Hairdressers: booking home hair visits on your days off

Open bookable slots only on your days off, offer the services that work well in a client's home, such as cuts, blow-dries and braids, and leave travel time between visits. Say in each description which areas you cover, what the client needs to provide, such as a chair near a sink, and how payment works. Clients book a time that suits them, you never clash with your salon rota, and your first own clients come with clear expectations from the start.

If you work in a salon three or four days a week, your own clients have to fit around that. On Book, slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so open them on your days off only, and end the series when your rota changes. Check your employment contract allows outside clients, and keep salon clients and your own clients separate.

Cuts, blow-dries, braids and simple styling travel well. Long colour services need a sink, time and space, and may be easier to leave for later. 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.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own. Slot lengths cover your time in the home, not the drive.

Say in each description which towns or districts you cover, and whether there's a supplement further out. Leave gaps between slots for the journey and setting up. If several family members want cuts in the same home, the first person books and you add the others yourself from your calendar after a quick call.

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:

Pack the same kit for every visit: scissors and clippers, combs, sectioning clips, a cape and towels, a spray bottle, a hairdryer and an extension cable, a small mirror, a dustpan and a sheet for the floor. Say in the description that you bring everything and leave the room clean, so clients don't worry about the mess.

Ask in the booking note about sensitive scalps or allergies to products, and bring the products you know rather than using whatever the client has. For any chemical service you do at home, follow the same patch-test routine you use in the salon, and book the test as its own short visit a few days before.

Put your booking link wherever your own clients find you: your social profile, a message to friends and family, a card you hand out. Keep it separate from the salon's channels. One page with a few clear services is easier to share than a long price list.

Book doesn't take payments, so say how clients pay, such as cash, card reader or transfer, and when. Decide what you won't do at home and say it in the description, so clients aren't disappointed on the day. If a client wants a service that needs a salon, tell them which salon services you offer elsewhere or suggest another date.

When a client wants their next cut in six weeks, book it yourself before you leave; enter their email so they receive a confirmation with a calendar file. Book doesn't send reminders, so that calendar entry is what brings you back. Clients can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you move the visit from your bookings list and confirm it yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.