Isn't £190/week a little steep for rent?

[Seraphine]

I wasn't planning on making this jump quite so soon (not until September, when my son is in nursery), but I saw an ad in the local paper for a beauty room in the next largest city near me.

It's a room in a salon in a good area (I haven't seen it yet, but I know the area a bit), with 4 hairdressers, a botox specialist, and a few other people. No other nail technicians (I do nails, waxing and tanning). I called about the rent today and was told it's £190 a week, including heat, lights and electricity, and use of the receptionist.

While I have some of my own clients from my mobile business, I don't know how many would follow me. I'm quite happy to hustle to make some new ones in this area, but I have to admit I winced at the price. I'm going to go see it tomorrow, but it just made me out a bit.

Is this really out of line, or am I just totally naive? I was expecting about half that, or maybe a bit more!

Any advice? Do you think it would wildly cheeky of me to ask to negotiate a reduced rate, or to see if they are flexible about rent until a clientele in that area is established? (plus, I was hoping only to work afternoons for the first year - does anyone know if someone would ever consider sharing a room?)

I'm new - please be gentle!
Dawn

 

[Carole.B]

if i was close by i would consider it. i would deff negotiate a lower rate it does seem a little steep and i'm sure if you ask around you could get another nail tech to share, first find out what it's like and go from there, it is quiet a commitment xx

 

[xAnnaBannAx]

i have no ideas about pricing for rentals etc but i would say you should go look at it...and defo haggle the price if you think its too much...or if they wont lower it...maybe they would consider lowering it for a period of time while you get established, or perhaps you can get them to include other things in the price...such as advertising.
remember you have to do whats in your best interests at the end of the day..do lots of research before you go and look at the place..so your armed with all the questions and knowledge etc that you need.
perhaps you could advertise to see if anyone would be interested in going in on something like that with you..sounds like a good idea.

 

[izzidoll]

Hi,

I don't think this rent is excessive (sorry) if it is a busy City Centre Salon.
The fact that you will have no other overheads and use of the receptionist sounds pretty good.
That said....everyone needs to start out, and no doubt you will need time to market yourself and get established.
Therefore I think it would only be fair to have a reduced rent for the first month, even up to 50%, and use this as a trial period as well to see how everything goes, and how well it works for everyone, yourself and the salon.

I don't know how much the going rate is in your area, but even at £35 for a full set of enhancements and say £25 for maintenance, and if you were working 5 days a week then you would just need a set of nails a day to make your rent, and the rest would be yours! Add to that retail sales, and I think this could be a good opportunity for you.

Good luck!!

 

[Seraphine]

Thanks for the straight talk, everyone!

The shop does sound high end so I'm sure the rent is justafied - I guess I've just read so many things on this board about rents of £20-30 a day that I got my eyes opened a bit.

I'm off to see the shop tomorrow and meet them, and perhaps something can be negotiated. I already have all my own equipment, so perhaps I could even work on a p/t basis for now.

The room is available now, but I wasn't planning on getting one until September (my family is visiting for the month of August, plus my son starts his nursery class then). so I'll find out tomorrow what sort of competition there is for the room. I just feel a little scared about it!

I'll keep you posted!

The other idea I had was visiting my local Curves gym and seeing if they had a space to rent - I've seen nail and beauty rooms in other gyms and they always seem busy.

Why is this so terrifying??
Dawn