In order to be a successful salon owner, you must first find an ideal location. A lot of people want their own space in the city where they can make custom creations every day and showcase them for all to see but this comes with its drawbacks too! If clients are coming from outside your area then it might not work out so well because there may be more competition within that particular neighborhood or town. You also need insurance if you’re going into business which is another cost altogether.
If you’re interested in starting a new business, specifically opening a salon, now is the ideal time! Thanks to robust economic times and an industry worth over $56 billion annually, hair care is one of the largest segments nationwide with 86,000 locations. It also has some demand since people are always looking for ways to upgrade or change upgrade their hairstyle — which means there will always be awaiting market if you’re interested in opening your own salon too.
Opening a salon is hard work, but the payoff can be great. When you open your own business it’s important to know what will happen before taking on such an endeavor because there are many factors that could lead to failure. That being said, if done right starting up a new salon and running one isn’t as difficult or expensive as some people would think! Opening any kind of small business comes with its fair share of challenges! If they’re successful at all then it probably took long hours devoted to research and planning mixed in with enough savvy for them.
The best way to get started is with a background in the salon industry. The most successful people have experience working as hairdressers and an inherent love for their work, so if you think this might be something that interests you then it’s worth looking into whether or not there are any opportunities near where you live.
A 6-Step Guide to Opening A Salon
Opening a salon involves similar steps to starting any small business. However, you’ll have to adhere to some salon-specific steps as described below:
1. Have A Business Plan Write-up
You want to open a beauty business but you need the best tools for success. A well-rounded plan includes your customer segments, supplier relationship, acquisition channels (such as social media), necessary revenue streams, and other crucial resources that will help get customers through your doors in style!
Opening a salon is not as simple as designing it and getting clients. You need to do plenty of research before you invest the time, money, and effort into opening your doors. You’ll also want to do plenty of market research such as whether or not there’s enough need for another store if you will be able to drum up business.
Opening A Hair Salon Checklist
In order to open a salon, you have to make sure that your checklist is complete. You’ll need this list of things before opening the salon so that there are no problems in the future and everything goes smoothly. First on your checklists should be including something from one other part of running a business: writing up an original plan for what will become your new venture!
Here’s what you need to do:
- Find your ideal legal structure and choose your business name
- Register the business
- Select a location
- Acquire a business operating license
- Pay for insurance
- Find suppliers
- Get all of the necessary equipment
- Buy the salon furniture; including sinks and chairs
- Buy solon supplies
- Look for stylists to hire
- Train hires
- Start marketing
2. Get to Know Cost Requirements
Most importantly, you need to figure out how much money is needed. Keep in mind that it might take a few months or more than a year before profit can be made back. You may want to talk with the bank loan officer for small-business loans and meet with an accountant who will help plan taxes related to your new endeavor – this way you’ll know what kind of revenue stream is coming down the pipeline so as not to spend too much at once on something.
Salons are a tough business to get into because they require significant start-up costs. You’ll need an inventory of products, training for employees, and insurance in order to be compliant with regulations while running the salon’s daily operations. The most important thing you can do is balance your operating costs by considering how much money you will make from each service or product that you sell – this way it won’t take too long before getting back on track again if one area starts costing more than anticipated.
Pricing for products and services is also fairly universal— it’s usually a 50% markup of the wholesale price. For instance, a bottle of shampoo will be the same price within an entire street, and that standard holds for all other cosmetics in this industry as well. Pricing for services is also fairly universal; depending on where you are located or what city surrounds your business, there may be different rates from which to choose based upon various factors such as location and competition levels among nearby businesses.
Call around to learn about prices at similar places before setting up shop yourself! It usually helps if we raise our prices once every year by 5%. This way, inflation will not affect you too much when trying to charge clients higher current costs due to today’s lifestyles changes.
3. Get an Insurance Cover for Your Salon
Insurance is a necessary evil. No one likes to pay for it, but you’ll be glad when the time comes and your business needs protection from unexpected events that could happen at any moment. You may not think of all these things while running your new venture; but insurance can offer everything in case something goes wrong with employees or clients’ funds — maybe even yours! It all depends on the type of coverage you’ve selected.
Here are some other bureaucratic hoops you have to jump through:
- First, get a business license.
- Next, secure licenses for all personal appearance workers (though exact regulations vary by state; check with the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing).
- Plan for your health and fire marshal inspection as well as pay CAM charges when opening a salon- which is an additional rent paid by tenants to commercial property landlords on top of the base rent.
- Ask fellow business owners or members in your local government what’s expected when starting new businesses in their city or county!
