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Hello
I'm thinking of setting up a mobile manicure and nail gel business, aimed at English-speaking women in the PO.

Before I go any further with it I'd be interested to have any comments on whether you think there is a market for this and particularly whether you would use the service?

I'd be grateful for any comments- positive or negative!

Hi, Well the French certainly like their hair doing, so why not their nails, I would put an ad in PO-Life and see what response you get, it quite cheap to place an ad, so may be worth doing , it hits a lot of people.


Good luck


Can I be a guinea pig....

Thumbs, why did you take your post off - it was contstructive and thought provoking - not negative at all, but the kind of realistic comments I would have thought would be useful. Purritback!!

It's on the other one, Kate!

I think lp got a bit excited and posted the same thing twice! I hadn't noticed it until now lmao!

It's still there, on the other one.

and thanks for your comment; I appreciate that!

Duh! Sorry. Too confusing for me!! Wondered where Marguerite's had gone too. Will try and edit.

lol- OK

Hi,

Yes i think it is a good idea but would need lots of publicity and involve alot of travelling - if you could get in touch with people who rent out their houses/land for weddings etc... that would be good or perhaps link up with a well known hairdressing salon in Perps.
My sister hired the function space at Castelnou for her wedding and would have used your services, although I would worry that there are not enough english women who would use this service in this area alone (66) may need to be quite flexible on your travel distance and pricing.
Another good idea would be to contact holiday homeowners and advertise in their property as special offers on holiday partys - perhaps work with others offering spa/luxury tours.

good luck

Copy of my post over on the other thread.

Hi there, welcome to the forum!

There are an AWFUL lot of nail salons around the area. Competition is already high in that area. Offering a mobile service is a novel idea and is certainly different, but personally, I don't see that you would be able to make a living from a purely English speaking clientele. For one thing, I don't think the market is large enough and secondly, quite a lot of the ladies down here are living on fixed incomes. With the pound / euro as it stands, they have seen a decline in their income of around 30% in the last 15 months or so.

The dilemma is, do you start now and wait for the recovery by which time you will already be established, or do you wait for the recovery and then set up. A lot depends on your own personal circumstances (ie do you need to earn a regular, correct salary from it fairly quickly or is it a supplement to your existing income and you can wait a bit longer for it to pay off)

Hope you don't consider my comments to be negative; I would hate to be misunderstood and accused of jumping on new ideas, but this is what I really think.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Hi, I work as a domicilliary optometrist.
One thing you must consider is that it is often very difficult to find some addresses even with the correct code postal and a SatNav. You must ask for very exact route instructions - which, sadly, many housebound people may be unable to give, because they havn't been out for years and/or they are losing their marbles. You must have a full set of detailed maps as well as a SatNav.
So, you have to allow plenty of (non-remunerative) time to find the addresses.
Also, it is often impossible and/or expensive to park anywhere near the clients house, so you have to park some distance away, and carry all your stuff.
Also, planning your diary can be a nightmare until you work out how to do it - you must decide which days you will allocate to which areas, but review this regularly according to demand. Don't offer appointment times until you have a few appointments in the same area - then work out the most efficient route between them, then plan your timings and finally ring the clients back.
You must never, ever promise to be on time but should always state that you may be up to an hour late because of traffic.
Be careful pricing your service - your total overheads are lower than a salon, but your overheads per client may be higher since you can see fewer per working day, so be careful not to undercharge and end up working like a slave for nothing!
I don't know anything at all about nails but hope this helps in case you decided to go for it.

How about renting a chair in a couple of Salons in the area?

I don't know jack about nails but Rachel is offering some off-the-top-of-her-head advice.

Like others have said, targeting the ex-pat community has some weaknesses - they aren't numerous, they are widely spread and they don't have, on average, a lot of disposable income.

Perhaps not a bad idea to see if you could team up with a number of hairdressing salons to visit a different one per day.

Another idea is to target the campsites and offer your services there. There are lots of potential clients in one place, the service is relatively cheap and, most importantly, there is no competition.

One thing you will need to is to register with the Chambre de Metiers as an artisan otherwise the authorities, your competiton and perhaps some other ill-wishers will be all over you like a cheap mac.

If you know about "Threading" apparently there could be a market for that.

I wasn't really sure what to expect by way of response from the forum so am [u]really[/u] pleased to have had so many replies - and my post is only one day old!

Your comments are exactly what I was hoping for so many thanks for taking the time to contribute.

Plenty of food for thought so far so, please, keep them coming!

Will keep you posted ...

