I’ve just received my examination results and have passed with distinction. Grateful to this community for all the information over the years and helping me finally realize my dream of becoming a certified electrologist!
Hearty congratulations to you, kit! Did you join Electrology International yet? It’s a closed facebook site for electrologists only. You have to submit proof (a certificate) if you are an electrologist or other proof if you are enrolled as a student in an accredited program.
Where will you be practicing?
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Thanks! I haven’t gotten my certificate yet, just an email from my instructor to tell me my results, so the waiting continues. I live in the Wakefield area of West Yorkshire in the UK, but am also considering commuting to Leeds if needed. Probably going to bolster my skills with some private tutoring in the meantime, and then take the transgender course from Sterex in July.
Sounds wonderful! Congratulations again. This is a great profession to be a part of and it will bring you lots of joy in the years to come.
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Congratulations!
Absolutely get involved with Electrology International as Dee has suggested, and Hairshoot as well.You’ll find that electrologists help each other out a lot in those 2 places and they are great places to continue to learn.
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I passed! – Now what?
I was hoping to find someone to work under to build up my confidence, but obviously that isn’t possible during the pandemic. I’d like to have some kind of plan in place to start up once it’s safe to do so. I have almost everything I need: epilator, probes, gloves, loupes. I have been thinking of renting treatment rooms by the day as I build my clientele. How did you all get started? How do I advertise myself when I’m just an inexperienced newbie who is eager to work?
A very eager newbie from what I’ve seen. you’ve worked hard to get to the point you are in. And graduating with distinction, awesome job.
There’s up and down sides to both working for yourself, and working for someone else. On working for someone else there are these posatives:
You benefit from the business and procedure experience of the person you work under. This helps you dispense with things like scheduling, billing, business policies ( what to do with a cancellation, or bad review or problematic client or case)
There is decreased risk as you are not paying for office space , supplies, insurance, taxes or other business costs directly.
There’s a “clear path forward”
You dont have to deal with things like marketing yourself nearly as much, as presumeably your employer does.
There’s much less risk.
On the downside :
You usually make only a portion of what you bill, and this might not be enough to live on during your first year or two. I think back on my co-electrologists performance over the last 18 months. She did just fine in her first 6 months and has plateaued since. She’s doing as much work ( sometimes more than I do but times are srange during the pandemic. She’s rarely broken $1000 take home over 2 weeks ever but this has been the nature of working during covid. We spread appointments over more time and business is about 40% of previous levels. On the posative side, the expenses are not your problem however
It’s not always possible to exit and take your clients with you.
When it comes to infection control protocols and potential health inspections and policies, when working for someone else you may not be as in-depth involved to be aware of everything that you can and should be doing. It’s difficult to apply to your own business procedures that you arent infinitely familiar with the reasons why they are good practises in the first place.
When working with someone else you probably arent involved in procurement and establishing relationships with suppliers. . You want to leverage your relationship with Dectro , TES , Instantron, amoung other places. You have to think that you need probes for example not only in a variety of size but also that you will have some sizes you use more often than others. And you cannot run out…ever. This one item can put you out of business as can not having a spare probeholder when one fails. ( which reminds, me Skip Mahler, if you are reading this I need to order a new regular size probeholder for my instantron spectrum elite) .
This is especially true during covid-19 when some supplies may be very difficult to obtain on an ongoing basis. Just about every electrologist I know is scrambling right now to lay their hands on nitrile gloves . If you used amazon, you are out of luck and most distribution chains have very few if any available. It’s not good enough to have enough to start,you have to have enough in house or an ongoing supplier. I just spent about $1000 on table paper…yes paper covers for my table ( we arent allowed to use sheets) just to have enough in stock to see us through.
You’re on the right track with looking at whats next. Establish a web site ( weebly has some free starter options) . Make a square account so you can bill to credit/debit cards. Starting writing up a faq for your site. You will want a scheduling system very early on, I recommend schedulicity mostly on cost .Think about the place you want to work. I think you would end up giving most/all of what little you make renting a room a day at a time. . A room in your home could serve this purpose. When you are ready establish a small office you rent full time. I work a lot with transgender people so i get my name out in areas that they congregate, like local to me transgender subreddits. It’s become a well established and lucrative part of my practise.
I think you would have a harder time getting on with another electrologist right now. most of us are dealing with a reduced business during covid or in many cases the inability to practise at all. I dont see this changing anytime soon. I’ve chosen not to expand my staff this year because I dont think that a new person would make a good go of it, despite my prime available hour being evenings and weekends when demand is generally higher.Maybe next year or the year after that. I thin most places are very much the same this year.
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You’ve given me a lot to think about, Seana, and I really appreciate it. Of course, I’d prefer to work for somebody else. Money is thankfully not a huge concern for me right now. I’m seeing treatment rooms for rent at £25 a day or so which isn’t the worst, to start. I can’t work out of my home because we live in a tiny 1 bedroom flat and have barely any space for my treadmill at the moment. I do want to specialize in services for trans people because I know they are underserved as a community and I want to help, but the Sterex tg course I meant to attend was cancelled due to covid. I’ll get there eventually.
PS: Skip sold me my Elite Spectrum and he is a treasure.