beauty salon and spa business plan

Spa Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business Plan Outline

• Spa Business Plan Home
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Company Overview
• 3. Industry Analysis
• 4. Customer Analysis
• 5. Competitive Analysis
• 6. Marketing Plan
• 7. Operations Plan
• 8. Management Team
• 9. Financial Plan

Start Your Spa Plan Here

You’ve come to the right place to create your spa business plan.

We have helped over 100,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their spas.

Below are links to each section of your spa business plan template:

Next Section: Executive Summary >

Spa Business Plan FAQs

What is a spa business plan.

A spa business plan (or day spa business plan) is used start and/or grow your spa business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.  

You can  easily complete your spa business plan using our Spa Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Spa Businesses?

There are many types of spa businesses. Some spas offer more health-focused services like body rejuvenation, dietician recommendations, and gym and exercise facilities. Other day spas offer luxury accommodations such as massage therapies and skin treatments, while relaxing with wine in the most comfortable setting. A latest trend in  spa services is being able to offer cryotherapy service. 

What Are the Main Sources of Revenue and Expenses for Spas?

The primary source of revenue for spas are fees for services paid by the client. The client will choose from a list of spa services and purchase the package or service they want.

The key expenses for a spa business are the cost of purchasing the spa equipment and supplies. Other expenses are the rent and utilities for the facility as well as payroll and marketing costs.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Spa?

Spas are most likely to receive funding from banks. Typically you will find a local bank and present your business plan to them. Outside investors, friends, and/or family are other common funding sources. This is true for a business plan to open a spa as well as a sauna business plan.

What are the Steps To Start a Successful Spa Business?

Starting a spa can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Spa Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a business plan for your spa that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include market research on the spa industry, potential target market size, information on the services or products you will offer, pricing, marketing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.   

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your spa . This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your spa business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Spa Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your spa  with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary Spa Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your spa . Your spa's marketing plan includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Where Can I Get a Spa Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free spa business plan template PDF here . This is a sample spa business plan template you can use in PDF format.

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How to Write the Perfect Salon Business Plan in 6 Steps

Discover how to craft a winning salon business plan in just six steps! Boost your salon's success with expert tips, market analysis, and strategy insights.

No credit card required.

As a salon owner, having a well-thought-out business plan is essential to the success of your business. A salon business plan outlines your business goals, market analysis, marketing strategies, financial projections, and other key details, serving as a roadmap that guides you through the process of starting, running, and growing your salon. In this article, we’ll go over the key elements of a salon business plan and provide tips on how to write the best business plan for salons in 2023.

How Much Does It Cost to Run a Salon? 

Before you start writing a salon business plan, it’s important to get an idea of the startup and ongoing costs. As we discuss in this article , the costs of starting a salon range from $62,000 for an existing salon to $90,000 for a new operation. With some of the expenses, you’ll incur one-time costs – other expenses will be ongoing such as supplies and inventory. Here are some of the typical costs associated with starting a salon: 

Existing Salon 

When you buy an existing salon, be it a hair salon or nail salon, you save on the costs of buildout, salon equipment , and salon marketing, assuming the salon already has some of these elements in place. Here’s what you can expect to pay for the following:

• Rent deposit: $4,500
• Buyout of current salon: $10,500
• Leasehold improvements: $15,000
• Equipment: $10,000
• Initial supplies: $8,000
• Initial inventory: $4,000
• Certifications and licenses: $4,000
• Marketing: $5,000
• Legal or consulting fees: $1,000

Grand total: $62,000

The upfront costs of building out a brand-new salon, marketing it to local clients, and getting the business up and running will likely exceed those of buying an existing salon. Here are the typical expenses you can expect to incur for a new salon:

• Buyout of current salon: $0
• Leasehold improvements: $35,000
• Equipment: $25,000
• Marketing: $8,000

Grand total: $89,500

You may also want to budget for the following:

• If you need a loan or financing to cover startup costs, expect to pay interest rates of 1.25% to 10%.
• Salon insurance ranges from $50 to $1,000 per month.
• Salon booking software and a point of sale (POS) system range from free to $500 per month. GlossGenius starts at an industry-low $24 per month with low payment processing fees and includes a website, a branded card reader, and other extras.
• A salon website can cost you thousands, but with GlossGenius, it’s included free! Beautiful and customizable, your website is packed with scheduling features and is easy to navigate, helping to increase bookings and future appointments.

