How to Run a Successful Hair Salon

Ways to Ensure Your Hairdressing Business Makes Money

May 17, 2009 Helen Brain

Top tips for making sure your beauty business makes money year after year.

Gill Foster, owner of New Image Salon in Cape Town, has run her successful salon for eighteen years. These are her top tips for making sure that your hairdressing business does well year after year.

An Attractive, Professional Salon is Essential

  • Cleanliness is vital for a beauty salon, not just for health and hygiene reasons, but also to make the clients feel pampered. Set up cleaning rosters so the staff members know what is expected of them.
  • Implement a no smoking rule for staff and clients.
  • Don't allow staff to eat or drink in the salon.
  • Background music should not be too obtrusive. Aim for something that will appeal to most of the salon’s clients.
  • Make sure that all staff look professional and groomed. A uniform can make a big difference to the way the salon is perceived by customers.
  • Give all staff training in telephone etiquette to ensure happy customers.

A Good Manager Tracks Staff with a Hairdresser's Business Plan

  • Use track sheets to help track how much each staff member is earning.
  • Use rosters to help avoid conflict between staff members, and between staff members and management.
  • Be respectful to all staff, and insist that they are respectful to one another and to management.
  • Be good to employees. Holding onto good staff is key to maintaining a successful business, so treat them with respect and be empathetic when necessary.

Latest Hair Products and Styles

  • Staff members need to be stimulated and challenged. To keep them up to date with industry trends, take them to shows and provide training in the latest styles, cuts, trends and products. Investing in good staff is never wasted.

Beauty Shop Business Tips for Customer Relations

  • Aim for punctuality at all times. Nothing frustrates customers more than being kept waiting. It’s essential never to overbook appointments.
  • Attend to the client the moment she walks through the door.
  • Chat to the client about her expectations before she heads for the wash basin. Check her head for crowns or cowlicks, and take the time to find out a little about her and her lifestyle.
  • Don’t tell the client about any personal problems, and never get over familiar with clients. Respect the boundaries in the relationship.
  • Don’t do anything too radical with a new customer. Rather let them gain confidence in the salon before suggesting something unfamiliar for them.

Hair Salon Business Tips for Difficult Economic Times

  • Maintain excellent service
  • Don’t put prices up more than absolutely necessary
  • Do whatever it takes to keep good staff

Following these hints and tips will help most hairdressing businesses reach their goals and maintain that success, even in difficult economic times.

The copyright of the article How to Run a Successful Hair Salon in Small/Home Business is owned by Helen Brain. Permission to republish How to Run a Successful Hair Salon in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Hair Products in a Hair Salon, Kevin Rosseel Hair Products in a Hair Salon