Sell your own course from your salon

More and more salons sell what they know as well as their treatments. A lash tech runs a classic lash course with a model day, a hairdresser a balayage masterclass, a nail tech a BIAB course and a beauty therapist a course in chemical peels. Anyone who wants to sell an online course usually ends up on a standalone course platform. Those know nothing about your calendar, so the practical day has to be organised somewhere else.

What is the Avana Academy?

The Avana Academy is the part of Avana you use to create and sell courses, inside the booking system you already run. The practical day sits in your normal calendar, and you choose per course how learners pay: by a bank transfer, cash or a payment link you already use, or online. Every online sale comes with an invoice in your salon's name. If you take bookings somewhere else, you can have the Academy on its own.

How do you build a course?

You start from one of six examples, so never from a blank screen. A lesson is a piece of text with photos, a workbook as a file, a multiple-choice quiz or a video from your phone. Filming is not a requirement: a course made of text and workbooks earns a certificate just the same. You pick a category and a level, and Avana shows whether your course is online, in person or both. Nothing is published until you are happy with it.

What does the learner get?

Learners follow the lessons on their phone, ask questions under the lesson they are about and keep their own notes. They choose their practical day themselves, and can switch to another date with space up to 48 hours before. Videos only play inside the learner's own account, with their email address shown on screen. If you ever stop using the Academy, your learners keep access to the lessons. If you have to move a day, everyone booked on it gets an email.

What does your certificate say?

A quiz with an explanation for every wrong answer has to be passed before the course is complete, and you can make it compulsory before learners book the practical day. The certificate carries your salon, your own wording and your name, plus a number anyone can check on the certificate check page. It is a certificate of completion for your course, not a regulated qualification. Some insurers only cover treatments learned on courses they recognise, so it is worth knowing what the main insurers in your trade accept.

How do learners find your course?

Every course gets its own page under your salon page, with the details search engines look for on a course: what it is, who teaches it, where and when the practical days are. You can set the title and description for Google yourself, so a search for your course and your town can lead straight to you.

Your second course sells to people who just finished

For every course you choose which one comes next. It appears at the end as soon as a learner finishes, in the email with the certificate and on your course page. You can add your own discount code for people who have completed a course with you. The code is shown, never applied automatically, so you stay in control of the price.

Can you teach without a salon of your own?

Yes. The theory lives online, and you hold the practical day at home, at the chair or room you rent, or in a space you hire for the day. You set the address per date, and it goes into the learner's confirmation. If you do not use Avana for appointments, take the Academy on its own.

Which trades does it work for?

Any trade where you teach something people do with their hands: lash courses, hair and barbering courses, nail courses, beauty courses and PMU and brow courses. You add the Academy to your Avana plan for £8.99 a month, or take it on its own for £9.99. With the standalone Academy and with Business, 3 courses can be online at once; with Business Plus and Max, as many as you like. See what it costs.