Mom, I want to open a beauty salon: What to expect
Want to open a beauty salon after you graduate from beauty school? 聽As you know, obtaining your cosmetology license gives you lots of options. 聽Many of our students feel that owning their own business, a beauty salon, is the right choice for them. 聽There are a few things you need to keep in mind if you want to own your own beauty salon.
1. 聽Overhead to get started. 聽Overhead means the costs you will have to pay every month to keep your doors open. Some examples are rent, electricity and employee salaries. 聽The amount of income, money coming in, has to equal what you need to pay the overhead costs. 聽To get started, you will need to have a good guess as to what your client base will bring into your salon. 聽Most likely it’s not enough in the first several months to pay all the bills. 聽Therefore, consider how much money you need to have saved up to cover the extra costs while you build your business.
2. Long hours and weekends are to be expected. 聽Guess what? 聽Owning a beauty salon means you have to satisfy all the customers all the time. 聽If you are one person short, you’ll need to jump in and fill the spots. Beauty salon hours are typically when people have off from work, like after 5 p.m. on weekdays and all weekend. 聽Be sure you’re prepared to do what it takes.
3. Owning a beauty salon means running a business. It’s not just about cutting, coloring and styling hair. 聽If you own a beauty salon, you also need to balance the books, manage your employees, do inventory of your products and market the beauty salon to keep clients coming in. 聽If there are client issues, it falls to you, the owner of the beauty salon, to resolve them.
The first step in is to obtain your cosmetology license. 聽As you know, you’ll have to attend beauty school to get started. 聽Make sure you consider all the extra details so you know what it will be like to own a beauty salon. 聽Between the long hours and costs of running a business, owning a beauty salon is a huge committment.
How about you? Have you owned a beauty salon? What was the biggest challenge? What do you wish you knew then that you know now? 聽At the end of the day, is the income and scheduling freedom worth the stress of a start-up business?
