Beauty therapists: booking own clients alongside a salon job

Open bookable slots only in the hours your salon job leaves free, such as your day off and one or two evenings, and repeat them weekly until your rota changes. Offer a short list of services you can do well with your own kit, say where you see clients, and keep salon clients and your own clients apart. Clients book online at times you're really free, so your own work never clashes with your shifts, and you grow a client list at your own pace.

On Book, slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date. Set the end date to the end of your current rota, and open the next period when the new rota is out. If your salon shifts change from week to week, open single slots a week or two ahead instead of a long series. Check your employment contract allows outside clients before you start.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity.

Start with the services you know best and that need little equipment: brows, lashes, nails, waxing, express facials. Leave longer or machine-based treatments for later, or for the salon. A short list keeps your page clear and your kit manageable.

An evening slot after a full day in the salon can be one too many. If you open evenings, keep them short, one or two clients, and leave time to get home and set up. Saturday or Sunday mornings on your weekends off can suit clients who work.

Say in each description whether you work from home, visit clients or rent a room by the hour. If you visit, list the areas you cover and leave travel time between slots. If you work from home, say whether there's parking and how to find the entrance.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the client's calendar file. Ask in the description for allergies or sensitive skin, and the address if you visit. For tints and lash treatments, book the patch test yourself as a short visit beforehand, following the routine you use at work.

Price your own services from your costs, not only from the salon's price list: products, travel or room hire, and your time including set-up. Show the price on each service so clients know before they book, and say in the description if anything is extra, such as nail art or a longer wax. Review prices after a few months, once you know how long each treatment really takes outside the salon.

Share your booking link with friends, family and people who ask for you outside work, and put it on your personal social profile. A short page with a handful of services is easy to share and easy to book.

Use your own booking link, not the salon's, and don't contact salon clients for your own business. Keep your own products and records. If a client of yours asks for a treatment you only do at the salon, tell them honestly where they can book it.

When a client wants their next infill or wax in a few weeks, book it before they leave; enter their email so they receive a confirmation with a calendar file. Book doesn't send reminders, so that date in their calendar is what brings them back. Clients can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you move the appointment from your bookings list and confirm it yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes.

Book doesn't take payments, so say in each description how and when clients pay. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.