Eileen Figure Sandlin - Start Your Own Hair Salon and Day Spa: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success

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ebook ISBN: 978-1-61308-281-2

Contents

A re you looking for a business thats personally rewarding, makes a lot of people happy, can be very lucrative, and is recession-proof? If youll settle for three out of four (since no business can completely escape the impact of a down economy), then youve come to the right place.

The book youre holding will give you all the practical advice you need to build the foundation for and launch a full-service hair salon and day spa. That includes information youll need to handle the myriad details that go into starting and operating a small business, from analyzing your market, writing a business plan and establishing an internet presence to finding financing and handling all the other day-to-day duties necessary to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine. Its possible to do these things well whether youre a practicing cosmetologist whos decided the time is right to strike out on your own, or a business manager who can see the potential in this always-dynamic, always-growing industry. All it takes is determination, hard work, optimism, and a willingness to learn anything related to business management that you dont already know.

Of course, it does help to have a strong business background and a good head for numbers, even if the extent of your experience is accurately calculating the governments lamentable bite out of your tip income, balancing your checkbook, or managing a household budget. Having previous college coursework in disciplines like accounting and business management is even better. But as the saying goes, where theres a will, theres a way, and if youre determined to be successful, your chances of achieving your dreams increase significantly.

Toward that end, this how-to volume contains many resources that will help you find your own little piece of shear heaven. There are step-by-step instructions for important tasks like selecting the appropriate legal structure for your salon and coordinating an advertising program. There are worksheets that can help you calculate costs, keep expenditures under control, and stay organized. There are also names and addresses (both cyber and snail) of numerous industry organizations and government agencies that can provide valuable information.

But perhaps most important, there are tips and advice from industry insiders, including numerous salon owners and other stars of the beauty industry universe who lent their voices and vision to this project by agreeing to be interviewed, sometimes for hours at a time and sometimes in the wee morning hours before their businesses opened or well after they closed for the night. No doubt they were so generous with their time because they know the value of leading by example, and youll hear from them often in the pages of this book because firsthand experience truly is a great teacher. Whats more, theyve all agreed to be personal resources for you in case you have questions that only another experienced salon/spa owner/manager can answer. Youll find contact information for these gracious folks in the Appendix.

By the way, what you wont find in these pages is styling instructions for giving a great inverted bob, rolling perms, or foiling hair. Frankly, that instruction is best left to the pros at cosmetology schools and other beauty industry sources. And since theres a good chance youre already practicing the craft of beauty as a profession, you probably dont need help in that area anyway. Or if youre a business/marketing type, youll probably never have the slightest inclination to start shearing heads.

So turn the page and lets start rolling!

H ousing values may plummet. Retirement funds may shrink. Hurricanes may howl maniacally and exotic viruses may spread unchecked. But despite manmade and natural disasters, hair still grows, and people still need pampering. So no matter what the state of the economy and the world we live in, its still a good time to start a hair salon and day spa, and the prospects for shear success are excellent.

According to the Professional Salon Industry Haircare Study, there were 288,000 hair salons in the United States in a recent year. The salon service industry had revenues of $75 billion in a recent year, which included $20 billion generated by hair cut services and $7 billion by retail hair care product sales. In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the demand for trained cosmetologists will continue to grow through 2022.

How is it possible for a service sector like the beauty industry to continue to thrive despite the fluctuations of the economy? No doubt because many of the services offered by salons simply cant be duplicated at homeor at least not duplicated well. In addition, in an age where people freely shell out $5 for a cup of coffee, the price of a haircut probably doesnt seem very high considering the lift it can give your spirits. Also, the baby boomers, who are still the largest population segment in America, are more than willing and are still financially able to spend money on any personal care service they perceive will make them look younger and more attractive. No doubt as a result of their driving desire for a youthful appearance, the hair color segment of the salon industry continues to grow, according to Professional Consultants and Resources, a Plano, Texas, marketing and consulting firm. Color alone brought in $750 million for hair salons in a recent year.