How to own and operate a full service salon in Florida
Have you had a desire to open your own salon? People always want to look and feel good about themselves and will pay good money to do so. Becoming a salon owner takes a great deal of time and energy (and money), but it offers rewards of work flexibility, financial freedom (eventually), and ownership. Do a skills assessment to be sure that this is the right field for you, because entrepreneurial duties can be strenuous and exhausting at times. The state of Florida requires that each employee that provides a specific service in your salon be licensed for each service they provide.
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Things You'll Need
- Capital (financial assets)
- Business plan
- Income & expense statement
- Florida business license
- Cosmetology license (if you plan to work as a cosmetologist as well as owner)
- Zoning permit
- Florida state tax forms
Instructions
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Write a business plan. A business plan is a blueprint of your business goals. Financiers need it to determine whether they will lend you money and how much. Create an outline first. A good business plan will include the following: Executive summary, market analysis, company description, organization and management, marketing and sales management, service or product line, funding request, and financial information.
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Decide what services you want to provide. The cosmetology field has an array of services, such as esthetician, nail, hair-care, barbering, and make-up application services, and massage therapy. the best way to decide is to rely upon your market analysis.
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Determine how much space you will need. Depending on the size of your business, you might need anywhere from 500 to 2,000 square feet. Get information about zoning requirements from your local municipal offices.
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Choose your building structure. Do you want to buy an existing salon, own a salon franchise, or open a new salon? Consider the size and location of your building. Consider choosing a building that sits on a busy street, or, perhaps, even in a strip mall. Pay attention to adequate parking space for your customers.
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Select a name for your salon. Make sure your salon's name is memorable, has a positive connotation, has a visual element, includes information about what type of business it is, and is fairly short. For example, a salon named "All About You" gives customers the indication that when they walk into your salon, the focus will be solely on them looking and feeling good when they leave.
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Research financing for your start-up costs. Start-up costs can be anywhere from $2,000 to $30,000. You can go to banks, loan companies or private companies to apply for a business loan. There are two types of financing, debt financing and equity financing. Debt financing means you borrow the amount you need with a promise that you'll pay it back by a due date, with interest. Equity financing is when the lender buys a percentage of ownership in your business in exchange for the cash you need. Other options are saving the money on your own, finding "angel" investors, leasing the building, purchasing a business credit card or searching for government business grants.
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Decide on the best legal structure for the salon. Your salon can be a S-Corporation, C-Corporation, DBA (Doing Business As) or a LLC (limited liability corporation) business, You can even start your own. S-Corporation, which means small business structure. This structure gets the most tax benefits, but only has one class of stock to offer. C-Corporation means classic company structure, owned and operated by shareholders. LLC is the limited liability structure. It has all the tax benefits of the S-Corporation, but has the structure of the C-Corporation. DBA means doing business under a fictitous name. This is a good choice is you want to operate as a sole proprietor and own multiple businesses under a single legal entity.
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Gather business material about operating your salon. Read articles, magazines and newspapers. Request business information from the Florida Department of Revenue. Talk to existing salon owners whom you are not in direct competition with. Search websites on salon ownership and subscribe to business organizations.
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Hire employees. Draft a list job description of each position and submit them to TV networks, newspapers and employment agencies. Create flyers and post them where applicable, especially in the window of the salon. Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement. Hire qualified and well-trained personnel with established clientele. Ensure all employees are licensed contractors.
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Shop for and purchase equipment, supplies and decor. The equipment and supplies you buy depend on the type of services you will offer. Some of the basic equipment you need are washing basins, styling chairs, hair dryers, supply trolleys, manicure sets, aprons, shampoo spray machines, facial beds, hair steaming machines, and other body and skin care instruments. If you are planning to sell beauty products, you also need to invest in inventory. Check with local beauty supply stores, salon equipment dealers and eBay for discounts.
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Tips & Warnings
1. Keep your clients satisfied. A salon's best marketing tool is word-of-mouth.
2. Offer a clean and safe atmosphere. Cleanliness will keep customers coming back regularly.
3. Save on personnel costs. Arrange for everyone except the receptionist to be independent contractors, paid a sliding commission scale based on the amount of revenue created.
4. Be sure to consider offering senior citizen discounts, since a large percentage of Florida's population is 55 and older.
5. File a Florida corporate income tax return (unless the business is exempt). Anyone who does business in Florida has to do so. Your business is entitled to a number of great tax incentives. For example, if your Florida business gives money, goods or provides free services to the community, you will receive a community contribution tax credit.
Open a business bank account separate from your personal bank account. The last thing you want to do is combine the two and mis-manage your money. That's an ingredient for the disaster recipe.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit spa salon image by Vasily Smirnov from Fotolia.com
