What motivated & inspired you to start your business?
Knowing how intimidating beauty salons can be and how important it is for everyone to feel beautiful, I wanted to create a place of trust. A place you can feel comfortable to go to whether you have a major skin concern or just fancy having your nails done. When the opportunity came up to rent a room in a hairdressing salon, I grabbed it.
What steps did you take to get things going in the beginning?
Having only two weeks in between leaving my previous job and starting my business, the most important task was getting everything I needed ready. This meant meetings with product distributors, ordering equipment and endless ‘To Do’ lists being compiled and ticked off. It was exhausting but fun and exciting to see my little beauty room fill up ready to be used. Finishing everything the day before I opened was a very proud moment.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness of your business and getting new customers?
Opening a beauty room in the middle of a hairdressing salon means that I had hundreds of clients in my reach from day one. Most hair clients visit a salon every six weeks so within 2 months the majority of the salons clients knew I was there and open for business. The difficulty is reaching people outside of the salon. For this I use ‘recommend a friend’ promotions. This encourages clients to talk to their friends about me and inviting those friends to come and see me, resulting in both of them receiving a discount. People like to know they are seeing someone who is professional, friendly and also does a good job, so hearing their friends recommend you and with the extra persuasion of a discount, I’ve found it to be the most effective way of brining in new clients.
What challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them?
There are so many different working parts to a business and keeping on top of all of them is a massive struggle, especially when you have no help. Time management is so important and it can take a long time to figure out all the jobs that need to be done regularly and how you can fit them into your routine whilst still giving yourself time to breathe. I’m still working on keeping up to date with a diary but I do find a notebook very handy so that I never forget anything.
Can you tell us about any habits you have/things you do, which set up success every day?
Having a list of achievable goals for the day can be really useful to make sure you get things done and can really help to keep you motivated. The most important thing is to always be positive. Every business will have quiet days but you should use them as motivation to succeed and not let them get you down.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Be confident. Be positive. Believe in yourself. The only person who can stop you from succeeding is yourself. Find a positive in every situation no matter how impossible it may seem. Bad days are just motivation in disguise and as long as you can survive those, you have even more reason to keep going.
When I face a big challenge, I…
remember to breathe, ask for advice when I need it and make a decision I know I’m happy and confident in.
The most courageous thing I’ve ever done as an entrepreneur is…
starting my business with no savings or financial backing behind me.
If I could go back in time to when I started my business I would tell myself…
to always look for different ways of growing and improving yourself.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is…
to say yes to every opportunity that arises as you never know where it can take you.
My favourite business tool/resource/book/podcast is…
Facebook groups of like-minded people who help each other to grow and be successful.
My favourite quote is…
