Guides for running a service business
Practical guides for salons, barbers, garages, clinics and trades. Explore booking workflows, reminders and customer care, with UK-specific money and compliance guides clearly labelled.
54 guides
How to reduce no shows
What actually cuts no shows in a UK service business: deposits, reminder timing, cancellation windows and waitlists. Plus the rules on charging a fee.
Running your businessRead guideTaking deposits for appointments
How UK service businesses should take appointment deposits: how much, refund rules, consumer law, VAT treatment and how to handle disputes and chargebacks.
MoneyRead guideSwitching booking software without losing clients
A step by step plan for moving booking software: what to export, how to run both in parallel, when to switch your links and how to tell your regulars.
Choosing softwareRead guideChoosing salon booking software in the UK
What UK salons should look for in booking software: deposits, reminders, commission on new clients, card rates and data ownership. A buyer guide.
Choosing softwareRead guideChoosing garage management software
What UK garages should look for in workshop software: plate lookups, MOT reminders, job cards, parts, quote approval, payments and 9 box VAT returns.
Choosing softwareRead guideHow much does booking software actually cost?
UK booking software has three costs, not one: the subscription, the card rate and the fee when a new client books. Worked examples and what to add up.
Choosing softwareRead guideIs free booking software really free?
Free booking platforms still make money from your business. Where the revenue comes from, when free is genuinely right and what it is costing you.
Choosing softwareRead guideChoosing an online booking system in the UK
What a UK small business should look for in an online booking system: whether it invoices as well as books, VAT handling, UK GDPR and card rates in pounds.
Choosing softwareRead guideWhat "no commission" actually means
Commission-free booking software is a crowded claim. What the word commission hides, the questions that expose it and how to compare the total you pay.
Choosing softwareRead guideDo you actually need booking software?
A straight answer for UK service businesses. When a paper diary is genuinely fine, the four signs you have outgrown it and whether software pays for itself.
Choosing softwareRead guideBooking software you can actually change
How far booking software should bend to your business: dashboards, menus, feature switches, branded invoices and your own wording. What to test first.
Choosing softwareRead guideBooking and invoicing software
Most UK booking apps cannot invoice and most invoicing apps cannot book. What to look for in one system that does both and what it really costs.
Choosing softwareRead guideJob management software for trades
Quotes, scheduling, invoices and payments for UK electricians, plumbers, builders and fencing contractors. What the software has to do and what to ignore.
Choosing softwareRead guideElectrician invoicing and quoting software
What a UK electrician needs from a quoting and invoicing app: priced quotes that convert to invoices, VAT and reverse charge wording and card payments on site.
Choosing softwareRead guideClass booking software
Booking software for UK yoga, pilates, dance and music classes. Sign ups, class passes, waitlists, recurring timetables and payment taken before the door.
Choosing softwareRead guideDriving instructor booking software
Booking and payment software for UK driving instructors: blocks paid up front, weekly slots, card payments and reminders that cut late cancellations.
Choosing softwareRead guideMOT reminder software
How MOT reminders work in garage software: due dates on the vehicle record, timed sequences by text or email and booking straight from the message.
Choosing softwareRead guideFranchise and multi site booking systems
What a franchise needs from a booking system: one brand across every location, consolidated billing, per site payouts and reporting the network can act on.
Choosing softwareRead guideBooking software for a chair renter
Who gets paid, which clients the salon sees and where the rent is recorded when a stylist rents a chair. The software does not decide employment status.
Choosing softwareRead guideHow to raise your prices
When to put your prices up, how much, how to tell clients and what to expect. A practical method for UK salons, barbers, garages, trades and clinics.
MoneyRead guideChasing late payments
A practical escalation for UK businesses chasing unpaid invoices: terms that work, when to chase, statutory interest and what to do before small claims.
MoneyRead guideHow to take card payments
Card readers, contactless on a phone, payment links and online booking payments compared for UK service businesses. What each costs and which suits you.
MoneyRead guideGoing VAT registered
What changes when a UK service business crosses the VAT threshold: the registration test, what it does to your prices, the Flat Rate Scheme and MTD.
MoneyRead guideWriting a cancellation policy that holds up
A short, fair, enforceable cancellation policy for a UK service business. What notice to set, what to charge, where to show it and how to apply it.
