PRIME Initiative

Being Scottish, Eleanor Dowds, 53, probably appreciates the well-known words of Burns about the best-laid schemes of mice and men “going aft agley”.

Having worked for more than 30 years as a nurse, Eleanor, who is based in Cheshire, has been planning a move into self-employment for her middle years – but her plans have had to be put on hold for the time being.

“I had planned to take early retirement, which is possible in the NHS at 55, and that would free me up to have a career diversion, into building up a business,” explains Eleanor.

The new career that Eleanor has been planning is in the home-staging business, making homes more appealing to potential buyers. Eleanor and her husband have direct experience of enhancing homes, not only through having renovated two houses in which they have lived themselves, but also through having bought and renovated two properties to rent out.

Using a combination of workmen and their own efforts, Eleanor and her husband have carried out a wide range of renovations, including installing central heating, rewiring, plastering, installing new bathroom and decorating. This has been possible, explains Eleanor, because until recently, she was working only three days a week in her job as a nurse in a local hospital operating theatre, giving her the time she needed to work on her house project.

Two years ago, the couple moved into the house in which they now live and carried out extensive renovation. “It was as we finished that work that I realised that I could probably develop this as a business,” Eleanor says.

Eleanor began researching the subject and decided to attend a course run by Ann Maurice, well known as television’s House Doctor. Ann runs a series of courses on property presentation and home staging, designed to prepare individuals for a career in residential home staging, and in 2006 launched a House Doctor Home Staging Network, to provide a training and qualification programme for house staging professionals.

In September 2005, Eleanor attended one of Ann Maurice’s home staging courses, held over a long weekend in London. “If anything, the course was better than I had expected,” she comments. “They were very long days, but very enjoyable, and provided such a lot of detailed information.”

Although she does not plan to become a senior consultant in Ann Maurice’s House Doctor network, Eleanor expects to get some benefit from the House Doctor branding and market reach by having her details displayed on Ann’s www.housedoctor.co.uk website.

Still working a three-day week, Eleanor set about getting more information that would help her set up her home staging business. She got in touch with a local PRIME adviser, who was able to provide information and support. Eleanor also attended a one-day PRIME business workshop, which she found useful in providing advice on how to set up her business.

Her aim is to work through local estate agents in and around Cheshire, in order to get herself known in the local area. “I can go in, stage the house as much or as little as a client wants and make that property more sellable,” she explains. “It won’t cost the estate agents anything, but it benefits them in that a quicker sale is good for them.”

Eleanor acknowledges that her biggest challenge will be persuading estate agents that her service is necessary. “Going through the estate agents is the best way, but convincing them they need me is another matter,” she says. “But I don’t get discouraged. Even if I have to do a few projects for free - so they can see the concept, that will be fine.”

Eleanor is a great believer in the value of personal network and personal recommendation. “The more people you know, regardless of whether they are in the same field as you or not, the better,” she says. She has kept for some time a list of the professionals she has worked with and would be happy to recommend to others. “Anyone at work who wants a worker, knows they can ask me and I can recommend someone I’ve been pleased with,” she says. One of the reasons Eleanor found PRIME helpful was because of the local knowledge it has been able to provide.

With her plans in place, Eleanor intended to go ahead and set up her business, while still continuing to work three days a week. She had already begun approaching local estate agents and had done her first home-staging project.

Then, at the beginning of the year, things changed. Because of a change in her employment, Eleanor found herself having to work in her paid job four days a week. Initially, Eleanor tried to negotiate with her employers, to try and work longer hours, while still working just three days a week, but this proved impossible. As she explains, this has made a significant difference to her plans. “It gives me very little time to carry on and try and build up the business, because I work shifts and weekends,” she says.

Eleanor has now adapted her plans to cope with this change. “I will continue in my job, probably until April 2008, when I will be 55,” she says. She will then take early retirement and will be able to start building up her home staging business. But she will also have an option, once she has retired, to go back to her job as a nurse, working just 18 hours a week, and she believes this will provide the best way to continue to bring in a salary, while building up the new business.

“Unless anything changes in the meantime, I don’t feel it would be fair to try and attempt to build up the business now,” she says. “I want the time to give to it, otherwise I think it would be easy to get frustrated.”

Eleanor says she is at a point in her life where she still has plenty of drive and determination. “People can see that drive and can see I’m excited about the new business,” she comments. “I also think a bit of maturity can be an advantage. You can start a business at any age.”