From Employee to Entrepreneur: Thriving in a Space Rental Model | Tips for Renter and Salon Owner

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Welcome to Inspiring Salon Professionals.

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The podcast that allows every therapist, nail tech and stylist to level up, build their career and reach for their dreams.

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Each episode we'll be looking at a different area of the industry and along the way I'll be chatting with salon owners, industry leaders and experts who'll be sharing their stories on how they achieved their goals, made their successes, all to inspire you in your business and career.

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I'm Sue Davies, your host, award winning salon owner and industry professional.

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Welcome to Inspiring Salon Professionals.

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Are you a solo beauty professional struggling to juggle everything from the endless client organizing, no shows, double bookings, or maybe find the thought of a website and building and maintaining it a little overwhelming?

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If you're ready to simplify your business and get your time back, check out Jenna today.

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Find the link in the show notes and see how Jenna can transform the way you work.

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Hi there and welcome to this week's episode of Inspiring Salon Professionals.

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Solo episode this week and I'm going to be focusing on something that I kind of keep seeing as a bit of a theme going across the socials and it kind of is something that's going to happen because we are moving and our business models are changing and so what I'm going to focus on this week is the challenges of creating business visibility when you're renting in someone else's space or in someone else's salon venue, whatever you want to call it.

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Because obviously if we're renting space then there's many different ways that you can do that.

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But if you are renting space within somebody else's kind of umbrella salon, it can come with quite a lot of challenges.

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And today we're going to kind of COVID some of those and, and talk through ways that you can maybe enhance your marketing and your visibility and operating your business within the confines of someone else's salon has become a really popular business model.

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Currently growing trend of someone owners moving away from traditional employment structures and instead renting space to former employees or to independent professionals.

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And this approach is really beginning to see changes in the industry and a real reshaping of the industry as well as everything kind of shifts and moves around and tries to find its way of being.

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Because although we've always had, we've had this model for a long time, it's kind of rubbed along as sort of like a smaller part of our industry and now it's becoming a bigger and bigger part.

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And because it makes people entrepreneurial and it makes people have control of their own businesses, it's really, really popular for people to have that, particularly since the pandemic.

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And according to the last data that I've tracked down from the NHBF, we now have over 65% of salon professionals in a self employed role.

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And that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone's like space renting.

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There's a lot of home salons in there, there's a lot of mobile businesses and there's a lot of different ways.

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But we know that the model of renting space has increased massively.

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And while this model offers a lot of flexibility and entrepreneurial opportunities, it also presents fairly unique challenges, especially now with the fact that HMRC are on top of all of the hidden employment and they are starting to make steps into the industry to start investigating and monitoring that.

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But that really is for another show.

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And what I want to talk to you all about today is the fact that if you are in this situation, that you need to really consider how you put your business out there and how to make the most of the opportunities that you have available to you.

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So we're just going to go through a few different ways that you can do that.

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And firstly, you need to think about clarifying your business identity.

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And if you're inside somebody else's space, say you're inside Sue Salon and your Joe Salon inside Sue Salon.

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Now, Sue Salon's obviously got quite a big identity already because she's got the front of the shop and you are a small part inside that shop.

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So how can anyone walking through that door see your business identity?

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Are you able to promote your business within their business?

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Because hopefully you can.

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Does the salon owner offer any promotions of your brand separately from their own?

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These are all things that should be ironed out at the point you're going into contractual agreement with them.

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But these are things you really, really need to think about.

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And if your business identity is unclear to clients, they may mistakenly, because they don't understand the nuances of these business models.

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They just think they're going to Sue Salon and everybody works for Sue.

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They don't always understand that you're actually a sub rental business that is just renting space.

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They don't always get that.

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So they could entirely think that you are part of the host salon and it can lead to confus confusion as to who provides the services, who handles the bookings and who accepts payments and so on.

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So this is the first thing you need to really, really consider is making sure your business identity stands out.

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So in your workspace, make sure it's branded for you.

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You know, you need to establish your brand's presence, that's the next thing that we, we need to look at.

