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.
10 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 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 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 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 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 guideReducing no shows in a workshop
A missed booking costs a bay, not an hour. Parts already ordered, courtesy cars held, confirming the morning before and refilling the bay the same day.
Running your businessRead guide