Purchasing a Beauty Salon
For some people, buying a turnkey business is the best possible solution to owning a beauty salon. Sale notices are often run in local papers. People mismanage, have a drastic change in life such as divorce or a necessary relocation and an established business will be available to buy and simply step into. This is ideal in many ways.
First, as an established business it has built-in clientele and existing community presence. A new owner taking on a well-reputed salon has half the battle of startup eliminated. Advertising, naming and stocking worries are almost non-existent. Supplies will already be on hand for stylists. So initial ordering, stocking, decorating and staffing will afford little hassle. Also, stylists who choose to remain on staff will have a good grasp of inventory and future ordering. This helps a new owner plan ahead and allow accordingly. Much of the guess work will be eliminated. If the salon was not struggling, a discreet ‘under new management’ sign will suffice in the actual establishment. Customers should be made aware, yet not unnecessarily concerned.
If a struggling business is purchased, new owners should capitalize on letting existing customers and potential new ones know that things have changed for the better. And, that new things can be expected. A few cosmetic changes such as fresh paint or pictures make for a quick and effective makeover. A reopening period is a festive and interest-sparking event. A little extra cash spent on serving coffee and tea goes a long way with spreading word of mouth advertising about the exciting new elements making something familiar new again. Flyers displayed in advantageous locations provide low cost advertising and customer attraction.
Sometimes salons are sold in pieces. In this case, good quality chairs and other furniture can be bought under cost. This is a viable solution to outfitting a salon on a budget. Sometimes this sort of property dissolving is not advertised publicly. Having a good finger on the pulse point of the community can yield insider information concerning it. Learning about such potential sales gives an advantage in keeping start-up costs at a minimum. This leaves available capital for use elsewhere.
A final option remains in this discussion. In some instances, leases must be terminated and stock liquidated. If the salon had a good clientele, check local legal concerns and consider the following. A new owner could take on the salon’s name and stylists, and with them their clients. A new location can always be advertised and a positive spin made on the changes.
Beauty Salon Business Plan
Every beautician dreams of running their own beauty salon someday. Unfortunately because there are so many steps involved and unknowns involved, few go on to fulfill their ambition. Being a great beautician is one thing, but running a business is quite another. The creativity will certainly give you a good boost when it comes to business, but at the same time creativity won’t help with the more mundane aspects of business. Of course it won’t be easy and thousands of things will jump into your path and attempt to scupper you. It’s important to carry on and stick to your goals. Your beauty salon business plan is the first step along the path that will lead to you owning your own business. Be aware that many people have tread it before in the hopes of making a mark on the world through their very own business. Many fail.
That failure can often be traced back to a lack of planning. Unfortunately, those who are amazing within one area, especially a creative area, find themselves less adept at the serious business responsibilities. Many neglect the critical planning stage. This planning and preparation work that’s done in the beginning is an important first step. It shows you a model of your future business, one that can be tested against the market. The data for the market comes from market research and represents the typical figures you can expect, from which you can project expected sales trends and work out whether or not your business is viable.
A salon business plan has to be very readable and has to use solid research. It should also contain a very clear summary of what it is exactly your business does. Obviously a salon is much easier to describe than some businesses, but this is crucial if you’re doing something less common. Investors need to understand your business at a glance so that the rest of the document will make sense.
As you progress into your business plan, you’ll include lots of figures, and charts projecting your expected profit and growth. Those reading your document will need to be able to see where the money will be coming from, and how quickly they will see a return on their investment.
Your plan will also show where the customers will come from, based on your earlier market research. It will also detail your startup expenses, your day-to-day running costs, materials and other costs.
It’s also interesting to note; the business plan is for you more than anyone else! Many people neglect the business plan if they are self funding, since usually the bank manager is most interested in document. If you don’t have to please a bank manager or other investor, temptation is to let the plan slip. This is a bad idea.
When you can see the plan, it opens up a window into a potential future and lets you see problems months before they do become a problem. Look closely and see where the figures reveal such problems. If they cannot be overcome then it’s better to try again in a different location, or with a different business model. You might find for example when you draw up your beauty salon plan that the area you were planning to enter won’t support it. Going back to the drawing board and creating a hair salon business plan might reveal that a hair care business is much more viable in that area. Nor should you limit yourself to hair and beauty salons. Thinking about supply and demand will lead you naturally to discovering good possible businesses.
Location is key, so planning will involve trying to find the perfect location. This leads to the next most important factor which is the clientele. A business is nothing, indeed it’s bust, without its customers. Competition levels for those customers should be mapped out. The less competitors you have the less rivals you have competing for the same clients.