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So to grow the visibility within the host salon, you need to differentiate yourself while maintaining obviously harmony with their established brand.

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Because if, especially if they have been there for a very, very long time, they're going to have a really, really good client following, they're going to have a good and well established setup for their socials and website and so on.

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So these are the things you kind of want to look at is do they offer any promotion for your brand in any of those places.

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But if you don't have this already, make sure you do have your social media set up across the platforms where you know your ideal client is going to be hanging out.

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So create your social media profiles and make sure that you use them regularly and make sure that you put that you, you know, you are a business within this other venue and make sure that you're very, very clear that you own your own business, that you are responsible for bookings and that you are responsible for all payments, they must come via you.

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If any of those things aren't, then you could be looking at hidden employment.

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And that's not a place that anyone wants to be in these days with HMRC kind of breathing down our necks as an industry.

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But one of the other things that many, many people kind of miss the opportunity for is to have their own website.

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People think it's really super complicated and it's really difficult and it doesn't have to be.

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Even if it's only one page, it's worth having because it literally will get you to Google and that's where you want to be.

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What's the first thing you do if you want to look for, I don't know, a new TV or a new washing machine, or you want to find out what restaurant to go to, what's the first thing you do?

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You go to Google and your potential clients are no different.

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They will get on their phones, on their laptops and they will jump on Google, go to Google Maps or just go to Google itself, which will then bring up Maps and there they will find a whole host of Google business profiles that tell them, what they do when they're open, how to contact them and so on.

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So if you can be part of that and you have a website attached to it, it just gives someone the knowledge that you're a credible business and that they are safe in coming to you.

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You can also do this with some booking systems.

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Jenna, the Inspired Selling Professionals seasoned sponsor, they provide you with a website when you book them, when you use their booking system.

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You know, go back and check the episode where J.M.

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chalier was on and you can hear, hear him talking about everything that they offer and what makes them stand out from a lot of the other booking systems.

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But I now, on my little bit of client work that I still do, I am now using Jenna and it does, it gives you a great platform, it gives you a really, really good website and you're welcome to go and look at mine.

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If you look up paulsreset.co.uk please go and check it out.

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You can see what I get up to when I'm not doing all the other stuff I do.

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And, and you can see my Jenna website.

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Go and have a look.

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It's really simple, it's very, very easy to do and you literally, it's just like filling out a form and then by magic, that website appears.

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It is very, very simple and they will guide you through that process.

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There are other booking systems out there that do similar things and give you booking pages and so on.

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So do just go and have a look and see what is available.

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You don't have to have a huge great big WordPress website that's super complicated.

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That isn't what it's about.

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But do just have a consider as to whether or not you've got your social media set up right and you've got a branded website that is either LinkedIn with your booking system or that your booking system hosts.

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But making sure that you have availability on that website to take bookings to share what services you offer and how much they cost.

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Get those clients warm for you before they even start pressing book.

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Now they need to know those things and there's.

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For me personally, I can't think of anything worse than going on a website trying to find the service information.

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There's not enough service information and there's no prices.

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I want to know how much it's going to cost me because I want to know if they're the business for me from that point.

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So do consider those different options.

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I'd also point out as well, I have sort of like touched on Google Business Profile There you cannot put the price of what that could bring to your business.

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It is huge and it's free.

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You don't have to pay Google to do any of that stuff for you.

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It really does help to have a website if you're going to go on Google Business Profile.

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It's not essential, but it will help you because when you go on there and there's someone's website there, it helps you click through.

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But Google Business Profile can kind of act like your own web space.

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That's probably the easiest way to explain it.

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But on there you can put your services, you can put what they, what you charge for your services, you can have.

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There's a whole Google Business feed for your.

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For your business.

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And on there you can put photos and images and videos and documents and text and tell people it's.

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It looks very similar in actual fact to your Facebook newsfeed.

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It really, really does look like that.

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And if you keep that updated and you use the right keywords and all of that stuff, it will help people find you on Google and it will lift you up the rankings.

