Beautician’s struggle through the lockdown

An Auckland beauty salon owner says they needed more help during initial Covid-19 lockdown which meant such businesses had to close.

Industry leaders say while it has been a "worrying time", everyone is trying to "stay positive".

Salon owner Manjit Kaur said it was still a big struggle.

“I was still paying rent for my shop while having no source of income and received no subsidy or compensation,” said the owner of Sajjan salon.

The government offered ‘the small business package’, where independent salon owners would be able to receive a one-off loan, but Kaur says it would have been a loan she wouldn’t have been able to pay back.

“We are really struggling. I am lucky that I managed to put my mortgage payments on hold.”

The single mother of three says she had home bills to pay and was also still paying her workers a portion of their income.

Oonagh Kirkpatrick of the New Zealand Association of Registered Beauty Therapists says “this has been a worrying time. There has been great concern as to how businesses would survive from the lockdown but I think we are all trying to stay positive.”

Significant changes have been made to the operation of beauty salons under Level Two, which could also affect business.

BusinessNZ Chief executive Kirk Hope says the WorkSafe website shows that “the requirements are very well written”.

Based on what Kaur has seen on the news and online, Sajjan beauty shop employees will use their own gloves, masks and hand sanitisers, while working on an appointment based schedule to facilitate social distancing.

Customers will be asked to wait in their cars and to stay home if they are sick.

Moving down to level 2 and re-opening her shop will bring back some income for Kaur, however she is worried about health safety and losing clients because of a limit to the number of people that can come into the salon.