Funding is the next biggest issue. How do you intend to fund it? How long until you are profitable? And what are the key milestones your company has to reach before it’s unlikely to fail. You will need to turn a profit every month, or your company won’t last – like all the companies that have come and gone before.
Good solid market research will underpin the whole document. Such research must be conducted in the area you plan to start-up and if it represents a big enough sample of that population will give a clear indicator of the market. The whole point of the research is to enable exact figures to be extrapolated so that the business can be mapped out ahead of time. There are numerous market research firm that will do such research and give you a complete and accurate report. Such a report will then be fed into the business plan.
As mentioned, legal, rent, book-keeping, day-to-day, staffing and wages, as well as equipment purchases, are all costs that need to be accounted for in the beginning and throughout the plan.
Drawing up the plan is the hardest part. Armed with a sample plan, create something just like it and then tweak it so that it perfectly represents you. You’ll want it to impress those who look at it.
If your business plan reveals that your business won’t be profitable then it’s done its job – it’s served to warn you of such problems long before you’ve lost real money on them. You might have to go back to the drawing board and draw up another plan, with different figures and a different business model, and that’s a large part of the process. Eventually you will find your perfect business, so don’t give up.
Also see our 52 page report which will help you think about starting up and help you market your business effectively once it’s going: Style your Way to Success available on the main page. Or sign up to our free email mini-course below.
Secrets of a Successful Hair Salon
When you think about customer service based businesses such as salons, it is the total experience that stands out as the most important aspect of the business. For a salon this is doubly so due to the personal nature of the work involved and the close relationship you’ll have with your clientele. Here are a few other secrets. Hair Salon businesses and beauty salon businesses can benefit equally from all of these.
First impression is key. Indeed, this is the ultimate out of all the secrets hair salon owners put into practice. Get your first impressions right and you will unlock many benefits, the most important of which will be customers returning again and again. When a customer enters, they need a strong, positive first impression. A sincere, cheerful greeting goes a long way. If policy allows for walk-ins, staff should ask if the customer has an appointment. If walk-ins are not allowed, the person entering should be treated as a potential future client and promptly offered an appointment. If a stylist has a space of time with no appointments, it should be at their discretion to offer special treatment as an incentive for return business.
Chemical smells and noise are unavoidable. However, a clean well-ordered salon is an attractive one. Keep cleaning product smells to a minimum. Baking soda is very cost-effective, food grade and odorless. It scours and deodorizes for pennies.
Here’s a very special tip. People love personal treatment. Have stylists keep a notebook of facts. When a customer comes in, listen, pay attention. When they leave, take a few moments and make notes. Create an individual page. Write down their name and facts. Record their beauty concerns and what services where given. This way a stylist can personalize the experience and future service. This information must be guarded with utmost discretion and fervor. What it insures is a gratifying experience for the client for their next visit, and a good record for the stylist concerning color, chemical and cutting history. Also recall personal matters they may have discussed to ask about in follow-up. Computer files and records are a good documentary. But, a personal record on hand can prove very valuable. People like to feel important, and supplying that will raise the stature of your salon in their mind.
Word of mouth advertising is one of those things that is beyond price. When a stylist finishes with a client, and they say, “I love it,”, the stylist should smile, say “I am so glad. Tell someone.”. Just a few positive mentions travel a very long way. It’s free and the best form of advertising. When someone likes your service or your product they’ll tell three people. When someone has a bad experience they’ll tell seven people. Remember that – it doesn’t take many bad experiences to undo all the good work you’ve been doing. An ad or business card is great, yet impersonal. If a satisfied client tells a friend about their experience it creates a very positive buzz for the salon. Not only might a new customer be obtained, they may pass along what they heard. It created a verbal network that will help your business bring in new clients and have its name put out among the desired consumers.
The ultimate secret to a popular, successful salon is customer satisfaction. See to that, and your salon will be a healthy business.
Hair Salon Suppliers
Choosing reputable suppliers for a salon is a bit like dating. You start with the first impression, move onto Q & A, then have a flirt. Checking up on a supplier is a bit like chatting with a love interest’s ex. You want to know about the experience and general opinion.
Hair salon suppliers all have different rules and standards. It’s important to make certain that your needs and their regulations meet. A few simple rules will make this a much smoother relationship.
Know the supplier sales rules – This means minimum purchase limits, shipping costs and varying rates. Find out if there are hidden penalty fees for going under or over. Knowing this allows you to control financial concerns.
Checking reputation – Ask to speak to other customers and look at the company’s time of business. How long have they been offering service and product? How satisfied are their customers? Reputable suppliers should have no issue in supplying this information.