How Profitable Is Owning a Salon?

If you owned a salon during the pandemic, no doubt you experienced your fair share of struggles between lockdowns, closures, and reduced business hours. According to Statista , the U.S. market size of beauty salons dropped from $69 billion in 2019 to $42.3 billion in 2020. Fortunately, things are beginning to look up for hair, skin, nail, and other types of salons, with the market valued at $53.6 billion as of 2022.

You can take advantage of the comeback by approaching your salon startup with a solid plan in place, a realistic budget, and a marketing strategy. A beauty salon business plan can help you identify any questions , opportunities, and potential roadblocks so you can have the best chances of getting funding, earning a return on your investment and achieving profitability. The more you control your expenses and market your business successfully, the more profitable you will be – so be sure to take your time creating a salon business plan for your needs.

6 Steps to Writing a Hair Salon Business Plan

The business plan is the most important document for any salon owner. It’s a formal, written plan that describes the future of your business and how you intend to achieve it. A good business plan will help you stay on track, get funding if you need it, and avoid costly mistakes as you navigate through choppy waters in this industry. 

We know what you’re thinking – that a business plan is a monster of a document that will take a ton of time to create. But, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, you can pare it down to one page and still have an effective, clear document that outlines everything you (and any other interested parties) need to know about your new salon. Below are six steps to writing a salon business plan that will ensure your success.

Here are six steps to creating your salon business plan:

• Create an Executive Summary
• Map Out Your Branding Vision
• Research Your Industry
• Create a Client Acquisition Strategy
• Management and Operations
• Financial Planning

Let's dive deeper into each one.

1. Create an Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first section of your business and management plan and provides a brief overview of your salon business. This section should include your mission statement , business objectives, target market, products and beauty services, and financial projections. It should be concise, engaging, and compelling to grab the attention of potential investors, lenders, or partners. It also serves to clarify your goals so you can come back to them anytime you need a refresher or wish to update this information.

Your executive summary is just that: a summary. This means you do not have to get into every detail in this section; you’ll provide a more complete analysis in the individual sections of your business plan. Here are some key elements to include in the executive summary:

• An opening “hook.” The first sentence or two of your executive summary needs to draw in the reader; otherwise, your business plan might not get the attention it deserves. Grab your audience’s attention by sharing a compelling fact about your company, a memorable story related to your industry, or some other well-crafted description of your business that will make your business plan stand out.
• Summary of your business. Describe what your company does, what services and products you will offer, who will run the company, and other high-level details.
• Market analysis. Briefly describe the market landscape for your own salon to show there is a proven need for your services. Be sure to address who your competitors are, any advantages you have compared with others, and any research you’ve conducted to demonstrate there is a demand for your services in the area. 
• Products and services. Highlight the specific services your salon will offer, any products you will sell, and any other information showing that your salon will fill the need you’ve described in your market analysis summary – and how you’ll do it better than the competition.
• Financial information and projections. Give your reader an overview of your business financials, including any current sales and profits, the funding amount you’re looking to acquire or any funding you already have, and your projections for growth.
• Future plans. Tell your reader exactly how you plan to use any funds you acquire and how their investment could pay off. Imagine where you want your business to be in a year, five years, and so on. Make it clear how funding will help you get there.

