Mobile App With Hardware Integration
The Freelance Suite
Services & Skills
Client Opportunity
Freelance hairstylists, beauticians, and salon owners struggled with accurate service pricing, often undercharging clients due to difficulty calculating precise product costs, overhead expenses, and appropriate profit margins. The challenge was particularly acute when measuring hair colour products during application, where manual estimation led to significant cost miscalculations and reduced profitability. Traditional methods of weighing products separately and manually inputting data into calculators were time-consuming and prone to errors, disrupting the client service experience.
The project presented an opportunity to revolutionise how freelance beauty professionals price their services by creating the first mobile app to seamlessly integrate real-time product measurement with comprehensive cost calculation. By combining Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) scale technology with intelligent pricing algorithms, the solution would enable professionals to achieve financial freedom while maintaining focus on client care. The integration would eliminate guesswork and provide precise, real-time cost tracking during service delivery.
Our Solution
Gemstone took on development of The Freelance Suite mobile app for iOS and Android platforms from another supplier. Our team implemented a sophisticated Bluetooth Low Energy protocol to connect seamlessly with custom TFS Bluetooth scales, enabling real-time product measurement during service delivery. Key features of our innovative solution included:
- Advanced BLE Integration: Implemented Bluetooth Low Energy technology to connect wirelessly with precision scales, providing instant weight measurements with 0.1-gram accuracy directly within the app interface.
- Real-time Cost Calculation: Dynamic pricing engine that automatically calculates service costs as products are measured, incorporating wages, product costs, overhead, and desired profit margins.
- Seamless User Experience: Intuitive interface allowing professionals to weigh hair color and other products without interrupting client service, with instant cost updates displayed on mobile devices.
- Cross-platform Compatibility: Native iOS and Android development ensuring consistent BLE performance across all devices, with robust connection management and automatic reconnection capabilities.
- Comprehensive Business Tools: Integrated features for customizing service rates, tracking profit margins, and generating accurate pricing for diverse freelance services beyond beauty treatments.
Our technical implementation utilised Android’s Bluetooth APIs and iOS Core Bluetooth framework to ensure stable, low-latency connections with minimal power consumption. The BLE integration featured automatic device discovery, secure pairing, and continuous data transmission optimization.
The Results
The launch of The Freelance Suite app with BLE scale integration transformed how freelance professionals approach service pricing. The App Store update notes highlight that “The update that everyone asked for! You can now use your app with our exclusive TFS Bluetooth scales to weigh your colour as you’re working.”
Users reported significant improvements in profitability through accurate cost tracking, with many professionals discovering they had been consistently undercharging clients. The seamless BLE integration eliminated workflow disruption, allowing stylists to focus on client care while maintaining precise financial control. Feedback from beauty professionals has been overwhelmingly positive, with users praising the app’s ability to finally provide the financial clarity needed to build sustainable freelance businesses.
The innovative combination of BLE technology and intelligent pricing has established The Freelance Suite as an essential tool for freelance service providers across multiple industries.