How do I create a business plan for a home salon?
I am a licensed cosmetologist. I am looking to open a salon out of my home. However, I am having issues with business planning. How do I go about creating a business plan?
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Nov 19, 2019
Even though it is a home salon, try dedicating a separate section for it on your premises. This helps in setting the ambiance right.
- Next, register yourself on local experiences apps. This gives you a decent exposure to your prospective clients
- Try distributing offline marketing material in your neighborhood. This not only provides brand awareness but if done right could also bring in customers. Try combining your offline efforts with an online presence. Use a QR code on your flyers and posters to help users navigate to your home salon. There are location QR codes that open up Google Maps with the destination set when you scan them.
Nov 14, 2019
Hi Crystal!
First of all, I wish you all the best for your start-up business.
I’m the Co-Founder of an application development firm and as per my experience, a simple business plan should include the following elements:
- The name of your business.
- The purpose of your business.
- The industry where you’re planning to expand your business.
- The services you’re going to offer to your customers.
- Details of your target audience, including demographics, preferences, geographic concentration, etc. The more detailed and clear this section gets, the better it is (especially for marketing campaigns, that you plan to conduct in the future)
- Your marketing plans - This section will include your marketing channels and strategies.
- Your financial plan – This should include an overview of projected cash-flows, existing assets, and anticipated costs.
Hope this helps!
Nov 10, 2019
Hi Crystal,
If you're a newbie in the business planning sphere, not a problem!
There are lots of places you can use to make your business plan. For me, the best place to get benefit from, is the BPlans.com.
You can find the answers to your questions there. They have many templates, business planning resources, helping articles that you can use while building a b-plan.
Take it easy, the first one is always hard! ;)
Good luck!
Nov 8, 2019
Hi Crystal,
First, congratulations on taking the first step!
Since you probably will not be raising any capital to start your salon, you don't need a professional plan.
What you need a simple strategic plan to start and grow your salon... This strategic plan is a business plan.
Open a word document and answer these questions:
1. Who is my target audience?
2. What times I'll be open?
3. What are the different services I want to start offering (doesn't have to be everything at once)?
4. What will be the cost for each service?
5. How much it will cost me to fulfill each service (product costs divided by the number of customers it can be used for etc.)?
6. How many customers I can handle each week?
7. What is the weekly or monthly revenue I am aiming for?
8. Where do my current customer's shop?
9. What special offering can I provide to attract new customers? (free offer, discount, home-style, etc.)?
10. What are different ways I can attract these target audiences (flyers, word of mouth, social media, ads)?
11. How much I can spend in kickstarting the operations (inventory, website, business cards, flyers, etc.)?
12. If I meet my monthly targeted client's number each month, how many months it will take to get my invested money back (called break-even)?
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This analysis will help you define:
Who you are serving?
What you are serving?
How much it costs you?
How much you'll be able to charge?
What unique element you are bringing to the table from other salons?
What is your kickoff budget?
How soon you can expect to get a return on your investment?
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This is a good start... After you reach a point where you are getting enough customers you can think of building a more robust business plan. At this point, I would recommend wasting time writing a long business plan.
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All you need to focus on:
1. What
2. To whom
3. For how much
4. Unit economics (cost - sale = profit)
Hope this helps! If you insist, I can recommend a few online tools to help draft an official BP.
Best wishes,
Dev
Nov 8, 2019
The best marketing for the home salon is mouth to mouth marketing. Ask your friends and neighbor to promote your business, then make an attractive small board of advertisement and place near your saloon area and distribute the pamphlet to all the houses near your house and saloon area.