What will it be? A hair salon, nail salon, barbershop, or maybe a full-service beauty salon or spa?
I’m so happy that you landed on this article.
This is going to be an important read for you.
If you’re looking for a checklist on how to start a salon business, you’re exactly where you need to be.
The salon industry is on the rise. People are spending more and more on beauty, and it’s never been a better time to start a salon.
But let’s talk straight here.
Many salon businesses still fail.
The main reason salon startups fail is not because of a lack of money or poor services.
It’s because of poor planning.
This is why this article is so important to you.
This is why TheSalonBusiness.com and all the resources I publish here even exist.
Today, you’ll get a complete “opening a salon checklist” with all requirements for opening a salon.
If you’re on a tight budget, I’ll even show you how to open a salon with no money.
It’s quite a long article. But it’s probably the best investment of time you can make today.
Pin it to your Pinterest board or bookmark the page to return to it later.
Are you ready to realize your dream?
Let’s go through how to start a salon business.
↓ Pin it for Later ↓
We’ll soon dive into the checklist, but if you want to hear the full story of that experience, watch the video below, where I interview My about how she went from idea to building two thriving hair salons.
You’re not the first one to start a salon.
Many people have gone through the same journey. So why not learn from them?
A mentor is someone you can meet regularly to discuss the challenges and ideas for your new business. Someone with the experience to guide you and give you perspective on what you’re going through.
I would never have been where I am today without my mentors and I strongly recommend that you look in your network if you know someone with the right experience you can reach out to.
You cannot build a house without having a clear vision and drawing of what it should look like.
I’m sure you’ll agree that starting to build a house without a vision and plan will result in a strange and random structure that will probably never be finished.
The same goes for your salon business.
All things are created twice; First mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.
Stephen R. Covey
To get at least close to your new salon, you need to have a clear and vivid picture of it. Try to really envision what it will be like when you’ve opened the doors.
What type of clients will you meet in your salon?
What will the salon interior look like?
Will you have staff working for you? If so, what will they be like?
You don’t need to get rational here. Don’t start writing bullet-point lists of everything you’ll have. Instead, picture yourself visually in your salon. Try to feel now what feeling you’ll have when you’re there.
This might sound fluffy, but it is proven that having a clear and vivid picture of your future significantly increases your chances that this is how your salon will end up.
I’m sure you already know if you want to start a hair salon, nail salon, barbershop, beauty salon, spa or something else.
But there are many different types of salons you can start.
| Traditional Salon | Where you own a building where you house your salon. This gives you the full freedom to do what you want in your salon. |
| Salon Suite | Where you own a building where you house your salon. This gives you the freedom to do what you want in your salon. |
| Salon Booth Rental | When you pay someone to rent a booth, styling station or other space within an existing salon suite. You have your own business but it’s still similar to being employed in a salon. The benefits are your independence and higher earning potential. The drawbacks are that you cannot control the salon as it it was yours (interior etc.) and you don’t get the same employee benefits as if you were an employee. |
| Commission Based Salon Employee | Here, you’re running your own salon business from your home. This comes with obvious benefits desirable at certain stages in life. But it’s at the same time hard to “leave work”. Depending on where you live, there can be different requirements you need to be aware of (e.g. the need for a separate entrance). |
| Home Salon | Running a mobile salon means visiting your clients instead of the other way around. You can attract a new audience in your area with a mobile salon. Those who have little time and want their service at home and also people with disabilities who cannot travel easily themselves. This is a good option if you want to open a salon with no money. While traveling, equipment will be kept to a minimum, and you can charge your clients a premium as you’re going to them, which is part of your service. |
| Mobile Salon | This is when you run a salon of an existing brand – like Supercuts. You’ll get support with marketing and training from the franchising company. Make this a good option if you don’t like to focus on marketing and building your own salon brand. On the other hand, you’ll have royalty fee costs on top of your rent to take into account and less flexibility when designing your salon experience. |
| Franchised Salon | This is when you run a salon of an existing brand – like Supercuts. You’ll get support with marketing and training from the franchising company. Make this a good option if you don’t like to focus on marketing and building your own salon brand. On the other hand, you’ll have royalty fee costs on top of your rent to take into account, as well as less flexibility when designing your salon experience. |
These are some of the common types of salon models that you should consider when starting your salon business, and there are also variations to each model that you’ll discover.
