Though the field of the hair care industry is growing at a rapid speed, it’s a sad fact that mostly 1 in 3 small businesses fail within the first 2 years. But no matter what happens, for many beauty-industry experts opening a salon is like a dream come true.
If you have the expertise and a decent investment, you might be half away to start the venture. And just like with any other industry, success depends on your dedication, hard work, and off-course analytical ability to revoke any challenging situation.
US hair salon industry makes more than 40 billion dollars each year which indicates if you want to be a part of it, you need a great business model. That means if you have the necessary beauty expertise and business acumen, you might have a great chance to achieve success in this thriving prospect.
I have spent lots of my working hours with saloon owners, and spa investors and worked closely to know the key factors for success. Here are a few steps to consider before opening a small, relaxing hairdresser, a super slick salon, or a traditional barbershop.
1. Business plan
First; you need a business plan- a great reminder of your goal. There is no point in starting a journey without investing proper time in planning. The plan will include a blueprint of what you will do, and how you’ll do it in the next, 1, 2, or even 5 years.
A business plan will act as a guide to determine success or failure. Based on this foundation, after a fixed tenure you’ll review what was the expectation and what has been achieved.
The plan should be elaborate enough- meaning it’s not just the mission or vision statement or funding opportunity; rather it should be consist of each and every step you are going to take to run the venture.
2. Select a great location
Saloon business heavily depends on location. If you really want to improve the chances of your success, research the right place that is easy to access, has good traffic, has high visibility, and be near your target demographic, and might have an ideal car parking nearby or walk-in distance for clients. Even the surrounding area should have to attractive, safe and well-built as well.
Selecting the location comes with knowing the area well. Try to gather information about the demographics, the local competitors, and thinks about how customers will go to the locations, what is the income and expenditure pattern of the locality. Try to figure out any future dispute that might become your enemy. Actually, you want to know everything about the location before finalizing.
However, selecting a prime location might include some extra cost- just like the other business. But if the extra price can increase the opportunity to grow business, why not spend more? So be fussy while selecting a business location.
3. Finance and budgeting
For most businessmen, finance and budgeting are the utmost challenges to open a new salon or barbershop. If you are planning to get finance from a loan then you must make a backup plan to repay. It’s important that you know the interest and other variables’ costs. Try to avoid extra expenses that might become a burden in the growth term.
Prepare a list of new equipment, facilities, and hair support solutions you might have to incorporate and what will be the cash flow forecast to repay if things are bought on credit.
4. Research local laws and regulations
Make sure you research well to gather adequate information about local state laws and regulations. Based on the legislation guidelines, you might need to adjust your plan. A small mistake can ruin your business or at least you might have to take the burden of penalties.
5. Talk to the distributor
Get in touch with some of the major product distributors. You and your staff might also need to get proper on-hands training that can be possible after liaison with major distributors.
6. Design the saloon according to your clientele’s taste
Before designing the interior or painting the decor think about the first impression. Clients’ experience will begin with the moments when they step through the door. The salon’s interior, decor, furniture, and facilities must match the kind of customers you want to attract. Unless your customer feels comfortable, they won’t make the repeat purchase.
If your target client base is the younger generation, then plan the internal decoration with bold colors and furniture.
Actually, when a customer steps into a hair salon they are hoping for more than just a good haircut. After all, it’s about spending 1 or two hours with relaxation. That’s why make sure you have created a welcoming, relaxed,ed and friendly environment to let your clients soak up easily and nicely.
The elements such as layout, lighting, greenery planting, reception area, workstations, and products display contribute to a good hairdresser interior design.
7. Get your business online
Now a day’s, no business can expect success without an online presence. You need a website through which customers can know about you, what you do, how you do it, the prices of services, locations, staff’s capability and company’s vision, etc.
Since saloon is a localized business, you need to optimize your website locally so that while clients search on the web your page might appear at the top of the list. It’ll help to acquire new customers. Means- connecting more and more will increase your brand visibility and sales.
8. Recruiting the best team
If you are starting out in a small salon, you might be the only employee otherwise you need a good team to operate a mediocre hair styling center smoothly. Hiring a team is a donating task. You have to hire based on skills and personality.
Salon personnel needs to be young, creative, hard-working, stylish, and opinionated. You need to make sure your clients must enjoy themselves while coming in.
9. Design a killer marketing plan
A number of clients will determine your success ratio. And believe me, customers won’t just walk to your hairdressing center automatically. You need to attract them towards your service- of course with a brilliant marketing plan. There are certain elements of a successful marketing plan.
Besides going online, startup salons need to develop low costs marketing ideas to reach their target clients. Getting involved in the community like– sponsoring small events, local games, awareness programs, and social causes are all good ways to let the world know about your presence.
Setting up your social media plan and utilizing them are also important components of your marketing plan. Opening a new venture, especially a salon has a lot of tasks. It’s important to plan as details as possible so that it’s become easy for you to adopt or tackle the challenges.
