A day in the life of C Beauty Studio owner Claire Donohue

With everything that is going on with Covid-19 Virus my day to day life has changed, as has the rest of the world. On a normal day I would be up at 7am, have breakfast with a strong coffee and head out the door at 7.30. I would start my day by going to the gym for a quick work out and then be in C Beauty Studio at 8.45am to open up for 9.30am. Being on lockdown my work days have changed. I am very conscience that I do not want to fall into bad routine just because I am home and I want to protect my mental health. I still start my day at 7am and try to keep to the same routine as if I was going to work. I have my breakfast and do a quick complex workout in my spare room. A friend gave us a lend of some weights which really helps as working out clears my head and set me up for the day. I finish my work out, shower and am sitting at my laptop for 9.am. My husband, a Garda, is working today so me and our dog have the house to our self, no distractions so can concentrate on work.

Since I closed the doors of C Beauty Studio on March 14, due to the pandemic I knew that there was going to be a difficult few months ahead of me. Because my business relies on clients coming into us for treatment’s it means I have to re-think my business plan for the studio and come up with on-line offers and look at our social media presence. On a regular working day in C Beauty Studio I do take my own clients, who I really miss, there is nothing better than having a good natter and catch up with a client you haven’t seen in a while. I also have a great team for girls who help run the studio on a day to day basis, so there would always be someone running around checking stock, doing orders or just general maintenance of the Studio.

Now working from home, just me and the dog, takes a bit of getting used to. Once lunch time rolls around I take advantage of the fine weather we are having and take the dog for a walk along the canal. It’s great to see everyone obeying the 2 meter distancing rule which gives me hope that we will be through this in no time.

After lunch back to the kitchen table and the laptop. At this point I take the opportunity to catch up with my staff. I call my manager, Caroline and see how she is getting on and how the social media pages are doing. I would normally have a meeting with Caroline at the beginning of the week in the Studio to plan out our week and make sure targets are being hit. Being on lockdown video calls are a great way to catch up with the girls and to just check in with them. All the girls have been great in popping beauty do’s and don’ts on Instagram, since we are all at home. This is the only way we can bring attention to the studio by advertising online as much as we possibly can. I am also keeping in touch with suppliers and any new products that are coming down the line.

During these times our online presence is as important now, than ever to keep in touch with our clients. Even though we are all on lockdown we can still reach out to our clients with DIY beauty tip and tricks. They are the driving force of where we want to be, so keeping a connection with them in any small way is extremely important to me. My main focus of the business is around our clients. 

Once 5pm hits I am off the lap top and start preparing dinner. In C Beauty Studio we are open till 9pm Tuesday to Friday and after office hours tend to be our busiest time. We are normally booked out right up till 9pm. On evenings like this I don’t tend to get home till 9.45pm, so finishing at 5pm is a real change that takes some getting used to. But my husband does enjoy having his dinner ready for him when he gets home in the evening time!

I find that new students coming into the beauty industry don’t realise how much hard work it is. It’s not all about painting nails and having the chat. There is a lot of behind the scene and background work that has to be done if they are going to be successful at their job. I have 2 award winning tanning therapists and an award winning makeup team and they will tell you that in order to be the best, there is a lot of hard work, dedication and long days put into the job. I have had a lot of knockbacks where things have not gone the way I planned, but over the years I have learned what works best for me and my business and what doesn’t. It’s all about experience and as long as you can learn from it, you can build on it. Once the lockdown is over and we can all go back to some normality, I cannot wait to get back to work to meet my friends, my work family and all my wonderful clients.

For more information on C Beauty Studio click here