Try to determine which model resonates best with your budget, risk acceptance, and desire for freedom.
Starting your own salon business means you’re the boss – right?
Well, yes and no..
In fact, it’s more as if you just got a new boss..
You might know her, she’s called your client 🙂
So who do you want as your boss?
Your salon exists to serve your clients. If you serve your clients well, you’ll also be rewarded. But all people do not want the same thing. Some have a limited budget, some value going to a known salon name, some want a pampering experience, and some have limited time and a fast service.
This is why deciding who your ideal client is is important now. This way, you can design everything about your new salon to speak to her.
Because you cannot be attractive to everyone.
When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one
Meredith Hill
Get as clear as possible about who your ideal salon client is. Picture her in front of you.
I want you to see her.
She can be someone you already know or a fictive character you just make up. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have a vivid picture of who she is, what she likes, and what problems she has. The persona is someone you should have in your head as you make thousands of big and small decisions about your business over the coming months and years.
There are a few questions you can ask yourself as you define who your ideal salon client is.
This is maybe the most important one. You’re going to spend a lot of time with your client, so it better be someone who you actually want in your salon. Otherwise, it will be difficult to serve her well in the long run.
It’s good to get detailed in your definition of your ideal client. The more specific you are, the more she will feel like your salon is exactly for her. But at the same time, you need to make sure there are actually sufficient people in the area who fit the description of your ideal salon client, or you may be niching down your salon too much.
You’ll learn more about how to define your salon’s target market as you create your salon business plan.
You can make most salon clients profitable. However, your choice of salon client will influence your salon’s business model. For example, you can go after the cost-conscious client with low prices and make that profitable. However, your operations will need to follow. This means shorter appointments, basic services, and less attractive salon locations. This is why you need to have the overall salon vision in mind when choosing the client to go after.
Finally, you should think about how you deliver value to the target client. And you do that by solving her problems.
Understand what her problem is and how you can solve it. Your solution will often be part of the salon services you offer, but it can also be how you offer them, such as attractive prices, a rich experience, or convenience.
Competition is a good thing.
You shouldn’t be scared just because you see other beauty salons in the area.
The opposite actually.
I would get more suspicious if there weren’t any other salons in the area as this may be a signal that there’s no need for one.
The fact that there’s competition proves there’s a market.
But you should stay close to the competition, understand what they are doing, and what’s working and not working for them. This way, you can avoid making expensive mistakes yourself. Coming in later to a market gives you an advantage. You have fresh eyes while they are, in many cases, locked into how to do things, making it more difficult for them to be innovative and come with new thinking. This is what you will do, giving you an edge over them.
But how should you study your competition?
One of the most common ways that people will find your salon is via search. Having your salon showing up at the top of the search result page will be crucial for your success. So you should check out who owns that space in your area and study that salon.
Just spending a few hours looking at their clientele, how they meet their clients, and what they offer can give you insight into their salon’s positioning and clientele.
Like with search, social media is an important marketing channel for salons. You want to see how they use it and if they have an engaged following. Following them will also give you more insight into what they are doing in the salon and any salon promotions they are currently running.
You must go over the websites of all salons in your area. Here you can make note of salon services offered and their pricing. Note all this information down in a spreadsheet or document as you’ll need it when you’re designing your salon offer.
But you shouldn’t only look at salons in your area. In the end, you want to be different from them. Spend some time also going over other salons’ websites and make notes about their salon branding, marketing, price list, and offer. To help you with this, I’ve pulled together a long list of nail salon websites, hair salon websites, and beauty salon websites here.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Mario Puzo
The competing salons in your area will influence how big share of the market you can get. This is something we’ll go into in more depth as we start writing your salon business plan.
However, the size of the market is not definite. You can make the market bigger. When you know what competition is up to, you can focus on how you can be different to them. And how you can add additional revenue streams to your salon that they don’t have.
You can create a Blue Ocean to compete in.