2. Map Out Your Branding Vision

Branding isn’t just about creating a unique identity for your business; it’s also about helping people connect with that identity and remember your name anytime they need your services. Branding helps both current clients and new customers recognize who you are and why they would want to seek out your salon. In your business plan, be sure to map out your branding vision by including:

• A description of your salon business. Describe who you are and what you do.
• Your mission and vision statement. Briefly summarize why your salon should exist, its primary objective, and how you plan to achieve your goals.
• An overview of your products and services, your pricing strategy, and any unique features or benefits that differentiate your salon from others in the market. Discuss the specific services you will offer and their price points, plus any product lines you will carry, such as hair care products, makeup, or skincare.
• A description of the target audience and customer demographics. Include relevant research on your market and the people who will buy what you’re offering.

3. Research Your Industry

This section should include a market analysis that provides an in-depth look at the salon industry, including trends, customer demographics, competition, and opportunities. It should also identify your target market and describe how you plan to reach them. This section should demonstrate your knowledge of the market and your ability to capitalize on it, with details on:

• The industry and trends. Provide an overview of the salon industry with relevant statistics, especially those that pertain to your area of expertise and geographic location.
• Your competition. Conduct a competitive analysis to gain insights into your competition, their marketing strategies, and the services and products they offer. The goal is to show how you will capture market share using stronger business strategies that set you apart from your competitors.
• Market segmentation. With market segmentation , you break down a larger target market into a smaller group of customers you plan to serve. Demographics such as age and income, geographic location, lifestyles or psychographics, and behavioral factors like price sensitivity or product loyalty are just a few approaches to market segmentation that you can consider for your business plan.
• SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is a way to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It's an effective method for identifying your business strengths and weaknesses as well as external factors that may affect the success of your salon business.

4. Create a Client Acquisition Strategy

The client acquisition section of your salon business plan should describe how you plan to attract and retain customers as a hairstylist . It should outline your advertising and promotional strategies, such as social media marketing , SMS marketing , email marketing, and referral programs. This section should also discuss your sales strategy, including how you plan to increase sales and generate revenue.

• Description of marketing channels and tactics . Outline the different channels you will use to generate leads, such as social media, blog articles, emails, and text messages. 
• Sales forecasting and projections. Discuss how you will convert leads into clients, nurture them through the pipeline, and retain a loyal clientele. Include a realistic estimate of the quantity of goods and services you can sell within the forecast period (for example, monthly, quarterly, and annually). For a salon business, it’s helpful to determine the customer lifetime value of your typical client as well as the customer acquisition cost. You can then break down this number for the forecast period to determine the costs and sales projections.
• Customer acquisition and retention strategies. Include which strategies you will use and the associated costs, such as pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), and paid ads on social media. Describe how you will retain customers – for example, through loyalty programs and responses to feedback and reviews on social media and Google. ‍
• Pricing strategy. It’s critical that you price your services and products competitively to drive revenue and profits. Detail the pricing strategy you plan to implement based on your buyer persona and competitive analysis. The strategy could be based on a variety of factors, but geographic location and local competition will likely be the biggest factors dictating your salon pricing strategy.

5. Management and Operations

The management and staffing section of your salon business plan should describe the organizational structure of your salon, including the roles and responsibilities of each staff member. It should also discuss your hiring and training practices, employee benefits , and compensation plans. This section should demonstrate your ability to attract and retain a skilled and motivated team, with information on your:

• Organizational structure. Spell out who runs the show and who reports to whom.
• Management team and staff. If you plan to hire a manager , look for someone who has experience in the industry and understands what it takes to run a salon. This person should also have good people skills and be able to work well with others.
• Business operations and processes. Consider which other support personnel you will need, such as an accountant and a dedicated marketing specialist. Don’t be a hero; you can’t do it all alone. ‍
• Legal and regulatory requirements. Include information on any legal advice you will employ to stay compliant with local, state, and federal guidelines.

Note that with GlossGenius, you can manage your team and collaborate with them to make your operations run more smoothly. Our software helps you delegate, mentor, and partner with others based on customizable permissions that let you grant as much or as little access as you wish. Easily manage your scheduling, booking, commissions, and reporting from one intuitive dashboard.

