Thinking of moving to Devon and setting up a beauty salon - anyone know about this kind of thing ?

[scatterbrain]

Well -title says it all really !!

I am utterly stressed out - work full-time with a 1 hour commute each way - dd is 6 yrs old - and to be honest I seem to be doing everything badly ! I don't feel I do a very good job at work - I am not a very nice mummy - my house is a mess - and I am FED UP in capitals !!

DH has family in Devon and we really like it there - I've found a beautiful house in a small town with business premises on the ground floor - and we are seriously wondering about going for it and me swapping my dull civil service job for running a beauty salon/alternative health type of establishment.

I am not qualified in any of this - but have been an interested user for many years. I have an MBA and so the business side would not daunt me - and I assume I could employ therapists while I got rained myself !!

Does anyone know about this kind of business ?

Any advice would be most gratefully received - I really do fancy a change of life !

OK - so what about a great TOY SHOP ! Would also be online shop - as wouldn't expect a lot of passing trade there - but would hope to gain reputation and gain local customers etc...

Now - does anyone know about trhe mark-up on toys ?

now that is a good idea - no decent toy shop in plymouth only ToysRUS. I'd be willing to travle somewhere that stocked a decent range of playmobile, trains, wooden stuff etc!

iPod- if you ever go into Exeter, there is a lovely toy shop in the Harlequin Centre, called Rainbow toys. They do absolutely yummy toys.

One of our businesses involves toys and we look for a minimum mark-up of 60%. You have to decide whether to go 'niche' or volume really to get the best out of the business.

If I lived in a gorgeous property, wanted an extra income but not full-time, hardcore commitment the I would suggest:

1. Holiday teashop. Huge mark-up on food, minimal red-tape once food hygiene sorted.

1. B&B or weekly let especially if you are able to section off the letting rooms. Classic photos on a website with niche or boutique in the title will get you lots of looks. People will really pay for a pukka holiday.

Best bit about self employment : Being the boss.

Worst bit : Being the boss.

Post a thread when you move, I'll give you the inside track on all the schools, I've taught supply at most of them now.

whoopee as well ipod- they do some good stuff.

you won't get a 60% mark up selling playmobil, lego, brio or any mainstream toys though

will ttreck to Exeter then! However, we really dont need anymore toys til DS is atleast 16 now!

What about one of those paint your own pottery cafes with toys/books for sale too. You could offer nice snacks and drinks and do kids parties. We're looking at leasing at the moment (clothing) and it's very scary but exciting too. I would go for it if I were you, just keep thinking about what type of business would keep you interested and make a bit of cash too. Good luck

I like the pottery cafe idea Fred - Thanks !

I was trying to think of something child friendly but with adult appeal - we often go to one near here and love it ! I'm not particularly arty - but then I don't suppose you need to be really !

Will be googling that in amoment !

Thank you !!

Toys also very interesting - could probably do both - toys focussing on online shop - but with small stock on display - I'm thinking slightly educational toys - wooden toys, Sylvanians, PlayMobil, Lego - classic stuff rtaher than fashion iykwim. What I call NICE toys !

Scatterbrain lol you are an interested user!

Me too and I have looked into it myself.

It will cost thousands to train ,maybe you can get away with £4 or £5K but the less you train in then the fewer treatments you can offer. And training never stops because new treatments come out all the time.

It will cost mega money to equip your salon if you are doing it from scratch. Something like £50K.

Most good name products wont take you on unless you can commit to thousands in stock.

You will have to become an employer ,quite probably of daft teenagers. Which could be high stress. Actually clients can be high stress too. Not turning up,being late,having unrealistic expectations,hygeine issues etc.

You will definitely have to work horrendous hours. You will get loads of your business after 5pm ,people want treatments after work and before going out. You'll always have to be open at the weekend.

I couldnt make the maths add up in a salon environment. I personally didnt fancy being mobile but that can be a good choice. Or possibly you could buy a house with enough space for a home salon, but you need to be super fussy about location.

One point though , to disagree entirely with xenia, poor people in deprived areas do not necessarily cut back on beauty. Quite the reverse in most of the north I can assure you.