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And that's why having a website is so helpful.

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And whether you have your own standalone website or you use a booking system like Jenna, I cannot express highly enough how important that is because if you are in somewhere where visibility is difficult, Google Business Profile will enhance your visibility so many times over.

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So please, please, please do look at how you can do that.

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And it's something that I think I'm probably gonna, in the next few months, once I've probably finished recording this season of the podcast, I will be starting to bring some of that stuff into like, business education and skills that I'm going to be looking to host on my own platform.

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So do keep an eye out for that because it is something that, like, I've been using Google Business Profile for my businesses for probably about 13, 14 years, probably maybe longer than that, you know, about 15 years I've been using for my business.

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And it always gets you noticed people and it, and it's interesting because you get the really good stats from Google and you can see how many people are looking, how many people click through and all that kind of stuff.

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And there's some really, really good data that you can pick up from it.

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But it just is a way of having the biggest shop window that you can possibly get.

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And you'll have a good shop window with a website.

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But Google Business Profile takes that and kind of amplifies it a little bit more.

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So just think about how much you're doing with Google.

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It's free, so make the most of using it.

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One other thing that you can do, coming to our third point is leveraging the host salons clientele.

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It may be the case as many, many salon owners do and I think probably less so with Hair, but with beauty much more so.

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They will ask for space renters that don't necessarily provide the same services as themselves.

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Obviously with Hair this is different because it doesn't work that way.

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But if it's something where you provide a service that they don't provide, ask if you can do collaborative promotions or if they can cross promot you to their audiences because that will also help to define and reinforce your independent identity.

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Things like do they have a newsletter that they send out to their audience?

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Ask if your business can feature on that occasionally.

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Do they want to offer joint offers with you that can highlight both the services that you offer and maybe that you do something that can complement something that they do.

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The next thing we're going to look at is designating your physical space very physically and your workspace within their salon should reflect your your brand.

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You can make small but intentional efforts to make a really, really big difference.

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Things like making sure that signing and branding is in place.

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Maybe ask if you can have a small plaque or a window decal that goes in their salon window that you know provides your business name and logo just to help establish your brand within their brand.

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Because and to to a degree they should want you to succeed.

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It's the same as any landlord that's renting the property to the salon owner.

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The landlord should want you to succeed and the salon owner as your landlord should want you to succeed.

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So they should be offering elements of marketing and not necessarily marketing to their audience, but giving you the possibility and the opportunity to highlight your brand within their business.

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Make sure that if you have printed materials such as flyers and business cards and brochures, make sure they're available in your area.

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And also just make sure if they're not around in the reception area that that you just check if you are able to do that and if there's many space renters.

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If you have services that don't overlap, then ask if you can promote within their space too.

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All of these things will help just set up you as an individual business identity within that space and do make sure that you use your own branded receipts.

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So and your and that should come hopefully with your booking system.

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If you've got your own booking system, then all of their receipts will be via your booking system and if you have any product packaging, make sure it is branded with your business and that any aftercare materials etc that you send out reinforce your identity and your contact information because otherwise they will get confused and instead of phoning Joe's Salon they may well phone Sue Salon and end up being booked with somebody that is not you and who they don't want and who you don't want them to go to.

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Then the fifth point is educate your clients.

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And as I was saying earlier, many clients don't realise that you, you are an independent business owner within that space.

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So communication is key.

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You can do that through consultation or through casual conversation, you know, just mentioning that you run your own business here at Sue Salon.

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So if you do need to reach me directly, here's my contact information and you know, and my business is Joe Salon.

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And look, you can see the difference in colors or the difference in logos or whatever.

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So just if you want to book with me, just keep an eye out for those things.

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But here's my number ensuring that you have follow up communications with them.

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So use email or text just to subtly highlight your brand.

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So if you're sending out a communication to them you can use something like Mailerlite or mailchimp and in that you can fully brand your emails that are going out to them.

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If you've got a booking system, you'll be able to brand your emails going out from that as well.