The concept of Blue Ocean Strategy was coined by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne in their book with the same name. In the book, they make the distinction between a red ocean and a blue ocean, where the red ocean is where traditional businesses compete for market shares. Businesses with a blue ocean strategy go and increase the size of the market by being different from the other.
I recommend you look at competition with that lens.Think about how you can make the market bigger rather than just eating share from your competitors.
It’s time to build the platform on which you’ll launch your salon business. In the coming steps, you’ll create your business plan and complete all the requirements when opening a salon.
Opening a salon is a big project.
And the journey to getting there can seem overwhelming in the beginning. Where do I start and what do I do next?
You need a plan.
And I suggest you start drafting one already now. It doesn’t need to be perfect from start. But it will help you ask the right questions when you move forward with your salon business setup.
Let’s cover an overview of the key components of your business plan.
A salon business plan is a summary of how your salon business will function and clarifies why it will be successful. It provides a roadmap with goals and milestones to lead your salon to success.
The primary reason you need a salon business plan is for you to get in control of your beauty business and to enable the right decisions up front.
A well laid out plan gives you a clear path to follow as you set out while it also helps spot weaknesses in your salon business early. You also need a salon business plan to communicate with others.
If you need to raise money, the bank or investor will want to see your salon business plan before issuing any funds.
Any plan you build is useless unless you’re able to measure and track how you’re living up to the plan. To enable this, you need to get a salon software with strong reporting capabilities that allow you to understand the numbers.
The tool I use and recommend is Mangomint. Not only because of all the powerful reporting features (as shown in the video below), but because it’s simply a pleasure for you, your team, and your clients to use.
Your expense forecast should also include the going costs your salon will have.
The biggest monthly expenses a salon have are:
I’ve also put together a salon cost guide that I recommend you go through which covers the topic in more depth. This guide will help you identify the costs you need to include as well as give you some assumptions that you can work with.
If you’ve completed the previous step, you should now have an idea of how much money you’ll need to start your salon business.
Hopefully you have some money saved for you new venture. But chances are you’ll need more money than that to set your salon venture off to a successful start.
There are of course ways you can get additional funding for your salon start-up. I have summarized the options you have here. Needless to say, you need to use caution and conservative business assumptions when you’re raising capital from other sources than your own. This comes with additional risk which you need to be conscious about.
The best is if you can fund part of your salon using the money you already have. Consider what you have in your savings account, if you have any stocks you can sell, if you own a property you can draw credit from, or if you have things you can sell like jewellery or cars.
You may have people around you who believe in your venture and are ready to support you. The benefit of this is that it eliminates credit approvals and bank fees. However, you want to make sure that you’re not putting your relationships at risk. Thus, I would really only consider accepting friends and family support if you are confident you can return the payment.
Credit cards are commonly used when starting up a business to get short term funds for investments. This can be a great help for your cash flow but you of course need to be certain that you’re able to pay back after the short payment period.
Interest rates for credit cards after the payment period can be high so if you’re not using it safely you can end up in a bad place that you want to avoid.
There are providers that specialize in small business loans. A popular place to turn for loans is Fundera. They compare different loan providers for you so that you can find the best solution for you.
It can be difficult to get a regular loan from providers if you’re just starting out and don’t have and proven business performance to show. This is where SBA financing comes in.
If you’re not able to get a regular bank loan you may still be able to get an SBA secured loan. What this means is that the U.S. Small Business Administration guarantees the loan for you. This reduces the risk for the lender and in turn the cost of the Loan.
To find out who offers SBA secured loan, you can compare SBA loan options at Fundera. You should be prepared for that the application process for these loans to be long even if the cost of the loans are typically lower than traditional bank loans.
So you should apply for your SBA loan as soon as you know you need one.
It’s not as easy to get good financing when you’re starting a new salon business as when you have a well-established salon and just need additional funds to grow.
You can always check what loans you can get at Fundera. They also have a proven track record of being able to find solutions to new business where the traditional banks have said no.
Even if you can get a loan, you still want to make sure you do not take too high risk yourself. You want to be confident in your ability to pay it back. What will help you get that confidence is a good salon business plan. This is also something that bank will want to see to give you a loan.
You’re making good progress!