This is a lovely idea if you have lots of disposable income and can afford NOT to make money - i.e. a great thing to do as a hobby because you love it

But if you need to earn 35k a year then you need to stick to the office job

You should think about what it is you really want to do and then do some market research to see how pheasible it would be in the area you are looking to move to. You should also put some serious thought into what having your own business actually involves, especially a business such as a shop, where you are the boss, at least for the first year when you won?t be able to afford to employ anyone. You need to consider things such as:

No holiday, you can?t just shut a shop because you fancy a day off, your customers won?t like that and it will lose you custom. So until you can afford to employ a reliable manager you will be doing the day-to-day running of the business yourself and that will mean no time off for the foreseeable future.

Having to work from early in the morning until late at night. As the owner of the shop, you will be running the shop, serving the customers during the day, so you will have to do the stocking of the shop, the general accounts, the ordering, the stock-taking, during the hours when the shop is closed, so that will actually mean working far longer hours than you are currently working as a civil servant.

Online businesses aren?t all they?re cracked up to be ? very, very few of them make profit of any sort ? in fact the only ones that do are the likes of amazon and tesco that can afford massive stock and massive server space to ensure that their sites run smoothly and quickly.

I wouldn?t even consider any kind of business that involves food preparation. Unless you are buying all your food in from outside sources and not preparing food on the premises, the health and safety regulations are horrendous, plus it?s worth bearing in mind that at least 50% of all restaurants go bust within the first two years, not exactly great odds for a potentially successful business.

Well - that's the problem really - I don't know what I actually do want to do ! I do know that I don't want to be in the rat race anymore - 8 hour days plus 2 hours driving and a 6 year old is not sustainable and it's driving me into the ground !

I have been self-employed before, in sales and in consultancy, and it has worked well. But for some stupid reason I thought I wanted to go back to a high-stress high-profile role !! Something about status I think - but then I did have PND for several years and craved people to recognise me as something other than a mummy !

Anyway - Lorina I think you're right - training myself and kitting out a salon would be pricey - and the hours would not fit with dd - so unless I could refurbish the premises and rent them out to qualified beauticians I think I won't be going down that route !

The pottery cafe sounds good !

Any new shop/cafe type business is going to require cash to revamp and stock anyway. You might be better off looking at it from the angle of what would suit the property. What did the ground floor used to be? Could you run a shop type business with the layout as it is? Try to keep your start-up costs right down.

If you want to investigate toys, phone Otterdene in Cullumpton and go and have a gander at their warehouse. That will give you a fab idea of what is available to 'little shops'. If you want to go down the bespoke route, you simply will need to be in a busier place as the margin will be tiny. There are also loads of trade shows in Torquay with fab deals in Jan/Feb. Well worth a look.

To be utterly, utterly honest, 8 hour days with a commute sound like a doddle in comparison to self employment. I'm just glad that my dh is completely dynamic and really moves our businesses forward. I stick to renovating houses and supply teaching, much, much, much easier.

Another idea would be to lease out your ground floor to some other poor bugger to run a shop in. There. Problem solved.

Thanks for that Crackle - really useful.

Have been looking at the house details again and it looks almost ideal for a pottery cafe. Has no downstairs loo - but that could be done very easily. Has the big shop front which I would make the studio cafe - and also two huge "workrooms" and an office - so plenty of space for a "party room" and a kiln/storage room. Needs a lick of paint and some cheap shelf units, and obviously tables and chairs - but I'm thinking IKEA's cheapest pine sets here. There is a bakery in the town/village - so I could buy in my cakes/pastries and would then just need a coffee machine/kettle !

Have also been looking at a few websites - and I think it could really be a go-er !

Most of these types of places seem to open at 10am if not 11am - and do one late evening for adult groups, Saturdays would be required as main party day - but I would aim on having an assistant anyway so could share the Saturday duties. School hols might be an issue - although I guess dd could mainly just hang around painting things - she does love craft - but not sure how long the novelty would last !!

Oh I am so excited now !

Just need to sell this house, buy that house, set up a business, change dd's school and sort my work out !! Think a career break might be in order rather than resigning - just in case - or even better - some "working at home consultancy !"

I need to start doing something solid - business plan coming up !

Sorry - cross-posted with you there Crackle - and my first line looks like I was being sarcastic - I wasn't !!!

Yes - renting out the ground floor could be an option - maybe if we go ahead it will be plan B - we could quite easily convert to self contained flat also - the house itself is big so we wouldn't need extra room really !

I wish dh was here - I need to bombard him with the plan !

Am going to start a new thread now - in case anyone who knows about pottery cafes is around but not loking at this as it says "Beauty Salon".