Room rental opportunity

[Enchanting Beauty]

Ever since returning to my mobile business after lockdown & struggling, I have seriously thought about getting a space of my own. I would love to have a space at home but haven’t the space or funds to do so.
After putting out a couple of ads locally, I have been approached with an opportunity to share a space in a self contained garage conversion owned by a therapist who has been in the business for 30+ years & is looking to wind down her business & retrain in other treatments. She has someone come in to do SPMU one day a week & I would have the space to myself for however many days I wish, possibly looking at 1 or 2 days.
It is still early days as she is still finishing the conversion & i’m not 100% sure if my loyal mobile clients would consider coming to me instead but I still can’t help but get a little tingle of excitement at the prospect, something I have not had since my return to work. I just hope it doesn’t end in disappointment.
What I would like to know is, as I have never been in this situation before...what do I need to ask her about? Is there anything I should be wary of or look out for? Do I need to alert my business insurance as I would still need to be mobile for some clients?
I have asked about rates & she said we can discuss either percentage or flat rate, which would be the better option? Her SPMU gives her 20% of her takings which I thought was pretty good.
Any information & help would be greatly appreciated!
X

 

[TheDuchess]

Sounds like a great opportunity. I’d suggest you go for commission - that way she’ll have an incentive to recommend you. I used to rent a room to a therapist on 20% commission and she gave me access to her online Calendar so I could book her treatments. I did warn her that she’d end up paying me a lot more than a typical room rent and offered her the option of paying £50 a day, but she was nervous about incurring costs on quiet days.

Within a few weeks I was getting a minimum of £75 a day because I’d booked her so much business.

I suggest you rent on your quietest mobile day and see if you can build room business, or maybe go for Wednesday to break the week up. Don’t worry too much about moving your mobile clients to visiting you, just try and squeeze them into the other days of the week. Instead focus on creating a point of difference, to make it worth travelling to you - that might mean having a different treatment menu in your room and definitely different prices.

The risk is that she can boot you out of the premises and deprive you of your income. It’s very common and actually it doesn’t matter what lease you sign, ultimately even if your landlord breaks the law there’s not much you can do - even if you went to Court and won, it’s pretty difficult to insist on your rights. I had a landlord break a 5 year lease and my solicitor just said, “do you trust your business with this woman?”

So the advice that I’ve been given, and would give myself, is don’t ever rely on one income stream. Always have a second string to your bow.

the rest is just common sense. Make sure you agree what is included, like bills, and don’t ever leave too much valuable property in the room. I once moved out overnight when I realised my landlord was shafting me - my husband said, “what’s the most valuable thing in this room?” He just said, “if the landlord denies you access to this room, what can you do to get your stuff back? Wise words. Hubby insisted we empty the room first and argue afterwards, I’d had a long day and whined like a child - but we emptied the room in 3 trips in a borrowed jeep (daughter’s BF). I felt a proper naughty teenager, sneaking quietly through the dark building, hoping not to trigger the security cameras.

ultimately you have to work at developing a mutually respectful and beneficial agreement. Problems I can anticipate is your landlady deciding to sell up and move.

Renting a room off someone is only ever part of your business journey. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s your forever home. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Enchanting Beauty]

Sounds like a great opportunity. I’d suggest you go for commission - that way she’ll have an incentive to recommend you. I used to rent a room to a therapist on 20% commission and she gave me access to her online Calendar so I could book her treatments. I did warn her that she’d end up paying me a lot more than a typical room rent and offered her the option of paying £50 a day, but she was nervous about incurring costs on quiet days.

Within a few weeks I was getting a minimum of £75 a day because I’d booked her so much business.

I suggest you rent on your quietest mobile day and see if you can build room business, or maybe go for Wednesday to break the week up. Don’t worry too much about moving your mobile clients to visiting you, just try and squeeze them into the other days of the week. Instead focus on creating a point of difference, to make it worth travelling to you - that might mean having a different treatment menu in your room and definitely different prices.

The risk is that she can boot you out of the premises and deprive you of your income. It’s very common and actually it doesn’t matter what lease you sign, ultimately even if your landlord breaks the law there’s not much you can do - even if you went to Court and won, it’s pretty difficult to insist on your rights. I had a landlord break a 5 year lease and my solicitor just said, “do you trust your business with this woman?”

