Hi pinkprincess, I'm just starting mobile too and still unsure of a few things so I can't be held responsible for any advice taken that turns out to be rubbish, but I can tell you what I've done so far.....
Deciding a price structure:
I phoned all the mobile hairdressers in my area to find out their prices/times/etc. This was a bit tricky as they didn't like giving out info to potential competition, so I'll admit now that by the last few I pretended to be a customer asking for information instead, those conversations were much easier. I also had a look about online for anyone advertising on there.
Then I totally bottled it and got my friend to phone round the local salons to get their prices (if you get a few of the main ones like cut & finish, foils/meche, full head tint, you can roughly work out what the full price list is likely to be).
So I picked a price structure in the middle-ish. This area isn't particularly affluent but I've still got to make a living and they are getting a b****y good hairdresser for their money!
Deciding the type of client base I would like:
Considering I am going to be working around my childs school hours I thought it would be best to aim for the mum's/older generation, there is no point me offering my services to the 9-5ers as they will be wanting evening appointments which will be very difficult for me. So I have drawn up a plan of where I can start getting my name about - schools, parent & toddler groups/ library/ community centres/ soft play, you know the sort of places. I've now got a draft of what I want my business cards/price lists/website etc to look like, just a case of getting them printed up and dished out now.
Equipment/tools/etc:
Luckily, I have built up a lot of my own 'stuff' over the years so I haven't found this part too difficult, though I am having trouble deciding what I should put everything in so it's easy to get from car-client and back again. Also, things like peroxide, do mobilees store them in cool bags in the car in the day? It can get very warm inside a car in the summer? And what about cut hair on the floor? Do they take along a protective sheet or just let it fall and clean it up afterwards? These little things I'm guessing I'll figure out along the way.
Records:
I'm quite anal about record keeping and I'm a bookkeeper too so I've got a few spreadsheets set up already for income and expenditure that I will try really hard to keep updated weekly, got to keep a track of what's going on.
So, there's what's going on with me so far. There's probably a lot more that I haven't even thought about, so if I remember anything else I'll post it on here.
And if anyone else has thoughts on what I've done/plan to do then please say, any feedback is welcome when you really don't know what you're doing!