4. Find A Strategic Location and Hire Qualified Staff
One of the most important aspects of opening a salon is finding an ideal location for your business. The type of space you want to rent will depend on where it’s located, but many salons are opened as offshoots from other places that end up being too successful and need their own place to expand into. You’ll also have clients who follow you wherever you go because they’re loyal customers – so keep them close so they can get a trim without having to go too far out of the way or settle for subpar service at another establishment.
Salon owners are always on the lookout for a new location to house their business. However, because they want to maintain all of their clients, salon owners should be careful not to move too far away from where they were before; this is within a one-mile radius. One mile seems like standard distance people will follow you if your old spot was close by and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work both ways!
For your salon to be successful, you need the right people. Hiring someone just because they could fill a seat is not always the best idea since it may send out mixed messages and lead to discontent with clients down the line.
Being a small industry, the best way to find great talent for the hairdressing industry is through word-of-mouth – tap into your own network of friends in order to expand and find people who fit your vision.
It’s important to not panic and know that you have made the right decisions with your vision. In order to do this, it is necessary for you to create a balance between getting people on board quickly and giving them time before they fully understand what will happen in the long term.
5. Advertise Your Salon
Once you’ve got your salon’s entire business plan well taken care of, it’s time to get things rolling. Start by tapping into your old clientele and have them spread the word on social media about what they’re doing now that they found a new stylist at their favorite local spot. Spread some love with special discounts for all who decide to come over from before!
It’s a tough time to be in the marketing business, but these days it is absolutely essential that any company wants to stay afloat get their name out there. While old-fashioned methods like print advertising are still on par with newer strategies such as online presence and social media campaigns for your brand, you need more than just simple advertisements if you want people looking at what they’re selling or buying anything from them.
In today’s modern era, it is important to find new and creative ways of bringing in customers. This means creating a website with social media accounts for marketing purposes—Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Many people are absolutely pulling in new business overwhelmingly from Facebook. Post photos of the business building online — and people will share that with their friends.
You could also invest in local advertising; have the business in a brochure for an upcoming event such as a baseball tournament, and put out advertisements in local newspapers or on social media platforms like Facebook to reach many people at once about your special offers every few months leading up to major events so that you’re not always paying hefty fees all year round for marketing specialists who may just be doing one-off tasks with no knowledge of what’s going on beyond their area of expertise.
6. Scale Carefully
Opening a salon is an exciting prospect with grand plans. However, when it comes to decorating or designing the interior of your new business, practicality often takes precedence over creativity due to budget constraints.
The world of entrepreneurship is a lucrative one, but there are some major startup costs to take into account. Rent and equipment will be the two largest expenses you have when starting your own salon business–especially if you’re going for top-of-the-line products like hair dryers or sinks with faucet attachments!
However, it’s not necessary that you get the best of everything right off the bat; many businesses spend more money on rent than they do on their actual supplies because new owners don’t realize how much cheaper Craigslist can be. You may even find yourself getting discounted prices from other salons that need to get rid of old inventory before closing up shop!
Keeping your salon inviting and homey doesn’t have to break the bank, try making it a great place for customers by keeping things tidy. Offer hand or scalp massages along with playing music throughout the space that will keep people from getting bored. Pick up some low-cost items including wine or coffee in order to make them feel more at ease while they are there spending their hard-earned money on themselves!
If you come in under budget and want to spend more on equipment, don’t forget about some of the hidden costs that may be tempting. There are many little things we often overlook when running a salon or spa such as printing up service menus for your customers so they know how much it cost them per minute/hour etc., buying business cards for new employees, upping inventory just in case you get an influx of clients who would like certain services not currently available at this time. Distributors can help you find products and equipment that might work best with your needs but will still fit into your budget.
Bottom Line
Opening a salon or starting your own business can be an exciting venture. You’ll get the chance to meet new people every day and you’re always learning something new from both customers and stylists, not to mention that there’s creative liberty in designing hairstyles for everybody who visits! It can also be challenging at times; it requires dedication, creativity, patience when dealing with difficult clients (remember: everyone has their quirks), but if this is what you want then go ahead and take those first steps—it will all pay off eventually.
Anyone aspiring towards opening up their very own salons needs only remember one thing before they dive into the unknown abyss of entrepreneurship: Come prepared by doing research on how much money they need beforehand.
It’s also important for a salon to have all the tools and supplies necessary in order to provide excellent service. A good business plan, insurance coverage, proper location are just some of the factors that go into running an efficient hair salon with high-quality services.
