Sponsored by Chicago Lashes:
Starting a new business is always associated with certain risks, and when it comes to opening a beauty salon, many entrepreneurs tend to hesitate because of the highly competitive market. Nevertheless, if you’ve decided to launch a beauty salon, don’t give up on your dreams. Simply do the proper research prior to opening so you can guarantee the success of your business.
When we opened our first beauty salon several years ago, we knew it would be hard to establish ourselves and gain the trust of the clients, but we never gave up. In addition to hard work, following are five tips from Chicago Lashes founder Jennifer Moore to help you get started.
1. Know Your Market
As a beauty provider, you need to know and understand the demographics and interests of the customers you’ll be providing services for. Knowing your clientele and taking into account the location of your beauty salon will help you to determine the right price for your services and products. Depending on the market research you’ve completed, you can choose two approaches to your business:
- Offer a variety of services to appeal to a larger audience, including makeovers, nail services, eyelash extensions, and more, or
- Specialize in one particular service and focus on making your brand the best in the field
2. Invest in Your Online Presence
The website of each company is its business card in the online world. Nowadays, it’s very important to make your online presence visible and recognizable by the customers you’re targeting. When developing the website of your beauty salon, take into account the following tips:
- Use a domain name that corresponds to your primary activity. Thus, you’ll be more recognizable by both search engines and potential customers.
- Optimize your website content to contain the keywords you want to rank for. For example, we operate an eyelash extensions salon in Chicago. On our website, we have a page where all content is built around the keyword Eyelash Extensions in Chicago. This allows our website to appear in search engines’ results every time someone searches for that particular service.
SEO services are worth the investment, as an optimized site will draw organic traffic, help convert your visitors into customers, and make sure that it gets the best SERP (search engine result pages) rankings on Google.
- Make your website user-friendly – the site should load quickly and give users an option to browse through its different sections easily. Make sure that it contains all the necessary information like your contact details, various services, available promotions, and so on. A short presentation of your employees will also make a good impression on your customers.
The design of your business website should use friendly colors as well as graphics and/or animation that can grab the attention of the visitors and make them remember your brand when they think of a beauty salon.
3. Don’t Try to Copy Another Business
Before your new business opens its doors, you should have a vision of how you want the new business to operate. This means using creativity and ideas to stand out from the rest of the pack. Find out what your competitors are doing and then try something unique and different.
A new product line, different technique, or the latest beauty service that is a hit in the industry can be your competitive advantage that can help you establish your brand in the marketplace.
4. Beware of Regulations and Hidden Costs
Aspiring beauticians need to take into account all the various qualifications, licenses, and insurances required for providing certain treatments like massages, beauty treatment, manicures, hair extensions, etc. Make sure you have all the approvals and permits that allow you to offer the services that you do. Keep in mind as well that you need to obtain planning permission in case you need to do some refitting of the premises you’re using.
In case you want to offer your own beauty products, don’t forget that they need to be tested and approved prior to being offered on the market. While the process is quite expensive, it’s worth the investment if you want your brand to get established. Besides, getting a fine will cost you much more both in financial terms and as a stain on your reputation.
Health and safety issues are also a major factor that you need to pay attention to as a result of some substances used in the products for beauty treatments. It’s good to check the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Essentials, which will help you get familiar with safety laws and keep in line with their requirements.
5. Provide Exceptional Customer Service
Business owners should treat customers with the highest respect at all times and make a genuine effort to make customers feel special.
In order to achieve that, you need to make sure that you work with experienced beauty experts who know their jobs and know how to work with clients. You can also offer some discounts and promotions to new and repeated customers.
Your beauty salon interior is also of paramount importance in order to make your customers feel relaxed. Invest in comfortable chairs and couches, and make sure you have the latest issues of well-known and local beauty magazines to make the time pass pleasantly for those who are waiting for their treatment to start.
Always keep your appointments and make sure to inform your customers of any upcoming holidays, vacations, or other disruptions of your regular working schedule.
Our best advice to entrepreneurs who want to launch a beauty salon is to approach each step of the process with lots of love and patience and to pay attention to the smallest details as they add value for customers.
