BAck in the day I posted about my early work in a thread called “seeing the forest for the trees” kinda a blog, no response needed just a place I could talk about how things were gong. Recently I have begun a new adventure, that is practising professionally from a clinic under the helpful guidance of another wonderful electrologist.
I’ve decided to talk about some of that experience here. It’s a completely new world in a lot of respects from what I was doing currently . That said I have to be very careful what I say here and not give away anything “secret” or confidential. That still means I can talk about some of that transition though.
For me the biggest change is a change in focus to business processes and adding in billing. Putting the appropriate marketing in place. Conversing about client needs, wheather or not they fall under the scope of electrology and developing professional strategies to address these needs.
As a "DIY’er " much of this I did not need to worry about. Electrolysis is not a controlled activity here in Ontario Canada and there is no license to achieve. Now presenting as a professional ( and duly registered ) business all of this needs to be addressed. Where as a business we need to market our services to. Sterilization processes and testing of the autoclave.Even what type and manufacturer of probe and size of probe must be considered. Optics, and ergonomics of working different client positions must be looked at.
I’m noticing one or two DIY’ers here now coming out of the woodwork and following the same path I did.It’s very nice to see, and I feel by passing on some of that experience we can benefit others doing so.
For me the biggest change has been going from " oh dont worry about money and just come get the hair off" to billing for my time. And how to get that customer to schedule in the first place.Setting up the process to make that happen. I’m having to talk in very general terms but that is what it is.
Putting the processes in place is one of the biggest tasks a newly practising electrologist can take on. I’m at a great advantage here in that I am working with a true professional, someone who has all of these processes in place already. IT just means expanding them to increase capacity of the clinic. Many electrologists seem to like to work from home clinics or as sole practises rather than apprenticing under someone who has experience and an established practise. I feel this is a mistake there is much to be learned just in how to set up your proceedures.
I’ve gotten pretty good recognition over the last several years for addressing consumer concerns. For helping out where I can. I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with the best of the best in the world right here on hairtell and to some degree earn their respect and acceptance. I feel however I still have a great amount to learn, and I hope I can express some of what is learned in this transition . I’ve always sought to teach as much as I learn.
I’ll be upgrading nearly all of my equipment. I’ve chosen a zeiss microscope for optics as I think this will be the most advantageous and will be arranging for this over the next while. Client comfort is as important to me as well and I’m going to be upgrading my epilator to one with 27 mhz ( but will probably keep my SM-500 for home use and backup ).
I’m also hooping to document some practise work. Look at skin reactions and take lots and lots of photographs. Going forward I will be making a website showing the best, and the worst, of skin reactions and things I observe, so I can better demonstrate what is and is not something to be concerned about.
One thing I am committed to. That is " doing it right" . When I started DIY it was on a shoestring budget ( actually zero dollars to may name!) but even then I determined to do it correctly, learn new techniques, use the best equipment I could lay my hands on and moving from my bedroom into a professional space with a fantastic mentor is the next logical extension of that. I’m determined to work with the right tools, adhere as closely as possible with best practises. So that is a little bit, of what I intend to document here.
Seana