Your Opinion

((Didn't you want to be a foot health practitioner?)) Are you looking for ways to make a living? It can be a hard slog when first starting out, but I know plenty of successful beauty therapists - but probably know more who gave up when they found it wasn't the 'thing' for them. Any job is what you make it.

Thanks Jubba. I am really looking for ways to make a living. I am in a very terrible financial position at the moment. I have to do something as soon as possible. But all courses cost big money so I would like to choose something that will bring that money back and hopefully will give more...

Hi Water Lily

To me being a beauty therapist is something I love rather than making a living from it. I am a mobile therapist but I have to work in another job as well (office-unfortunately) to make ends meet.

If you need a "quick fix" to get your finances straight, then I wouldn't recommend going down this route. First, as you rightly say, courses are expensive and take a long time to finish if you want to do them correctly. I don't advocate quick one-day courses. Once you have finished your course, you then need to set yourself up with products, couch perhaps?, insurance etc.

I'm not saying that working in Macdonalds is the answer if you need to get money quickly, but I would suggest doing something that you are good at/already trained in to start off and once you are a little bit more financially secure, then look around for courses.

One thing I would say - do a beauty or complementary course because you love doing it, not to get rich quick. Your clients will soon know if you enjoy doing the therapies or just in it to make some dosh.

Love

Soooo agree with Lotusflower.. if you are hoping to come into the beauty/holistic therapy 'business' in order to make a living, then don't - it won't happen - not quickly enough to make a profit anyway. I trained initially 30 years ago, and it cost over a thousand pounds then! I hate to think what I have spent since on further training (:(). It took me 5 years to make the final self-employed 'leap', and even then, I had to sometimes go back to temping during lean times, mainly to pay domestic bills. It is really only over the last 15 years that I have made any profit, and even then I tend to plough that back into the business. If I weren't married to a pretty remarkable and supportive man, I would still be sitting behind a desk in a dark office somewhere!

If I weren't married to a pretty remarkable and supportive man, I would still be sitting behind a desk in a dark office somewhere!

Sigh ...... I'm also married to a very supportive man, I just wish he was a billionaire :rolleyes:;)

Love

If you are looking for a lucrative career move, this really isn't it. Training takes a long while and business building is slow and can be arduous. With the current economic climate i think times will become tighter for therapists, as we are unfortunately seen as a luxury good. Who would believe that good health was a luxury? Many of us have started up with therapies as a second job, many are now full time, but I would imagine that many have second jobs, or just do the work for pocket money.

I read an article a few months back, I forget where, and it said the average salary for a therapists was 13k after 5 years. Calculate your costs from that and make a decision. It's not the easy option and your heart has to be 100% in it.

i was told by one of our tutors that after I.T. beauty therapy is the second largest industry (not sure if she was talking globally)...so i am a little surprised (and disappointed) to hear that people are struggling financially...maybe she just meant there is loads of work but maybe not loads of money.... I don't think people get into the business to make buckets of money anyway, most therapists i know do it for the love of it - but of course earn enough to pay the bills.