You’re starting to get a log of the foundations in place to launch your new salon business. So it’s soon time to officialize your new business!
But before you do, you must decide what legal structure your business should be.
Salon owners can choose from five possible legal structures when starting a salon business: Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC), S Corporation, or C Corporation but an LLC is probably your best option.
The choice of business structure affects how much taxes you’ll pay, your liability, how much administrative work you need to do as well as your ability to get loans and raise money.
An LLC business setup protects you from personal liability. It’s only the money that you put into your business that you have at risk. This is the main reason you should consider an LLC vs. a Sole Proprietorship.
LLCs are also flexible. They don’t require shareholder meetings, a board of directors, and other formalities that a corporation does. On top, there’s also more flexibility when it comes to taxation.
However, the right legal structure could be different for you. There are services like Zen Business that can help you here.
You have reached the exciting (or daunting in some cases) part of your opening a salon checklist.
It’s time to come up with a name for your salon.
There are four questions I recommend you ask yourself as you start brainstorming on good salon names for your business.
Here is my video with tips when naming a salon or spa business.
It’s time to get your business registered with the state.
How you should register your business is determined by the business structure and location. But you’ll likely need to get a tax ID first as well as required licenses and permits for your salon.
This is not difficult but to make life easy for you, you can use a service like Zen Business to set up the business for you.
You just need to select the desired business structure and fill out a simple questionnaire.
This will save you time that you instead can invest in getting your new salon up and running.
There are a few licenses and permits you’ll need when you open a salon.
We should be thankful that this is the case as it ensures professional knowledge and service quality, which protects salon clients. It also keeps unserious players away from our industry.
Let’s go over what the common ones are.
The licenses and permits you need to open a salon are:
On top of the above, you’re (in most states) also required to have salon insurance. I’ll cover what salon insurance you need later on in this guide.
Your physical salon is at the heart of your business. In the next step, we’ll review how you find and set up your salon facility.
Location, location, location.
These are the three most important things for a salon or spa business.
But is the salon location as important as it used to be?
If your salon has a strong presence on social media, you’ll not be as dependent on street traffic as in the past.
Your salon gets visibility and attracts clients online instead. This is why I thought the quote from Jeff Bezos was fitting here.
The three most important things in retail are location, location, location. The three most important things for our consumer business are technology, technology, technology.
Jeff Bezos
But even if you build a strong online presence, the location of your salon remains important.
Where you’re located says a lot about you.
And it needs to be convenient for your target client to get to you.
Salons based in an area with a high amount of people walking or driving by also need to invest less in marketing their salons. They get that for free, thanks to the location.
But picking the right salon location comes down to much more than street traffic and the convenience for clients to get there.
In fact, in my guide to choosing a salon location, I include a checklist with 21 things that you must consider before signing your lease agreement.
Running a salon comes with risk.
Things will go wrong.
A client could slip and break an ankle. You could accidentally give the wrong advice to a client that causes them injury. One of your staff could get injured. Or you could spill out chemicals during a mobile salon home visit.
These are just some examples of things you’re liable for as a salon owner. And just some reasons why you need to ensure you have the right insurance policies in place for your salon.
It’s natural to look for savings opportunities when starting a salon, but don’t let your insurance be one of them. This could cost you a lot down the line. Some insurance is also required in most states.
Below are common insurances you’ll need, even if it can differ depending on the salon type.
| Insurance | What it covers |
|---|---|
| General Liability Insurance | Protects against claims caused by bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury that arise from your salon business operations. |
| Commercial Property Insurance | Covers costs associated with repairs as well as the loss of income due to damage to building and salon equipment. |
| Professional Liability Insurance | Protects against claims that your professional advice or salon services caused a client financial harm. |
| Workers Compensation Insurance | Covers your employees lost wages and medical treatment in case of injury. Mandatory in almost all states. |
You can combine some policies to help you save money. I explain more about that in my guide to salon insurance that you can read here.
This is the most important thing when people walk into your salon. The experience people have when they arrive is what will set the standard of what type of salon you are and if your salon is right for them.
Your salon is also the workplace for you and your staff. And it’s not laid out in a way that is practical, you’ll soon go crazy.
So when you create your salon layout, you need to balance the appearance with the practicality.
