My husband and I are looking to open a salon within the next 6 months. We have contacted several companies that (we have heard through tantalk, are the best)sell beds and the such. They want to help us open our salon. We have mixed feelings on this. Partially feeling that we are being taken for more money, partially feeling that they'd be a great help to us. Understanding that their beds are the "best", we would still like to use one of the 3 we have contacted; however, does their 'help' cost me in the long run? And could I purchase their beds without their 'help'?

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[ This Message was edited by: smike on 2004-05-09 12:09 ]

I don't know if they would charge you to help set up your salon. I would think they would cuz you never get something for nothing. You can start up a salon without help from a distributor. Do lots of research and try to do it yourself. Your gonna have enough of a cost once you start your build out. If I can be of any help just pm me and I'll help all I can. Good Luck

The only problem with help from a distributor is the fact that they will try to over sell you on beds and anything else they can. Remember, they are in the business of selling equipment. The more they can sell you the better off they are.

I would seek advice from several sources. Don’t rely on any one source. Also keep in mind your location and competition. Don’t let them talk you into buying more beds than you need. Don’t let them sell you a large salon business plan layout in a small salon. I’ve seen several salons buy beds out a balance. What I mean by out of balance is this. Take a look at a successful larger salon’s beds.

For example:

3500 SF Salon
23 Beds (16 Base or Level 1 beds, 2 Stand-up, 3 Level 2 and 2 High pressure)

In a salon of that size the upgrade beds will do well because they have a large customer base to support the upgrades.

On the other end of the scale is the small salon (5-10 Beds). I’ve seen several cases where the distributor over sells upgrades to a salon. Let’s take a salon with 6 beds total. 4 of the 6 should be base beds because that’s what 85% of your customers will use on a daily basis. The other 2 could be some type of upgrade bed or booth? Your area will determine that.

What you don’t want to do is fill the small salon with all upgrade beds. I know of a salon that bought 6 beds and 4 of them were upgrades. In other words they only had 2 base beds in the salon. While that looks impressive, it will cost you in the long run because you won’t have enough availability in the base beds to tan your customer base. How would you feel if every time you walked into your favorite salon and got hit for a upgrade fee? That sounds good when you talk about money but it doesn’t work. Customers won’t pay for upgrades every time they come into your salon.

The bottom line is this. Keep the ratio and balance in line. Take care of your customers with base beds first. Once you have that covered, buy upgrade beds. Don’t let the distributor over sell you on upgrades!