Victoria's Mobile Chiropody
by Christine Toner

At 15 years old Victoria Freight already knew she wanted to run her own business. She wasn't 100% sure what the business would be exactly, but she knew working for someone else wasn't for her. She wanted to be her own boss.

Despite not having any business experience, Victoria was spurred on by the alternative. "I have always worked in menial-pay jobs, including one which involved packing cucumbers!" Victoria explains. "This has driven me to achieve my dream of self-employment."

While searching for the right business, Victoria thought about opening her own hair salon, but quickly changed her mind. "I researched the salon business and discovered that beauty work was too competitive and it would be very hard to establish oneself in that area."

Discovering Her Niche
Still, Victoria knew she wanted to work with the public and provide a valuable and rewarding service. Being very interested in the health sector, she decided to study chiropody — the therapeutic care of feet. It was a brave move for someone of her age, "I knew it would be a challenge, as one expects a chiropodist to be older with lots of experience. I was only 19!"

Undeterred, Victoria realised she would have to think outside the box and find a less traditional way to break into the business. After extensive research around her hometown of Epping, she found an opening in the market. "I discovered a severe lack of domiciliary chiropodists in my area. So I decided to concentrate on providing a mobile service, offering treatments in the customer's home."

Launching Out
Victoria's first priority was to get the necessary qualifications as a chiropodist. By taking a home-study course, she qualified for a diploma in Chiropody and Podiatry. Next, she gained membership in the British Chiropody and Podiatry Association, as well as the Health Professional's Council.

"When I started, I wasn't able to get a business loan, so I was on a very tight budget." To advertise Victoria's Mobile Chiropody, she had business cards produced and gave them out to people in the Epping area. She also decreased expenses by designing business slips on A4 paper so as to have three slips on one piece of paper, thereby producing 9,000 slips for the cost of 3,000.

Another important step was to get word-of-mouth advertising started. "Working on family and friends produced recommendations to their friends and so forth," Victoria says. "But during my first year, 80% of my customers came from my business slips."

Reaping the Rewards
Today, Victoria has a wide range of customers from age 20 to 90. She has built up her clientele and gained customers' loyalty through dedication to treating each person to the absolute best of her ability.

But chiropody isn't for the squeamish she says. "To be honest, I have seen horrible feet. But there is a person at the end of those feet and all of my ladies are absolutely lovely."

In December 2003, Victoria won NatWest's Every Woman Award in the "Artemis Category" for up-and-coming businesswomen aged 25 or younger. Since then her business has gone from strength to strength, earning up to £30 per treatment.

A Dream Achieved
However, Victoria admits it had not been all easy sailing. "It has been an uphill struggle financially as I have had to sacrifice a social life to pay the bills and supplement my business for the last five years. But it has been worth it and I will be laughing in the future for fulfilling my dream of self-employment at a 'Guinness-Book-of-Records age' — 19 years."

Despite the tough times, Victoria would encourage other young people to start their own business. "There is still a lack of chiropodists, so a regular income is possible — but only with a lot of dedication and perseverance."

And of the sacrifices she's had to make? She laughs. "I have been told it's character building!"