Working is the business of being employed. Self-employed is working to stay in business. I am starting my own business as a beautician (a beauty salon to be exact) and the path to get there has been a long one. It is one thing to work for a company it is another thing entirely to start your own. Now that I am committed to starting my own beauty salon is has created a little bit of stir in my life. But it is always nice to shake some things up now and then.
Here are just a couple of the arguments that I had to listen to when I dropped the news on my friends.
- “Why would you want to do that at your age?”
- “You have a good job.”
- “Isn’t that a big risk?”
I say that you are never too old to try something new, nor will you ever know if it was the right thing if you never make the attempt to try. That being said the thing with quitting a good paying job to start your own business is that it gives you a little bit of a buffer, I have a nest egg and I have what I have set aside for the project of becoming independent. When you look at the current economy I feel that the timing might be a little off. Sure I could wait until things get better, but then I might be waiting a long time. That has the benefits of making my nest egg bigger and my resources to start my own salon would also be larger. However, on the other hand it just might mean I have to wait longer to achieve my goals and that I might actually never try. That would be the most disappointing outcome. That is why I am going forward with my plan.
Why I Am Starting My Own Business
When I say that the road has been long I mean it. I actually was at this point several years ago and then COVID came out and we all know how that went. Well, had I actually branched out then and started a beauty salon, well, I think that it would have been short lived and I would have had to close my shop by now. Thankfully I am able to wait, patience isn’t one of my strong suites but it not my worst either. SO I waited. And waited and waited and just when I thought that things were turning to the better we have the situation that we have right now. Inflation is through the roof and people have to make compromises on what they think makes sense.
There are many things to focus on with any business endeavor: local laws and ordinances, along with taxes on one hand and then the personal side like location and how you will be presenting yourself to prospective clients.
There is more to it than that of course. Any one can sit down with the latter half and
play with ideas. There is more to it than that. Sure I have made thoughts about those aspects. I have even
went as far as picking out the right look, a sweet set of business cards and related designs that give the impression I want to have for my beauty salon. That part is fun, but it doesn’t contribute that much when you start a company. Many of my friends thank that that is the
whole thing – that is why I say that too many business fail within a short time. A lot of them are
gone within five years.
Reasons It Works for Me
Is this the right time? As I said earlier, I am not sure if it is or not. When I compare it to other times in my life, right now I am on solid footing, financially stable, a good stable job, and there are support structures in my life that I didn’t once have. That all speaks well for the task at hand. Going forward with my company there will be some major shake ups. Starting a business is always shaky, many fail within their first year, and the a beauty salon is for many now a luxury that they cannot afford. Still, there are some that can and that is the customer base that I want to focus on.
There are several aspects that give me an advantage. They also give opportunity to stop and reflect on the options and the risks that they bring with it.
One advantage is that two of our local beauty salons have gone out of business within the last couple of years.
Here are some reasons that that happened.
- The carona years
- Inconvenient locations
- Price increases and
One of the locations, a good one, was actually planning to sell several years ago. The location is good, had a good reputation, and was well know. There was also a lot of word of mouth advertising for the salon. At one point I was in talks with the owner to buy the parlor from her. She was going into retirement and wanted to have some extra money when she and her husband moved to North Carolina. This was a week before carona got started. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I didn’t buy it from here then. This entry today would look a lot different if I had. Her daughter actually took it over and it went down hill from there. First there was the imposed shutdown. That last some time and when she got to open again there weren’t a lot of takers. She closed down officially three months ago and the boutique has been empty since then.
Which is one of the reasons that I want to actually move forward. As I said the location is good. The current owner is willing to let me have the furnishings for a good price and that saves me from investing the
“time to get things setup”. Which she claims was a really drain on her time. Funny, since she just took over the parlor from her mother and really hadn’t made any attempts to change things up. Not that I blame her since the furnishings were nice and I had also agreed that, were I to buy her company that she would include them in the sale.
As it stands it would just be the same as when I originally showed interest but at a better price. Not that the previous owner’s daughter knows that.
New Frontiers
The thought of going forward with my plan is rather exciting, starting my own business has always been a big dream of mine. It would allow me to give up my well paid dead end job that leaves me drained when I come home.
I would get new avenues and options that I don’t currently have and there has always been a draw to working in the beauty industry. Ever since I was a thirteen and learned that “you need to tweeze your eyebrows.” God, that was embarrassing. Tweeze yes, decimate no. It took three years for my eyebrows to grow back to normal. But it gave me the motivation I needed to actually fix the mess that I had made. None of the girl’s in my class had the skill set I had, and I even started the smokey eye fad in my school with lash extensions and the works. I can only assume what the teachers thought of me during that phase.
Will I be moving forward? I know that it is the right thing for me, that I would have the skills to make it work, and that it would be a fun profession to enter, all of these are truths in my eyes. Yet, it is always scary moving into a strange new frontier.
Wish me luck!