"I have built my clientele through recommendations"
A Birmingham woman has “no regrets” about quitting her long-spanning corporate career to run a beauty salon.
Tarandeep Ruprai left her office role to run her hair and beauty business full-time earlier in 2024.
She started her brand Taran K Beauty from her bedroom in Edgbaston in 2015 and has gone on to open a salon in Digbeth.
Taran has also amassed thousands of Instagram followers, sharing daily tutorials and vlogs.
Although well-known in Birmingham for her bridal makeup, Taran admitted it was a risk to leave the security of a well-paid and established role to pursue her salon business full-time.
She said: “It was a really big decision for me to make because I have been part of the corporate world for eight years, and I really did enjoy my role.
“But I have always had a passion for being in the beauty businesses and my reason for that is just my personal journey with beauty itself.”
Taran renovated her Custard Factory salon during the pandemic, running the business alongside her office job.
She would usually see bridal clients in the early hours of the morning after a full day of work in London or back-to-back weekends of bookings.
Taran continued: “I have built my clientele through recommendations, word of mouth, just putting myself out there on social media.
“It’s been an accumulation of various different things but for the most part a lot of it has been word of mouth and recommendation which I am really grateful for.”
On eventually quitting her full-time role, Taran said:
“Leaving my role in the corporate world has probably been the best decision I’ve made for myself because after graduating, well even throughout university I was working, but after graduating I went straight into a retail job.
“From that, I went into a high-pressured recruitment role and then from recruitment I went into the umbrella of equality diversion and inclusion which took me into a more senior opportunity with a bit more influence.
“So it’s not like I’ve ever needed to leave my professional role because, touch wood, I’ve always done well and progressed but that was one of the main reasons why it was such a difficult decision to make and I don’t regret it at all.
“Being a woman and running my own business in Digbeth is amazing.”
“Digbeth is a very vibrant space, amazing for independent businesses and it’s just so lovely to be based there.”
Taran has now been shortlisted in The English Hair and Beauty Awards 2024.
She will find out if she has won the West Midlands crown on April 28.
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