Blog Post One - The Planning

It all begins with an idea. That is Squarespace’s moto. But what happens if all of your ideas whirl around your head until you push them down so far, for years, until you are bursting with them, and then you don’t know where to start or what to do first? Well, that is exactly what happened to me. What started as an idea for my own salon as a retirement plan, back when I qualified in L2 Beauty Therapy. Settling on it being something for the distant future, as a twenty something year old. With a small Primary School aged Child, all those years ago, morphed in 2025 into ‘I need to go and work in a salon again’, ‘I miss all that hands on time with my clients’ to ‘no I will rent my own room and be self employed’, to ‘no I need something in between’. Now was the time to be brave. To take the leap. It’s always about timing isn’t it. 

So there was me, positive, excited, ideas bouncing like a ping-pong ball and being open to the possibilities. Allowing myself to even think about the dream. Well it was all a little too much. But then came the Summer, the most precious gift of time. Annual leave. Most of the time I am disappointed  that Ayan and I only overlap our summer for a mere few weeks, before returning to work mid-August. This year however, it gave me that guilt free space and time to wonder. Then to get to work. Hyperfocus is something I excel at, and all of a sudden, those ping-pong ideas spilled on to the page of the laptop screen.

I knew something for sure. I wanted to create a space that felt less like a business, and more like me. About everything I stand for, and everything I am as a person. The holistic therapist who loves massage, but also lashes, and sometimes gel but not acrylic, and definitely not nail art. Having the autonomy to create a bespoke treatment menu offering more of exactly what I do like, and less of what I least like. Now that felt like something I was aligned with.

So in true me style, the treatment menu came first. The creativity of this with a little help, a lot of help, from Canva, made it spill out from my head to the page with precision detail. Then came the posts (and yes returning to social media, after 18 months away was a bitter sweet part of it) though networking with other professionals will be a welcome positive, creating the policies aligned with years of teaching and experience, the important aftercare, the business cards, everything! And this is all before the website… Well, it all kept me very busy. 

The feeling of ‘I did a thing!’ - Jeremy Clarkson. Was very familiar, I loved that part. Buying domains, Online booking systems, and websites, then formalising with The Beauty Ritualist’s very own email address, where everybody will contact me - it’s all becoming very real now. Ensuring I try and do my best to get it on the map, properly, and that isn’t just with google. Business accounts and Google Workspace, and digital stores. Who even knew what goes in to starting something like this?  I definitely did not. Well google told me, that from January to March, there were 89,515 people. That is how many new businesses were registered in the UK so far this year. That is how many people trying to also do the thing I was trying to do. At least I was not on my own, and of course I had nothing to loose. Teaching will still be a part of my life, but it has taken such a front seat, it’s time to give other things in my life the chance to drive and flourish. 

There was so much to do, all the tabs were open that’s for sure. Not even commenting on the ever developing business plan, which of course was being edited daily, when the decimal point of the total column was being changed. I was however, avoiding the most vital part of the story so far. Where on earth is going to be the fit for The Beauty Ritualist to come to life? Where am I going to find the perfect space to do this? Well I had to face that next. Boy oh boy was I about to have my mind blown. 

When I imagined there would be an abundance of places for me to rent, I was very wrong. I envisioned myself being part of a multi-discpinary space, where therapists come together in the reception area, smiles in the corridor, or waiting for the microwave during lunch. A place where each professional refers to the other. Being a part of a team like that felt right. Though this type of space came with a whole host of draw backs which I had not even considered before. I had to take a different approach. Then came the looking for individual rooms to rent, which were all tiny in space, and would compromise on the treatments I would be able to offer. Ultimately, I needed somewhere I could call my own, and make my own. Hopefully, the multi-disciplinary vision would not be something I would have t compromise on after all…

So that there is the ramblings, of what’s going round in my head and my life for the last 6 weeks. The rest of it, in a roundabout way, later will take care of itself. It always does. 

Stacey x