HELLO LOVELIES!
It's coming up to our 3rd Birthday and we NEED your H.E.L.P! We are going to tell you our amazing little business story, please just stick with us and read to the end. If you cant donate to our little cause, don't worry or we ask is that you SHARE our crowdfunding link, the more people that see our crowdunding page the better chance we have of reaching our target.
WHAT IS THE LITTLE VINTAGE BEAUTY PARLOUR?
(DRUMROLL PLEASE) Presenting The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour, the ultimate historically correct, educational and confidence building PAMP-TASTIC experience from the 1920s through to the 1960s. Located in Nottingham's City Centre at the heart of the Midlands, our authentically designed 1950s parlour specialises in:
OUR STORY
In 2013, I (Emma aka MISS WHITLEY-BELLE) was approached by Lulu (YES, THAT'S HER REAL NAME), a vintage & antiques dealer with a strong career background in Health & Beauty Buying for a major high street, retailer with a genius idea to create a unique concept....THE SEED WAS PLANTED...
Prior to 2013, I was being paid to create bespoke bridal bookings and specialist vintage inspired looks for photoshoots. Identifying a commercial gap in the market for technically correct vintage styling & cutting techniques and education on the social history of women & the growth of the beauty in the 21st century when the opportunity to work alongside Lulu presented itself i was adament i wanted to work together to build a unique brand and a multi-functional concept to help make people look good, feel confident and to learn.
"...with a lots of love, blood, sweat and the occasional tears of laughter...VOILA...Miss Whitley-Belle and The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour was born."
LULU B
WHAT WE HAVE BUILT?
Our HARDWORK is starting to pay off. We have built a niche Hair & Beauty Business with a YoY of +35%. Our av. customer booking return rate is circa 40% with most clients having first booked as part of a group (Hen, Birthday or Bridal package). We want this to continue to grow.
Starting out as one tiny room furnished sparingly with Grandma's old vintage furniture, we have grown from strength to strength. The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour brand now works with a team of specialist vintage styling specialists and consists of a fully transactional, ecommerce website (www.littlevintagebeautyparlour.com) and we now rent 3 x "boutique studio" retail units within a serviced building located in the affluent Nottingham City Centre, complete with:
1.
The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour: A professional authentic mid-century salon environment
2.
Lulu B's Boutique: A women's fashion boutique selling new vintage inspired clothing including LINDY BOP, the exclusive, Pre Loved Collection & Miss Whitley-Belle Art Deco inspired Bridal Accessories.
3.
The Secret Studio: Our intimate, private dining area for Afternoon Teas, group parties, creative meetings, workshops and private functions.
WHAT ELSE HAVE WE DONE?
We have had some great success stories, not just the incremental growth of our client database of cuts, makeovers and weekly appointment bookings in the salon but through collaborative paid projects offsite, such as:
- Consultant Stylists for House Of Fraser SKN Heritage Fashion Show (2015)
- Historical/Room Set Consultants for The Sun's FABULOUS Magazine Mothers Day Fashion Special (in conjuction with Matalan) (2015)
- The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour POP UP Salon (L'Eroica Britannia, Robin Hood Tattoo Festival, Lou Lous, & Judy's Affordable Vintage Fairs and the Festival Of Years (National Brewery Centre).
And working alongside notable brands/faces such as:
- Lambert Studios (Channel 4 production company) (2016)
- The Great British SexPert (author Rebecca Dakin) (2016)
- Members of the Aristocrasy (2015)
- Award winning "A Mummy Too" blogger & Chef, Emily Leary (2015)
Our favourite collaborations to date have been the projects we have undertaken to help raise awareness for certain charitable causes and the specific Miss Whitley-Belle School of Confidence & Styling "Look Good, Feel Good" sessions we have held with women that fight life changing illnesses. We are priveleged to have been involved with the following charities:
Teenage Cancer Trust, MYSIGHT and the Nottinghamshire Hospice
Under The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour brand, Miss Whitley-Belle's professional expertise have been acknowledged and have been awarded the following:
Face of New College Nottingham (NCN) Hair & Beauty Recruitment Campaign 2016
National Vintage Award Nominee (Best Vintage Styling & Grooming) 2014 & 2015
Level 3 Peter Jones Entrepreneur of the Year 2013
UKs TOP 100 Mumpreneur Of The Year 2013*
*(awarded as a young, working mum with an outstanding contribution to business and entrepreneurship).
NCNs Business Student of the year 2013
So if I was you reading this, my BIG Q would be;
"If everything is going so great, why do you need to Crowdfund?"
G.O.O.D Q.U.E.S.T.I.O.N
WHY DO WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL HELP?
As a busineswe have INDEPENDENTLY saved £4k towards our ORIGINAL business plan, HOWEVER, we are running out of TIME & SPACE.
TIME
We are RUNNING OUT OF TIME! Throughout her time at The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour Lulu has been battling with some life changing illnesses.