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And it's just a subtle reminder that you are Joe Salon and not Sue Salon.

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And just make sure that anything you send out is I thank you for booking with Joe Salon.

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Just all those gentle reminders.

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And always ensure you put your contact details, your text number, your WhatsApp number, your phone number, your email, your website, wherever you have communication routes, make sure they go on every piece of information that goes out to them.

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Another thing you need to consider is growing beyond your host salons shadow because especially if they're an established business, they're going to have quite a big shadow where they have been present in that space for many years potentially.

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So over time it's really important to grow your own distinct audience that associates your services directly with your brand rather than that of Sue Salon.

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Here are some ways you might want to consider doing that.

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You could attend networking meetings.

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These are like they're everywhere now and you will find that there's industry based ones.

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So you might be a local group of therapists where you can kind of, or hairdressers.

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Whatever area you're in, you might find there's that, that they can cross recommend.

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You may find networking groups that have a whole host of different backgrounds and industries within them who may be looking for your services and don't realize that you're there because they drive past an AC Su salon because they've got the most prominent branding.

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So get out there and let the local community know that you're there.

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Encourage client referrals, encourage them, you know, maybe having a recommend a friend scheme along those lines, just so that your clients refer directly to you rather than directly to that big brand that sits at the front of the shop.

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You could also host special events and workshops under your own branding even if they are held within the Sun's premises, although obviously that may be subject to permissions.

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But you know, do consider that, you know, you, you could host maybe an open evening if you've got a new product coming in that you want to launch.

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There's an awful lot of ways that you can try and get outside of the shadow of the host salon.

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Finally, I kind of just want to touch on the whole hidden employment and the difficulties of being a renter because some people are being forced into renting and that isn't fair.

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That is an employer that is making a change that suits them and not their employees and enforcing the fact that those employees are being made redundant and then having to come back under a rental contract and then trying to ensure that you operate at the terms and times that they want.

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That is not space rental, that is not self employment, that is hidden employment.

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So for renters transitioning to self employment, it will mean if you're going from an employed position within a salon to self employment that has been suggested to you.

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You have to bear in mind the things you're going to lose and that is holiday pay, pension contributions, potentially sickness benefits and income security and job security.

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Once you are self employed, there is no guarantee.

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And this is where we're starting to see a lot of people struggle across the industry because they are now renting a space.

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They've got to pay their salon owner X amount a day, X amount a week, X amount a month.

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And they're not necessarily realizing that they have to do that for 52 weeks of the year because the landlord doesn't let the salon owner off of their rent when they want to go on holiday.

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You take a rental for the set time and it doesn't make any difference whether you work all of that time or you don't.

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You have to pay for that part of the rental.

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So you need to weigh up whether these trade Offs are worth it.

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Is the flexibility that self employment gives you worth the risk of having no income and owing somebody money?

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Is that risk worth it?

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It really does offer the potential for higher earnings if you can get your client list busy and regular and coming back to you.

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But understanding how to do that when you've been an employee and you haven't necessarily been involved in those processes of marketing and client attraction and client retention is really, really difficult if you don't understand how to create a client journey.

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And that's, you know, that's something that I'm really, really passionate about is that whole client journey.

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And how you appear online, how you connect with them, how you bring them to you, how you then treat them when they're with you, and how you get them to return to you is something that I really love getting involved in.

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So although you can have all of these wonderful things that we all seem to want, and particularly since the pandemic, we all want flexibility, we all want to work shorter hours, we all want to earn more money.

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But it does come with a lot of added issues, challenges and responsibilities.

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And those responsibilities are things like your taxes, your insurance, your financial planning, making sure you've got your pension covered.

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You know, and they're things that you don't always consider.

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You don't think about the fact that you're not going to get holiday pay.

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So if you are on the verge of doing this, stop and consider is the flexibility and the benefits of potential higher earnings.

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These are not guaranteed higher earnings.

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Just because your clients come to you when you're an employee of that salon doesn't mean they're going to continue to come to you when you're a self employed solopreneur within that business.

