Elevated Beauty triples turnover, launches academy
- Eve McClements and Ellie Meek, both 21, said their Newtownards salon Elevated Beauty tripled turnover in its first year and is now expanding. - The expansion is Elevated Beauty Training Academy, a new education arm built to sell courses, mentoring, and know-how beyond appointments. - It matters because beauty founders hit a ceiling in services fast — training turns local demand into a scalable second business.
Beauty salons usually grow the hard way — more clients, longer hours, maybe one more chair if space allows. That works, but only up to a point. Elevated Beauty, the Newtownards business started by 21-year-olds Eve McClements and Ellie Meek, is interesting because it just hit that ceiling early and made the obvious next move. After saying turnover tripled in its first year, the pair are adding a training academy, which basically turns their salon from a service business into a service-plus-education business. ### Who are they? McClements and Meek are two young founders from Northern Ireland who built Elevated Beauty in Newtownards over the past year. The business grew quickly enough to add team members, build a regular client base, and start looking beyond the usual salon playbook of filling appointment slots one by one. Their public pages show that shift already — booking links sit alongside course registration and training offers. (newsletter.co.uk) ### What actually changed? The new thing is the Elevated Beauty Training Academy. That means they are no longer only selling treatments inside the salon. They are also selling instruction — courses, support, and a packaged version of the skills and systems they’ve built. One training page tied to the brand lays out a hands-on course with a starter kit, manual, certificate, shadowing, and follow-up troubleshooting sessions. (newsletter.co.uk) ### Why is that a big deal? Because salon services are hard to scale. A brow appointment or lash set takes a fixed amount of time, and the founder has to be physically present. That creates a pretty brutal cap on revenue. Training changes the math. One founder can teach several students at once, sell digital materials, and keep earning from expertise even when they are not standing over a treatment bed. Turns out that is often the first real step from self-employment into an actual business model. (newsletter.co.uk) ### Why now? The timing makes sense. If turnover really tripled in year one, the founders have proof of demand and a stronger story to sell to would-be students. People do not usually buy beauty training just because someone is talented. They buy because they think that person has a repeatable method, a client pipeline, and a brand that works. Fast growth gives Elevated Beauty that credibility — or at least enough of it to test whether education can become a second revenue stream. (newsletter.co.uk) ### What does the academy probably sell? Not just technique. The obvious hook is practical beauty training, but the more valuable layer is the operating system around it — product choices, pricing, client retention, social content, and how to turn followers into bookings. One of the external Elevated Beauty-linked pages leans heavily into exactly that mix of skill refinement, marketing templates, and salon systems. That suggests the founders see education as business coaching as much as craft teaching. (newsletter.co.uk) ### Is this common in beauty? Very. The beauty industry keeps producing tiny founder-led brands that realize services alone are a treadmill. The next rung is almost always education, products, or both. Northern Ireland has already seen beauty businesses grow by leaning on social media and brand-led expansion, so Elevated Beauty is following a recognizable path — just at a very early stage. (elevatedbeautyhub.com) ### What is the catch? Training can scale faster than services, but only if the founders can prove outcomes. Students want credentials, confidence, and a believable route to earning back course fees. If the academy becomes too generic, it loses appeal fast. The challenge is keeping the small-business authenticity that helped the salon grow while packaging it tightly enough to teach. (bizbrief.ie) ### Bottom line? This is a small local business story, but the move is bigger than it looks. McClements and Meek are not just opening more appointment slots. They are trying to convert a good first year into something more durable — a business that sells both beauty work and the blueprint behind it. (newsletter.co.uk) (elevatedbeautyinc.com)