How exactly to layout your salon will, of course, differ depending on your salon dimensions. You can learn more about the recommended common salon room dimensions in my other article.
I have put together a list of salon decor and design ideas that you can check out for inspiration. For more salon design and decor ideas, I think Pinterest is the best platform for free inspiration. I try to pin nice ideas that I come across on my Pinterest board here.
Your salon lighting also plays a massive role in your salon’s appearance. Check out my article about salon lighting design to learn about lighting fixtures and options for salons.
Below are some specific salon design ideas to have in mind as you layout your salon.
It’s natural that your first salon will be smaller which means optimizing the space will be crucial to you. Here are some small salon design ideas:
Read my article on small salon design ideas for more inspiration here.
The salon reception and retail area should be the first thing clients see as they walk into the salon.
You want to keep your reception tidy and clean. This is a working space for making bookings, answering the phone, and in many case and other administrative tasks. But you need to be careful that it doesn’t end up looking messy with paper a stationary lying around.
Don’t hide your retail behind the reception desk. Your client needs to be able to pick up products during check out without the receptionist having to give it to them. You can also make room for promotional display and impulse purchase products at the check out.
The reception waiting area is a good place to promote your services and products. Make sure your retail is visible from the waiting area and have your salon service menu available to people as they wait.
As a rule of thumb, the amount of chairs you need in your waiting area is about half of the number of styling stations you have. Let’s say you have eight styling stations, in that case it should be sufficient with four chairs.
This is where your clients will spend the most time. Privacy is important here. Your clients need to feel comfortable. It can be tempting to add in more styling stations to grow revenue but you need to consider the space for your clients and also staff working around the chair.
Allow at least 40 inches between salon chairs to avoid that clients sit on each other. And ensure there’s sufficient working space around stations and behind the chair.
Make sure you have good styling station lighting so that your staff can work effectively and the result on the client looks as good as possible.
The backwash area is not just a place to wash hair. It’s a place where you provide a client experience. It’s also one of your best opportunities to upsell your client on care treatments and talk about the products you’re using to increase sales of retail.
Try to separate out the backwash area from the busy salon space. This should be a calm and relaxing area. Allow for 32 inches left to right for each shampoo station and 36 inches behind the station for the stylist.
As a rule of thumb, you need a shampoo station for every three styling stations. That is, if you’re a large salon with 15 styling stations, you should be ok with 3 shampoo stations.
Salon equipment is a big expense when you’re just starting a new salon. So you want to get this right. The best place to find salon equipment at a good price is on the web.
Most salon equipment manufacturers are now present on Amazon. And this is also where I’ve found the best prices for salon equipment and accessories.
Some of the large equipment you need as you start out your salon are:
These will be your bigger expense items. But on top, there’s a number of other things you’ll need like cutting shears, combs & brushes, styling tools, carts, and service accessories.
To help you build a check-list of the things you’ll need, I’ve put together a complete list of recommended hair salon equipment here.
This list includes cost estimates for each items to help you build a budget. I’ve also included recommendations for the best equipment as well as low cost alternatives if you’re just starting out.
You should now have your salon location and all the requirements to open a salon in place. Awesome!
But what should you offer in the salon? What’s your salon’s value proposition?
This is what we’ll work on next.
Your logo is a core asset of your brand.
You’ll use it everywhere: social media, website, business cards, and more..
So you want to get it right.
There are two ways that you can go about creating your logo. Either you hire a salon marketing agency to do it for you or you do it yourself.
Using a salon marketing agency will cost you a bit more but ensures you get a perfect result. However, you don’t actually need to be a Photoshop guru today to create a professional logo.
You can use Canva to generate a logo for you in just a few minutes using their online service.
For logo inspiration you can check out my list of salon logo design ideas. In the video below, I’m also walking you through some good principles to consider when designing your logo.
Let’s go through some more principles when building a strategic price list.
All your services are there to serve your target client. If you’re not sure what she wants, ask her. She might not know what it is that she wants, but as you get to know her better you’ll spot ideas that you can add to further strengthen your offer.
You’ll have two types of services on your menu. Your core services and your add-on service.
