The massage therapist; being an entrepreneur

Interview with...

Venetia Elphik
Age:
45
CV:
Arts and caring profession: trained as actor, photography, nursery nurse
Business name:
V Massage London
Goods/services:
Massage and a range of other beauty treatments
Location:
London
Trading for:
18 months
Neck massage in chair

Venetia with her advice for entrepreneurs...

“To love what they do. It has been proven that people who are beauty or massage therapists are the happiest in their job. I can verify that, and I think it’s because you end up making people feel good and you end up feeling good.

“Do it with passion and expect a lot of hard work and not to expect immediate returns. And just to keep going at it.”

On setting up a business in a recession...

“I set up the business in the middle of the credit crunch. I don’t have any experience of what it’s like to run a business in a good economy. So it can only get easier – if it’s been growing in the middle of a recession then I feel very optimistic about the future. And that’s another bit of advice: to always stay optimistic.”

On the most useful career she's had in terms of transferable skills...

“I would say photography, when I was doing photography I was self-employed. The sales part I found difficult. But I did learn a lot, and I’ve transferred those skills. And I don’t know where the skills have come from that I got.

“I didn’t want to run my own business, and when I was running my photography business I wanted to get someone else to run it for me. But when I did my massage course, my case studies became my clients and it just took off organically.”

 

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