Chris wrote:.
You must never, ever promise to be on time but should always state that you may be up to an hour late because of traffic.

That's a REALLY good point Chris!

In summer, a journey can take you more than twice as long as in winter lp!

lp66 wrote:Hello
I'm thinking of setting up a mobile manicure and nail gel business, aimed at English-speaking women in the PO.

Before I go any further with it I'd be interested to have any comments on whether you think there is a market for this and particularly whether you would use the service?

I'd be grateful for any comments- positive or negative!

Starting any business here takes a lot of courage and skill Ip...
Add to that the admin ??
Like M&S mentioned, you couldn't go wrong to start by placing an add in PO Life !
There's quite a lot of French competition out there though..my advise is advertise an see how it goes from there ..
Give it a shot and see !
Good Luck !
Cheers

from Helen

Speaking as a retired beautician (yes, it's Helen, not Robert here) I 'd hate to give you false hopes, but/
a) English-speaking clients only (why?) would be very limited. On the whole, French women are a tad more...er..chic (Oh, crummy - what have I said?)) than us lot, and more ready to spend their hard-earned mullah on manicures and beauty care.
b) Most hairdressing salons have their own manicurists, or at least hairdressers who know how to do a manicure.
c) Nail Bars are the height of fashion nowadays. Found on nearly every street corner.
d) a mobile manicurist? You're going to drive 20 klms to a client's house and waste a whole afternoon to earn 15 euros? Hardly worth it.
e) Don't forget to include "charges" (URSSAF) petrol, parking tickets(!), clients who change their minds without bothering to tell you.
Yup - the beauty business is great....when you're on the other side of the counter!
After all this......Good luck, whatever you choose to do.

Robert Ferrieux wrote:from Helen

Speaking as a retired beautician (yes, it's Helen, not Robert here) I 'd hate to give you false hopes, but/
a) English-speaking clients only (why?) would be very limited. On the whole, French women are a tad more...er..chic (Oh, crummy - what have I said?)) than us lot, and more ready to spend their hard-earned mullah on manicures and beauty care.
b) Most hairdressing salons have their own manicurists, or at least hairdressers who know how to do a manicure.
c) Nail Bars are the height of fashion nowadays. Found on nearly every street corner.
d) a mobile manicurist? You're going to drive 20 klms to a client's house and waste a whole afternoon to earn 15 euros? Hardly worth it.
e) Don't forget to include "charges" (URSSAF) petrol, parking tickets(!), clients who change their minds without bothering to tell you.
Yup - the beauty business is great....when you're on the other side of the counter!
After all this......Good luck, whatever you choose to do.

I say she should still try though...?

mrob343 wrote:I say she should still try though...?

There speaks the "PO Radio Man"!
You had an "impossible" dream
You nursed that dream through hard times and much negative advice
Against all the odds you realised that dream!

In our company, our department adopted Mark Twain's
They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it

Sarko and his government are trying the same approach
with their partenaires ... er... adversaires sociaux
Ils ne savaient pas que c'était impossible, alors ils l'ont fait.

Roger O wrote:

mrob343 wrote:I say she should still try though...?

There speaks the "PO Radio Man"!
You had an "impossible" dream
You nursed that dream through hard times and much negative advice
Against all the odds you realised that dream!

In our company, our department adopted Mark Twain's
They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it

Sarko and his government are trying the same approach
with their partenaires ... er... adversaires sociaux
Ils ne savaient pas que c'était impossible, alors ils l'ont fait.

Try telling that message to his fonctionnaires during May ! LOL !
I even noticed the ANPE & the CFA all had a nice long weekend break !
Well they do work REALLY ! ? hard dont they....??

I did say Sarko and his government are trying the same approach!
Try getting by the CGT, FO and CFDT (les adversaires sociaux)
- even worse than Scargill at his "best"!

They all want to keep their privileges and have us (everybody who is not a "public servant") pay for them!

Roger O wrote:I did say Sarko and his government are trying the same approach!
Try getting by the CGT, FO and CFDT (les adversaires sociaux)
- even worse than Scargill at his "best"!

They all want to keep their privileges and have us (everybody who is not a "public servant") pay for them!

"Trying" being the apt word there Rog!
"They all want to keep their privileges and have us (everybody who is not a "public servant") pay for them!"
Couldn't agree more Rog ,damn bunch of lazy,bone idle so an so's in my opinion !
Old Sarko's got more chance of snow falling in hell, than to tackle the unions here !
And if he tried i think civil war might be on the cards
Cheers