Looking for some advice for a friend who has started her own business

[bananaistheanswer]

Hi,

I'm looking for any suggestions/help that might be useful for a friend of mine. She's recently started up her own business but is really struggling to get clients, or at least repeat business, and I've been trying to think of ways to help her. Background is she was a carer to her elderly mum for about 5 years, but used that time to also get qualified and set up for her own business for when she would no longer be required to care for her mum. She is working from home, and does lots of therapies i.e. reiki, hot stone therapy, indian head massage etc. etc. Her pricing is quite low, much lower than in a salon, but she's just been told by her benefits advisor that she isn't earning enough to justify continuing to receive financial help while she tries to establish her business. She's gutted, and now worried she'll be forced into all the various work schemes that are being bandied about in the media, when all she wants to do is get her business working.

She's tried advertising on gumtree and has her own facebook page for her business. She can't stretch to a website at present as she doesn't have the money for that yet. She seems very limited in where she can leave business cards/leaflets as she's tried the local library/health centres i.e. places where people who might be interested would possibly be looking for these types of therapies. She's also struggled with inappropriate requests through social media i.e. she's had a lot of men asking for 'extras' etc. which she's disgusted with, and freaked out by as she works from home and feels a bit vulnerable as well.

I've never worked for myself, and am not too familiar with what else she can do/try or where she can go to try and drum up business/clients.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions that she hasn't tried/thought of?

Could she try to find pamper evenings and local events where she couold offer treatments? Why not give out a business card to all the mums at the school gate? Many local shops have noticeboards where you can put up adverts or business cards at little or no cost. Even print off some flyers and deliver them locally...up to 3 or 4 streets away from where she practices? The trouble is with gumtree, those ads move down the list quickly and you do sometimes get wierd answers. Stallfinder.com has local events listed and you can register on there too. Advertise in local parish magazines etc ..ours is only £5 a time

Thanks, will make those suggestions to her. I think she's tried the leaflets through doors already, but not sure about the school gates. I'm sure she's even had bother with the local shop refusing to take her leaflet. A lot of the obvious stuff that I thought would work, she's either tried or she hasn't been able to get the information displayed for various reasons/excuses from the places she's asked. The library was an obvious one, but they refused to let her.

Thanks again.

If she is looking to do a website but funds are tight, there are quite a few sites where you can build one yourself for free.

In the past I've used webs.com and yola.com - with the yola there is also the opportunity to get your own free domain name, something to do with the British Business Federation, or something. Several friends of mine have also used moonfruit, which they have said is quite user-friendly.

It can be a bit fiddly to start with until you get used to the set-up but if you can put in a few hours you can get a website at no cost, which is good. HTH x

She should look for women's networking groups/clubs/meetings/events in her area and go to as many of those as possible. She will make contacts, might meet potential clients and will get ideas on how to effectively promote her business.

Thanks for the replies, I'll let her know all the suggestions and hopefull we'll get things moving for her. Really appreciate the info. Thanks.

Can I just ask another question? I've been trying to give my friend some ideas, one of them being to contact local groups to offer a taster session in the hope she'll get some bookings. She says her benefits advisor wouldn't allow her to do that i.e. a free demo session as 'taster sessions are popular and the public expect to pay'. I'm puzzled at the logic of this as it's effectively promotion (which costs money) but might generate business (which would be the whole point). Is this genuinely how this kind of thing is viewed?

She should write to her local hospice, she would have to go there to see clients as they are usually too ill to go to her but complimentary therapies are used by them.

She could rent a room in a salon where they do more waxing and facials, not all of them do comp therapies.

She could also go to vista.com to buy a decal to put on her car, they dont cost too much.

What's it got to do with her benefits adviser?

She's still on full benefit i.e. ESA or JSA, housing benefit etc. while trying to establish her business. She isn't allowed to touch the money she is earning while still receiving full benefits, and her adviser basically says yay or nay to her suggestions on how to grow her business. She has to ask permission to buy equipment from the money she's earned and her advisor can say no. She was considering getting another set of hot stones/heater so she can do 2 people one after the other (if 2 people want the same thing) and can't just go ahead and do that without the say so of her advisor. I didn't realise that her starting her own business would be so restricting, and I'm finding it frustrating for her as I think being able to offer free taster sessions as opposed to charging is more likely to get people interested. But, I don't run my own business so I don't know if my instincts on this are way off the mark or not.

If she doesn't start getting more clients by the end of april, then she'll have to wind up her business and start applying for jobs.

She doesn't drive, hasn't got a car and has been on benefits while caring for her mother for the past 5 years. She has no assets, very little savings and so is pretty restricted in what she can do i.e. get out there. She works from home, and it's getting people to go there that she's struggling with. She is fantastic at what she does, and that's why I really feel for her, as it would be such a shame for her to have to give it all up because she has to devote her time to getting a paid job, with no time to do what she really wants to do.

I'll see if I can get her to come on here and get some advice as she's obviously got more of an idea as to what her advisor will go for and what she can't do.

Thanks again for the replies.

Can she go to customer's homes instead? - oh just seen that's a no

Offer pamper parties

Put cards up in supermarkets / PO

A friend of mine rented a room at the local chemists and offered sessions there - very cheap way to get started

TBH I wouldn't tell my advisor if I was offering taster sessions

Echo what someone else has said about building web site for free

she needs to speak to a business advisor not a benefits advisor!!
Has she got a business plan ie - how much she's going to charge, how many clients a day she'd need to get EVERY week of EVERY month of EVERY year to make more than her benefits?

Hi, she does have a plan. She had to put one forward to her benefits advisor so they could see what she was proposing, and what money she needed to earn. She basically needs 15 clients per week to cover all her bills, and have some money left over for other expenses i.e. birthdays/xmas, and one small holiday a year. She's now revised that to a lower amount, to just cover her bills, but she won't have any disposable income at all, which I think she feels will make her life very difficult. She's pretty much put her own life on hold for the past 5 years looking after her mum, and she wants her life back.

I think my issue with this all is that her benefits advisor IMO isn't best placed to give her the right advice, but unfortunately her position in having to rely on benefits while starting her business means that they place certain restrictions on her that I feel is preventing her from doing what she needs to get the business established. It's really unfortunate but she's not got any money behind her, so she can't just cut loose and take a chance on it from what I understand.

Thanks for all the input. I will see if I can get her to come on here and post herself as she's better placed to ask the right questions.