The business of beauty or the beauty of business?

Neetu is the quintessential mumpreneur, but I am helping her to develop new skills to add to what she can offer.

Neetu is 35 and Nepalese. She started working in a nail salon at 13 and started a small business after moving to London in 1988. She goes to people’s homes and does beauty treatments for them – she can do you a mani-pedi, blow dry your hair and make you look “shiny and new” for one third of the cost of any salon.
A mother of three, Neetu is the quintessential mumpreneur; she acquired a skill and now uses it to support her family.
Her business is all word of mouth; she gets clients through referrals and her marketing costs are zero.
She has no overheads and therefore can run a model, which is low-cost; passing on this cost advantage to her consumers and also keeping a healthy margin for herself.
Because of this cost advantage, she also has very limited competition.
Neetu has no child care at home so only works when her children are in school.
When she goes home at night, she helps her kids with their homework and does the cooking.
I proposed that Neetu try and become an Avon sales representative.
Since she is already in the business of beauty, I figured she could potentially earn some extra cash by selling beauty products to her clientele.
I will now explore this option for her.
In her spare time, Neetu also plays beauty salon with her girls just like a lot of us mothers!
Her girls and we have a lot to learn from Neetu.
While Neetu makes us look “shiny and new” on the outside, her business model is “simple and smart” on the inside.

*Deepali Nangia works as a freelance business consultant helping entrepreneurs shape their ideas into businesses and their businesses into bigger ones!  Deepali also provides career guidance and counseling services.  She is a mother of two, loves the arts and is a strong supporter of women in business.  She can be found on www.empowerbizsupport.com or [email protected].  

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