Hello All, I have a question. I would like to find out what would be the average monthly expenses (utility bills and others) for a beauty clinic that offers laser hair removal and microblading service. Thanks so much! 
Opening beauty clinic in London, monthly expenses/outgoings advice
- Thread starter ozyy
- Start date
Help Support SalonGeek:
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2011
- Messages
- 10,907
- Reaction score
- 6,919
How long is a piece of string?
Far too many variables to offer any useful information.
If it’s an existing salon, maybe ask the current owner?
Far too many variables to offer any useful information.
If it’s an existing salon, maybe ask the current owner?
Hello AcidPerm, thanks so much for your reply. It is not an existing salon. I am just thinking of opening one. I am looking for rentals now. But I need to know about what other costs would be; like monthly outgoings to figure out the ave. cost.
To give you an idea, rent is calculated based on a rate per Square foot, the location and rentability. So you pay more to rent per square foot in a central location with high footfall (lots of people visiting the area for commercial services) and less for quiet areas out of town or down side streets.
You pay more for premises which have "frontage" which are visible and accessible from the street and less if you have no frontage and/or are higher/lower/set back from the street. If you rent a 4 storey building with a store room in a basement, a street level room, a first floor room and an attic room, you might get the basement and attic rooms virtually for free and pay only a little more than someone next door renting a similar sized room on the ground and first floor only.
You pay less for rooms "at the back" of a building, so maybe the perfect salon price wise has a tiny room at the front off the street, client rooms deeper inside the building and staff facilities and store areas in windowless basements/attic rooms.
My salon is two rooms deep with a basement which I have split into two treatment areas. My rent is based on the 2 ground floor areas with the basement thrown in for free. I've been considering relocating to alternative premises in a more prestigious location where the rent is a lot less. The cost saving is because there is no frontage, only a doorway, the ground floor room is in the back of the building off a spacious hallway and it's just one room. There is a lovely first floor room which is less than the ground floor room and the attic and basement are free.
If there is a garden or courtyard some salons build a cabin room to create an extra treatment area. You need permission of course but it usually works out a very cost effective way to expand.
If you pay more than £10k a year in rent you need to find out whether you will have to any commercial rates. There is a sliding scale which runs from paying nothing to paying 50% of the cost of your rent every year. If you rent premises over £18k a year you will probably have to pay another £8-9k a year rates.
Then you need to consider your other overheads. If you sit in the dark with no machines switched on your electricity bill will be about £25 per month standing charge. Every electrical appliance that you switch on will consume electricity and you can predict and calculate your useage and therefore costs. Electricity costs about 25p per kilowatt of power. A kettle is around 3 kilowatts and takes about 10 minutes to boil. If you boil a full kettle from cold, 6 times that will cost you 75p. If you go into a salon or shop you can pace out the floor area and count how many lights you need in the space. A nice size treatment room, no bigger than you need probably has 9 lights and a one kilowatt heater. They'll be 3/4 lights in each hallway and another heater. For your reception area you may need a computer, printer, phone, card machine, coffee machine, mini fridge and some display lamps. In your treatment rooms you'll need an electric couch, heated blanket, work light, plus treatment machines. You can get the power consumption of your machines of the manufactures specification. Assume they'll be on 80% of your working hours. You may need air conditioning in the summer. It's best to have separate conditioners per room/area for optimal comfort and low running costs. You'll need to research insulation and energy efficiency to work out how much being green will cost you initially and how much you can save in the long term. For instance I spent a fortune trying to reduce my heating costs but I'll pay for everything in 6 years and be benefiting from reduced outgoings after that. Getting payback in less than 8 years is very good. 15 years is more typical.
Other costs are phone/broadband/fibre, water rates, advertising, merchant services (card machines) booking system charges, third party platform charges (Treatwell, Groupon), accountancy, insurance costs. Some of these are fixed no matter how big you are and others are a percentage of your turnover. Commercial phone and broadband starts at £25 per month, water £12-20+, advertising £££, merchant services £25 per month plus 2.5% of your turnover, treatwell 25% of your bookings, Groupon 50% of your bookings, accountancy from £100 a month, insurance probably £1500 up,
There are lots of other costs: £3 per laundry load of you take laundry home, client refreshments, flowers/candles/aromatherapy diffusers, Spotify, licensing, printed materials.
