Beauty Booty Limited is Jane Houghton's entrepreneurial venture, which encompasses two distinct businesses: Bellas and Fellas, a beauty, nails and tanning salon, and the Beauty Skills Academy which teaches students beauty and holistic therapies, in partnership with Seevic College, Essex. Both share the same premises and the training in the dedicated 1st floor academy is made more realistic by students completing their salon reception units in the professional ground floor salon reception area. This allows students to gain work experience in a real salon environment.
Just weeks into launch, Jane has already secured repeat salon customers, started training young people and adults in beauty therapy and is anticipating a busy first Christmas for the salon.
Drivers of entrepreneurship
After 13 years of working in the public sector delivering beauty therapy training, Jane Houghton launched her startup in October 2012. She cites the key drivers of making the move as a gap in the market to provide beauty training to students - and a growing frustration with the time it took to get things done in the public sector.
"While I was working, I became aware that the public sector had increasing freedom to make savings by utilising specialist, private providers to teach beauty to students," Jane explains. "I'm really keen to do a good job and I was becoming increasingly frustrated that it wasn't always possible in the time frame because of the red tape. I felt that I could do it more efficiently and cost-effectively privately, and that's why I decided to make a go of it by myself."
At the Beauty Skills Academy, one of Jane's key priorities is on helping young people get into work – and mentoring them to develop the skills they need to work in the beauty industry – or elsewhere. Alongside an NVQ Level 2, an employment-ready qualification, the Academy offers a certificate in employability which shows future employers that they have the skills to be employed – regardless of whether or not they stay in the beauty industry.
An innovative approach to market research
Prior to starting up, Jane took time in conducting her market research. "For the Beauty Skills Academy side of the business, I did some research into private providers of public services such as cleaning and care, and spoke to awarding organisations. I knew that the public sector was more open to this approach, and realised that I could provide beauty teaching in the same way," she explains.
"And with regards to the salon, I deliberately didn't visit any other salons, because I wanted Bellas and Fellas to be an entirely unique and individual concept. I didn't want to have it muddled in my mind that anything I did needed to have little bits of other people's businesses. We did check out prices, opening times, and the products and services that were on offer. Based on these, we decided to pitch ourselves with high-end, well known products, while making our price list competitive and very transparent to make it easy for customers to understand."
The power of the business plan
One of the most important aspects for any startup is the business plan, and in Jane's experience, this was a work in progress for around eight or nine months. "The business plan really gave me an opportunity to put onto paper all the ideas that I'd had, and this ran hand-in-hand with our market research. I had ideas on what to add to the plan morning, noon and night, with scraps of paper everywhere and notes on my phone, so it ended up being very comprehensive. Once you've started writing it - even though you'll block out time in your diary to do it - it's a 24/7 process!"
Jane attributes the solidity of her business plan to securing finance. "I would say that the business plan was absolutely vital. Knowing that I had a brilliant plan in place gave me the confidence to go and have meetings with people, because I was actually able to talk to them knowledgably about how the business would operate."
Setting up
When it came to finding the right location for her business, Jane knew what she was looking for, but actually making it fit for purpose was not without its challenges. "We managed to find premises that suited our needs because we knew who our salon customers would be from our market research. It's really important to put yourself in your customers' shoes. Ask yourself: 'is this somewhere I would like to go and buy a product or experience a service?' Parking is also important for a business like ours, and customers often comment on how great it is," she says.
"However, where it became more difficult and frustrating was that we needed to apply for a whole new set of planning permissions, because beauty doesn't naturally fit in to any of the given planning consents. We persevered with this because the location was ideal."
Finding customers
In Jane's experience, finding customers for the salon has been as much about an accessible business location as it has about a few simple marketing efforts. "The customers that we have in the salon at the moment are finding us by simply driving past. Otherwise, they will have received a leaflet or a price list and we've also had an article in the local newspaper. So far, we're having three or four new salon customers a day," she states.
"Business has been good and we're already seeing customers returning and I expect a very busy Christmas period - from the end of November and right throughout December."
As well as customers for the salon, the academy side of the company quickly attracted business through a partnership with Seevic College, a large further education establishment in nearby Benfleet. "They don't offer a beauty therapy provision," explains Jane, "and so I take their 16 to 19 year-old learners and train them in NVQ Level 2 and Level 3 beauty therapy. The students remain Seevic students with the benefits of students' advisers and access to functional skills whilst the qualification is accredited by the VTCT, the largest awarding organisation for vocational courses in the UK."
Maintaining momentum
But how does Jane plan to sustain the momentum for Beauty Booty? "Our Bellas and Fellas website is in development and should be launched soon. I'm confident that lots of people will find us through this," she says. "But fundamentally, I think we need to keep doing a good job.
"Investing in staff development, rewarding them for good results and expanding the team so that no-one is overburdened is key to making this happen. By investing in people, I feel they'll be ready and able to grow the business with me," says Jane. "It's also about continuing to offer an excellent product and service, and value for money."
And she's keen to get this right, as expansion is ultimately on the cards. "I'd really like to replicate the Beauty Booty model in other areas across Essex. I think there is an opportunity for people like me to provide speciality services to the public sector while offering them value for money."
Experiences
For Jane, setting up her own business has been an overwhelmingly positive experience, but has required a lot of hard work and determination. "Setting up your own business gives you a real sense of achievement. However, I had no idea how much personal time I would actually have to give up, coordinating everyone from builders to utility providers and working up to 16 hours a day." she says. "Overall, it's been really full-on but rewarding."
And what advice would Jane offer to other entrepreneurs planning a startup? "In terms of one piece of key advice: learn to expect the unexpected. Even if you encounter a challenge and it feels like the end of the road for your business, don't give up – there's always tomorrow," she says.
Additional help
Aside from the support of friends and family, Jane says that the guidance from her Lloyds TSB local business manager was invaluable when it came to looking at her business plan. "I also found the Gov.uk website incredibly helpful because it gave me a real structure for the business plan, which I could then develop myself," she concludes.
For more information on starting your own business, please visit www.lloydstsb.com/business or visit your local Lloyds TSB branch.
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