Starting Your Own Salon
Sometimes your favourite childhood memory is your first visit to a salon. The strange, but enticing sounds and scents, the friendly banter of the stylists and their customers, the big chair that goes up and down like a carnival ride- wondrous! Then the delight of watching yourself transform in the mirror until you looked as good as you felt. Now you’re all grown up and you know what you want to do- give the gift of a such wonderful experience to another child and share your talents and sense of beauty with all who come to you. Yes, you want to open your very own salon.
Start with your training
You’ve always known you wanted to be a stylist, you’ve been helping your friends and family look their best for years. Now it’s time to learn the ropes from the pros. Australia doesn’t require any training certificates or formal education to work as a stylist, so you can gain practical experience by working for someone else until you’re ready to go out on your own. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attend a beauty school, the more you learn the better. Knowing how to be a specialist is also a good idea, for example, you could take an eyelash technician course online, adding skills and value to your stylist repertoire. The more things you know how to do the better, a great salon should provide more services than just hairstyling and barbering! It’s a competitive industry and you want your salon to be the very best, a cut above the rest.
The business of being in business
Maybe your work experience and on-the-job training have been so excellent you don’t need to go to beauty school, but that doesn’t mean some education won’t help you. It would be in your best interests to attend a business school here in Australia and take some courses in small business management, this is really going to help you as you navigate the ins and outs of being your own boss in your own shop!
Finances come first
Let’s assume you’ve saved up and have the capital to get your salon started. First up is to plan what your fixed finances are going to be. These are the monthly expenses that remain the same every month no matter what your profits are. Some examples are the rent (unless you are fortunate enough to own your own space), insurance, utilities, and equipment costs. Then come the variable costs that change with your volume of sales. These include your hired labour, products, tools, shipping charges for replenishing products, and advertising and marketing- word of mouth is your best friend there, but taking out an ad in the paper is going to pay off in the long run! All of these, along with your expenses and projected revenue add up to your budget- this is how you make your living!
Those are the basics of getting started, the rest is up to you!
Comments are closed.