For London you probably need working capital of around £250k, you'll need at least £50k cash and assets that you can borrow against and a means of supporting yourself until you start to make a profit around 18-36 months in. Setting up a salon is a big financial investment without any guarantees that you'll make any money. Self-employment, renting a room in someone's business is much less risky - you might not earn any money, but you're unlikely to lose more than £20-30k investment, about the same investment as a degree.
Christmas is a good time to chat with friends and family about your dreams and ambitions. The main thing is to have the help and support of those around you. It makes a big difference.
You pay more for premises which have "frontage" which are visible and accessible from the street and less if you have no frontage and/or are higher/lower/set back from the street. If you rent a 4 storey building with a store room in a basement, a street level room, a first floor room and an attic room, you might get the basement and attic rooms virtually for free and pay only a little more than someone next door renting a similar sized room on the ground and first floor only.
You pay less for rooms "at the back" of a building, so maybe the perfect salon price wise has a tiny room at the front off the street, client rooms deeper inside the building and staff facilities and store areas in windowless basements/attic rooms.
My salon is two rooms deep with a basement which I have split into two treatment areas. My rent is based on the 2 ground floor areas with the basement thrown in for free. I've been considering relocating to alternative premises in a more prestigious location where the rent is a lot less. The cost saving is because there is no frontage, only a doorway, the ground floor room is in the back of the building off a spacious hallway and it's just one room. There is a lovely first floor room which is less than the ground floor room and the attic and basement are free.
If there is a garden or courtyard some salons build a cabin room to create an extra treatment area. You need permission of course but it usually works out a very cost effective way to expand.
If you pay more than £10k a year in rent you need to find out whether you will have to any commercial rates. There is a sliding scale which runs from paying nothing to paying 50% of the cost of your rent every year. If you rent premises over £18k a year you will probably have to pay another £8-9k a year rates.
Then you need to consider your other overheads. If you sit in the dark with no machines switched on your electricity bill will be about £25 per month standing charge. Every electrical appliance that you switch on will consume electricity and you can predict and calculate your useage and therefore costs. Electricity costs about 25p per kilowatt of power. A kettle is around 3 kilowatts and takes about 10 minutes to boil. If you boil a full kettle from cold, 6 times that will cost you 75p. If you go into a salon or shop you can pace out the floor area and count how many lights you need in the space. A nice size treatment room, no bigger than you need probably has 9 lights and a one kilowatt heater. They'll be 3/4 lights in each hallway and another heater. For your reception area you may need a computer, printer, phone, card machine, coffee machine, mini fridge and some display lamps. In your treatment rooms you'll need an electric couch, heated blanket, work light, plus treatment machines. You can get the power consumption of your machines of the manufactures specification. Assume they'll be on 80% of your working hours. You may need air conditioning in the summer. It's best to have separate conditioners per room/area for optimal comfort and low running costs. You'll need to research insulation and energy efficiency to work out how much being green will cost you initially and how much you can save in the long term. For instance I spent a fortune trying to reduce my heating costs but I'll pay for everything in 6 years and be benefiting from reduced outgoings after that. Getting payback in less than 8 years is very good. 15 years is more typical.
Other costs are phone/broadband/fibre, water rates, advertising, merchant services (card machines) booking system charges, third party platform charges (Treatwell, Groupon), accountancy, insurance costs. Some of these are fixed no matter how big you are and others are a percentage of your turnover. Commercial phone and broadband starts at £25 per month, water £12-20+, advertising £££, merchant services £25 per month plus 2.5% of your turnover, treatwell 25% of your bookings, Groupon 50% of your bookings, accountancy from £100 a month, insurance probably £1500 up,
There are lots of other costs: £3 per laundry load of you take laundry home, client refreshments, flowers/candles/aromatherapy diffusers, Spotify, licensing, printed materials.
For London you probably need working capital of around £250k, you'll need at least £50k cash and assets that you can borrow against and a means of supporting yourself until you start to make a profit around 18-36 months in. Setting up a salon is a big financial investment without any guarantees that you'll make any money. Self-employment, renting a room in someone's business is much less risky - you might not earn any money, but you're unlikely to lose more than £20-30k investment, about the same investment as a degree.
Christmas is a good time to chat with friends and family about your dreams and ambitions. The main thing is to have the help and support of those around you. It makes a big difference.
Just wanted to high five this entire comment.
