Opening a beauty salon is a bold business venture that requires thorough planning, market research, and calculated guesswork if you want to be successful. The choices are endless — you could venture into anything from a fashionable hair salon or cosy nail bar to a general salon or wellness spa.

Once you know what form you want your business to take, and what services you want to offer to your clients, you can start turning your dream of owning your own salon into a reality.

Make sure you have a plan

If you’re considering starting up your own beauty salon, you’ve probably put some of your thoughts on paper already. However, you need to go a step further, and craft a solid business plan. This document, if prepared properly, will help you guide your business to success.

Put your plans into action

Once you’ve completed all your planning, it’s time to put those plans into action. This is where the fun starts:

Design your salon around your target market

Think about the type of environment that would appeal to your clients, and design the interior of your salon in a way that helps them to feel comfortable and relaxed while they are having their beauty treatments done.

Make sure your salon has the following:

  • Reception and retail area (where you will meet and greet clients, handle money, take bookings, and possibly sell beauty products)
  • Wash and rinse area (in a hair salon, this will be where you shampoo, condition, and rinse your clients’ hair)
  • Treatment area (where you perform the beauty treatments)
  •  Storage space (where you can store products and equipment)

Hire the right staff members

When you first start out, you might not need other employees to help you, but as the business grows, you’ll find that you might need to hire an admin assistant, a receptionist, a bookkeeper, or even an assistant beauty therapist. And when you recruit staff members for your salon, remember that it’s important to hire employees who will deliver excellent customer service all the time!

Put your marketing plans in place

Promote your salon with effective marketing strategies, such as email campaigns, social media advertising, and a professional website. Running “opening specials” might also deliver effective results and will most likely give your salon a great first boost.

Starting a business and driving it towards excellence can be a tough task. It is therefore important for you to learn from your mistakes and to review and revise your strategies regularly. Doing a 5-year forecast will also give you a good indication of where your business should be heading financially..

Hopefully, reading this post will have inspired you to take the risk and to succeed with your plans to become a great beauty salon owner!

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Note: This article was originally published on 15 April 2015, and has been updated for comprehensiveness and accuracy.