A MUM and entrepreneur is celebrating a whirlwind couple of months after relocating and expanding her business after giving birth to her baby girl.

Chloe Barlow, 27, runs the Image Beauty and Image Training Academy, which was previously based above Toni and Guy’s in the Royals Shopping Centre on Southend High Street.

The beauty business has proved successful in the city centre, but Chloe jumped at the opportunity to open a new, and larger, salon in Barnstaple Road, next to Thorpe Bay train station.

The Thorpe Bay resident admitted the prospect of moving her business - just four months after giving birth to her daughter - was daunting, but the opportunity for a bigger and better space was too good to miss out on.

Chloe is confident the new location will benefit from extra passing trade and will give her a more visible presence.

She said: “The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind, what with giving birth to a beautiful little girl and now moving my business. But this was too good an opportunity to miss, so I decided to go for it.

“The support I have had from my family, friends, Amber and Poppy from my team, plus our existing customers, has been amazing and made this all possible.

“We live in Thorpe Bay, and I have been looking to expand as our previous location was great. But it was on the top floor and there was no real passing trade or opportunities to visibly advertise my business.

“Even though there has been so much going on, when this opportunity came up I just had to go for it. And I am really pleased to have now moved in and opened up in the local Thorpe Bay community and I can’t wait to get the new signage up showing our name.”

Image Beauty offers a wide range of beauty treatments specialising in aesthetic treatments, along with pamper parties for all ages.

It is open from 9am from Mondays to Saturdays, with late closing on a Wednesday and Thursday.

Image Beauty Training is an independently run, accredited training academy, specialising in beauty and aesthetic treatments offering one-to-one and small group courses with hands-on training, shadowing days and ongoing lifetime support.

Visit www.imagebeautyandclinic.co.uk