Thanks for sharing
@sana1. Sadly there are people in the world who are downright horrible in every walk of life. I hope things improve for you. It may be worth talking to someone about copyrighting your website etc.
Re working with family. I employ my daughter and have done for 2 years now. Together we have grown the business beyond our expectations. It was made very clear to her from the start that this is no free ride. She has to bring in at least her wages as I can't afford to carry someone. I've seen too many programmes where parents employ their children and use their savings to pay them(!). That was not going to happen. She now has a company car and more than makes her wages!
When I started looking at growing my business - so moving out from my home salon - I did a bit of networking. Breakfast meetings where business owners/aspiring business owners would get together and often try and flog each other stuff but occasionally you'd meet people who just wanted to help. I was told by an excellent accountant not to think too big. He said there's nothing worse than people who think they are going to be more successful than they are, sitting in an empty room with no customers, so I grew small. We were small for about 18 months. Then I took a leap of faith and leased the whole of our premises rather than the half that I had. It worked well for me. The other half had been empty for about 12 months and there was little interest. I got the whole building for a really great rent.
I also started using salon geek. I read some great posts about starting out.
My advice. Don't run before you can walk. Don't get into hideous debt. Don't employ staff until you have no other option. A receptionist is a major luxury. We still manage without one. When you think of what you want, dint expect it to be perfect before you even start. Doing clients and retailing is what brings money in. Looking at a slightly imperfect salon, wishing it was perfect doesn't. Start small. If you're that good, you'll soon grow. If you start big - even if you're great - the bills could cripple you before you're even up and running. Don't expect to make any money at least in the first two years. It all goes back into the business. Depending on your business, consider going Ltd to protect your personal assets (when I signed the lease on the whole barn we had been Ltd for about 4 months. The fiat thing my husband asked was "can they touch the house?" and of course the answer is no).
As your business grows, don't see vat registration as a big baddy. If you don't go vat registered you have no incentive to grow.
Some geeks may remember a fellow geek on here who proudly told us that she did all treatments for £1 through two months of the year to keep herself under the vat threshold. She'd done this for several years. I pointed out that if she'd pushed it, she could have absorbed the effect of the vat and hugely grown her business. If she'd done that her business could be flying but instead, it's stifled, and would probably become under investigation from hmrc!
Good luck with it
Vic x