Many products can come direct from the manufacturer. Some will ship for exchange of salon display and split of profit. More costly products will require upfront purchase, and subsequent markup to cover costs. Only a more financially healthy startup can afford this.
The most important consideration is understanding what you can afford upfront. Product displays look very professional. However, weighed against out of pocket can be an ill-advised endeavor. The opportunity to order on demand is a potentially advantageous situation for supplier and salon. In the past this was not an option. More services are catering to this function.
Many people make the mistake of over-supplying. This leads to static products and lack of sales for profit. Good management moderates in-salon product sales and use. Use will remain a constant, while sales will fluctuate. I financially heavy ‘for sale’ inventory is a questionable investment. Products for stylists is a steady market.
That said, keep a record of how products are used. Make note of which stylist has clientele that require me and weigh their draw for the salon against cost. It’s not necessarily more profitable to make a stylist a freelance in your salon. And, if they are a color specialist, it may make sense to try negotiating with a supplier to keep that cost down, and their clients happy. Happy customers give you the ability to have more profit, and then seek better deals with suppliers.
It’s a symbiotic relationship. Diplomacy and a bit of leverage always will act to your benefit.
Marketing your Hair Salon
Initial marketing of a salon is very much like the old adage, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.”. It sets the tone and image for the business you are about to start nurturing. Most important is knowing the demographic you intend to target. When you understand your potential clients, you can successfully get their attention, and ultimately their business. That process is key to hair salon marketing, and understanding it will place you ahead of your competitors.
A salon looking for woman on the go like students, stay at home moms and busy single career women need to capitalize on three key factors: sensible pricing, prompt reliable service and a bit of much-needed pampering. Inexpensive flyers in prominent places like laudromat and playground bulletin boards with a focus on affordable pampering and reliable service will reach the eye of the crowd you seek to serve. Also coffee shops often allow the placing of business cards. These can be had for the price of shipping online and give your budding business a sense of stability. Startup promo specials like frequent customer rewards and lottery type giveaways to repeat clients can offer a strong impetus for them to give steady business. Keeping children’s books on hand will also show working and stay at home moms they can avoid putting off service until they have a babysitter.
For more mature women with more sophisticated needs, business cards will make a better impression. Offer an exchange with popular bistros and stylish brunch spots to have your business cards displayed in exchange for displaying theirs. Ads can be had surprisingly cheap at times due to a slump in sales. Try local trendy publications for opportunities to reach the public. This demographic wants smart chic. Key terms like sophisticated, up-to-date, and avand guard will make descriptions of your services appealing.
The toughest demographic for a new salon to target is the well-established discerning consumer. This is a luxury clientele group. They want full service, personal attention and a spa-like experience. If you intend to target this group of customers, advertising will have to be a well-considered part of your startup budget.You must also consider the sort of services and facilities you can offer. Making inflated claims will make dissatisfied clientele. Bad press by word of mouth can be a death sentence to a new business. If you aspire to this demographic, be prepared to offer luxury and provide it: rich atmosphere, courtesies such as coffee and tea, hot and cold scented towels for the face during certain services, high end products.
Keep in mind your budget and never deviate from it. Be honest to the customers you want to bring in, and you will have the best chance of successful marketing.
Hair Salon Logo
When you’re at the stage to think about the logo for your hair salon, you’ll find it’s a stage that is a lot of fun to implement. If you already have a particular theme you’ve settled on for your salon, ideas for your logo will naturally come to you. Hair and beauty salon logos are a key part of the salon’s image, so spend as much time as needed to find ideas. If you haven’t such a clear theme in mind yet, you might have to take a little more time before the solution comes to you. But don’t worry because it will; inspiration is never far off. One day you’ll be thinking about the logo, maybe see something, or have an idea and you’ll know you’ve hit the right idea. Here are some things to bear in mind.
A good hair salon logo is the key to success in any industry or activity. It will represent your business in the minds of your clients – a single image that conveys the spirit of your business. Having something that is both very visual and recognizable will tie in with your marketing efforts and give you an edge. Because of this, choosing a logo is one of the first steps you should take care of when starting up your salon business. A well chosen logo will indirectly assure a high profitability of your business, by tying all your marketing efforts together, so it is a worthwhile investment. Hair salon logos are also an opportunity to have fun being creative.
