How to Open a Hair Supply Store
Opening a hair supply store may seem like the ultimate business venture for those interested in beauty, hair and personal care, but this is a business that can be difficult to break into. For those that take the time to carefully plan, owning a beauty supply store can be very lucrative.
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Things You'll Need
- Location
- Tax and resale permits
- Assumed name certificate
- EIN (employer identification number)
- Store fixtures and supplies
- Marketing materials
Instructions
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1
Decide whether you want to have a physical store or an online one. An online store will cost less, and you can always bring your brand offline once your store becomes established.
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Obtain a resale license, tax permit, which you will need to open wholesale accounts, and assumed name certificate from your county clerk. If you want to operate as a corporation, limited liability partnership (LLP) or limited liability corporation (LLC), file the appropriate paperwork with your state.
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Get an employee identification number, or EIN, from the IRS if you plan to hire employees. This is necessary for all businesses with two or more employees that are not independent contractors.
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Choose a niche for your store. For example, you can sell hair salon equipment, discount hair and personal care brands, or natural hair care brands. This will make it easier to target your marketing efforts.
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Establish wholesale accounts with the brands you want to sell. Do not go through a middleman or distributor, just contact the brands directly--most of them have websites--and you can set up a wholesale account online. You will be required to give the company your tax permit number and will likely need to order a minimum amount, typically around $150 per order.
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Rent a location, if you will be operating a physical hair supply store. Make sure that you have at least 700 square feet of space to start out with and that your store is in a high-traffic area. If you can, rent a store near complementary businesses, such as hair and nail salons.
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Buy fixtures and supplies for your physical store, such as wall shelving, dump bins, shopping baskets, cash registers and pricing guns. If you have an online store, choose a shopping cart platform or an online marketplace to set up your site and buy a domain name.
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Print marketing materials, such as brochures, business cards and fliers. If you have an online store, you can still get business cards, but you should also have branded labels printed to put on the packages you ship out.
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Advertise and promote your hair supply store by joining a beauty supply association, placing banner ads on niche beauty blogs and sites, buying radio ads, or sponsoring a local nonprofit event.
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Tips & Warnings
For your store opening, have a launch party and offer customers who attend an exclusive coupon that is good for their next purchase. If your store is online, have a grand opening sale, or put a free sample in each order.
