Natasha Moon fell in love with Spain’s warm climate, and left Portsmouth with her young family to set up a new home and a new hairdressing business in Torrevieja

Natasha Moon’s parents moved to Spain six and a half years ago and after visiting them in their new sunshine-filled home, she became tempted to join them. It wasn’t until her father died, however, that Natasha seriously considered moving over with her husband and two young children to start a new life and offer more support to her mother. And, in 2005, they did just that.

"I’d had enough of living the way we were living in the UK,” says Natasha. “I wanted to be nearer my Mum. Even though we had a nice house and a good standard of living back in Portsmouth, I thought she had a fantastic life over here and I wanted some of that.”

Natasha is a hairdresser and was a director of one of a chain of three hairdressing salons in Portsmouth. She didn’t want to cut all her ties with the UK, however, and she retained an interest in the business.

“I kept the business back home and we rented out our house,” says Natasha. “We also didn’t want to commit to buying anything over here until I knew things were going to work out, so we just rented a place near my mum.”
Natasha planned to continue her career in Spain, opening a hairdressing salon once there. She thought at first that they would live and work in Alicante, but after doing her research she found it would be too expensive.
“I looked at the costing for getting a shop in a good position there, but I just couldn’t afford a prime location. I then looked at shops in malls in Alicante, but they were too small and still proving too expensive. In the end we settled on an area just outside Alicante, Torrevieja, an up-and-coming area, where I bought a leasehold on a lock-up shop.

“I had to put the shop together from scratch. I had to put in the water and electricity and employ an architect, but I chose it because it is in a great location. The salon is 120 m2, it has ten stations, five basins, a beauty room and two offices.

“It is in a nice residential area. We are very near a big shopping centre and hypermarket, so we get loads of passing trade. They are also building a new bus depot, which will put us on a bus route and there are lots of other businesses springing up, as well as bars and restaurants.”

Natasha found setting up a business very similar to the processes followed in the UK. “I set myself up as an SL company, which is the same as a limited company in the UK. I did find it easier, however, because I used a Spanish architect, plumber and electrician when putting the salon together. You need special licences to trade and you need to show the correct paperwork and they all knew what was expected. You also need a license to operate as a hairdresser and I had a solicitor to do that for me."

Read the full article in our June 2008 issue.