There are many ways to classify logos, but we’ll discuss three main types just for simplicity’s sake. A wordmark is a very popular logo design. Also known as ‘Logotype’ it is created using a typface and only utilises a combination of text and or numbers. A stylized font can assure the success of this type of logo, and convey something of the nature of your business. Good examples companies that use of this type of logo are IBM, Disney, and Dell. However with a wordmark logo the lack of imagery is problematic. It gives you less of a hook in people’s minds than a graphical logo. You also have to be careful not to be too boring. Many small companies use wordmark logos. Ask yourself, how many of those can you recall seeing? To counter this you can use lively fonts and make them come alive and embody your business. Doing so will attract your clients.
Symbolic logos are another type of logo. They are also known as iconic logos because they employ a recognizable icon to express a single representation that attempts to capture everything about your business. This summing up process can be tough for companies that sprawl out across multiple niches. Fortunately a salon is going to be something very focused, so the problem becomes that of originality rather than focus. Scissors would sum up what you do well, but do you want to use something that’s likely been used a million times before?
The symbol must be clear, and not overly complicated or it’s not going to carry well across all the different materials you’ll be using it with. You’ll want to use it in places as diverse as signs, business cards, flyers, posters, and maybe even your company van. So sophisticated symbols should be used with care and preference given to the simple ones.
Imagine yourself in the mind of a person walking down the street who walks past and sees your logo. What would they think? You want your logo to be something that is accessible and memorable. You can even test your logo before hand, by creating a survey and going out into the street where your business will be located, showing people two logos and asking which they prefer. If your study has a big enough sample then the results should be a fairly good representation of how your potential clients feel.
The last type of logo is the combination of the word mark and the symbol. If this combination is used creatively, it can create very attractive logos, because it combines the best aspects of both. In order to create a successful logo you must ask yourself where you want to start the business and for what target group. There are different conditions in a city center versus a less populated suburb. In a populated region you may need a completely different logo than you would for the quieter region. It could be argued that logo becomes more important then. With a high traffic area you stand to get more spontaneous business, and logo being a key component of your overall look will play a part in people’s snap decisions.
Another thing that plays a part in your design is the clientelle. If, for example, you make a hair salon for the ages of fifteen to forty, you’ll probably want to employ lively colours and an attractive dynamic logo. Similarly, if your target demographic were children, your logo would be significantly different, certainly more colourful, and no doubt very stylised. For a logo oriented to the older generation a large logos, that employs more conservative and calm colours would be a path you may want to pursue.
Colours are very important for a successful logo. Different colours do different things. There are colour combinations that are warming, and others that are cooling. There are vibrant colours, and calming colours. Different combinations of these achieve different results with your salon logos.
Once you have an idea for your salon logo, and know roughly what sort of colours you’d like to see in the salon logo design the next step will be to hire a designer to flesh out your ideas and make your vision a reality.
Not sure where to find a designer that meets your budget? Sign up for our free email mini-course and you’ll learn the secret to getting your logo professionally designed for as little as $5 for a quality beauty salon logo, or if you want more choice – having hundreds of people submitting their logo’s to you for as little as $50 dollars.
Get your Hair Salon Online
Most salon owners don’t realize the amazing benefits that getting your hair salon online can bring to a fledgling business. Social networking is becoming a universal medium for the sharing of news, ideas, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and so on. Because of the vast numbers of users who take part in social networking it has an almost unlimited potential for small businesses – or at least the ones who know how to use it.
Because of the ubiquity of the internet, and then fact that 80% of all Americans are online, small businesses can no longer ignore the internet as a way to get themselves into the minds of potential clients.
So how do you get yourself online, and where do you get hair salon websites from?
There are many ways to get yourself online. The first is to use webs.com to create a free website. The free website will get you off to a great start, but if you want to get serious about leveraging the power of the internet then you must get your own website with your own domain. Purchasing that through webs is a bad idea due to the fact that they host so many free websites and there service generally fluctuates from reliable to unreliable. It’s also pricey.
The absolute best way to set up a website, though may involve a fair amount of learning, would be to buy a hosting package from HostGator, or similar hosting company and then use fantastico to install WordPress.
WordPress is a great content management system that started off as a blogging platform and soon developed into a mainstay of the internet. Once fantastico automatically installs WordPress for you, you can then log in and use it as you would a blog. Better yet, WordPress has lots of plug-ins and plenty of room to customize the website how you like. There are thousands of free themes available and better yet, if you want your website to look a little more unique, there are relatively cheap premium themes that will give you a touch of exclusivity. Beauty salon websites are often catered to in those theme archives.
The final option is to hire a web designer, but we are now reaching a point in the internet where most people, if sufficiently motivated will be able to learn how to install and use WordPress in a matter of days, or find alternatives that also do not require any technical knowledge. Other options include solutions based on homestead or website tonight.
