Any grants available for new hair business?

paulwf

What sort of amount of investment do you require?

Kimberley82

paulwf wrote: »

What sort of amount of investment do you require?

A few hundred pounds

chalkie99

Hang on

---

You are already self employed in a salon and are paying a 40% commission to the owner who has an established business, I assume.

You want "a few hundred pounds" so you can rent a chair elsewhere?

How does that work? It seems pretty much what you are already doing and you cannot even get a few hundred pounds saved from your current self employment to invest further.

Sorry this doesn't quite add up to me.

Kimberley82

chalkie99 wrote: »

Hang on

---

You are already self employed in a salon and are paying a 40% commission to the owner who has an established business, I assume.

You want "a few hundred pounds" so you can rent a chair elsewhere?

How does that work? It seems pretty much what you are already doing and you cannot even get a few hundred pounds saved from your current self employment to invest further.

Sorry this doesn't quite add up to me.

No I want to continue where I am, I have just started, but I dont have the funds to be doing it properly. To be based in a salon you need to have a good stock of tints, peroxides, perms, rods, rollers products, gloves, gowns the list goes on.

chalkie99

OK, sorry, it didn't quite read like that to me. My mistake.

paulwf

It's not an industry I'm familiar with so if my suggestions are rubbish I won't be offended Some things you could try though...

- Do any companies offer a starter pack at a subsidised price? This is certainly the case in other industries as they know you will restock as the product sells through. Talk to some reps, make some calls and see what sort of package they can put together. If you can get 30-60 days credit as well then you're sorted.

- Can all of you that rent chairs have a central stock that you all use? This would reduce costs for all of you and enable each of you to offer a greater range of products to your clients.

- Could the salon owner provide a stock of products that you can buy? Would they allow you to defer rental payments so you can build up your client list which would make them more money long term?

You also need to get very familiar with your accounts and see what your profit and loss is and how you can improve things. Your stock costs for hairdressing should be very low so a few clients should soon allow you to buy enough stock. Are you taking too much out of the business as wages instead of reinvesting it? Are your prices high enough? You mention groupon, if you did a 50% offer, paid groupon a fee and paid your 40% chair rental did you run at a loss?

Savvy_Sue

Would it help to start offering a 'pre-tint consultation and hair conditioning' session, for which you would make a modest charge, work out exactly what the customer wants ready to order it in, do any cutting required, and slather conditioner on to get the hair into the best possible condition?

Presumably you already have to patch test at least 24 hours beforehand, don't you?

I don't really know anything about this, btw, have never had my hair coloured and don't intend to start now!

classixuk

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Would it help to start offering a 'pre-tint consultation and hair conditioning' session, for which you would make a modest charge, work out exactly what the customer wants ready to order it in, do any cutting required, and slather conditioner on to get the hair into the best possible condition?

Presumably you already have to patch test at least 24 hours beforehand, don't you?

I don't really know anything about this, btw, have never had my hair coloured and don't intend to start now!

The above is the exact thing I was going to say.

To the OP...I'm a salon owner and also run an NVQ training centre training up to NVQ level 4 in Hairdressing. I've been in the industry almost 20 years and have a team of 13 people working with me.

First off, you should never do a colour service without first skin-testing the client. This needs to be done 48 hours before the service. If you don't skin-test and the client suffers a reaction, neither the product manufacturer (L'Oreal, Wella etc.) will back you up, and neither will your insurance pay out (you do have public liability insurance don't you?).

This skin test simply means carrying one tube of a level 5 or 4 tint in the salon and using that to carry out the skin tests.

When the skin test takes place, do your consultation and it then gives you 48 hours to get the products you will need from the wholesalers.

I am struggling slightly though to understand what you need capital investment for? Say you buy 12 tubes of tint (a few bases, some golds, a couple of reds and a highlift ash blonde), a bottle of 12%, a 100m roll of foil and a carton of bleach - you're looking at no more than £100. This would get you easily through 15 hair colour appointments, plus cut and blow @ minimum £40 each = £600.

To be honest, it sounds as though you should be looking for a job in a commission based salon as I don't think you're ready to take on self-employment if you need a grant for the above. I mean that from the heart. You'd make more money working for someone else who can provide you with a regular wage, stock and clients at this stage in your career.

Also, don't look at how much % you are 'giving away', but instead look at how much money you are making.

I have staff on 30% rates who take home over £2000 per month after tax. They also get a month's paid holiday.

How does that compare to your earnings?