Seven first steps into the beauty industry on the Sunshine Coast

One nice thing about working in the beauty industry on the Sunshine Coast is that everyone seems to know everyone else…and it’s easy to keep in touch with our graduates! We put the word around to find out where our graduates move onto after leaving The Beauty House Academy.

One of the great attractions of a career in beauty is that it can be so flexible at different times of your life. Many of our graduates are juggling work, study and family responsibilities…and the attractions of working from home are obvious!

Keep in mind that set up costs can be substantial, and it’s important to get it right. You’ll need a separate space for providing beauty treatments, and it’ll need to be properly decorated. You’ll need to invest in all the necessary equipment and supplies, and you can’t forget the ‘extras’ such as public liability insurance.

With that in mind, working from home is definitely the most versatile option and is far less expensive than leasing commercial premises.

A common ‘transitional step’ from working out of your own house is to rent a chair at another salon. This is a great way of testing the waters without committing yourself to the risk of a long lease at your own premises. By renting a chair, you are typically responsible for your own promotion, organisation and accounting.

Many of our graduates consider this the least expensive option for establishing their own business, and it’s a very common first step into the industry. Mobile beauty therapy is attractive to new graduates as you won’t be covering rental fees or mortgage repayments (or cleaning, or decorating!) . If you’re considering this as your first step, look at the ‘market niches’ that are available for you, and consider the environment you’d prefer to work in – nursing homes, family home, and corporate offices can all be good options.

When it comes to make-up, the fashion industry is probably the most competitive, but it’s surprisingly active on the Sunshine Coast. As a professional make-up artist you could find yourself preparing models for photo shoots, working with magazines, styling visiting celebrities as they go about their work or working with retail promotion. Fashion jobs can be hard to come by and often rely on word of mouth. Talk to your trainers and classmates… you never know what’s out there!

This is a small area on the Sunshine Coast, but there seem to be more positions every year. The Australian government has selected film as an area for investment in coming years, and while most of the work remains on the Gold Coast, opportunities are increasing on other areas, too. This can be a boom-and-bust area to work in as stints often only last for around three months, but it can be a huge employer when ‘it’s on’ – think of the number of extras that a film needs to make-up!

This area is the most obvious destination for Beauty House Academy graduates, and with good reason – work in both spas and salons on the Sunshine Coast is readily available (and can become madly busy at peak tourist seasons!). While competition at the leading establishments can be fierce, having the right qualifications and skills is a huge step in securing a position.

The travel and leisure industry has the widest selection of jobs. Hotels, spas, resorts and cruises often contain in-house salons that require both full-time and casual staff. Working in this sector can be very satisfying, as you can meet customers from any range of backgrounds and ways of life. In the case of the cruise industry, you can travel around the world!