The mistake people make in week one
You have lost your job or you are on bijstand, you can cut hair, and you think: I will start for myself. The first step almost everyone takes is registering with KVK, because that is the step every guide lists first.
Do not. Kvk.nl says it plainly for WW: always check with your adviseur werk whether you may register your business with KVK, checked September 2026. If you are on bijstand, ondernemersplein.overheid.nl says you first contact the municipality where you live, and everything else comes after that.
The reason is simple. To UWV and to your municipality, a registration in the Handelsregister is the moment you became an entrepreneur. Without permission in advance that can mean you miss the favourable scheme, that hours or income are offset retroactively, or that your benefit stops. That costs thousands in exactly the months when you have almost no revenue.
The conversation you have instead takes an hour. The order is the whole article.
There are two routes and they do not resemble each other. If you come out of employment and have WW, everything runs through UWV. If you are on bijstand, everything runs through your municipality, the scheme has a different name, different conditions and a different person deciding. They are set out separately below, because the next most common mistake is applying one route's rules to the other.
Route 1: the startperiode on WW
If you have a WW benefit, there is a scheme built for exactly your situation.
The startperiode lasts 6 months, or less if your WW entitlement runs out sooner. You get permission in advance on the basis of your business plan, and you must first complete the online course Zelfstandig ondernemen met een WW-uitkering. During those 6 months you do not have to apply for jobs and you decide yourself how many hours you put into the business. Source: uwv.nl, checked September 2026.
The price is a flat reduction: your WW benefit is 29 percent lower, whatever your salon earns.
Against that sits the point that makes the scheme worth having. Income you earn as a self-employed person is not offset against your benefit during the startperiode. Wage income from employment is offset, and you report that monthly on your income statement as usual.
Do the sums before you sign anything. With strong opening months you keep 71 percent of the benefit plus your full salon revenue. If your diary stays empty, you gave up 29 percent for nothing. The scheme rewards people who are ready to trade immediately, not people still deciding what they will do.
Two things to watch. During the startperiode you may not take work from the employer who let you go. For a hairdresser that is a real risk: a former employer asking you to cover a busy Saturday is precisely the job you cannot take. And the startperiode begins on the first day of a month, so apply before the month you want to start in has already begun.
Starting without a startperiode: then your hours count
You can also start on WW without a startperiode. You then need no permission from UWV, but the normal rule applies: the hours you spend on your business are offset against your WW benefit. For every hour you put into the business you receive less benefit, per uwv.nl and kvk.nl, checked September 2026.
For a salon that lands badly, and not only because of the arithmetic. Your hours in this trade are not evenly spread. A Wednesday with five clients and a Thursday with an empty diary both produce hours you have to declare, while only the first day produces money.
The practical conclusion: if you seriously intend to start, apply for the startperiode and do it in time. If you are still unsure, stay out of your own business admin until you have decided, because orienting yourself is not the same as trading. Draw that line with your adviseur werk.
Route 2: the Bbz out of bijstand
Out of bijstand the route does not run through UWV but through your municipality, and the scheme is the Besluit bijstandverlening zelfstandigen.
Your municipality assesses your business plan and decides. That is not a formality: it looks at whether your business is viable, and per kvk.nl that means among other things working at least 1,225 hours a year in the business and earning enough to live on within three years, checked September 2026.
If your plan is approved, the municipality can do two things that sit alongside each other. A top-up for living costs to social assistance level, in the form of an interest-free loan. And a business credit to buy things for the business, capped at 48,060 EUR in 2026. Amount and duration are set by your municipality, per rijksoverheid.nl.
How much of that credit you need differs a lot by trade. A hair salon needs wash units, chairs and often plumbing work before a client can sit down, a nail technician or a massage therapist starts with a treatment table or chair and a set of tools. That lower entry investment means a nail studio or a massage practice can start with a smaller business credit, sometimes none at all, and step out of the preparation period sooner.
Before that you can often agree a preparation period of up to 1 year. During it you keep your benefit, the obligation to apply for jobs falls away, you get guidance, and you use the time to build your plan. For a salon that is exactly the phase in which you settle your prices, your workspace and your first clients.
