How to Start a Beauty Parlour – Business Plan Sample

“When you look good, you feel good.” This is the tagline for any beauty parlour or salon business. You help people look good, enhance confidence and self-esteem and let them live a fulfilled life. And this is not limited to women. Even men have the interest and potential to look good and create an impression in the minds of the onlookers.

A beauty parlour is profitable business. Lot of customers be it men or women are using beauty services. It is a booming business and attracts customers of most age groups. From adolescent girls to women of all sections, beauty parlours and salons are a hit and widely used.

Moreover, it is about your passion and interest level. If you love beauty and passion and always try to look good and make others look good, then you should try your hands in this business. You can start beauty salons business with very little or no investment.

Beauty Salon Business Plan

For all those new into this business industry and are looking for business plan, there are certain important factors one should keep in mind before starting a beauty parlour, they are as follows:-

Industry Overview

Oh, another beauty parlour that is so-so typical like the others? If you are stopping yourself from starting this business because of this reason, then please conduct a detailed industry overview and competitor analysis before you sit down to plan. 

There could be a hundred beauty salons in your city, but remember that people are increasing and they are looking out for different and efficient services each time. So, if you offer something unique to these customers. They would love to visit your salon and switch from the existing one. Hence, do an elaborate industry overview and explore the current beauty parlours in your area. You don’t have to study statistics, but if you notice what they offer, you can surely understand how you can frame your marketing and customer service strategies. 

You can figure out whether there is a need for another beauty salon in your area or not. Accordingly, you can position your salon in another city or another region where demand exists for a good salon. If opening another beauty salon in your area is stifling the existing scenario and increasing the competition unnecessarily, you should not do the same. 

Similarly, competitor analysis helps you a lot in constructing your salon framework. Why do customers visit a particular salon often? Maybe, their staff is trained and excellent, or they use high-quality beauty products and have advanced treatment procedures. As you study each parlour, you can incorporate several effective practices in your salon. 

Executive Summary

This component of the business plan will be all about the summary of the proposed business organization, including the name, location, and other significant details. 

1. The name of the company/beauty salon – Try something creative, it should be simple, but words such as cute, nice, young lady, pretty woman are common. So, think of something out-of-the-box. It could be one word, but you can make it elegant, but don’t use ‘elegant.’ 
2. The types of beauty products for sale (if any) and the various beauty parlour services offered by the salon – it could be haircutting, waxing, threading, hair and body spa, manicure, pedicure, massages, aromatherapy, perming, straightening, hair colouring and many more. 
3. You can even add services such as training newbies and adding them into your team or providing them with a valid certificate to start their own job or business. 
4. The main motto of the beauty parlour – of course, you want your customers to look good, cute, and beautiful, but you can also add additional and special services. For instance, you can focus on using organic and natural products only for skin and hair, and no artificial products will be in your parlour. Or you can provide the services at affordable costs and not levy heavy charges on the customers  as the other parlours do. 
5. Moreover, you can focus on employee welfare too and provide them with relevant benefits. Client satisfaction is your ultimate motive, but you will also check whether your staff is happy while working with you or not. If not, you will alter the compensation structures and work culture accordingly. 
6. You can also participate in beauty contests, shows, and association meetings as a brand owner. 

Products and Services 

Mostly, beauty salons offer services to men and women with respect to their beauty, skin, hair, leg, and hand care. Here are the checklist for services that you can offer:-

• Threading
• Waxing 
• Haircutting, colouring, perming, straightening, curling, ironing. 
• Keratin hair treatment. 
• Manicure, pedicure, foot and hand spa, and massages. 
• Training of new staff. 
• Sale of beauty products and accessories. 
• Sale of makeup products. 

Mission and Vision

It sounds weird to draft a mission and vision of a beauty parlour, but if you take this business seriously, you can certainly craft a meaningful and realistic mission and vision for your organization. 

Your mission – To provide beauty salon services to the clients professionally and at reasonable prices and fulfilling their flexible beauty requirements all the time. They can come up with some demands and expectations, and you need to tweak your services a little to serve them. 

Your vision – To establish brand presence in the city, open more outlets and attract more clients to the salon. To train new staff and transform them into confident employees. To help people enhance their image in society through beauty and appearance. 

Business Structure

A concrete and realistic business structure helps a beauty parlour to run its activities smoothly. Hence, you need to hire a competent and qualified workforce for the business operations. Following is the sample business structure, but it can vary, depending upon your requirements and volume of transactions. 

1. CEO – They will be responsible for all the activities of a beauty salon. 
2. Manager – They handle all the salon operations, direct staff, communicate with clients, make daily decisions. 
3. Accountant – They are responsible for all the accounting transactions, financial analysis and reporting, and forecasting tasks. 
4. Front Desk Representative – They are like the face of the salon. They need to be disciplined and friendly to interact with the clients daily and resolve their queries instantly. 
5. Hair Stylists. 
6. Beauty Stylists. 
7. Interns. 