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They may have their reasons for not choosing to come to you in that circumstance.

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So you really, really need to consider how that works.

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But also the flip side of that is that as an employer you really need to make sure that you are not falling into enforcing hidden employment.

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And that is when you basically take away someone's employment rights and make them into a self employed person trying to recruit staff.

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And that word is a dangerous word to use in the self employed world.

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They aren't your staff.

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You can't recruit staff to be self employed.

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You have to bear in mind that as a salon owner who utilizes solo business owners within their business, you cannot enforce times of work, you cannot enforce client type, you can't enforce the services that the self employed person provides or how much they charge for them.

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You can't enforce anything.

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You in fact lose complete control of everything.

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And this is becoming more and more of a very black and white area.

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Previously it's been quite gray and even though when it was a little bit more gray, the rules haven't really changed that much to be honest.

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It's just that HMRC are now enforcing them in a far more common way and a far more regular way and are, you know, they're looking to raise taxes and they don't want people being taken advantage of and they don't want to miss out on all those nics and all of that tax that comes into them when somebody's an employee.

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So you do really have to consider if you are a salon owner, whether you are doing this for the right reasons.

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And I understand that we are in a really difficult place with the economy at the moment and that we are still recovering from the pandemic and that things are still a challenge out there because we've gone from one really challenging situation and had the joy of coming back to work only to find that the world really had changed just a little bit.

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We've had things affected by Ukraine war, things affected by the Israeli Gaza war.

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We have had economic downturns and slightly bounced back.

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We have had an awful lot of things to contend with.

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But that is business.

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I've been in business on my own for probably about 20 odd years and I've been in business with my husband's business for getting her on for 30 years.

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And things happen.

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We hit recession, we hit high bits, we hit low bits.

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We have things happen in our personal life, we have things happen to the national life of the economy and governmental change and international changes and we just have to keep going.

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But we also know that all of these different things recently have made salon business owners really, or like venue owners really, really think about what their business model is and it is a double edged sword.

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And whether you want to have the freedom of not having staff that are employed by you and you think that the space rental option is for you, really, really take advice on it, think about it long and hard, try and find other people that have done it already and may now be wanting to change back or absolutely love it, you just don't know.

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It is a real suck it and see thing.

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But if you're an employee who is being forced into self employment or you're an employee that is considering that it's going to be the best option for you for the flexibility and all those other things, think about what it's going to mean.

Sue Davies: 00:25:22

It can Be the big difference between if you're, if you're in your 20s and looking to buy your first home or rent even, you know, having a solid employment history can really, really help.

Sue Davies: 00:25:33

So really do consider whether or not it is the right thing for you.

Sue Davies: 00:25:38

I just, I cannot stress enough and especially as a female dominated industry and this is one of the, the issues for the salon owners that have got a venue is that if you have a large team of female staff because let's face it, we are a female dominated industry.

Sue Davies: 00:25:52

There are maternity issues and people being off for their children and all that kind of stuff.

Sue Davies: 00:25:57

And it is par for the course in this industry that to allow our team's time we have to be compassionate and empathetic as a business owner in today's world.

Sue Davies: 00:26:08

We have to be caring towards our staff.

Sue Davies: 00:26:10

And that does mean that we do have to look at what female staff need and even the male staff, you know, like, you know, we have paternity rights and stuff now within employment.

Sue Davies: 00:26:19

We have to consider how that all works and it is a big cost.

Sue Davies: 00:26:24

But you have to consider whether or not the cost of running a self employed space rental model is the right way forward for this industry.

Sue Davies: 00:26:34

When I had gorgeous, I really had a mixed model back then and, and it worked for me.

Sue Davies: 00:26:43

I had employees.

Sue Davies: 00:26:44

I always, I think, well, most of the time I had employees of some kind or another and I also had a variety of self employed people used to come and go.

Sue Davies: 00:26:51

Some were there on a more fixed basis and others would sort of come in and, and be fairly ad hoc as and when there was a demand for their services.

