Michelle, 44 from Walsall never thought that
she would be helping others to enhance their confidence, when only
13 months ago she herself was on the brink of despair.
After losing her much loved job as a Mortgage
Adviser and suffering a mixture of family and debt issues, Michelle
had poor self esteem and was in a very low place. At that
time, she didn’t realise that her fortunes would change and that
she would be working as a self employed Beauty Therapist making
other people feel good.
Her recent success is all down to her sheer
determination and the help she received from her local Seetec
centre, through the Pathways to Work programme.
“I just can’t believe how my life has changed
since my first meeting at Seetec” says Michelle, “I was just so
unhappy at that time”.
Michelle’s unhappiness was apparent when she
first met her Adviser Julie. After an emotional meeting,
Julie soon identified that Michelle was not ready to undertake any
work due to depression and that she needed to resolve her own inner
issues. On Julie’s recommendation, Michelle attended a stress
management programme plus a 2 day GOALS motivational course.
Although anxious about attending these courses, Michelle benefited
immensely from the sessions and soon began to gain her self
confidence.
Feeling positive, Michelle worked on her CV
and interview techniques with Julie and started to apply for work,
even attending interviews. In the meantime, Michelle had been
asked by a friend who ran a local marketing business to deliver
leaflets 8 hours a week on a self employed basis.
“Delivering leaflets was not my ideal career
move” explains Michelle, “but it was a start in the right
direction, plus the time pounding the streets made me realise that
I really wanted to go into the beauty industry and make other
people feel good about themselves”.
With 31,481 beauty therapists working in the
UK and with this figure set to rise, the beauty industry is big
business. There is more to beauty therapy than just having a
good treatment, it has been stated, it’s vital to the wellbeing of
many people for taking away the worries of money, redundancies and
stress-related illnesses.
Keen to pursue her dream and with her domestic
problems getting better, Michelle felt strong enough to speak to
Julie about becoming self employed. With the help of a
Business Planning course through the Chamber of Commerce and
undertaking qualifications in Beauty Therapy at the local college,
Michelle qualified as a professional therapist. She is now
self employed on a full time basis working from a salon in Mere
Green called Crew and is now completely off benefits.
Seetec Adviser, Julie is thrilled and knew
Michelle had the strength to be a success saying “Seetec has been
very important to her ensuring that she takes 100% responsibility
for her life, to except that things have happened in the past and
to leave them in the past and move on”.
Michelle is extremely thankful for all the
help she has received saying:
“After being at Seetec I found the confidence
to go back full time into employment and work for myself. The
help and support that was given to me was 100% and I feel that
without Julie at Seetec I would not have been able to move forward
and progress back into full time employment. The help that
Julie gave me made me grow in confidence and realise my self
potential and that to always take 100% responsibility for my own
life, and feel anyone out there who has a health problem and needs
help on the road back to work to contact Seetec.
To be a successful beauty therapist……you will
need to be:
- technically competent
- enthusiastic and genuinely interested
in other people
- friendly and welcoming with all your
clients
- tactful and a good listener
- patient and good at explaining
things
- well groomed
- commercially aware in order to
effectively sell products and promote treatments
- confident with an artistic flair.
If you go freelance you will be self-employed
and will need good business skills as well as the technical skills
and knowledge required for the job. This is because you will be
responsible for your own bookkeeping, accounts, marketing, stock
control, purchasing and laundry and supplies, all of which you will
attend to outside normal working hours. You will need a thorough
knowledge of all the treatments but will be able to choose the ones
you want to offer and to whom.
Working freelance provides a certain amount of
flexibility, which may suit you. However, it is definitely not the
‘soft’ option! To run your own, successful ‘portable’ beauty salon,
you will need to invest in a suitable vehicle and a good range of
quality products and ‘transportable’ equipment. You will also need
to be self-motivated and have good organisational skills to plan
your appointments and journeys in the most cost-effective way.