6. Financial Planning

Financial planning is a crucial section to include in any salon business plan. A cash flow forecast shows the anticipated amount of money coming into the business, as well as what you will spend on expenses. It also projects growth over time, which allows you to make predictions about future revenue and expenses so that you can better plan for them in advance.

The best way to get started with your financial projections is by creating an income statement (also called a profit and loss statement), which breaks down all income sources by category (e.g., retail sales and commissions), along with their associated costs (e.g., salaries). This will help provide insight into where your profits are coming from as well as areas where they could improve. Here are some key areas to cover in your salon business and marketing plan:

• Revenue and expense projections. Your revenue projections should consider the number of clients you expect to serve, as well as the average price per service. Your expense projections should reflect all costs associated with running your salon, such as utilities, rent, and supplies.
• Capital requirements and funding sources. Detail how much money you need to start and run your small business, including all costs associated with opening the salon. Describe the funding sources that you intend to use for starting your salon business, whether from personal funds, salon loans , or investors.
• Break-even analysis and profitability projections. A break-even analysis is a financial tool that shows how much revenue you need in order to cover your fixed costs (rent, utilities, etc.) and variable costs (such as salons supplies and staff wages). Profitability projections show how much profit you expect from your salon business for each year of operation. This is based on your estimates of revenue and expenses. You can use this information when seeking funding from investors or lenders.
• Financial ratios and metrics. A financial ratio is a measurement of the relationship between two numbers, usually expressed as a percentage or a fraction. For example, the working capital ratio compares your current assets to liabilities; this metric allows you to measure liquidity. Include the appropriate ratios and metrics in your business to demonstrate your company’s financial health.

A well-written salon business plan is essential for the success of your business. It provides a roadmap for achieving your business goals, attracting investors, and securing funding. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can write the best business plan for your salon and ensure your salon’s success!

As you’re creating your salon business plan, remember to start your free trial with GlossGenius and give yourself the best chances for success. From salon management to payment processing, we’ve got your new salon covered – making it easier to get up and running sooner rather than later.

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How to Write a Successful Salon and Spa Business Plan

• April 12, 2024

Julis Navarro

Table of contents.

You’ve dreamt of opening your own salon and spa , and now you’re ready to make it a reality. Congrats! You’re in for a rewarding journey ahead. Now is the time to prepare your new venture for long-term success with a comprehensive business plan.

Why should you write a business plan? A spa and salon business plan is your playbook—it’s your vision for your company and the steps you’ll take to bring it to life. Developing a business plan will help you outline your goals, strategize, and make informed decisions. It involves thorough research of your target market and competitors, as well as creating effective marketing strategies and assessing finances.

This blog will guide you through nine essential steps to develop a successful salon and spa business plan—whether you’re a hairstylist, an esthetician, a massage therapist, or a cosmetologist. Follow along with our free downloadable template and create your very own road map toward a flourishing business.

1. Start With the Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first section of your business plan. Think of it as a high-level overview of your salon and spa business. It should include a brief description of your business, its unique selling proposition, goals, mission statement, and keys to success.

The executive summary sets the tone for the rest of your spa and beauty salon business plan, so write it concisely and compellingly to grab the attention of potential investors and lenders.

2. Include Your Company Description and History

Why should a potential lender or investor care? This second section dives deeper into what makes your salon and spa unique—such as its services, target clientele, and competitive advantage.

If you’re already in business, you should also highlight your growth and success by including a brief business history. This will enable potential partners or investors to feel confident that you’re a worthwhile venture.

A well-crafted company description and history will help your salon or spa business plan stand out in the industry and give interested parties a clear idea of what your company offers.

3. Perform a Market Analysis

Performing market research provides the context of where your business will fit in. This requires thoroughly examining the current state of the salon and spa industry, identifying your target market, assessing the demand for your services in your area, and doing a competitive analysis to develop unique selling points.

Once you understand your desired clients’ needs, you can identify reasons why they might choose you over your competitors. As you write your spa’s or salon’s business plan, position your business with the insights from your market research, so that your company can rise above a crowded market.

