Setting up a Beauty Salon or Beauty Business

There is no magic to starting a business, you don’t need special talents nor loads of money. What you do need is perseverance, integrity, good health and the ability to work hard.

Opening a beauty salon, being self employed allows you to capitalize on your ability and knowledge, develop your business skills and achieve the quality of life you want. Have you got what it takes to be self employed? The entrepreneur is the key to the successful launch of any salon business. Entrepreneurs share certain characteristics such as:

• Self confident all rounder
• The ability to bounce back
• Innovative skills
• Results orientated
• Professional risk taker
• Total commitment

Being a successful business owner requires 100% commitment, without any guarantee of success, but you can minimise your risk. Research by government agencies and financial institutions list these reasons for failures among start up businesses:

• Poor preparation
• Running out of cash
• Poor or no planning
• No plan for growth
• Dependence on grant aid
• Failure to adapt to industry and economic change
• Failure to invest in new products/services

Whatever you think it’s going to take, double it. This applies to money, time and stress. It is going to be harder than you think and take longer than you think... so be prepared! You, and you only, can decide if you have what it takes and if the timing is right for you!

5 Steps to take to open your own Hair or Beauty Salon Business

1. 1. 1. Start-up Options If you want to run your own salon, there are alternatives to starting it yourself. You can buy an existing business with the client list, you can work from home, rent space in an existing business or go mobile. This applies to beauty businesses too, you have options of running a salon from home, opening a hair salon or even starting a mobile beauty business. Can you go part-time in your job and part-time self-employed? Or, you can start from scratch. Get professional advice before making any decisions.
      2. The Business Plan The real value of the Business Plan comes in the thinking about your business that is necessary before you can write down what you plan to do. It is the core of starting your salon business. To simplify the business plan, just think: What? Why? How? Who? When? 
      3. Check out the Competition Being competitive is very simple, knowing who are your competitors and being better than the competition! In your salon business you must decide what being better is, for example does better mean: quicker, friendlier, cheaper, higher quality or a wider choice? There needs to be a competitive advantage of a salon to thrive.
      4. Can you get the clients? The philosophy behind salon marketing is to satisfy the needs of every client as best you can while making a profit. The whole idea is that is you make your clients happy, they will buy from you again and again.....
      5. Cashflow Cashflow, money in, money out, is the lifeline of your salon, so watch your figures, day in , day out, for as long as you are trading.
   And, add time to your diary for yourself... Enjoy!