So the advice that I’ve been given, and would give myself, is don’t ever rely on one income stream. Always have a second string to your bow.

the rest is just common sense. Make sure you agree what is included, like bills, and don’t ever leave too much valuable property in the room. I once moved out overnight when I realised my landlord was shafting me - my husband said, “what’s the most valuable thing in this room?” He just said, “if the landlord denies you access to this room, what can you do to get your stuff back? Wise words. Hubby insisted we empty the room first and argue afterwards, I’d had a long day and whined like a child - but we emptied the room in 3 trips in a borrowed jeep (daughter’s BF). I felt a proper naughty teenager, sneaking quietly through the dark building, hoping not to trigger the security cameras.

ultimately you have to work at developing a mutually respectful and beneficial agreement. Problems I can anticipate is your landlady deciding to sell up and move.

Renting a room off someone is only ever part of your business journey. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s your forever home. Good luck and keep us posted.

Thankyou for your advice. Unfortunately I would have to rely on most of my mobile clients coming to me I think because I have so many I can’t imagine how I could do both without eating into my only day off as i’m usually out all day everyday. Plus in the current situation I can only do so many mobile in a day.
Fortunately she only moved there in October so can’t see her moving anytime soon & she has said there is going to be an electric couch in the room so I don’t need to bring my own, & with having to do mobile as well will need to take most stock away each day so can’t vision much of my own possessions being there.
I understand that it might not be forever & I know that I can always go back to mobile full time if it ever goes wrong.
It’s definitely something to mull over & I do have time to think as the room isn’t finished yet.

 

[Trinity]

I can't immediately explain why but for some reason it feels like a no to me. Maybe it's because you'll be sharing the space rather than your own space within hers. What if her cleaning standards are not equal or better than yours? You could find yourself spending time cleaning before your first client arrives.

Why is she winding down if she has a purpose built space? I could see 30+ years of massage for instance would take a massive toll on your body so a change of direction is perfectly understandable, but are her new skills going to overlap yours and potentially cause issues. If she's moving out of the beauty business completely is the conversion likely to ge required for her new venture p? Repurpose into an office for instance, then you're out. Similarly if you only want the space 1vor 2 days what will happen to the other days? Is there potentially another therapist in the mix too?

 

[Enchanting Beauty]

I can't immediately explain why but for some reason it feels like a no to me. Maybe it's because you'll be sharing the space rather than your own space within hers. What if her cleaning standards are not equal or better than yours? You could find yourself spending time cleaning before your first client arrives.

Why is she winding down if she has a purpose built space? I could see 30+ years of massage for instance would take a massive toll on your body so a change of direction is perfectly understandable, but are her new skills going to overlap yours and potentially cause issues. If she's moving out of the beauty business completely is the conversion likely to ge required for her new venture p? Repurpose into an office for instance, then you're out. Similarly if you only want the space 1vor 2 days what will happen to the other days? Is there potentially another therapist in the mix too?

This is something I was thinking to. Things she has told me is she has had an injury to her neck & struggles to move most days she is retraining in laser tattoo removal & IPL, treatments that don’t take a massive amount of time. As far as I know it will be the SPMU, myself & owner working separate days.
I have also thought about the cleaning side of things, she has said it will be a hygienic space & is OCD but one persons clean is different to anothers. I was ideally looking for a space that is completely mine but there are very few in my area, the closest is 30-45 minutes away.

 

[Trinity]

This is something I was thinking to. Things she has told me is she has had an injury to her neck & struggles to move most days she is retraining in laser tattoo removal & IPL, treatments that don’t take a massive amount of time. As far as I know it will be the SPMU, myself & owner working separate days.
I have also thought about the cleaning side of things, she has said it will be a hygienic space & is OCD but one persons clean is different to anothers. I was ideally looking for a space that is completely mine but there are very few in my area, the closest is 30-45 minutes away.

I'm a fairly black and white simple girl and if your first instinct is not excitement and confidence then listen to your gut/voice in your head/whatever you call it. If there are any doubts before you start I tend to believe they are not going to get better.

 

[Enchanting Beauty]

I'm a fairly black and white simple girl and if your first instinct is not excitement and confidence then listen to your gut/voice in your head/whatever you call it. If there are any doubts before you start I tend to believe they are not going to get better.

I believe that too...although the excitement flutterings are still there.
Feel like i’m between a rock & hard place at the minute, want to carry on in this business but hate being mobile.
Thankyou for your thoughts as always though.

 

[Holly1991]

If you can do it on a % base then what is there to lose? Even if you stay mobile a day or two aswell if you don’t get on you can go back to mobile full time it can be scary to think your landlord can just get you out but if everybody thought that nobody would rent space / rooms

 

[Trinity]

I believe that too...although the excitement flutterings are still there.
Feel like i’m between a rock & hard place at the minute, want to carry on in this business but hate being mobile.
Thankyou for your thoughts as always though.

How about a 6 month trial period, that'll get you both through the current virus situation, iron out any start up issues and give you both a get out clause

 

[Enchanting Beauty]

Definitely things to think about, thankyou.