Thinking about opening a beauty salon

[cj7]

I have read a few threads on here about people wanting to set up their own beauty salons, and there has been some very heated conversations. So by no means do I mean to upset or insult anyone in the beauty industry.

I have been a proffessional make-up artist for 10 years and worked for the leading skincare and makeup brand in the UK for well over 10 years now, I am completely and utterly in love with the beauty industry and was making a success as a makeup artist, but I would like to broaden my skills and would love to start my own business. I am more interested in the business side of things and so while I would carry on the make-up and nails (that I would be trained in) I would like to concentrate on running the business and let someone who really knows about the different services etc to be a manager.

Do you think I am ridiculous in thinking that this is something that could be successful? (All opinions greatly received) Has anyone else made a success of of a beauty salon but were not trained in all aspects.

I really do look forward to your replies and thank in advance for some help xxxx

 

[carlytaylor1986]

dont worry about insulting people, if its your dream go for it. completely achievable if you have the funds and dedication!

i always used to say (before i trained in beauty) if I won the lottery I'd want my own beauty salon. And then I thought to myself well it's my dream and I don't need to win the lottery to make my dream come true. I still havent got my beauty salon but i think i will one day. maybe winning about 30k wouldn't go a miss though haha! i have other things to concentrate on now and do do nails and tanning of the evening/weekends, but when i have my children i shall (hopefully) be working for myself. anyway enough rambling on about me, it's not a rediculous dream. go for it! xx

 

[classixuk]

You might be better at it because of the lack of training to be honest. It means you would be free to concentrate solely on the business side of things (which is a job in itself).

Personally I wouldn't bother with training in nails etc. as it would slow you down. Think about looking at locations and planning how the business would work. Also, look at studying what it means to run a business as nail courses don't actually teach this.

Good luck!

 

[WaxGirl]

Start small and work your way up

Why waste your money on a manager?

Open as you are just yourself make up and nails and go and do spray tan training so you can offer that

Open on this basis small and simple with low costs - test the market out and see how you get on - if you are doing well and see their is demand THEN think about taking someone on who could do the rest of the treatments

In this environment - start small keeping your costs and overheads down and build up slowly is best advice I can give

 

[jiff!22]

Hi.
I think what you have suggested sounds great. There are lots of good salons out there that dont have anyone 'running' mainly the business side of things and whilst for some this works just fine, for many it really lets things down as the owner is usually a therapist or hairdresser and they just dont have enough hours in the day to do both sides of things. You sound as though you have formulated a good basic plan so you just need to start to develop that plan now. There are lots of therapists out there who would love to work for someone like you, (shame we dont live anywhere near each other!)
I wish you lots of luck

 

[cj7]

Just wanted to say thank you so much to all who replied! It really helped and what I am now thinking of doing is setting up a franchise. I feel that with their help, I would be in a better position! Can anyone reccomend any good franchises? I have found 3 but any advice is always greatly received cxxx

 

[MrsHBeauty]

I used to just do the running of the salon, but unfortunately I had to make one of my staff redundant and take over 25 hours per week. This has in my eyes really affected the way I am running the salon, I don't have enough 1-2-1 time with my 2 therapists or enough time to make sure everything is up together etc.

We are getting busier fully booked Thursday, fri, sat and almost Monday (bank hol). I am now reluctant to give back the hours as I'd like to take a wage by the end of the month.

If you do your research well, get a well positioned salon offer services which people want, have a large fund in the bank to cover the first say 6 months wages and expenses then it might be worth opening with a therapist (rather than a manager). Why not do day courses to get an idea of the treatments, just accredited courses rather than vtct etc. if your not practicing then it's only the knowledge you want to know, or go and have loads of beauty treatments at serious salons taking down notes (mental) on how they do things, employ a member of staff before you open to help you buy the correct things, write a good handbook, they will feel like they helped you build something and get really enthusiastic about it.

Just my thoughts x