JUGGLING children and earning a decent living is a nightmare to navigate for most parents.
Many mums end up working part-time and taking big pay cuts because they can find no other way of looking after their kids.
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But Raz Wright, 46, found an ingenious way to earn six-figures while still being there for every single school run.
She told The Sun: “I absolutely love it. It gives me the freedom to pick up kids from school.”
The mum-of-two has cashed in by offering professional quality braids to other parents.
And she says any parent can follow in her footsteps.
It started when Raz had been looking for a new career after having her two children, now aged 11 and 8.
By chance, she decided to take braiding lessons because she was worried about her daughter catching head lice at school.
But she soon realised there was a big demand from parents who want their children’s hair styled.
She says: “I’d never worked in the hair and beauty industry.
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“My daughter has an incredible amount of hair – I was anxious about her catching head lice.”
Raz adds: “I wanted to make her hair look good.
“So I had braid lessons and came across the braid bar concept.
“I thought, parents like me could do with a braid bar in Southampton.”
In 2019, she took the plunge and set up Trenza Braid Bar in her local shopping centre.
Parents could bring children to the pop-up stall and have their hair braided – paying around £45 a pop.
The business was an instant success and, despite Covid, her earnings were in the region of £75,000 during the first year.
Raz adds: “I found a niche, filled a gap and created something that we didn’t have on the South Coast.
“On many days we couldn’t keep up with the demand.”
Throughout the lockdowns that followed, she kept her business active on social media posting on her Instagram account @trenza_braidbar as well as TikTok.
By 2022 she was earning £145,000 from the braid bar – far more than she had been making in her previous career in events.
But being in the shopping centre was expensive, costing around £1,000 a day for the stand.
Earlier this year, Raz decided to move the business to her own back garden and build a braid bar there.
She drums up business via social media, as well as relying on long-standing customers and her website Trenza.co.uk.
Raz also offers braiding at festivals.
The change has created a better home-life balance, which was her reason for starting the business in the first place.
How you can start a braiding side hustle
After noticing many parents talk about not knowing how to braid, Raz started offering lessons as part of her business.
She has launched The Braid School, which teaches anyone how to braid.
Raz is also offering a commercial day class that will train people to provide so-called feed-in braids or festival braids.
The mini-course costs £450 but Raz reckons people can then go on to start a side hustle offering the braids at festivals, local fairs or even through a local braid bar.
She said: “It’s definitely suited to parents who might want to earn extra income – it’s something you can easily do at the weekend.
“There are no start-up costs as such, you just need to learn how to braid…
“Create a free Instagram page and get going.”
If you start a side hustle you can earn up to £1,000 a year without paying tax.
After this, you’ll need to start filling in a self-assessment tax return.
Here’s how one woman quit her job to launch a side hustle now worth £100m.
