Moving premises help!

[Beautie]

Hi geeks,

I’m sorry, it’s a long one...

I’ve been working as a beauty therapist for 10 years and in my little salon now for nearly 4 years, have just taken on two part time employees and things are going great. I’m fully booked the majority of the time and they are both picking up new clients and already have regulars after just 3 months working for me, making their wage every month since they started. They obviously are no where near as busy as me but they are still fairly new.
I’m located in a busy little town, along a main road which is thriving, but my downside is that I’m above another shop and my entrance is tucked right down the side just at the end of this busy road, so we don’t get a lot of footfall, I think a hand full of walk ins in 4 years and get told a lot by new clients they didn’t even realise we were there! The salon is only small so when the time comes, I wouldn’t have room for more staff.
A premises has come up for let (which I’ve just looked around) along the same busy road but slap bang in the middle and is highly visible with the main entrance being in line with the other shops (my goal has always been to move my salon eventually to this spot when something became available) It also has a large window next to the front door ideal for window displays.
Upstairs is huge, has at least 5 treatment rooms, a bigger kitchen/staff room, massive area at the top of the stairs so potential for more rooms. Rent is under double what I pay now but is more than double the size and I am in the position to afford it each month. I can imagine it being made into something amazing & I literally would have enough space for more staff as the business kept getting busier (which I’m confident it would considering where it’s placed) and I would never have to move again.
The only downside to it is it needs work doing to it...walls need taking down, maybe new walls putting up, the whole downstairs/upstairs flooring needs redoing and obviously decorating. I have all the furniture and stock needed right now from my current salon so that’s not a cost I need to worry about for now.

I have seen some amazing renovations on here where they’ve transformed something so run down into something that looks incredible, but I do not know where to start!?
I would be so grateful if anyone could give me some advice and pointers where to go from here and how they did it as I literally have no idea.

Thank you in advance! Xxx

 

[Beautie]

Pleeeeease [emoji1] anyone?!

 

[Traveller75]

I have no experience of renovations personally, but my husband works in the construction industry.

He said first off to contact some building companies to possibly come and have a look, explain what you want and they can then tell if it's possible and what costs you are looking at. If you are wanting to knock down walls you may need contact building control/structural engineers, but a builder should be able to advise you on this.

Most builders will come and have a look for free but some will charge so shop around and find one who ideally has done something similar before but also ask people for recommendations, the construction industry is a very word of mouth sector, you need to find one you can trust and that can work with.

 

[Beautie]

Thank you for your help. I have a builder who I know coming to look round on Thursday, who has done this sort of thing to a salon before so he’ll be able to tell me how realistic things are! [emoji3][emoji1360]

 

[Traveller75]

Also, and I'm sure you've already considered this, but make sure the lease is long enough to warrant the cost of the work. The last thing you want is to spend a fortune renovating only to find out the landlord wants to sell. From what i can remember, commercial leases can be tricky, it's not so easy to get tenants out as with residential leases but it is possible to do so check the terms carefully. I have a commercial lease with a tenant and there's a clause in there which allows us to remove the tenants if we decide to sell.