quercus

I'm considering buying a hair and beauty salon business but I'm not had any experience of the business before. There is a therapist who wants to stay but I would need to find a hairdresser and maybe other therapists to offer a varied service.

It is a nice salon in a good area, up and running, but it needs building up. I would expect to spend a lot of my time in promoting it.

If anyone is possibly interested in getting involved, either full or part time please pm me.

cally49

Hi there! I am in NZ but your post interested me as i have been looking at buying a salon and working on the buisness ie: running reception for the past 4yrs.

All i will say is be very very careful, 4 out of 4 businesses i looked at all closed their doors 2 within 6 months of me looking at them and the other 2 within 2years.

I decided there wasnt enough in it for me although it had always been my dream (i do have a background in hair and beauty but am not qualified, i did 12months of my apprentiship many years ago)

Building these salons up was going to cost me a small fortune. Two of them were purchased by non hairdressers and within 2years both had closed the doors i have been advised by loads of hairdressers that if you are not a hairstylist or therapist yourself you really can be held to ransom by the staff because if they dont turn up for work whos going to do the job.
And if they decide to up and leave they usually end up taking theor clients with them as we all know we all follow a good stylist as its hard to get one that does your hair just the way you like.

Im sorry if i sound negative but im just trying to say be careful i have done so much research into it.
It may be different where you are looking but as one business broker said to me the problem is that once you have a stylist you have to keep them (other salons are always trying to entice them away lol) No offence to you hairstylists out there...........

Anyhow if there is anything i can help you with please send me a Private Message im happy to pass on anything i have learnt.
All the best in your search i hope it all works out for you.
Cheers
Cally

quercus

Hi Cally, thanks very much for those comments.

It is a concern to find the right person or people who are reliable. The therapist there works for herself and pays a percentage of her takings instead of being employed. It seems like quite a good arrangement as she is in the position of building her own business and reaping the rewards herself.

My daughter has done cert 2 hairdressing and hopes we could find someone who would take her on as apprentice. I'm certainly going to do more research before signing the lease, and maybe advertse for other people to come onboard.

Carl England

Hi my name is carl
i am a hairdresser just going through the emigration process now hoping to have our visa by Nov/Dec.
Have owned 2 salons for the last 14 years (which i have just sold)and have worked in a private training acadamy for the last 6 years as department head. my family and i are wanting to go to brisbanne were is your proposed salon (we are wanting to go to the redclife area) and when are you looking for staff. i am wanting to get work in a salon as soon as i arrive.
regards
Carl

jan

Excellent Advice! I have been in the hairdressing business for over 30 years and one thing i can say without doupt if you are not a hairdresser you have very little chance of making much money from the business.It is very cut throat(excuse the pun!) The only possible way is if your staff are financially commited i.e. shareowners of the business otherwise i can assure you all the hard work building a clientel from advertising etc and it could take years to grow will be lost when the stylist leaves either to have a family, they quite often take the best clients for a mobile round or they go to a rival salon remember the clients will be loyal to the stylist NOT the salon worst still they will walk with what they consider their client base to open their own salon just a block away. Do the maths you would need at least three stylists to be busy all day long for you to earn a good salary.The stylist worth their salt will be looking to earn between 30%-40% of their takings + all the running costs
Good luck in your endevour but as the poster said be very aware of the pitfulls.

Kelli28

thats good advice from Cally and Jan, iv been hairdressing for about 17 yrs and would say the same thing.

one of the other things that i would add is when i was looking for work as a stylist i would never really consider working somewhere that was run by a non hairdresser, every salon i worked in where the owner was a non hairdresser i found they really had no idea of how to run a salon (there may be some around but iv never seen or heard of them).

The owners would either be held to ransome by staff (this happens even when you are a qualified owner) or the staff took the P, or it used to be so difficult and awkward to work in a salon that was not run properly the staff would leave anyway. Then you end up with a high staff turnaround wich no salon wants.

Carl England

Hello again
as i said earelier i work in a collage and desal with a great number of employers, one of which i have a great deal of respect as she in a non hairdresser and runs a very sucessful business. She employes 17 staff and has great managerial and people skills, this is were i think she makes up for the lack of hairdressing knowledge, this might be somthing for you to think about.
you have recieved some good feedback and i do think that having a good team and being able to manage them well will be the secret.
regards
Carl

quercus

Fantastic comments guys! If I go ahead with this venture it will be with my eyes open!

Carl, I will PM you later when I get time, and also come back to look more closely at the replies.

Keep them coming, and would love to hear if beauticians have similar experiences?

quercus

Thanks again for everyone's input on this thread. It's given me plenty to think about.

I have had a couple of requests for my sponsorship for people to come over, so I had better say that I'm not yet permaent resident, so I'm not able to sponsor anyone myself unfortunately.

I am hoping to get a team of people together who would all benefit from working at the salon. I'm not into macro management, so I would prefer mature people who don't need me behind them with a stick. I wouldn't interfere with people doing a good job. I would see my role as providing the salon environment that I envisage, smart, modern, clean and high quality. Also co-ordinate the running of things and work at promoting the salon and practitioners.

I would be happy to lose the kind of person who is on the look out for ways to take advantage. I'm sure there are many people out there who could work independently but part of a team without having a qualified manager breathing down their neck. Obviously with hairdressers I will have to be very careful who I take on, and perhaps I could offer a higher percentage but deduct a share of advertising costs. It would be a major problem if I was suddenly left by a stylist, not being a hairdresser myself, so if anyone has more suggestions of how I could run things to keep a happy team, I would be very glad to hear to hear!

Q

cally49

Hi there again...I actually did a lot of my research by having my hair/beauty treatments done at businesses that i was interested in.

The owners were aware of this and at one particular salon it was hilarious i had just been seated at the basin to have my hair shampooed (the owner was away) and the young apprentice was sighing away as she did my hair and so i asked her how her apprentiship was going she said oh iv'e had enough i dont like the boss (lol) she said i havent told her but im handing my notice in tommorow and im going to such and such salon im thinking like oh thats interesting lol but wait there was even more! As i sat waiting for my stylist to come back from lunch the girl who was a senior stylist and sitting at reception turned to me and said do you know where this place is (it was another city) so i said no i dont are you going for a holiday she said no we are thinking of moving (i was like flippin heck ive been in her all of 15mins and 2 out of 9 staff have said they are going soon there will be no one left...........Anyhow thats how i did my initial research and non of the staff realised that the places were for sale and i never let on as the owners had asked me not to.

One thing i was told the other day and it was regarding a beauty therapist/nail technician at a different salon she was working there and the owner was only there part time so she would put mock appointments in the book and then mysteriously they would become cancellations made her look busy lol and as she was on an hourly rate it was good for her if she didnt have to work but im afraid it backfired on her as she confided in one of the other staff who ended up buying the business so of course she could no longer play that game........Another good one im led to believe is staff not taking first and last appointments (add that up over a week with 3 stylist/beauty therapist and see how much money you can be losing)
You would need to be there 24/7 i believe and that is what i was prepared to do but something made me always pull back and so i dont have anything bought yet although i am always looking.....

I really do admire you for being keen to give it a go and i guess its like everything you wont know until you try. I actually did aprox 12 months of my hairdressing apprenticeship years ago and when in the UK for 7 months i did a course on nails beauty make up etc not because i wanted to actually do it myself but i did feel it would be great to be able to better understand where my staff were coming from more clearly and what they go through when working on and dealing with a client.

I also felt it would help me better with understanding product use etc.

All the best keep us up to speed in how you get on...
Cheers
Cally