The number of stylists and interns depends on the size of your beauty salon and the number of customers you plan to handle. 

SWOT Evaluation

Sounds cliché, but SWOT analysis is a classic technique of determining a prospective business’ potential. Let us check for the beauty salon business. 

Strengths – You have an excellent team. It is trained, qualified, and is humble enough to deal with the customers well. This could be your strength, for sure. The placement of the salon is at a prime location. This is another plus-point as the customers can easily notice the salon and drop in for quick yet efficient service. 

Weaknesses – Since it is a new salon, it will take time to spread the word and convince them to try your services. Competition is significant and imprinting the brand is taking time. 

Opportunities – You have a specific niche (for example, haircuts or manicures), and this differentiates and makes you stand out in the beauty industry. Moreover, you can focus on important aspects such as usage of organic and paraben-free products, usage of more natural ingredients in the beauty treatments, and a plastic-free environment in the salon. 

Threats – A similar type of salon opening up in the same area poses the biggest threat to your business. Moreover, if your staff is not co-operative enough or quits, you can face a hard time finding new, efficient ones. 

Market Analysis and Target Audience

In this component, let us first discuss the market analysis part. Beauty trends are always in. No one will stop trying to look good, and hence, you can explore maximum opportunities in this field. You can check for the latest trends in the market. Women are looking for more interesting hairstyles; they want curls and straightened hair and colouring and keratin treatment. You can explore it. Moreover, you can find women who love manicured hands and nails, so you can start a nail fixing section in your salon. 

Men and women will never stop looking good no matter whether the economy goes down or a pandemic hits the planet. Hence, be optimistic and give your best in the type of services you offer to them. 

The next part is the target audience. If your salon is unisex, you can have both men and women customers. However, if you target a specific gender, you can still have an adequate number of customers in your salon. 

You can target:

1. Males and females working in corporate, banks, and other organizations. 
2. Self-employed men and women. 
3. Mothers, housewives, teenagers, college-going students, and even school students who want to get a haircut done. 

Since there is intense competition in the beauty industry, it is your job to add services of different types to attract more customers. You need to make your workforce strong and better compared to the other entrants and existing beauty businesses in the industry. 

Sales, Marketing, Advertising, and Promotion Plans For Beauty Salon

Since there is increasing competition, it becomes inevitable to plan out marketing and promotion strategies beforehand. Following are a few techniques you can incorporate: 

1. Advertising in the local print media and placing ad banners at the relevant places of the city. 
2. Introducing the business to corporate organizations through letters, brochures, and pamphlets. You can even connect with corporate sectors to have their employees as your clients. 
3. Listing of the business in the yellow directories and on several online platforms and channels. Your business should be physically and digitally visible to the customers. 
4. Running online ad campaigns on Google and other social media platforms where paid advertising is permissible. 
5. Preparing beauty packages at discounted rates for different clients to let them enjoy plenty of services at reasonable prices. 
6. Direct marketing of services. This is done mainly through pamphlets and brochures to the public on the street or by dropping them at clients’ places. 
7. Sponsor digital media influencers and TV programs to let them publicize your products and services. 
8. Using social media platforms in an optimized manner. 
9. Creating a website that is easily navigable and accessible for the clients. They should be able to book online appointments for the parlour services. 
10. Participating in corporate social responsibility and other relevant practices. 

Pricing Plans

Prices need to be competitive and not too high. If you plan to lower the prices of your services compared to other beauty salons, you do not need to compromise or lower the quality of the products used for treatment. Several parlours use this technique and end up losing good clients as they lose trust in the salon. If your prices are high and as per the industry, ensure that you provide consistent and excellent quality to the customers. The quality should be at par with the prices. Try to offer discounts on packages and important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries. Payments should be accepted through all modes. 

Start-up Budget

Following are the expenditure items that vary from country to country in terms of charges: 

1. Business incorporation fees. 
2. Permits, licenses, insurance. 
3. Amount needed to buy or lease a space for the salon. 
4. Costs of equipping the salon with the requisite equipment such as waxing heaters, steamers, dryers, chairs, front office desk, parlour beds, linen, and so on. 
5. Official website creation charges. 
6. Additional expenses such as printing brochures and ad banners. 
7. Salaries to employees. 
8. Costs of beauty products required for treatment and resale. 

You can generate this capital through savings, borrowings, or loans from genuine financial institutions and banks. 

Expansion Plan

You can start advisory and consultancy services in relation to the beauty salon. You can expand it and create a separate section for nail fixation or spa or aromatherapy. You can even start an image consultancy firm if you have the requisite qualifications and licenses. 

The above beauty parlour business plan is complete and can be changed as per your requirements and budget. 

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