New business, advice please

[Shallysally]

I need to change career. I’ve been off work for a couple of months, totally burnt out. I earn a decent salary and need to sustain this level of income.

I’ve been looking into training to set up a complimentary therapy business. Already a qualified reiki practitioner and I have some regular clients.

Planning to train in forms of massage, probably head and hot stone. Plus hand reflexology.

Am I being realistic re the earning potential in this area? Obviously I’ll stay in present job whilst I’m building the business up.

I had salons for 25 years I don’t think you can make a living from holistic work unless you own the salon and rent space out and work in there yourself. It’s a great career and it can be a lovely living but holistic therapy is not your bread and butter in my experience however go for it ! Find a way to make it work

@Parsley1234, thank you. It’s something I really want to do and maybe I can find a way!

As pp said, it's very hard to make much beyond minimum wage. It depends what kind of income you are needing to replace. £20k Vs £60k are very different things. Also, don't kid yourself that being self employed is the "grass is greener" option. I've been self employed for over ten years and it is by far the hardest and most stressful job I've ever done.
If you can buy premises and rent out rooms to others you could make it work but renting a room yourself is not going to earn you much at all, especially when you've got to find enough clients to make it full time.
Where do you have your current clients from? Are you already doing reiki? If so, where are you carrying out treatments currently?

You can find a way but you need to be realistic in what is going to bring in the money to enable you to practice what you love. I had salons for years and I knew very few people making a living as holistic practitioners it was always an add on or they were not the main earner plus the beauty industry is unrecognisable over the years I qualified in. Now it’s over run with substandard salons and money laundering operations with people cutting their prices to undercut others

Don't forget you won't get any paid annual leave, sick pay, or pension contributions. And there'll be extra costs like insurance, marketing etc. on top of the premises costs. I think sometimes people see service providers like this charge £50 per session and it looks lucrative but it's rare for anyone to work 8 hours a day 5 days a week like this.

Thanks all, a lot to think about.

I have a couple of reiki clients come to the house. I’ve a cosy set up in my back room, it’s a lovely space. Just not sure if I could adapt it for other treatments but I’ll give it some thought.