4. Detail Your Services and Pricing

This section enables potential lenders and investors to understand the scope of your provided services and your pricing strategy. It also helps you establish your business in the marketplace and communicate clearly with your customers. Highlight your value by outlining your services and prices—this, in turn, will illustrate how you will make money for your salon and spa business.

5. Explain Your Marketing and Sales Strategy

How will you attract customers and keep them happy? In a salon or spa business plan, this section outlines your methods for getting customers interested and generating sales. It should provide details on the target market’s psychographics and demographics, as well as your marketing strategies for engaging with them.

This can include initiatives, such as collaborations, social media marketing, partnerships, advertising, and promotional activities —all the ways you plan to raise awareness and acquire customers.

The sales plan should also detail pricing strategies, like bundles or discounts, and establish referral or loyalty programs to encourage repeat business. Ultimately, a salon or spa business must leverage thoughtful marketing and sales strategies for continued success.

6. Outline Your Operational Plan

Mapping out your daily operations, including opening hours, staffing, and service processes, allows potential lenders to envision your spa and salon business functioning at its best. It also ensures you have thought through the small details that can make or break your business.

In this section, you can also include information about your suppliers and a description of your facility to round out your operational plan. You’ll also need to think through operational needs, like:

• What client scheduling software to use
• Which types of salon insurance you’ll need
• The payment processing tools that will best fit your needs—and more.

7. Highlight Your Management Team and Organization

Your management team plays a vital role in the day-to-day operations of your business, and investors want to know that you have a skilled and experienced team in place. In this section of your spa and beauty salon business plan, you must provide details about each management team member, including their responsibilities, credentials, areas of expertise, and previous work in the salon and spa industry.

You should also touch on your current and future staffing needs in this section. By showcasing your management team’s skill level and by forecasting employee organization, you will show investors that you have the necessary leadership to manage and grow your salon and spa business effectively.

8. Present Your Financial Projections

Now it’s time to talk numbers. Your salon and spa business plan must include financial projections, which examine the financial health and anticipated profitability of the company. It outlines startup costs, a timeline for estimated income, expenses like salon and spa equipment and insurance, and a cash flow forecast.

Lenders and investors can determine your company’s viability based on these forecasts. It also helps you establish realistic financial objectives and create plans for success. Financial predictions are essential in proving the company’s financial viability and potential for growth in a spa and beauty salon business plan.

9. Finish With an Appendix

The final piece in a business plan for salons is the appendix, which provides additional details and supporting documentation. It includes market research data, financial forecasts, résumés of key employees, and other pertinent details that give your plan more substance and credibility.

By including an appendix, potential investors or lenders can learn more about the intricacies of your salon and spa business, increasing the professionalism of the plan and the likelihood of receiving backing for the endeavor.

Why Writing a Salon and Spa Business Plan Is Important

Writing a salon and spa business plan is crucial for several reasons. It helps you define your business goals and objectives, outlining the direction of your salon or spa. It creates a clear road map for success and guides your decision-making process.

A well-written spa or beauty salon business plan can also secure funding from investors or lenders, showcasing your professionalism, salon marketing plan and market knowledge, and potential for profitability.

Moreover, it is a valuable tool for monitoring progress and making necessary adjustments to ensure long-term success. Even if you’re not seeking funding, thoroughly thinking through every aspect of your business ensures nothing critical is overlooked as you grow.

Now that you know how to write a successful spa and salon business plan and why it’s important, it’s time to get started on yours. Use our free downloadable template below and lay the groundwork for the business you envision!

FAQs About Writing a Salon and Spa Business Plan

What is a salon and spa business plan.

A salon and spa business plan outlines goals, strategies, and financial projections. This plan serves as a road map for entrepreneurs and stakeholders, providing direction for growth and success. It includes sections on market analysis, target customers, competition, marketing strategies, services, operations, and finances. It addresses factors like location, staff, pricing, and revenue.

Why Should I Write a Salon and Spa Business Plan?

