liona68

Im thinking about opening a salon here in Northfield MN. There is only 1 major salon in town need advice about how to start up, resources to get.etc...Thanks

THETANMAN

LIONA68,The first thing you must consider is MONEY, Do you have a lot of it, or can you get a loan for it ?This would be the thing I would work out first. How big of a salon are you thinking about ?How big is your town?Are you going to do this full time ?Do you have a GREAT location ?Because you need a very visable location.If you need help, you can E-MAIL me and I can answer some of your questions.DUANE THETANMAN

Sonshinetans

We opened our store this October will be a year. From June through August we did research by visiting other locations(Thanks to Michael @ sanddollar) we found a model store and tweaked things to fit our city. I've been in Management about all my working career and found that most businesses fail because they under capitalized themself. Here is what kept our doors opened this first year.1. Capital (you gotta have enough money on hand to pay business expenses for at least 6 months) if you are going to take a salary include that number in your calculation.2. Equipment - Go ahead and spend money on excellent equipment, do buy units that others can duplicate without a huge investment. Many people will buy cheap equpment but that want hurt you if you have top of the line stuff.3. Location - You need a location that is visible and with good parking. Check your ordinace about signs, you need a good sign. Ours is 3x16 and our store front is 25ft.4. Your buildout is important. Go first class but do it affordably. When people walk in you want them to say "wow" this is nice.Carpet in rooms are a no-no5. Marketing- you gotta get your name out. We advertised free tanning with a coupon,and our best response was a 3for3 tanning pkg. You try to get your database built up as quickly as possible to get customers on your mailing list. When you get your beds remember there needs to be something unique about them so you can market them.We used Tan America beds and marketed that they were "air-conditioned" and that they have built in CD players.Please be careful about your capital, we started with 50k and needed it for advertising,operating expenses and such from oct-jan until the cash flow picked up.People run there businesses with less but it is risky.I hope this helps. ------------------Tommy Lowery