Two warnings. The amounts and conditions are filled in per municipality and the national norm figures change twice a year through the normenbrieven of January and July, so ask your own municipality for the figure that applies to you instead of copying one from a forum. And remember an interest-free loan is still a loan: ask up front how and when it is finally assessed.
If it is mainly the credit you are after, also read the separate article on financing a salon, because alongside the Bbz there are routes that have nothing to do with your benefit.
The two routes side by side
| Topic | WW, startperiode | Bijstand, Bbz |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | UWV | Your municipality |
| Duration | 6 months | Preparation up to 1 year, then case by case |
| What you give up | 29 percent of your benefit | Nothing up front, but a loan |
| Revenue offset | No, during the startperiode | Yes, assessed afterwards |
| Credit available | No | Yes, a business credit |
| Required in advance | Online course and permission | Business plan and assessment |
What your plan has to show for a salon
A work adviser, sometimes called a work coach, and a municipal assessor in the Netherlands are not hairdressers. They cannot tell whether your prices are right, so they look for something else: is this calculated, or is this a wish.
Four things your plan has to make concrete.
Your treatments and your prices. A list with name, duration and price. A price list someone can walk through, instead of five pages about your style. Note that hairdressing services carry 9 percent VAT and products 21 percent, because that changes what you keep.
How many clients a week you need. Work bottom up. Your fixed costs plus what you need yourself, divided by your average ticket, is your number of clients per week. That single figure convinces more than an annual turnover, because everyone at the table can judge whether ten clients a week is realistic.
Where those clients come from. This is the weak point in almost every salon plan. Name concrete sources: clients from your employed years who are free to follow you, your neighbourhood, your visibility online, a tie-up with a gym or a care home. And say how someone actually books, because a plan with no booking route reads like a plan with no door.
When you can do without the benefit. Both bodies want to know. Name a month and the revenue that goes with it, and be conservative rather than optimistic: a plan that says month nine and delivers month seven beats the reverse.
What to track from day 1
Both routes ask you to evidence your revenue, and both do it in arrears. Whatever you cannot reconstruct in month eight will cost you money then.
Track four things from the first week. Your appointments with date, treatment and amount. Your hours, including admin and buying stock, because the urencriterium of 1,225 hours a calendar year counts those too, per belastingdienst.nl. Your business costs with receipts. And your monthly statement to UWV or your municipality, with a copy for yourself.
Two practical notes. An hours record is not compulsory, but without one you cannot prove the 1,225 hours, and the zelfstandigenaftrek and startersaftrek fall away. And you must keep your administration for 7 years, per belastingdienst.nl, checked September 2026.
Keep it separate as well. One business account that all revenue lands in and all business costs leave from is the only thing that lets an assessor see what happened in five minutes. Cash running through your private account costs you an explanation at every check.
Make this fall out of your normal work rather than out of an evening of catching up. If every appointment already carries a date, a treatment and an amount at the moment it is booked, your monthly statement is a matter of adding up.
What to do over the next month
Week 1: call. Your adviseur werk at UWV or your case manager at the municipality, and ask exactly what you may and may not do before anything is registered. On WW, start the online course straight away.
Week 2: write your plan with the four elements above. Keep it short, but make the price list and the clients-per-week figure hard numbers.
Week 3: submit. The startperiode at UWV, or your business plan at the municipality. Ask for written confirmation of what is permitted.
Week 4: register with KVK once permission is in, and set up your administration and your diary before your first client calls.
CelerBook covers that second part. Every appointment that comes in through your own booking page carries a date, a treatment and an amount in your calendar, so your monthly statement and your revenue figures come out of your ordinary work instead of a notebook. There is a quarterly revenue overview that supports your VAT return, and a client page with visit history you can use to show that clients come back. Confirmation emails go out automatically, and an SMS reminder ahead of time costs 0.11 EUR ex VAT per appointment. The pricing suits a start where every euro counts: the first 5 appointments each month are free, then 0.25 EUR excluding VAT per completed appointment, capped at 30 EUR a month for a solo operator plus 5 EUR per additional active staff member. No contract, and no usage means no cost. Try CelerBook for free.