Sue Davies: 00:27:00

But always I tried to keep things flexible and, and it's one of the reasons why I always, always trained.

Sue Davies: 00:27:06

I mean apart from sort of some of the more advanced skills that people were very specialist in, if it was general level two, level three beauty, I was, I was okay and skilled in that, in that area.

Sue Davies: 00:27:17

So that if they couldn't ever turn up for any reason, I could help them out and cover their clients.

Sue Davies: 00:27:22

Because it, no matter what you believe your business to be, the client perception, even though my clients knew that, you know, I had team members that were self employed and then I had staff that were employed, they would move around between everybody and they understood the process that we had, they understood that it was my salon and that I had people that, that were there on a self employed basis and I had people that were employed by me.

Sue Davies: 00:27:51

They understood that because I was always very, very clear as a salon owner what that situation was.

Sue Davies: 00:27:57

So as Long as you move forward with transparency and you have to allow any self employed renter within your business, you have to allow them that space to market themselves and promote themselves and not be fearful of it and help them to grow.

Sue Davies: 00:28:12

You know, you can see as a salon owner, you've been there, done it, bought the T shirt and these people that are now coming into self employment for many of them is the first time they've done that.

Sue Davies: 00:28:23

So help them, mentor them and coach them and if you are in the role of being a solopreneur within somebody else's business, ask them for help.

Sue Davies: 00:28:32

You know you haven't experienced any of this stuff previously.

Sue Davies: 00:28:36

In most situations there's huge, huge numbers of people coming into this for the first time and if you haven't experienced it, even if you have and there's something you don't know, maybe that salon owner may know, maybe one of the other space renters may know.

Sue Davies: 00:28:50

But do not be afraid of asking because across forums there are so many people struggling to make a success of being that solopreneur within these businesses.

Sue Davies: 00:29:01

And there are ways around it.

Sue Davies: 00:29:02

There are ways to for you to find your people and for you to find your clients and for you, you to recommend into the other people within that business for services that you don't offer.

Sue Davies: 00:29:14

Always be kind, always leave the ladder down.

Sue Davies: 00:29:18

You know, if you listen to this podcast that that is something that's so close to my heart and I really, really hope that as we all become individual businesses throughout this industry, that we can all hold each other up and all support each other as this industry morphs into something that we haven't seen on this scale before.

Sue Davies: 00:29:37

Anyway, that's it for me for now and I look forward to being with you on the next episode.

Sue Davies: 00:29:46

Bye for now.

Speaker B: 00:29:47

Is your salon delivering the exceptional client journey you've always envisioned?

Speaker B: 00:29:52

The Salon Inspector, led by industry expert Sue Davies, is here to help you elevate every step of the client experience.

Speaker B: 00:29:59

From the moment clients discover your salon online to the ease of booking and the clarity of your service offerings, every detail counts.

Speaker B: 00:30:07

The Salon Inspector's Client Experience Audit offers a digital mystery shop of your business.

Speaker B: 00:30:13

Featuring a thorough review of your branding consistency, online presence and client communication.

Speaker B: 00:30:19

Sue assesses the touch points you've created to ensure a seamless and memorable experience that keeps clients coming back again and again ready to transform your salon's client journey.

Speaker B: 00:30:30

Visit su-davies.com to schedule your audit today.

Speaker B: 00:30:35

The Salon Inspector turning good experiences into great ones.

Sue Davies: 00:30:43

Thank you for listening to inspiring salon professionals.

Sue Davies: 00:30:46

If you've enjoyed the podcast, please do subscribe, leave a review and don't forget, share with your fellow industry professionals and other business business owners that you think may enjoy the show.

Sue Davies: 00:30:56

Links and further information can be found on the Show Notes or on my website, www.su-davies.com.

Sue Davies: 00:31:05

all links and further information can be found in the Show Notes and there's also now the option to support the podcast through Buy Me a Coffee.

Sue Davies: 00:31:13

The links for that you can find in the Show Notes.

Sue Davies: 00:31:15

Thanks for listening.

Sue Davies: 00:31:16

See you next time.