The core services are your bread and butter. This is the haircut, basic color services or the standard pedicure or manicure. These are the services people would call and book even if they had not seen your menu.
There’s a natural demand for these services and it’s typically what a first-time client would come in for.
You should avoid discounting these services unless for a special, tactical promotion. But it’s risky. Instead, you should benchmark prices for these services closely with competition in the area. I’m not saying you should have the same price. But if you go higher, you should have a reason why. And the same if you go lower. These are the prices that your client is most aware of when comparing you to other salons.
For more examples of hair salon core services, check out my separate article with a list of salon services to consider for your hair salon menu.
Add-on services are different. As the name suggests, these are additions or upgrades to a client’s visit. It could be a premium version of your core service. Like a balayage color instead of a regular color service. It can also be a care treatment that you add to the appointment.
These are powerful tools to increase the client spend per visit. Some of them will have to be pre-booked, but others can be added on during the visit.
For ideas on add-on hair salon services, check out my salon price list guide here.
There are many ways you can run promotions on your services.
And service promotions can be a very effective tool to drive and grow your business. But you don’t want to do it in a way that undermines your prices. And there’s strategies to enable this.
To learn more about how you can create salon promotions without undermining your pricing, you can read my salon promotions guide here.
Maintaining an up-to-date service menu should be part of your service strategy.
This is how you keep clients for long. You’re their go-to-person for beauty trends and they expect you to bring what’s new to them. By continuously updating your menu you’ll explore new ways of growing your business – you remove what doesn’t work and build on what’s working.
Retail sales are a powerful profit driver in your salon revenue model.
Income from retail is typically split 50/50 between you and the brand where you part adds directly to your profit as the costs associated with retail sales is low. It doesn’t take up extra time from you to sell a product with the service and you only need a small area at your reception with some shelving solution do so.
But what retail products should you offer?
Let’s go through a few principles to have in mind when designing your salon retail assortment.
Like with many things in this opening a salon checklist, designing your retail offer starts with understanding your target client.
What type of brands is she looking for? What products complement the service offering you’ve designed for her?
By talking to her you’ll get insight into what she’s looking for. Listen and test things out to see what works.
There’s little point in having many similar products from different brands. Unless you have a very large retail area and your strategy is to be a one-stop-shop for all retail, it should focus on fewer brands that complement each other.
For example, let’s say you’re a hairdresser, then you could have one good base styling brand, one good base care brand, and one electrical styling brand. On top of that, you’d have specialized brands. For example, a haircare brand for hair loss, or a vegan brand if that’s a feature desired by your client.
Research shows that too many options lead to people not making any choice instead (Psychology Today). Your sales of one brand will just cannibalize on the other similar brand so you don’t necessarily make more sales but just need a larger retail area and more brands to be trained with your staff.
Start with a small core brand offering and then expand. Having fewer brands looks more professional, and it’s also easier to upsell a client to a product within the same brand than to recommend products from two different brands.
Working with one product supplier also means you’ll purchase more from them compared to if you were shopping from multiple suppliers. This typically enables you to get more favorable terms with them.
Your new salon is starting to take shape. But you’ll soon realize that you cannot do everything yourself. You’ll need good support systems and partnerships to effectively run your salon business.
In the following section, I’ll cover some of the foundational things you’ll need to get your salon setup.
The right salon software can be your best friend when starting and running a salon business.
It can drive your business forward through built-in salon marketing features. It gets you in control of your business through the right reporting. It takes care of the mundane tasks you shouldn’t really be wasting your time on – like appointment and inventory management.
Before you open the doors to your new salon, you need to have a good solution in place.
Some of the things salon software will help you with are:
I’ve mentioned Mangomint a few times already in this guide. This is the most sophisticated and well designed platform available today.
This thing is beautiful, super intuitive to use for you, your staff, and your clients. It also leverages smart automations that allow you to run your business with much less friction compared to other platforms.
Below is what the Mangomint calendar looks like.
Now that you know what you need to focus on an measure to grow your business, what activities should you fill your plan with that will get you there?
Only you can decide what activity is right for you. It all depends on the specific challenges your salon business has.
