Millionaire puts her success down to 'manifesting'
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Caroline Sanderson wasn't always a successful businesswoman and millionaire.
Some 13 years ago, she sat in the tiny staffroom of her hair salon in Inverness and wept. Not only was the business that she had built up for seven years on the verge of collapse, she was eight months pregnant and about to become a single mother to three children. Her world was crumbling around her.
"It really was my rock bottom," says Caroline, now 50. "Business had been affected by the recession and my manager had gone AWOL and taken the client list with her. I was at the point where I was struggling to pay my team and decided that the best thing to do would be to sell up and walk away. But that day in 2009, a valuer came in, looked at the books and said the business was not worth anything. It was at that point I broke down."
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Fast forward to today and Caroline is a millionaire hairdresser with an award-winning salon. She lives in a five-bedroom house in Inverness with her three children aged 12, 16 and 20 and a Mercedes convertible sits on the driveway.
Although Caroline admits that hard work and determination played a big part in the turnaround of her fortune, she also credits something a little more unusual – creating a ‘dream book’ that ‘manifested’ her success into reality.
"I know it sounds ‘woo woo’ and when I first started doing it, I kept it to myself because I didn’t want to be ridiculed or judged by other people," she says.
"But manifesting – or visualising and focusing on something you want in the future, rather than the problems in the present – really helped changed my mindset. It made me emotionally and mentally stronger to deal with any challenges that came my way. It's one of the reasons why I coped so well with the pandemic. I knew in my mind and that I’d been through worse and would thrive and succeed in the long run."
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On the day of her breakdown in the salon, Caroline says that she went home and researched what changes she could make to save her business.
"It was around this time that I started hearing about ‘manifestation’ and the book The Secret, which claims that thoughts can change a person’s life directly," she says. "I started following mentors and one of them suggested keeping a ‘dream book’ in which I’d write down things I wanted in the future.
"I wrote down the figures I wanted the business to turnover, I’d write an actual cheque of my dream takings and I’d stick in pictures of how I wanted the salon to look. I pasted pictures of busy places on the pages, to encourage more customers.
"I also stuck in pictures of my dream house and car. I even posted a picture of a previous winner of Scottish Hairdresser Of The Year – our industry version of the Oscars – and put my face over her face. It sounds odd because of course I knew it wasn’t really me in the picture, but if your unconscious brain sees that image enough times, it starts to create a ‘new identity’ for yourself in your mind."
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At the same time, Caroline threw herself into learning more about marketing and business.
"Some people make the mistake that manifesting alone will work and that’s not the case," she says. "But it helps put you in the mindset to succeed. Suddenly the phone started ringing off the hook, the salon was getting busy and serendipity also played a part. One morning I turned up and a photographer had called out of the blue asking if he could do a free shoot because he needed to practice hair and make-up photography.
"I’d never done a shoot before but knew that if I wanted to improve my chances of winning an award, I’d have to do them. So we did the first shoot and that led to more shoots and by 2015 I’d won Scottish Hairdresser of the Year. I won it again last year so am the current title holder."
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In fact, Caroline’s salon has won over 150 awards over the last 10 years including British Men’s Hairdresser of the Year and Artistic Team. She has doubled the business in size, at one point putting an extra 2000 clients on her books. She set up a coaching company, helping other business owners to succeed and says she’s never been more fulfilled.
In terms of luxuries, Caroline – who grew up on a council estate – now lives in the five-bedroomed house she dreamed about. She owns several properties and has a love for sports cars.
‘I once spotted a gorgeous white Maserati in Harrods and knew from the moment I saw it that it was MY car,’ she says. ‘I visualised having it on my drive and opening the door and sitting inside it. Three months later I went to collect it and the man at the garage said I was driving this new car cheaper than anyone else in the country as they’d made a slight mistake with the coating and reduced the price. It felt like it was meant to be.’
Today Caroline’s main focus is on helping other people succeed.
‘It’s not all about manifesting and visualising the ‘perfect life’ as that doesn’t exist,’ she says. ‘I’ve had lots of ups and downs as a single mother and without the help of my family and friends I’d have struggled. But I did it – and if I can turn my life around, anyone can.’