To be honest, your online hair salon site shouldn’t take a lot of work. Writing is the biggest problem, but since content can be bought for around a dollar per 100 words, outsourcing shouldn’t be too tough. If the right writer is hired, the articles could be done within a day. About 6 should be enough.
Once your website is up and running it’s a great idea to go to facebook and create a facebook page that you can point to your website. You will find that with a little encouragement your friends and clientele will happily ‘like’ your company’s page, and promote both your page and your website. Social media is a tool that has amazing potential and multiplies the power of word of mouth significantly.
In order to make this possible, it is a good idea to add interesting content to both your hair salon website and facebook page. The more interesting content you have then the more reason visitors have to come to your sites, and return again another time.
In addition to word of mouth, you can also use a variety of other online marketing methods such as you tube videos and banner adverts, although as your marketing reach increases you may find yourself reaching people who aren’t close enough to use your services. Rather than being a bad thing, you can always monetize your website with adverts and affiliate offers. These are good, but should be done in moderation. A good beauty salon website will attract return visits.
When it comes to having unique and original graphics made for your sites, and for your online adverts it’s actually possible to have these made very cheaply through sites like fiverr.com and tenbux.com where people offer their services for five and ten dollars. It’s a great way to quickly get your hair or beauty salon online until such times as your business is running and you can invest in a web designer. On such sites there are many writers, web developers and graphic artists who can help you with whatever step you get stuck at. Some even claim to offer whole websites for five dollars, though the quality may be questionable.
Promoting Your Website Once It’s Online
So once you have your site up and want to promote it, what do you do? The first thing you want to do is integrate your site with facebook. This will involve creating a facebook page and then placing a link to the page on your website through the facebook page widget. Because hair salons are very geographically localized then facebook is a good source of traffic from friends and friends of friends who are sure to be in your area.
You would also be interested to know that 20% of all searches performed in Google are for local content and local businesses, and that works out at about 3 billion searches each month for local services such as salons, doctors. Use the google keyword tool to find local keywords and then write posts on your website or blog that targets these keywords. There are many guides online that teach you how to do this, use article marketing to create links back to those articles. Also use social monkey to create strong social backlinks.
Hair Salon Names
Naming any business is a tricky matter. It must make a statement to potential customers and establish a commercial identity. Hair salon names can be especially difficult to think up due to the personal nature of the service provided. It is directly linked to a person’s appearance and therefore how they see themselves. Catchy hair salon names are a personal art.
First allow for location. What sort of natural and architectural influences should be considered? There’s a fine line between making a reference and stating the obvious. For instance a salon near a beach called Making Waves, Sand and Scissors, or Beachy Keen Cuts, or maybe Breezy Beauty Salon are catchy and reference the natural elements of location. Rock Beach Salon is bland and chances are it will be lost among similar unimaginative names. The exception is when certain elements add to the hair salon name. A place with a chic reputation such as West Palm Beach can actually add appeal. Palm Beach Posh makes a solid statement the clientele can expect local elegance and a certain standard. Or a salon in DC called Capital Cuttery.
Next, consider demographic. Who do you want as clientele? Younger generations will gravite to catchier, more playful names like Slick Chicks or You Made Better, or perhaps in a very avand gard area, Kinks Cuttery. More mature demographics want a salon to reflect their place in life. Names more suited to a mature, less experimental clientele might be something like Lady Godiva’s or Countess Cuts. Hair and beauty salon names often just tumble out of nowhere, once that spark is found.
Finally, consider the services you intend to offer. Do they require a place in the name or as a tag? For instance, if you intend hair to be the main service and perhaps nothing else to start, make sure the name reflects that. At a later date, as services are added, their availability can be named in a tag. To explain, a salon called Hair Experts clearly states it is all about hair. Later, as the salon grows, the tag, hair specialists in a full service salon, could be added. If upon start up a few services could be offered without ruing the budget, a name like Cuts Plus conveys that without making a potential customer think they will walk into a full service salon. A suitable explanatory tag can always be added in the future. Women often like to have a one stop for hair and nails. If this is a possibility a name like to Head to To could be used.
You want the name of your salon to represent who you want to bring in. Think carefully and best of luck.
Once you’ve came up with a great salon name, you can take some additional steps to ensure it’s the best it possibly can be. Analyzing your name will help you eliminate any potential problems. Look for words that resemble your name but have negative connotations, and ask people what comes into their heads when they see your name. Salon names should be inoffensive. Due to the large varieties in language, what affects some people seems innocent to others. You can conduct a survey and gather a large amount of information that will help you learn about the impact of your logo on your potential customers.
