"I've opened my own beauty salon aged 17 - now I'm making thousands"

A 17-year-old eyelash technician has opened her own salon after she launched a business from her bedroom - and quickly made £4k.

Phoebe Taylor qualified last year and has already built up a lengthy client list.

She does the treatments alongside a part-time university degree, a college course AND another job as an embroidery and vinyl specialist.

Busy Phoebe says she often works seven days a week and has earned enough to rent her own treatment room at a local salon on the high street.

She was previously working out of a spare room at her family home in Redcar, North Yorks,. where she racked up profits of £4,000 - enough to rent her salon.

She was inspired after she saw how much the lash tech she visited earned - and thought 'I'll give that a go'.

Phoebe said: “It is so rewarding. I don’t like just sitting back and doing nothing.

"I always have to be doing something - people call me ambitious.

“I see all my clients and it’s brilliant. I love it. I’ll be working some nights until 11pm and starting at 8am seven days a week.

“I always wanted to work for myself, that’s where the money is - I love eyelashes and all my beauty. I’m a proper girls' beauty girl.

“I could see how much my lash tech earns and thought I’d give it a go and I was quite good. So I decided to go through all my training.

“Now I have my own products out, I've got a brilliant client base and I’m turning over thousands at 17.

“Some of my friends don’t even know what they want to do when they leave college, they say they don't know how I do it.”

Phoebe first launched her business in April 2023 aged just 16.

She used a spare box room in her mum’s house to offer eyelash treatments but says her client base built up quickly and too many people were coming in and out of the house.

She moved into a small room being let outside the house and began offering treatments there – and now has her own room at a local beauty studio.

Phoebe says she’s keen to hire staff in the future to offer a wider range of beauty treatments.

And despite some people saying she wouldn’t make any money and would be closed within a month, Phoebe has now made over £4k and says she’s never lost money in the business.

“I started getting my clients in a tiny box room in my mum’s house and then built up my clients and moved into my own beauty room,” said Phoebe.

“Mum’s really proud – she loves it, she goes into her work and tells everyone, it’s the first thing she says to people when they meet me.

“I've had so much good feedback, when I first opened people said it was daft but now they can see I'm getting somewhere.

“So far, I’ve made £4k but along with everything else with college and everything it’s hard for me to make more.

“I'd love to just drop everything and do beauty full-time, but I need my qualifications just in case so it’s just a waiting game.

“I am so proud of myself, I've had such a hard year and then to look back and go you've done that at 16 and 17, it’s brilliant, I can’t believe it.”

Mum Victoria Taylor is proud of her daughter's entrepreneurial spirit – and has helped her plan and budget to expand in the future.

Phoebe's business is called Seventeen Lashes and Brows, or @seventeenlashesandbrows on social media.