Originally published on LinkedIn, 5 October 2026.
I'm not one for going on social media to moan. I never have been.
That's not because I don't feel it. Thirteen years of running salons means I've felt every wage rise, every rates bill and every VAT return land in my stomach. But I've watched what happens to the threads full of "Britain's f*cked" comments. Nothing changes, and everyone leaves a bit more fed up than when they arrived. To me that's a waste of energy and time, and quite frankly, as business owners we don't have much of either left in the tank.
I'm a huge believer in energy. Put that shit out into the world without a plan of action and you get the pit of despair back tenfold. Take the same feeling and turn it into something, a conversation, a letter, a small change in the right direction, and it feels completely different.
So that's what this is.
A room full of business owners
Last week I sat round a table in Farnham with Gregory Stafford our local MP for Farnham, Bordon and Haslemere, and a group of local business owners. Different industries, different sizes, completely different stories, and the same frustrations again and again.
A lot of people in that room felt the government simply doesn't want small businesses to win. That made me sad, because I don't agree.
I don't think they don't care. I think they're disconnected. The voices reaching them belong to the huge corporations, the ones with the biggest budgets, the biggest egos and the most shouting power. The salon owner doing the books at 10pm isn't in those rooms. So we have to find our way in.
What it looks like from the inside
I've run Mooeys since 2013. We have seven salons across the south and around 60 Moos, every one of them employed. Holiday pay, sick pay, pensions, training and a genuine career path. That was a deliberate choice from day one and I'd make it again tomorrow. Beauty is a career, and the people who do it deserve to be treated that way.
The rules make that choice harder every year. There's room for every kind of salon on the high street, and I've got huge respect for anyone running their own chair. The issue is a system that makes building an employed team the most expensive way to run a business, when it should be the one we reward.
Last year's minimum wage and employer NI changes added £26k to our costs overnight. It took three months to work through every pay grade, because when the floor goes up, every Moo above it needs to move too. We absorbed it, adapted and kept every Moo employed. We shouldn't have to fight this hard to do the right thing.
Then there are business rates. The revaluation pushed property values up across the board and we've seen increases of £4k+ a year in each location. Our rents haven't moved, because high street values haven't. And appealing is so slow and costly that most owners don't bother.
So I wrote to them
After the round table I wrote to Greg, the Chancellor and the Business Secretary with some ideas ahead of the Budget on 28 October.
A lower VAT threshold, with a reduced 10% rate for service businesses. More businesses contributing, at a fairer rate, everyone on a level footing.
A reduced VAT rate for service businesses that employ. Reward the people creating jobs, and make apprenticeships something small employers can afford to offer again.
Increase the Small Business Rate Relief from 15k to at least 40k and a freeze on valuation increases.
A pause on further minimum wage rises, so employers can catch up and keep pay structures fair. Let's steady the ship first otherwise we will have to reduce employment which not what any small business wants to do.
Every one of these comes back to the same thing. When we can employ more people, more tax and NI flows through PAYE, more local people have secure jobs, and businesses like ours reinvest in growth. Everyone wins.
The country I'd love us to be
I want us to be known as a country that cares about business. One that encourages and rewards the risk takers who open their doors with grand plans. The people who choose to employ locally, pay legit wages and make products here in the UK.
I've spent some time in Dubai, and the thing that struck me most wasn't the tax. It was the mindset. Business is wanted there. They want companies to thrive, not just survive. Entrepreneurs are encouraged, trade is welcomed, and when someone does well, people are genuinely happy for them. Winners get celebrated, not cut down.
We can have that here, and it starts with all of us. Choosing the local supplier. Booking with the independent or the smaller chain. Spending our money with British businesses who pay their taxes here. Celebrating the people around us who are winning. Because if they're winning, so is our economy, and so is our country.
Our work needs human beings to deliver it, and no robot is doing a pregnancy wax any time soon. Service businesses will be creating local jobs long after other sectors have automated theirs.
It won't happen overnight. But when small and medium businesses win, so do our communities, our economy and our country. That's how we bring the hope back.
The choice
There will always be people adding another negative comment to the thread and leaving it there. That's one route. Doing something about it is the other. I know which one I'm taking.
Thank you to Greg for opening the door and listening. I'd love to hear from other owners about what would make the biggest difference to them, and what they're doing about it. The more of us who say it, and act on it, the harder we are to ignore.
Lots of love
Amy x