Craft fairs are great events to showcase your products. There are likely to be various fairs throughout the year ranging from craft fairs at school events to Wedding or Christmas Craft Fairs. Some might also have fabulous themes that you can adopt for your own stall, it is certainly worth researching the event, the stallholders and the visitors expected to find the Craft Fair that is most suited to you and your business.

So, you have chosen your event, booked and designed your craft stall, made your products and are ready to sell. But what else should you consider when selling at Craft Fairs?

Here are 5 important things to remember for your next Fair:

 

Finances

Look at the cost of attending the event vs. the profit that you estimate you could make from it to assess if you can benefit from selling there.

You should also consider the benefit that you will get from promoting your business and showcasing your products.

Track your outgoings, for example the attendance fee or stall hire, cost of materials, transport costs etc and then calculate what you think that you could sell.

This will help you to estimate the finances and then you can review the actual figures after the event to help identify if it is something to repeat in the future.

 

Insurance

Whilst the organiser of your craft fair will likely have their own event insurance, those attending the fair as a stallholder will probably be asked to take out their own public liability insurance upon booking a stall.

Stallholder insurance typically protects you if a third party makes a claim against you for injury or damage for which you are found to be responsible. Consider also getting insurance cover for your products and equipment in case they get damaged whilst at the Craft Fair. Alternatively, we also offer event cancellation cover which will protect you from the unexpected cancellation, postponement, or interruption of an event due to unforeseen circumstances

 

Link to Online

Although you may engage with a lot of people at a Craft Fair, you might find that some won’t want to make a purchase that day but do have an interest in your products.

It is important then to give them a second opportunity to review your products.

Direct potential customers to your website or Facebook page.

This way people can view your full range of products in their own time and they may well make a purchase. Make sure that you have business cards/leaflets printed so potential customers can take your business details with them and find you later.

 

Register Your Business

It is likely that the best way to set up your business is as a sole trader and you can do this through www.gov.uk. As part of this you will register for self-assessment and will need to submit your profit and income each year.

 

Licences

Depending on what kind of Craft Fair you are selling at, you may need a license to trade. If you are attending an organised Craft Fair, it is likely that the organisers will have obtained a licence to cover the event itself.

However, if you are trading at a market for example, you may need a market stall or street trading licence. Contact your local council to understand what requirements there might be.

It is best to check with the organisers of the event that you are attending if there are any requirements for you to obtain licenses or insurance.

So, consider these factors when planning an event. Then enjoy creating fabulous products to showcase you and your business at your next Craft Fair!

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*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

When running a hair salon there are lots of factors to consider but most important is health and safety for both your clients and your employees. Here is a guide to the areas that you need to focus on for health and safety legislation in hairdressing.

 

What are the hairdressing regulations that you need to comply with?

There are key regulations that everyone who runs a hairdressing business should comply with. These are:

• Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – UK legislation detailing the duties of employers regarding health and safety in the workplace. Employers have a duty to protect health, safety and welfare in the workplace.

• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) 2002 – this is the UK law that requires all employers to ensure that they are sufficiently controlling harmful substances in the workplace.

• Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 2004 – this covers any substance or mixture intended to be placed in contact with the external parts of the human body (including hair)

 

What do you need to put in place to comply with the regulations?

Risk Assessment

Carry out a risk assessment together with your employees, identifying the areas of risk within your business and then demonstrate that you have put in place measures to protect clients and staff. It is a good idea to have the risk assessment recorded as a document that all staff members can have access to, a typical format for this might look like this:

HazardWho might be harmed and howWhat Precautions are currently in place?Any further action required?By WhoWhenDate completed
Hair dye solutionClients or staff could have a reaction to the ingredients within the solutionAllergy (patch) testing takes place 48 hours before a client’s treatmentContinue to regularly conduct patch testingAll Hairdressing staffEvery 3 monthsOngoing
Staff Training

All employees must receive regular Health & Safety at work training. This covers several key areas including:
· COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health)
· Fire Safety
· Manual Handling
· Electrical Safety

Health & Safety Policy

A Health & Safety Policy is a written statement that sets out how you, as an employer ensures that the workplace is a safe environment to work in. It is a legal requirement that you have this policy displayed in your hairdressing salon.

First Aider

HSE states that employers must have appropriate first aid provision for their workplace. It is good practice for a hairdressing salon to have a nominated person who, in the event of an accident, will be able to administer first aid. They would need to gain a qualification in first aid at work by attending a first aid training course to be renewed every 3 years.

Allergy Testing

You should have as a standard practice the regular patch testing of products on clients skin 48 hours before exposure to assess if they might react to a product.

As a salon owner, you have ultimate responsibility for ensuring the safety of your staff in the workplace.

To do this you should put in place the procedures for managing hazardous substances, take precautions to avoid trips and falls, keep your salon clean and well ventilated, have a clear fire safety procedure and ensure that all appliances are well maintained and regularly checked.

Taking these precautions should help to avoid any incidents and make your salon a safe place for you and your employees to work in.

Protectivity is a specialist provider of Hairdressing Insurance. We cover thousands of individuals and small to medium size businesses across the UK each year.

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*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

Table of contents

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation which also promotes healing. The belief behind this treatment is that a life energy is flowing through our bodies and if this energy is low then we are more vulnerable to illness and stress.

Reiki treatments increase this life energy by placing hands on, or just above the body, creating beneficial emotional and physical effects, healing pain, reducing stress and anxiety.

 

A typical Reiki session

During a Reiki Treatment, a client will lie on a massage table, or a chair if they prefer. There is no significant pressure applied during a Reiki session, instead a practitioner will gently place their hands on a client.

There are a series of key hand positions which, when done in the correct way, will generate the effects needed. Here is a guide to some of the most popular hand positions.

1. Place the palms of your hands gently on your client’s forehead and cover the eyes. Take care not to cover the nose and restrict your client’s breathing.

 

2. Place hands gently around the temples.

 

3. Cradle the head by rocking the head very gently from one open palm and then to the other eventually achieving a balanced hold. Your own hands can rest on the table underneath your clients head.

 

4. Hands are gently placed over your client’s throat. If they don’t feel comfortable with this then your hands can be placed under the throat instead.

 

5. Hands are placed over the heart and the heart chakra (located between the breasts). They are then placed gently over the upper abdomen.

 

6. Hands are placed gently over your mid abdomen (solar plexus).

 

7. At this point, you, as a Reiki Practitioner might continue treatment to include your client’s legs.

Both hands are placed gently on the leg. Repeat for the other leg.

 

8. Put one hand on the bottom of each foot.

 

9. The next step would be to ask your client to roll over to their front and for you to apply pressure to your client’s shoulder blades and middle back and then the lower back.

 

10. At the end of a treatment you may move your hands all over your client’s body to cleanse and remove any leftover debris, transforming any negative energies into positive ones.

 

At Protectivity, we provide a wide range of what we believe are cost-effective insurance solutions for therapy professionals including Reiki InsuranceCounselling InsuranceMassage Insurance and many more. To see if your speciality can be covered, just visit our Therapy Insurance page and input your technique into the quote box. If we can cover the activity, we will provide you with an instant price.

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*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date.