. Basically I always stayed away from it as I was frightened of getting it wrong - whilst I have not finished my project you can at least get a sneak preview of the site I have designed.

Good old Apple make it so much easier to integrate various different types of media and even to the 'hair stylists' of this world it is fairly easy. Any way its just a bit of fun eh!

Have spoken to Mark Bell quite a bit at www.cutshort.co.uk and been getting on with his software. What a nice chap he is - nothing is too much trouble & he always listens to suggestions or requests. He has a great way of talking one through things and explaining in layman's terms. It is quite refreshing to get such a good service these days in sad old England! I thoroughly recommend taking out a trial of his program. For any of the FHBF Members (Freelance Hair & Beauty Federation) that have done the Profile On Potential course with John Huscroft at Wella - THIS PROGRAM IS FOR YOU! It's a must :-)

I am already starting to get a snapshot of my business after only three months and I just wish I had known about it ages ago. I now know just how many clients I have and what ratio (i.e. male/female). Also I can now track transactions and even stock levels... whatever next.

Well I wanted to write more but I have to dash as I am off to a friends BBQ and to inspect their new bathroom. If I get a chance I will fill you in more over the weekend - in the mean time - enjoy the good weather.

First day back

2007-04-25T21:50:00.000+01:00

Well today I started at 10:30am - not too bad really. A few cut & blowdry's and then I was finished by 2:30pm. Had a chat with my last client about her problems with her ex husband... gosh he is a wicked s**! It's never a dull moment hearing about peoples situations and being a sound board for them. It's probably a nice way for them off loading their problems to me and getting a nice haircut too - better than seeing a therapist as they charge a fortune and your hair still looks crap. LOL

Didn't have another client till six pm and so I had a chat with Mark Bell from CutShort. That program is quite easy to use and it makes accounts actually more fun! We discussed new things for the program and how it will go forward. The more you use it the better it is as it starts to build up the bigger picture.

I still have loads of paper work everywhere - have taken out ProCare at the Apple store in Kingston so I can learn more about the Macintosh way of doing things and utilize the programs more. Have been playing around building web sites - boy is it fun!

2007-04-21T20:15:00.000+01:00

Well today wasn't such a bad day; only did two cuts and a set of foils. The weather was really nice and so I didn't do much else after - just enjoyed the sunshine.

Played around a bit more with an accounting program I recently started using called CutShort. Have a look on http://cutshort.co.uk/ I am actually enjoying doing my accounts which makes a change. Soon I will be able to see exactly what my takings are and how many clients I had to do it. Analyzing my data will be much easier and help me to see where I am going with my business. Why not give it a try as there is a free trial to take up!