HELP! Moving home..moving business

[Mia Price]

Good morning, everyone

I am completely new to this group. I have been in the beauty industry for 18 years. I've worked in a salon and a health spa before making the decision to become a mobile therapist. I have owned my own business for 13 years now, which I'm pleased to say. I decided to then set up a salon from home since 2017 and I do love the fact that all my equipment is set up ready, which is so much easier. It was a hard decison at first because I was heavily pregnant with my first child and physically couldn't keep carrying my couch etc into my clients houses. I did lose a few clients as they didn't want to come to me after making that decision.
However now, I do have another dilemma. I still work from home, my work has slowed down due to the current lack of advertising, everybody's finances etc. I have 2 young children, I do need the flexibilty for school runs. My youngest is due to start nursery in September and my husband and I are entitled to 30 hours childcare. We are also currently in the process are moving house which is 30 minutes away. I am very nervous on what to do for my business. I can renovate the garage and set up another salon from home, this will cost probably around £10k, and I will need to find even more new clients. I will probably lose clients who I've had for years. I am stressed out at the moment. I just don't know what decision to make. I didn't know whether to do mobile again once or twice a week whilst I'm renovating the garage and trying to get new potential clients for when the garage has competed. I obviously still need to earn money, but I need the flexibility with the children. My husband is self employed, in property renovating which he works full time, so I am the main parent who does the school run and gives the children their dinner, until my husband gets home from work. I'm just looking for a little advice really on what are my best options on moving to a new town 30 mins away, self-employment, and having childcare duties. I have also considered getting a part time elsewhere if I'm not making enough money. My hourly rate is £27 gross, before taking products off etc. Is this even good?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Apologies for baffling on lol.
Many thanks

 

[TheDuchess]

Hi Mia and welcome

You’re in a tricky situation. My take would be to limit the number of times you have to recreate your business.

What works for you is working from home - rather than mobile, so I’d suggest you try and stay premises based. Switching from home based, to mobile, and then back to home in a new address - over a short period - sounds like setting up two different businesses in a short space of time and a bit exhausting.

It sounds like you need a new base for a year or two. Renting premises will mean putting your prices up and that means that clients may not stay, or earning less per hour and keeping your clients. Thinking through the implications of this will help you decide. If you’re going to convert your garage you’re going to have to spend money either way

Why don’t you try and rent a room somewhere where you could carry on seeing your regular clients until your set-up is ready in your new home? You have 3 options: try and find somewhere near your current home and hang on to your current business for as long as possible; try and find somewhere near your new home, find new clients and hope you can bring them with you to your home , or find somewhere roughly halfway between the two and hope your regulars will travel and that you’ll pick up some new clients that will move again with you to your new home when it’s ready.

It’s important to realise that clients that like coming to a commercial space rarely like a home based set up, so you’ll not keep many when you move home again. The same applies to working mobile - it’s not cut and dried.

I suggest you ask your clients where they travelled from, each time they see you, as well as asking for their address. I’m a visual person, so I’d plot a map with little stickers showing the annual spend of each client and where they are based. It’s important to know, for instance that the client that lives down the road from you is in fact travelling back from work to see you, because if her work is in the opposite direction to your new home yoi’ve probably got no chance of keeping her. However you might find that your new address still works for one or two clients. Know who these ladies are!

I can’t comment on your hourly rate, it depends what you want to earn and the type of clients that like what you do. I charge a lot more and that works for me. However knowing who your VIP clients are, allows you to shape your business around your “fans”. If you can hang on to one or two of your higher spending ladies, that will give you something to rely on.

Finally have you thought about becoming an employee? If there is a nice Spa near you, you might consider some part-time hours. After all your costs are taken into consideration you may discover wages are not too bad an option.

 

[Mia Price]

Hi Mia and welcome

You’re in a tricky situation. My take would be to limit the number of times you have to recreate your business.

What works for you is working from home - rather than mobile, so I’d suggest you try and stay premises based. Switching from home based, to mobile, and then back to home in a new address - over a short period - sounds like setting up two different businesses in a short space of time and a bit exhausting.

It sounds like you need a new base for a year or two. Renting premises will mean putting your prices up and that means that clients may not stay, or earning less per hour and keeping your clients. Thinking through the implications of this will help you decide. If you’re going to convert your garage you’re going to have to spend money either way

Why don’t you try and rent a room somewhere where you could carry on seeing your regular clients until your set-up is ready in your new home? You have 3 options: try and find somewhere near your current home and hang on to your current business for as long as possible; try and find somewhere near your new home, find new clients and hope you can bring them with you to your home , or find somewhere roughly halfway between the two and hope your regulars will travel and that you’ll pick up some new clients that will move again with you to your new home when it’s ready.

It’s important to realise that clients that like coming to a commercial space rarely like a home based set up, so you’ll not keep many when you move home again. The same applies to working mobile - it’s not cut and dried.

I suggest you ask your clients where they travelled from, each time they see you, as well as asking for their address. I’m a visual person, so I’d plot a map with little stickers showing the annual spend of each client and where they are based. It’s important to know, for instance that the client that lives down the road from you is in fact travelling back from work to see you, because if her work is in the opposite direction to your new home yoi’ve probably got no chance of keeping her. However you might find that your new address still works for one or two clients. Know who these ladies are!

I can’t comment on your hourly rate, it depends what you want to earn and the type of clients that like what you do. I charge a lot more and that works for me. However knowing who your VIP clients are, allows you to shape your business around your “fans”. If you can hang on to one or two of your higher spending ladies, that will give you something to rely on.

Finally have you thought about becoming an employee? If there is a nice Spa near you, you might consider some part-time hours. After all your costs are taken into consideration you may discover wages are not too bad an option.

Thank you for your response.
I am still seriously considering all of my options. I am thinking more towards of either converting my garage at my new home or renting a room near my new hometown.
I am weighing up all options, as I have 2 young children to consider. My hours won't be full time hours. I like the idea of renting a room, but the flexibility won't be there. I obviously can't keep closing the salon (rented room) if something crops up and I need to work around the children. Especially the 6 weeks holiday, whereby I have limited childcare. Also, I'm contemplating if I will have more new clients by passing trade compared to being home based. I'm asking myself if it would be more difficult to build my new client base from a home salon?

 

[TheDuchess]

It’s tricky isn’t it? I know an excellent therapist who rents a room a couple of days a week and just works school hours and dates. She’s found a salon that works for her, she’s not solo and there’s a receptionist.

My daughter set up a home salon in her previous house. She had a lovely self contained room with a separate entrance in a great location. Working part-time we covered the costs so when she moved away I set up round the corner - and fell flat on my face! I wasn’t in the village “high street” and I also wasn’t visible from the street. I thought I could pick up clients from social media but I think having a physical presence is a great asset as it keeps you in people’s minds. I didn’t attract quality new clients in my new location so I gave up after a couple of years. I ended up losing money after all my set up costs were taken into account.

I’d suggest you look for a room to rent a few days a week to test the waters, rather than spending a load of money converting your garage with all the headache of planning consent and mortgage company permission.

Reduce your hours/days in the school holidays and just aim to keep things ticking over. You might be able to employ a lovely student to look after your children for a few hours during the hols. Perhaps you wouldn’t make much money, but you should be able to cover your costs and keep your regulars happy.