Want to Get Involved in the Business of Beauty? January 14, 2015Featured, My BusinessOff

As a business-minded woman, it is likely that you will want to be starting your own business sometime soon. Maybe you’ve always wanted to and have only just had the chance. Perhaps this is a decision you have made later in your life. Maybe you’re sick of struggling your way through jobs you hate. Maybe you kind of like the idea of working for yourself.

Whatever the reasons it is clear that running your own business is a wildly popular venture. But so many businesses fail before they even start. The reason for this is because the business owners don’t do their research. People assume that starting and running your own business is easy and that they can just dive head first into it and find their feet.

For this reason, many of them struggle to overcome issues that may crop up. If you are serious about starting your own business then you will want to prepare for every outcome. The most important part of this is going to be deciding what you want to do.

If you’re reading this post, it is likely that you want to run your own beauty parlor business. If this is the case then there are some things you need to take into account before getting started. This can be a rewarding and adventurous business, but it can also be a tough one to succeed in.

Here are four important aspects of running a beauty parlor that you should think about before you start your business:

Know Your Market
The key starting point, when deciding you want to run any kind of business, is to know your market. And a spa or salon is no different. You will want to find out as much as you can about the industry. Figure out what products and services other beauty salons offer and decide what you will offer. Research competitors and find out how successful they’ve been.

Working out what your customers and clients will want is the key factor. This will determine the direction in which you will take your business. You need to aim your practice towards giving the people what they want otherwise you will struggle for success.

You also need to figure out how you fit the industry. Just because you love working in hair and beauty doesn’t mean that you will achieve success as a business owner. Running a beauty parlor is hard work, long hours and can be a lot of stress.

You will also need good leadership skills too. It is one thing to be good at your current job at a beauty salon, but when it’s your own business you are the boss. You will responsible for discipline, delegation and planning. You will have to take the hits if the business struggles. You will need to have the skills to deal with both staff and customers. There will be stock to order, rotas to sort out and holidays cover. You are going to be busy most of the time. If this still sounds like fun then carry on reading!

Costing
The next thing that you are going to want to work out is the costing of your beauty parlor. You’re going to need to know the ins and outs of your figures, your expenditure and what you can expect to make. You are going to need to know what to charge your customers to see a profit for your business.

But most important of all you will need to work out how much it will cost you to run your beauty parlor. To begin with you’ll need to account for what you pay your staff. But you’ll also need to account for stock and equipment. If you want to run an efficient business, you are going to need to use some sort of technology such as EPoS systems. This will help with the daily running of the salon. The system will assist you with booking appointments, keeping a database and ordering stock.

Systems like this are vital for keeping your beauty parlor running in a fast and effective way. They also look modern and sleek. The customized systems can help you to run your business with more fluidity.

Integrated systems such as this are vital for your business. Sure they may be an expense upfront, but in the long run you will reap the benefits and may even see and increased client base.

Staff
Next you’re going to want to look at staff. If you are running a spa or salon then there is no doubt that you are going to need a body of staff. It’s not going to be possible for you to run the business on your own. Figure out what products and services you want to offer and then make sure you hire staff who excel at those areas. Or at least staff who can be well trained to specialize in those areas.

You will want to make sure that your body of staff is enough to cover the important elements of the spa and keep it running smoothly. But at the same time you want to try to keep the staff base as small as possible. This will help you to save money for the business as well as creating a more intimate, family feel among the staff. This is something that will benefit the customers as much as the staff.

Location
One of the most important elements in the running of a successful beauty spa or salon is to make sure you get the location right. You need to make sure that your spa is readily accessible from the street and has parking facilities nearby. You want it as visible as possible as it makes it much easier to market this way.

You may end up paying more rent on the building, but you will find that this is worth it. You will attract more clients due to visibility and ease of access. You may also find an increase in the number or client walk-ins.

You want somewhere with a lot of foot and road traffic to increase exposure for your brand. Places like malls and shopping centers are ideal as they are always busy and are a great way for women to relax after a heavy day of shopping.

Remember that the right location can see the success of your business explode. Make sure you get this factor right, and it should make the rest of the process much easier.

Photo by Valua Vitaly | Shutterstock

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