India has seen a rapid growth in beauty salon’s growth in the last few years leading to an overall increase by 35%. Each year some salons come up and hold expertise in a particular area.
Salons and parlours are a promising business with plenty of opportunities in India, especially for the growing number of women entrepreneurs.
Types of Spa and Salon Businesses
There are two types of Spa and Salon business, Owned and Franchise. Owned salon type is the kind of business where and individual starts his/her salon from scratch. In a franchise type of salon, the licence of a particular existing brand is taken up by a person/organisation to provide the services to the customers.
The kind of investment in a franchise model is higher than an owned one. Royalty is the major contributor to the overall investment because it keeps changing from stage to stage. In the initial stage 10-15% royalty is taken which increases with time, and the moment the salon starts earning profits, the amount increases by minimum 15%.
It is always advisable to start a salon from scratch other than a franchisee-owned business.
Easy Steps to Start a Spa and Salon Business
A new salon business, the few areas of concern which must be taken care of are:
Space
The primary requirement before starting any business includes finding a place to execute the operations. Since a salon business primarily runs in a room, finding a space that suits the scale of the business is of utmost importance. If the salon offers a full package service, enough amount of space is required to conduct all the operations.
Now with a boom in the number of salons, a customer wouldn’t like to wait and would quickly select another equally good salon for the service. Keeping a client waiting just as there isn’t enough space to accommodate because a counter is already occupied is a big no-no for any start-up.
Personnel
A vast area with multiple tables won’t be of any use if there aren’t enough number of experts to provide the full package services. Dividing the services and then allocating the right personnel for these services can be done if there are enough number of staff members.
A couple of stylists and receptionist are ideal to start. However, the need might increase as the footfall increases. The kind of people to be appointed depends on the type of services that are being provided.
Accounts
Salon businesses involve multiple transactions during a day. As the customers start pouring in, there is a right amount of currency exchange. The owners should have easy to manage the system for all bills and payments. Gone are the days of manual bookkeeping.
Many online/web based spa salon software are now a boom in every industry. There are a bunch of software that provides easy integration of all services and are easy enough to understand.
License for Spa and Salon Business
For running a commercial business, certain legal matters need to be taken into consideration. The business licence has to be filed at a state or central level. Apart from the business licence, registration of the firm, patent, safety and occupational licenses are also required for a salon business to begin.
Capital/Investment
No business is possible until the capital is arranged and finances are managed. Starting a business costs a lot of money and comes with a possibility of not making profits in the first two years of its operations.
Hence a significant amount of capital along with the acceptance to losses, in the beginning, is needed. Capital investment, monthly expenses, payroll, rent, licensing, taxes, supplies and emergency funds all come under the investment that should be made at the beginning of the business.
Gargee Goswami is a self-confessed bibliophile who loves to write in her free time (the little that she gets). Having vast experience of 6+ years, she counts tea, travel and food as her life's great passions. Read more