Choosing the location for your new salon

As part of our Build a Business series, mentor Antony Whitaker looks at how to choose your first salon location. So you’re all set to open your first salon, and you’re bursting with ideas about how it will look, how you’ll manage your fantastic team and how you’ll be living once the clients and the money start rolling in. But before any of that can happen, there’s one factor you simply must get right – location. If things aren’t quite going to plan six months down the line you can change the décor, change the services you offer, even change the name, but if you’ve chosen a dead-end location you’re stuck with it, at least until the end of whatever lease you’ve signed. So what should you look for when choosing the site of your first salon? Here are my top six essentials to consider. 1. Be absolutely clear on your target market. Once you can define your ideal client, decisions about location become more obvious. For example, to appeal to your target market, is the salon best located near where potential clients live or near where they work? Are they male or female, 20 or 50, high discretionary income or average wage earner? How will your ideal client get to the salon? Will they drive, walk or use public transport? 2. Understand the business concept you aspire to. For example, are you looking at being a family salon, low to mid-price point? A salon that requires high visibility and high footfall going past your front door to generate the volume of clients needed? Or are you looking at developing a destination salon, probably high priced with a degree of privacy and exclusivity and a desirable address to that will appeal to your target market? 3. Work out your finances. Like it not, budget will be a defining factor. As a guide, work on your rent being somewhere around 10% of revenue, so multiply the weekly rent figure by 10 and ask yourself how feasible it is to generate at least that much as a weekly revenue. Falling in love with a location you can’t afford really means you will be working to pay off the landlord’s investment, leaving little or no profit for yourself and the business. 4. Consider every cost. Talking of budgets, what will the fit-out cost be? Before committing to anything, make sure you have your finances sorted to ensure you can get the salon up and running. This requires expert help. If you have a big budget then you probably have a designer/project manager who will be able to work with the various trades to give you a reasonably accurate costing. However, most new salon ventures don’t have a big budget and rely on small bank loans, personal savings, family, credit cards, lots of hard work and favours from friends and family. My advice is to set clear budgets and stick to them. Get written quotes from furniture suppliers, shop fitters, electricians, plumbers and the various trades you will need to co-ordinate to get the salon open. 5. Do your due diligence. You may have a great idea for the decor, have the colour scheme all worked out, the perfect couch for reception and a great name for your new venture, but first you need to deal with a few essentials. For example, you need to ensure that you are allowed to operate a salon in the desired location. Are there any heritage issues that might restrict what you can do to the interior and exterior of the building? What about the existing utilities – plumbing, hot water and electrics? Are they sufficient or will they need replacing? These hidden but essential components can blow the budget if you haven’t done a thorough investigation beforehand, and you can end up with some nasty surprises that completely blow the budget. 6. Double-check the lease. How long is it? Is there a rent-free period? What rent increases does the lease allow for? It’s no good complaining that you never signed up for a 20% rent increase after six months if that’s, in fact, exactly what you did do. Also check, are there any restrictions or demands on the days and hours you can open? Are there any environmental issues – noise restrictions, for example? As you start looking for somewhere to open your business, you’re bound to come across other issues that relate to your own circumstances. And you may strike lucky with the first place you see ticking all your boxes. But always think twice before signing on the dotted line.   Antony Whitaker is a leading educator and motivator, with a worldwide reputation based on more than 30 years’ experience in the hairdressing industry. An award-winning stylist-turned-educator, business coach and best-selling author, he has taken his message on management, money, marketing, team-building and retailing to more than 250,000 hairdressers in 40-plus countries. www.growmysalonbusiness.com   www.facebook.com/growmysalonbusiness   www.twitter.com/antonywhitaker   For more informative and inspirational business news and features subscribe to HJ