Leaving your career to start a family can be daunting but for this mum-of-two it turned out to be a shortcut to success.

Jo Bevilacqua, 33, came up with the idea of launching her own beauty salon with on-site childcare while pregnant with her second child and it now makes a tidy £368,000 a year.The business owner from Peterborough (a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England,) admits that the road to her dream career was a bumpy one.

Jo was working in nursery care when she had her first daughter Alana, now aged nine.

She told the Sun Online: "It was a fairly low paid job, I started to loose my motivation and I didn't see the point of looking after someone else's children while missing out on some important time with my own kid, so I resigned."

Between having her first and second child, she helped her husband Adam with his carpentry business.

Jo wanted to be able to give the freedom back to mothers and allow them to have some time to themselves for a bit of pampering 

Children are being looked after by qualified, CRB registered professionals at the cost of £1.50 for 30minutes or £2.99 for an hour 

Her lightbulb moment came when she got pregnant with her youngest daughter Lottie.

She said: “I put on weight and I felt rubbish. I was also fed up having my hair done at home under the kitchen sink, with my two-year-old hanging off my leg.

"But asking someone to look after my kids just to have my hair or nails done seemed selfish. That's how the idea was born and eight months later I was opening the salon."

Jo set up Serenity Loves back in 2012 and since then the business has gone from strength to strength.

Jo started the company with just £60,000 - that included £20,000 of her own life savings and £40,000 from a private investor.

Now in its sixth year of trading, the salon is turning almost £370,000 a year compared to £160,000 in year one.

Serenity Loves also employs nine members of staff and Jo is currently scouting for locations for a second shop.

So what makes her business a success? The biggest selling point of the salon is, of course, the kids’ playroom.

Children are being looked after by qualified, CRB registered professionals at the cost of £1.50 for 30 minutes or £2.99 for an hour.

Jo started the company with just £60,000 - that's £20,000 of her own life savings and £40,000 from a private investor. 

The company also employs nine members of staff and Jo is currently scouting for locations for a new shop 

The playroom is kitted out with a full range of toys, a DVD player and games console for older kids.

Meanwhile, mums can get their hair or nails done in peace, with their children nearby.

Jo said: "My aim is to give mums some time back for themselves "

"Customer care is at the forefront of everything that we do. It’s not just about cutting hair, it's about the whole experience."

"For a lot of the mums, it is the first time they have left their children with anyone bar their family, so their trust is very important to us."

Being her own boss comes with its challenges but Jo thinks it also made her a better mother and mentor.

She now runs a blog called The Unique Mumpreneur to coach other mothers looking to kickstart their own business.

The playroom is kitted out with a full range of toys, a DVD player and games console for older kids TERRY HARRIS

She said: "I feel like I am a better example for my daughters by being both a successful business owner and a mum.

"The salon also gives me much more flexibility than a 9-to-5 job, so I can schedule my workload around my daughter's diaries and spend more quality time with them."

According to insurance provider Simply Business, make-up artists and beauticians are the third fastest rising female-owned business in the UK, growing by 35 percent between 2016 to 2017.

Photo Credit : Terry Harris

This article originally appeared on : The Sun