A salon and spa business plan is crucial for success in the beauty and wellness industry. A well-developed business plan is essential for funding, attracting investors, and guiding operations. Even if you’re not seeking funding, it ensures no critical aspects of your business are overlooked.

What Is the Business of a Spa?

A spa is a business that offers relaxation and rejuvenation services to consumers – massage therapy , facials, body treatments, and other health services like yoga or meditation sessions. The goal of a spa is to create a calm and pleasant atmosphere where clients can relax and take care of themselves, away from the stress of daily life.

What Is the Business of a Salon?

Salons provide beauty services to clients – manicures, pedicures, facials, waxing, haircuts, styling, coloring, and treatments. Salons often offer additional services like body treatments, massages, and cosmetics applications. The main goal of a salon is to enhance customers’ appearance and overall well-being, helping them to look and feel their best. Some salons also sell beauty supplies that customers can purchase and bring home.

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Spa Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Spa Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their spas. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a spa business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Spa Business Plan Template here >

What is a Spa Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your day spa as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Spa

If you’re looking to start a day spa or grow your existing spa you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your spa in order to improve your chances of success. Your spa business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Source of Funding for a Spa Company

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a spa are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a spa business.

The second most common form of funding for a spa is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund a spa. They might consider funding a chain of spas, but never an individual location. This is because most venture capitalists are looking for millions of dollars in return when they make an investment, and an individual location could never achieve such results.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

Your spa business plan should include 10 sections as follows:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of spa you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a spa with existing customers and revenues that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of day spas?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the spa industry. Discuss the type of spa you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target audience. Provide a snapshot of your spa’s marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of spa you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

• Destination Spa
• Medical Spa

In addition, within each type of spa, you may offer various services such as massages, facials, saunas, as well as hair removal and nail treatments.

In addition to explaining the type of spa you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on your business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start your spa business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the spa business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the spa industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards a new type of hair or nail service, it would be helpful to ensure your plan included offering such services.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the spa industry research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your spa business plan:

• How big is the spa business (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your spa. You can extrapolate such as figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

This section of your day spa business plan must detail the target market you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: college students, sports enthusiasts, soccer moms, techies, teens, baby boomers, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of spa you operate. Clearly baby boomers would want a different atmosphere, pricing and product options, and would respond to different marketing promotions than teens.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most spas primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target market. The more you can understand and define these customer needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify your indirect and direct competitors and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other day spas and salons.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren’t direct competitors. This includes products they can purchase from supermarkets and other retailers both offline and online. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone in your target market frequents a spa on a regular basis or at all.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other local competitors and spas with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be spas located close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What services do they offer?
• What products do they offer?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to stand outside your competitors’ locations and ask customers as they leave what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior day spa services?
• Will you provide a superior spa product line?
• Will you provide spa services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to acquire your products?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a spa business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : in the product section you should reiterate the type of spa that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific services you will be offering.

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the menu items you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your spa. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your spa located next to a heavily populated office building, or gym, etc. Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers.

Promotions : the final part of your spa marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Making your spa’s front store extra appealing to attract customers
• Developing and marketing your website
• Social media marketing (advertising and organic posts)
• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local bloggers and websites 
• Partnerships with local organizations
• Local radio advertising
• Banner ads at local venues

Also think about your spa’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP), which should answer why customers should choose you over other spas. Make sure your USP is reflected in your marketing.

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your spa business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the details about the tasks involved in running your spa such as serving customers, procuring supplies, keeping the spa clean, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your 1,000th customer, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new location.

Management Team

To demonstrate your spa’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in the spa business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

Depending on the services you plan for your spa, you’ll either need trained employees with massage, cosmetology, and other skills, or you will have to be able to train them. Determine what tasks must be done by skilled employees and which can be done by unskilled assistants who are learning the business. You may also need management help, at least consisting of an assistant manager to run things when you can’t be in the spa. In the absence of a manager on duty, your staff must be clear as to who will act as manager in the event that problems arise where important decisions have to be made.

