Starting a barbershop can be a very lucrative, and very emotionally rewarding, experience. Making people look beautiful and feel great while making money is an amazingly rewarding thing to do, in many ways. While being a business owner is never exactly easy, it can be smoother sailing if you do your research before you begin your salon or barbershop, just to make sure you know the ins and outs of this kind of small business before you start. If you’re looking to enter the beauty salon or barbershop game, here are seven excellent tips.
1. Know Your Customers
The key to any small business is to know your customers geographically and demographically. This will help you decide what kind of products to keep on your shelves, what kinds of services may sell best, and will in general help you maintain a positive reputation in your community. Opening up a dialogue with your clients will help you gain valuable business insights to grow and improve upon your salon.
2. Decorate to the Nines
When people visit their barbershop, they expect a luxe and indulgent experience, so spare no expense when it comes to decorating and furnishing the salon. Invest in high-quality barber chairs that stand up to the test of time and are comfortable to boot. Clients don’t want to sit in an outdated or uncomfortable barber chair, so the best choice to make when it comes to this is getting a heavy-duty barber chair with adjustable headrests for maximum comfort. You can even buy a multi-purpose chair that can also recline for shampooing and facial waxing. Opt for a sleek design with an elegant footrest for maximum client satisfaction.
3. Offer Incentives
If you want to get people into those barber chairs can prove difficult at times. However, if you offer incentives or discounts to new customers, you can widen your client base and maintain a welcoming, friendly atmosphere. You’ll also get your new customers hooked on your excellent skills and services, and they’ll be sure to come back.
4. Sell a Line of Products
If you really want to make a pretty penny at your beauty salon, keep a stock of the products you use on your clients so that you can sell them the things that are giving their hair beauty, bounce, and shine. They’ll be thankful to incorporate those new products into their routine, and you’ll be happy for the additional profits, especially if you can work with a wholesaler to buy the product at a lower cost than what you sell at.
5. Stay Organized and Hire a Bookkeeper
When you start seeing the cash flow increase, that can be very exciting as it means your barbershop is taking off. However, it can increase your anxieties and troubles if you do not have an experienced bookkeeper on staff to offer accounting services for your salon. You can also consider outsourced accounting to assist with your accounting processes and accounting operations. Don’t get caught not being up to date on your financials. It’s a much more professional look to simply do some outsourcing from a reputable accounting firm.
6. Always Improve
People want to patronize businesses that are always improving. Make sure you keep a lookout for the best new techniques, services, and products for your barbershop. Additionally, make sure you are up to date on the competitors’ offerings and prices, so you can set competitive prices in your beauty salon.
7. Sell a Relaxing Experience
Along with the idea of decorating your salon, make sure you’re also providing the full relaxing experience. Make your shampoo chairs double as miniature massage chairs, provide hot towels to your clients, and make sure your surfaces have premium foam padding to increase your customers’ overall comfort and relaxation levels.
