Starting in business

Juliann

Hi

Hope this is the right place, feel free to move just let me know where its gone please.

I currently have a claim in for ESA, but would like to work for myself as a complementary therapist, I wondered what people here thought.

I am qualified in Reiki, Indian Head Massage, Aromatherapy, have done a one day course on Hopi Ear Candling did it for interest but may be able to get insurance, and am hoping to add a couple of others when I can get my brain going again.

Leeds indoor market which I can quite easily reach is offering a unit for half price rent for 12 weeks with no obligation to carry on afterwards which would be about £60 a week with travelling costs, there is nobody doing complementary therapies on the market at the moment but a number of places are doing things like nails and hair. The market is used mainly by older people and people with young children.

It will need to be working for myself as I need to be able to control the amount and pace of my work to some extent, the long non stop hours of work a salon expects would be beyond me even though giving treatments does seem to perk me up a lot, also being a mobile therapist isn't possible as I don't drive, does trying this 12 week trial seem a good idea to people.

I'm also not too bad at drawing so thought I might be able to add a few pictures to sell, if I include it in the application and they agree it then it will be fine but would it be something worth doing.

I'm going to a friends now, so will look in again this evening incase anybody wonders where I've gone.

InsideInsurance

Personally, I would do some market research first.

Presumably you are not considering doing any advertisement for the business initially and so will be purely reliant on existing footfall. It would be easy enough to stand about and ask people how often they come, would they use the service, how much theyd pay etc. Remember this tends to be best case that you'll get as less people actually put their hands in the pocket when it comes to it.

It may be also worth testing names etc for your service... I am not sure all demographics are going to be interested in/ know what Reiki or Hopi Candling is

Excluding the name, I would absolutely not consider doing any form of treatment without liability insurance in place as you're far to open to no win no fee solicitors claiming you burn and disfigured their client by a little drop of wax on their ear or something daft

dandelionclock30

It will be very difficult to make money from comp therapies in that location.For a start there are places just a stones throw away from there which are offering free complimentary therapies to certain groups. Secondly if people are wanting therapies they want to be in a nice warm room, with meditation music and whales screaming not in a freezing cold market. Also due to the recession less people have disposable cash for therapies when they need to be paying the bills as a priority.The people that access the market dont tend to be people who will pay £40 for a therapy.
If you want to work for yourself start from home,or work in a salon,its an absolute non starter in Leeds Market.

Savvy_Sue

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

It will be very difficult to make money from comp therapies in that location.For a start there are places just a stones throw away from there which are offering free complimentary therapies to certain groups. Secondly if people are wanting therapies they want to be in a nice warm room, with meditation music and whales screaming not in a freezing cold market. Also due to the recession less people have disposable cash for therapies when they need to be paying the bills as a priority.The people that access the market dont tend to be people who will pay £40 for a therapy.
If you want to work for yourself start from home,or work in a salon,its an absolute non starter in Leeds Market.

As someone who has regular massages, I can only second this.

My therapist sees me at her home: for a while she had a room in a GP surgery and it wasn't nearly as good, I was always worried that someone might come in while I was undressing, and also the noises of phone calls and doors opening and closing meant it was very distracting, not like at her home.