Map out your needs for staff specifically describing when you will bring on personnel before and after your spa’s launch.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 20 customers per day or 50? Will your average price point be $50 or $100? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your spa, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a massive $100,000 spa contract to provide spa services to their employees. Let’s assume the contract would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for supplies, employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180-day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a spa:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc. and cost of equipment: The retail location for your spa will probably be leased to you as a bare room. Extensive work may be needed to build out the basic systems like plumbing, lighting, and HVAC, let alone any fancy fixtures or finishes you’d like to install to create an atmosphere for customers. Equipment requirements may include sinks, massage tables, spa styling chairs, pedicure stations, and specialized equipment based on your specific service offerings. The amount you have to spend on your physical facility and the equipment within it is a major portion of the funds you will have to raise, either from your own resources, friends, family, outside investors, or lenders.
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Licenses and permits
• Legal expenses
• Other expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your spa’s design blueprint or location lease.

Summary & Keys to Spa Success

Putting together a business plan for your spa is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the spa business, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful spa.

Finally, in addition to completing your business plan, be sure to pay special attention to the following factors that often define success for spa businesses: 

• Make sure all of your clients are thrilled with your services
• Keep your spa clean at all times
• Provide excellent communications with current and prospective clients
• Embrace new technology, particularly social media to engage your clients and get them to return to your spa
• Focus on growing revenues, but also on profits, by keeping a close eye on costs
• Hire the right team, train them well and treat them well so their performance is strong and they are loyal to your business

Spa Business Plan FAQs

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Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

How to Open a Salon in 2023 (Checklist & PDF)

Are you planning on opening a salon?

That’s awesome!

What will it be? A hair salon, nail salon, barbershop, or maybe a full-service beauty salon or spa?

I’m so happy that you landed on this article.

This is going to be an important read for you.

If you’re looking for a checklist on how to start a salon business, you’re exactly where you need to be.

Despite the inflation in 2023, the salon industry is on a rise.  People are spending more and more on beauty and it’s never been a better time to start a salon than now.

But let’s talk straight here.

Many salon businesses still fail.

And the main reason salon startups fail is not because of lack of money or poor services.

It’s because of poor planning.

This is why this article is so important to you.

In fact, this is why TheSalonBusiness.com, and all the resource I publish here, even exists.

Today, you’ll get a complete “opening a salon checklist” with all requirements for opening a salon.

If you’re on a tight budget, I’ll even show you how to open a salon with no money.

It’s quite a long article. But probably the best investment of time you can make today.

Pin it to your Pinterest board or bookmark the page so that you can come back to it later.

Are you ready to realize your dream?

Let’s go through how to start a salon business.

↓ Pin it for Later ↓

Hear how My Erlandsson Started her Salon Business and Opened her Two Hair Salons

We’ll soon dive into the opening a salon checklist, but if you want to hear the full story of what the experience of going through this is like, watch the video below where I’m interviewing My about how she went from idea to building two thriving hair salons.

How to Open a Salon?

There are 29 actions I strongly recommend you take when opening a hair or beauty salon. Below table is an opening a salon checklist you can follow to ensure you cover all you need to get done. I will go into each one in detail in this article.

These actions are relevant independently on if you’re planning to start a hair salon, nail salon, barbershop, tanning salon, beauty salon or spa.

Before we dive into each item on the opening a salon checklist, I just wanted to tackle the question I often get: How much does it cost to open a salon and can I open a salon with no money? 

Get Your Mind Ready to Start a Salon Business

You’re embarking on an exciting journey.

But it will not always be fun and easy. Opening a salon comes with responsibility and hard work. And it will be challenging at times. 

This is why the first part of the opening a salon checklist is focused on what you can do to prepare yourself. 

1. Build Your Salon Business Knowledge & Experience

Maybe you’re currently employed in a salon. Or you’re still in school.

Independently on where you are, your focus needs to be on learning the art of running a salon business now.

Obsess about learning.

The more you learn, the more you earn, when it comes to running your own business.

