The effects of the cost of living crisis on the local beauty industry
Written by Beth Morrell on 2nd May 2023
Will the cost of living crisis take away the simpler things we enjoy in life from getting our hair to our nails done.
With the cost of living crisis affecting the whole nation, we look into how it is affecting local beauty businesses and how own business owners have been coping.
Spark spoke to two local beauty business owners about their own experiences through the cost of living crisis.
Lucy Jane Hughes, from Durham, owns her own business Lucy Jane’s Beauty in which she specialises in BIAB gel nails to HD brows. She explained: “As a small beauty business I have found an increase in prices of stock which therefore has had a direct impact on the amount of profit I make.
“Clients also are looking to save money due to the cost of living crisis, so I have found a lot of previously returning clients are no longer coming meaning for the first time in over two years I have to advertise and market myself in order to gain back some of the regular clients I have lost.”
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Lucy said: “Overall it has massively affected my business model due to a decrease in profit and clientele, therefore the extra hours of work I have had to put back where it was pre-Covid has without had an impact on my mental health and physical health.”
Bobbi Summerson, from Chester-le-Street, also owns her own business Studio B in which is all things brows and lashes. When asking her on the effects the cost of living crisis has had on her business she said: “My rent, stock, everything has increased and it was just unmanageable to keep up with the lifestyle I lived without increasing treatment costs which inevitably I’ve ended up losing clients and profit of the business purely because everything is going up and people cannot afford such luxury treatments.
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Within my private life I’ve had to invest taking time to find cheaper ways to live so that my business is put first. This has impacted my business, mental health and personal life.”
Energy bills are expected to rise by a further 80% in October.