To get you started, I’ve curated a list with the most effective salon marketing ideas here. I recommend you go over the list and pick a few that you’ll focus on over the coming months.
You’ll not be able to make your salon successful without a strong team to support you.
And to scale your business you’ll need to shift your focus to hiring talented staff to grow the business together with you.
But you cannot only focus on hiring new salon staff.
You also need to make sure that the team you have in place enjoy their work and perform their best.
Salon staff turnover is a big concern for many salon owners. The cost of hiring and re-training staff is high.
There are several strategies you can implement to keep your salon staff motivated.
In fact, I’ve put together a complete guide for you with 13 ways to motivate salon staff that I strongly recommend you read as you start to grow your team of salon employees. Check out my article “13 Highly Effective Ways to Motivate Salon Staff”.
If you’ve followed the opening a salon checklist outlined in this article, you should have a salon business plan in place now.
But your salon business plan is not a document you create once and never touch again.
It’s a living document that you should revise regularly to set new goals for your business and incorporate all the learnings you’re making on the way.
Because you’ll learn a lot as you open your salon.
But it’s easy to lose the big picture when you’re busy dealing with the next issue ahead. You need to make sure you find to work on your business and not only in the business.
Take a step back regularly to look at what is working and not. Double down on what’s working and drop the things that didn’t go as expected.
This is an ongoing process.
And this is the art of running a successful salon business.
You made it to the end of this article. Well done!
I told you at the start that reading this through would be the best investment of time you can make today. I hope I delivered on that. If I did, I would be very grateful if you wanted to share this with friends using the social buttons on this page.
We’ve covered the list of 29 steps to open a salon.
It was a long list. But starting a salon business is also a long journey.
You’ve taken an important first step on the journey today. But there’s more to come. Let’s stay connect on the way. This website is packed with resources to help you along the way.
I’m really excited for you now.
All the best on this new and beautiful adventure!
To open a salon with no money you need to create a detailed salon business plan in which you minimize up front salon equipment investments, are highly prudent about all salon operation costs, and enable smart loans and investments into your business. Below are specific tactics you can implement to enable a salon start without money.
I’ll go into more detail on salon financing options in the finance your salon section of this article but these are some of the common ways to get support if you want to start a salon with no money.
The cost of opening a beauty salon is around $62’000 for a good but basic setup in your own physical location. Nail salon start up cost is typically lower than for hair salons or barber shops. Cost can be significantly higher ($500’000+) but there are also ways you can start your salon business on a much smaller budget ($2’000).
Common salon startup costs are:
These resources can offer valuable information, guidance, and support for small businesses, including those starting various salon businesses. They can help with business planning, marketing, financing, and operations.
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) – The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides many resources for small businesses, such as business planning guides, loan programs, and educational materials.
Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) – SBDCs offer free consulting, training, and resources to support entrepreneurs in starting and growing their businesses.
GSA – The GSA helps small businesses learn more about doing business with the government, government contracting opportunities, and marketing their contracts.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers resources for small business owners, including information on small business lending and access to credit. The bureau’s goal is to raise awareness and provide support for small businesses in the lending marketplace.
SCORE—SCORE is a non-profit organization that offers free mentoring services and resources to small business owners. It guides various aspects of starting and running a business, including business planning, marketing, and financial management.
Here are the top organizations you should know, offering support, resources, and networking opportunities to set your salon up for success.
The PBA is a comprehensive resource for beauty professionals. Membership provides many benefits, including scholarship opportunities, liability insurance, health benefits, and discounts on industry events and education. The PBA’s wide-ranging support and advocacy make it a great asset for navigating the complexities of starting and running a successful salon.
AHP is a tailored resource for hairstylists and barbers. The organization offers liability insurance and business support to help members reach their career goals. With AHP, you’ll gain access to quality education and innovative solutions crucial for your salon’s success and growth.
While AACS supports cosmetology schools, the information and trends it provides are also invaluable for salon owners. Staying current on the latest teaching methods, industry trends, and regulations is key to keeping your services updated and your salon compliant.
For an enhanced reputation and networking opportunities, consider joining Intercoiffure America/Canada. This association represents the highest level of the hairdressing industry, offering access to influential figures and the chance to elevate your salon’s standing.
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