MoneyRead guideWhat to put on an invoice
The details a UK invoice must carry, what changes once you are VAT registered, how invoice numbering has to work and how long to keep the records.
MoneyRead guideTaking card payments over the phone
How to take a card payment over the phone in the UK: what MOTO means, who carries the chargeback risk and why a payment link is usually the safer route.
MoneyRead guideWhen Fresha still charges the new client fee
Fresha can still charge the new client fee when someone views your Fresha profile and then books on your website and when you cancel or reschedule.
MoneyRead guideSalon books without a second app
Scan a receipt onto a salon expense and read the year for self assessment in the same software as the diary. The page estimates. It does not file with HMRC.
MoneyRead guideGetting your Google Business Profile right
The free listing that decides whether local customers find you. How to set it up properly, what moves you up the map pack and what buries you.
GrowthRead guideHow to get more reviews
When to ask, how to ask and why most businesses get this backwards. Plus what you are not allowed to do under UK rules on incentivised and fake reviews.
GrowthRead guideHow to respond to a bad review
What to write, what never to write, when a review can actually be removed and why one negative review among many does less damage than you think.
GrowthRead guideHow to get more local clients
What actually brings new customers to a UK service business, in order of return. Referrals, local search, rebooking and why social effort is misdirected.
GrowthRead guideSurviving the quiet months
Every service business has a dead period. How to plan cash for it, what to sell in December that lands in January and what to do with the empty hours.
GrowthRead guideHiring your first employee
What a UK service business must do before someone starts: PAYE registration, a written statement of particulars, pensions, insurance and right to work checks.
Running your businessRead guideIs Fresha still free?
Whether Fresha is still free for a UK business, based on the pricing page we checked: what it published and where a pound subscription price is missing.
MoneyRead guideChair rental or employment?
The trade-offs between renting a chair to a self-employed stylist and employing them, why the label does not decide status and what each means.
Running your businessRead guideFresha fees UK
The Fresha fees a UK business can establish from the checked pricing page, including where a UK pound subscription price was not published.
MoneyRead guideBooksy Boost explained
What Booksy Boost is, that it is optional and how the checked catalogue separates it from the normal Booksy subscription.
MoneyRead guideWhat insurance do you actually need?
Public liability, treatment risk, employers liability, professional indemnity and equipment cover explained for UK salons, garages, trades and clinics.
Running your businessRead guideConsultation forms and consent
What a consultation form should capture, why patch test records matter for insurance and how UK GDPR treats the health information you collect about clients.
Running your businessRead guideFilling last minute gaps
A cancellation two days out is recoverable and a gap on the day usually is not. Waitlists, standby lists and off-peak pricing for UK service businesses.
Running your businessRead guideWorkshop management software
How workshop software runs the floor: the board, job cards, allocating technicians and bays, work in progress and clocking on and off a job.
Choosing softwareRead guideVehicle health check software
How VHC and EVHC software works in a UK garage: red amber green reporting, photo evidence and turning an advisory into approved work.
Choosing softwareRead guideGarage job card template
What a garage job card must carry: registration, mileage, customer authority and spend limit, parts with part numbers, technician times and next due dates.
Running your businessRead guideGarage invoice template
What a UK garage invoice needs: VAT invoice basics, labour and parts shown separately, part numbers, how the MOT test fee is treated and next due dates.
Running your businessRead guideMeasuring bay utilisation
How to tell whether your bays are earning: available hours, sold hours against clocked hours, where the gaps come from and how to fill one the same morning.
Running your businessRead guideTyre fitting software
Software for UK tyre fitters and fast fit: sizes and load ratings against the vehicle, stock, booking by registration, mobile fitting and disposal charges.
Choosing softwareRead guideMobile mechanic software
Software for UK mobile mechanics: booking by location and registration, planning a round, quoting before you travel and taking payment on the driveway.
Choosing softwareRead guideHow to get more MOT bookings
MOT work goes to whoever contacts the customer first. Reminder timing, reminding by the plate, advisories and turning the test into service work.
GrowthRead guideSetting your garage labour rate
Set a labour rate from your own numbers: recoverable hours, overhead per productive hour and the gap between the door rate and what you actually collect.
MoneyRead guide