In late 2014 Lulu experienced numerous blood vessel hemorrhages, as a severe, long term complication to her being an Insulin Dependent Diabetic. Whilst carrying some heavy boxes of stock, Lulu experinced a large hemorrhage that filled blood in her right eye. In 2015, after 3 rounds of surgery, Lulu lost the sight, permanantly in her right eye. Lulu is now officially registered as partially sighted. Not that this stopped us from building our business!!! Lulu scaled back her role in the parlour to the duties of a Junior (where ability has allowed) and concentrated full time on: creating a strong visible brand to include our transactional website & retail offering, co ordinate collaborative projects, press & promotion nationally, shaping both our educational/hair & beauty schools and B2B content and the super, important charitable programmes of Miss Whitley-Belle's School of Styling & Confidence.
UNFORTUNATELY later in the autumn of 2015 Lulu was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, a debilitating auto immune illness that will lead to Kidney failure and then in the spring of 2016, a routine eye exam revealed that Lulu needed emergency surgery on her left (healthy) eye to help preserve any remaining sight. Since then Lulu has suffered numerous allergic reactions to her medication, continous infections and numerous hospital stays. As a result she is no longer physically able to continue her busy role at The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour business and has to "retire" by the end of the year.
HOWEVER we are only 3 years into The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour 5 year growth plan. We are determined that this is not the end of OUR STORY. With FINANCIAL SUPPORT to match our £4k savings, I will be able to swiftly expand our physical space: accommodating larger group parties and build (£) profit quicker, allowing me to expertly train a new member of the team to work alongside myself and team of guest vintage hair stylists & muas and takeover the extensive behind-the-scenes work Lulu can no longer do.
BUT WE HAVE TO MOVE QUICKLY & KEY TO NOT CLOSING THE DOORS IS OUR EXPANSION PLAN...
SPACE
60% of the revenue we currently generate, comes from Group Party Bookings and Miss Whitley-Belle "Schools of Confidence & Styling" workshops and outcalls. We are currently in aposition where we are having to TURN AWAY groups bigger than 8 (the average UK Hen Party size is 12 people) due to the lack of physical m2 available for us to rent within our current location. We know thecustomer base is here to contiue to allow us to grow into a long term, profitble enterprise.
INTERESTING FACT...Nottingham is currently the 6th most popular Hen Party destination and the av.total spend pp is £157 (cited 2015: Hen Heaven)
In addition to this, Miss Whitley-Belle is unable to take on a higher % of OUTCALL (out of salon) private & educational "Miss Whitley-Belle School of Confidence & Styling" paid bookings due to the lack of skilled, full time correctly trained "vintage" hairdressers & mua (make up artists).
HELP US...
1. HELP to allow us to physically MOVE into bigger premises in order for us to accommodate more bookings and group packages.
2. HELP to EMPLOY & take the time to train and pay a new member of The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour family in Lulu's place
3. HELP to DEVELOP the Miss Whitley-Belle "School of Confidence & Styling" work with both, industry peers (through tutorial workshops) and 1-2-1 "Look Good, Feel Good" makeover sessions with women suffering or recovering from serious illness.
HOW WE WILL SPEND YOUR PLEDGE MONEY
We need £4k to match the £4k we have saved to expand both the brand and our physical space. Our immediate TOTAL 8K spend will be as follows:
£1500 1 x Month rent
£1500 1 x New premises deposit
£2000 Structural refit (incl. plumbing, labour, flooring and electrics)
£1000 Cosmetic Refurbishment & improved styling equipment and multiple room sets
£500 Legal costs
£500 Marketing
£1152 3rd staff member 1 x month wages to train a Junior Hair & Beauty graduate to the specific award winning vintage standard required under the professional tutorledge of Miss Whitley-Belle.
YOUR DONATION
As a team, Lulu and I have worked hard to save towards our The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour financial goal, to allow us to execute our own 5 year business growth plan.
We DON'T believe in hand outs and if Lulu didnt have to step down from the business quickly we wouldnt be here, we'd still be working towards our financial goal through SHEER hard work as a TEAM. REMEMBER all we are trying to do is:
1. To match our current savings of £4k
2. To move to bigger premises
3. To continue to build a profitable Miss Whitley Belle "School of Styling & Confidence" that can reach a greater geographical audience
REWARDS THAT MONEY CANT BUY
If everyone within our The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour and Miss Whitey-Belle's social media, customer and email customer database donated £1 we'd have our total EASY PEASY, we have a great host of MONEY CANT BUY REWARDS like:
- WIN a Vintage Makeover Raffle (£2)
- The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour: Hair Styling Kit (£25)
- Day's 1-2-1 Training with the award winning, Miss Whitley Belle & a sumptuous Afternoon Tea (£150)
- 12 x limited places on our exclusive, The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour PIN UP CALENDER PHOTOSHOOT (£250)
- A Vintage Makeover or Hair Cut Every Month For A Year (£500)
- Discount Vouchers, Ltd Edition Gifts and much more from £1 to £500...
Of course, if you simply just wanted to pledge an small amoout, your donation would get you a HUGE THANK YOU and a big old warm, fuzzy feeling that from doing a GOOD DEED from The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour team.
IF YOU CAN'T donate that's ok BUT PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE, SHARE our crowdunding link amongst your business network, on Facebook, Twitter and with your friends & family the more people that see our page the more people that are likely to help!
OH and MOST IMPORTANTLY REMEMBER...to stay FABULOUS!
From Miss Whitley-Belle & Lulu (The Little Vintage Beauty Parlour)
Xx