New salon

[Tam McIlroy]

Afternoon folks

I work full time as does my fiancé who is a Beauty Therapist by trade but works Full Time as a Care Manager and does Beauty Therapy part time.

We have been given an opportunity to lease a fully fitted Salon in the Town Center. Due to our existing commitments we have arranged for someone to pop in and out during the day to make sure everything is ok and we will be there for closing/evenings and at weekends. What's your views on this - is this sustainable or not? Everyone within the Salon will be self employed.

We appreciate that unless clients are coming through the door those renting chairs/beauty salon/nail bar from us will end up giving us notice and going elsewhere.

We have had a good interest due to location and have verbal agreements in place just now which would see us bring in a good profit of about £700 P/M after costs which we plan on investing a good bit back towards marketing with the rest going to build up a cash reserve. We have a good relationship with landlord and do bits and bobs for the landlord which is why we are getting a good deal on rent.

We plan on opening on 4th July. We plan on doing the following:

Newspaper advert in local paper leading up to the opening
5k-10k flyer drop in Town and local residential areas
Make our name heavily known via Social Networking
Promotional deals

Just wanting to see if anyone else had any marketing tips. For our business model to be successful it is reliant on helping those renting from us obtain clients. My fiancé will be working part time from the Salon Evenings and Weekends until such time it is profitable enough for her to go into it full time.

Thoughts from experienced Salon owners/managers etc would be much appreciated.

 

[squidgernetball]

Is the salon hair, beauty or both? I personally think you will need some kind of management in there to keep things ticking over. If the phone rings, who answers it? Who decides who gets new clients? Are your self employed paying rent or a percentage share? Who provides stock/does ordering etc? Have you budgeted for all bills including Internet, phone, music license, gas, electricity, rates, insurance, website and so on.

Just a few thoughts

Vic x

 

[Tam McIlroy]

Is the salon hair, beauty or both? I personally think you will need some kind of management in there to keep things ticking over. If the phone rings, who answers it? Who decides who gets new clients? Are your self employed paying rent or a percentage share? Who provides stock/does ordering etc? Have you budgeted for all bills including Internet, phone, music license, gas, electricity, rates, insurance, website and so on.

Just a few thoughts

Vic x

Hi Vic

Many thanks for your reply.

The Salon has Hairdressing Chairs, a Beauty Room and a Nail Bar.

We have someone who has previously owned a Salon willing to pop in to check up on things during the day Tue-Fri. We've discussed the phone issue with those expressing an interest and they seem happy to answer the phone providing they don't have a client with them at that time. We will have a booking system to allow them to book the person requested/most suitable for their time - we have people working a wide range of hours.) Ideally, I would love someone to be there full time managing everything but we don't have the money for this at the moment (hence why we plan to build up a cash reserve.

They will simply be paying a rent - as we're not going to be there a percentage share is not feesable as we would have no control over what is being put through the till or not. They will be providing their own products and they can retail their own products if they wish.

We have budgeted for all bills, the landlord used to manage the Salon with her daughter before taking up a new career, so we know exactly what is expected in terms of phone, gas, electicity etc. £700 P/M profit is just based on interest and what everyone wants to work (which all fit in so far). There will obviously be people who we don't feel is appropiate for the Salon and expect a small percentage to let us down at the last minute. I'm hoping that we can achieve at least £300 a month profit which we can reinvest into marketing/cash reserve.

 

[BannerPenguin]

Hi Vic

Many thanks for your reply.

The Salon has Hairdressing Chairs, a Beauty Room and a Nail Bar.

We have someone who has previously owned a Salon willing to pop in to check up on things during the day Tue-Fri. We've discussed the phone issue with those expressing an interest and they seem happy to answer the phone providing they don't have a client with them at that time. We will have a booking system to allow them to book the person requested/most suitable for their time - we have people working a wide range of hours.) Ideally, I would love someone to be there full time managing everything but we don't have the money for this at the moment (hence why we plan to build up a cash reserve.

They will simply be paying a rent - as we're not going to be there a percentage share is not feesable as we would have no control over what is being put through the till or not. They will be providing their own products and they can retail their own products if they wish.

We have budgeted for all bills, the landlord used to manage the Salon with her daughter before taking up a new career, so we know exactly what is expected in terms of phone, gas, electicity etc. £700 P/M profit is just based on interest and what everyone wants to work (which all fit in so far). There will obviously be people who we don't feel is appropiate for the Salon and expect a small percentage to let us down at the last minute. I'm hoping that we can achieve at least £300 a month profit which we can reinvest into marketing/cash reserve.

I've toyed with the idea of opening my own little salon many times and just managing it from a business point of view however I always come up with it's more hassle than it's worth. A lot of people are in this industry for the passion as well as the money.

I think if you are going to be ending up earning £300 - £700 per month you'll be absolutely surprised how much stress etc you'll be dealing with to earn that money. It really isn't worth it unless you want to run it as your full time focus. Just my 2p worth

 

[squidgernetball]

Okay. My personal 2p.

I love my salon and I love working there. I love most of my clients. There's a great atmosphere. I employ because I want to maintain everything that's good that I have built up. I want control over opening hours, uniform, stock, products used and so on, even how the phone is answered.

When I go somewhere for hair or beauty, it's no longer enough that I've been going to her for years and now she rents here so I go there. I want more. I want a nice coffee and a bit of a relationship with the staff. A bit of banter and so on. The salons that I've been to that work well are ones with a manager or receptionist. You might not realise it initially, but they are the ones pulling it all together, making sure stock is ordered, phone is answered properly - I cannot stress how important this is. I personally think that if you have a lot of self employed people you can lose direction. I have found that they can often come in, work and bugger off - which they're totally entitled to do.

I would suggest having 1 member of your self employed crew as a designated manager. They perhaps pay less rent but are the go to contact for you and for the self employed crew. They become a bit of a greeter for clients and can help with fair distribution of new clients. They can also help the salon have direction.

I wish you the best of luck. If I'm honest it's not how I would choose to run my business but realise this is a here and now decision rather than a forever choice.

Vic x