Success stories... Tell yours...

[angelina221]

Ok well i got into the industry by chance and i've been extremely fortunate!
I spent 20 years working for a multi million pound company (having 7 years off to have a family!).
I was a deputy manager and it was boooooooring but it's one of those situations where you just get stuck in a rut!
Then i got made redundant. Best thing that ever happened to me.
I wasn't looking for a job as i was in the very fortunate position that my wages never contributed towards the household.
I wondered what i was going to do so packed myself off to Greece for a holiday to think-can't think in the rain-lol. I decided i wanted to do something completely different but no idea what!
When i got home i was looking at houses for sale online when i came across a salon for sale.
The rent and rates were cheap so i went and had a look and on a whim i put an offer in! The offer was accepted and it was then that i wondered what the hell i had done!
I spent 6 months doing the place out and i worked bloody hard getting it all done it. I did a home beauty course which gave me an insight into the business. I went to the library and got loads of books about tax etc....
I got staff in and then realised that people weren't like me, they were unreliable!
So i decided to do some training myself. Have done a few courses now and have brilliant staff and my business is going from strength to strength.
I know i have been very lucky but i have worked hard, put the hours in, got myself the best training(and some awful training-lol), and i had the belief that i could do it.
I worked all my figures out, had enough money to see me through the first year and had a determination like you wouldn't believe!
Everyone thought i was nuts but i have proved them wrong and they are now very proud of me.
I was used to being a manager so that helped a lot.
I realise i haven't spent years in the industry before opening a salon, but i'm stubborn and if someone tells me i can't do something then i WILL do it!
They don't think i'm nuts now-lol

 

[FEEBYBOOFAY]

What a great thread! It's very inspiring, more stories please.

 

[Ruth Mills]

My story's still being written at the moment... for most of the last 5 years or so, I've been doing IT contract work, which involves software development work on a consultancy basis on a client's site. For most of the last 5 years, I've been lucky enough to find contract work in Telford, which is around 14 or 15 miles away from where I live in Shrewsbury.

However, my wife has a spinal condition called Sacral Agenesis (along with associated complications) and has had to use a wheelchair for several years, and her condition has got progressively worse over the last few years (although she did thankfully have a series of operations in hospital in Wakefield last year, which have helped a lot with removing one of the major causes of the pain she has been suffering) - so taking a contract a long way from home isn't really an option, as I wouldn't be around to provide her with the care she needs (OK she has a carer who comes in a few times a week for a couple of hours at a time, but she really needs more care than what her carer can provide).

So for the last 3 months or so, I've been working from home, trying to get an IT-related business off the ground - which has seen me working predominantly from home on my laptop for most of the time, although I have also made a few visits to clients recently. So at the moment, I'm working most of the hours that God sends, but am definitely enjoying it!

Another bonus of working from home is that it allows me to be Ruth - as I am transgendered and previously had to work in an office in "boy" mode, which wasn't so nice at all.

 

[tigi]

I am not a success story yet (its early days) but I am getting there. Married, four kids and also two insane rescue cats that dont like me I am the sort of person who has done lots of jobs but never found anything that has made my heart happy.

I was made redundant after years in marketing. I had always wanted to be a beauty therapist was told I was not pretty enough when i applied at college many years before and it devastated my confidence. I did other things for years and settled into marketing.

So, after being made redundant I decided to go back and do what I really believed I was made for.

I got a grant and trained in nails and beauty. I spent my savings on more training and kit and headed out into the big wide world of mobile!

After a few months of doing this (with my friend and now business partner ) we decided to open our own little salon. Now at this point the world and his wife thought we were bonkers.........(probably right)

we opened our little salon (2 Dumb Blondes) on april 2 2009 and the rest is history. Its going well, we have had our ups and downs but things are looking up as we are looking into our second shop and other things (that i cant tell you about yet, or ill have to kill you).

So life is long hours, never ending work and its crazy and sometimes very sweet or very sour but I wouldnt change it for the world!

I am a very ambitious person, I am now embarking on further projects and hope to make a huge success of all the irons in the fire I have right now.


its a work in progress and I know we have a long road to go.

tigi

 

[Bejewelled]

I've found this thread very inspirational! I don't have a success story to tell yet but who knows what the future holds

 

[Glam Nails]

Why so quiet everyone? Keep the stories rolling in

XXX

 

[jo1983]

I had always wanted to be a beauty therapist was told I was not pretty enough when i applied at college many years before and it devastated my confidence. I did other things for years and settled into marketing.

tigi

I am soooooo shocked that they told you that!!!! It must of really hurt your feelings and god knows what it would of done to your confidence!
But look at you now!!!!!!! I hope that you get everything you want, it certainly sounds like you are working very hard xxx:lol:

 

[debbie pink]

i own my own spa ,7 treatment rooms 8 hair and beauty staff it takes a long time to build up a succesfull hair and beauty spa!! i started 24 years ago worked in salons for 2 years got lots of experience then went for it on my own LOL there have been highes and lows and it has been bxx11y hard work dont believe it is an easy ride but the rewards are fantastic not just the money when things are great but helping people making them feel fab ,laughing and crying with your clients because they become close friends , although the last year has been very tough, boy have i learnt alot from the reccession my costing ,stock,marketing skills are second to none LOL we are really flying now things are really picking up thanks to my brilliant team, so roll on the good times, i love this career and the good times far out weigh the bad its tough but worth it