Getting a Cosmetology or Beautician’s degree is just the start. In fact, most schools don’t cover the business side of things as well as they should. That’s in fact why I created this blog in the first place. 

And the beauty is that there’s so many places where you can learn today. Just the fact that you’re reading this post right now tells me that I don’t really need to convince you about that 🙂

You’ll need a mix of both practical experience and theoretical knowledge.

Gain Practical Salon Business Experience

Getting some practical experience before you start your own salon can save you a lot of expensive mistakes later.

So if you’re not working in a salon already, get a part time job after school (or wherever you spend your days). Get out there. Listen to what people ask for. Get a feel for how the salon business works.

You can learn tons from just being in a salon and looking at what’s happening in the salon. And now that you know you’ll be starting a salon yourself, you’ll observe the world through a difference lens and see things other people not planning to start a salon will see.

Learn the World of Business

There’s blogs, YouTube, podcasts etc. you can subscribe to for free. Well, I don’t really need to tell you that since you’re reading this now :).

I publish a ton of free blog posts, videos, and courses to support you.

Here’s a few resources I recommend you start with:

• Download my PDF guide to building a thriving salon business
• Sign-up for any upcoming live trainings
• Subscribe to my YouTube channel

That’s probably enough for you to start with 🙂

2. Get a Salon Mentor

You’re not the first one to start a salon.

Many people have gone through the same journey. So why not learn from them?

A mentor is someone you can meet on a regular basis to discuss the challenges and ideas for your new business. Someone who have the experience to guide you and give you perspective on what you’re going through.

I would never have been where I am today without my mentors and I strongly recommend that you look in your network if you know someone with the right experience that you can reach out to.  

3. Articulate a Vision for Your Beauty Business 

You cannot build a house without having first a clear vision and drawing of what that house should look like.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me that if you start building a house without a vision and plan, you’ll end up with a strange and random structure that probably never will be finished.

The same goes for your salon business.

All things are created twice; First mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result. Stephen R. Covey

You need to have a clear and vivid picture of what your salon will look like to be able to get at least close to it. Try to really envision what it will be like when you’ve opened the doors of your new salon. 

What type of clients will you meet in your salon?

What will the salon interior look like?

Will you have staff working for you? If so, what will they be like?

You don’t need to get rational here. Don’t start writing bullet point lists of everything you’ll have. Instead, picture yourself visually in your salon. Try to feel now what feeling you’ll have when you’re there. 

This might sound fluffy but it is proven that having a clear and vivid picture of what your future looks like significantly increases your chances that this is how your salon will end up.

4. Decide the Type of Beauty Business to Start

I’m sure you already have an idea about if you want to start a hair salon, nail salon, barbershop, beauty salon, spa or something else.

But there’s many different types of salons you can start. 

Salon Business Types

These are some of the common types of salon models that you should consider when starting your salon business and there’s also variations to each model that you’ll discover.

Try to get clear on which model that resonates best with your budget, risk acceptance, and desire for freedom.  

5. Define who your Ideal Salon Client Is

Starting your own salon business means you’re the boss – right?

Well, yes and no..

In fact, it’s more as if you just got a new boss..

You might know her, she’s called your client 🙂

So who do you want as your boss?

Your salon exists to serve your clients. If you serve your clients well, you’ll also be rewarded. But all people do not want the same thing. Some have limited budget, some value going to a know salon name, some want a pampering experience, and some have limited time and want a fast service.

This is why it’s important to, already now, decide on who your ideal client is. This way you can design everything about your new salon in a way that speaks to her. 

Because you cannot be attractive to everyone.

When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one Meredith Hill

Get as clear as you possibly can about who your ideal salon client is. Picture her in front of you.

I want you to see her.

She can be a person you already know or a fictive character that you just make up. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have a vivid picture of who she, what she likes, and what problems she has. The persona is someone you should have in your head as you make the thousands of big and small decicions about your business over the coming months and year. 

There’s a few questions you can ask yourself as you define who your ideal salon client is.

Who do you want in your Salon?

Maybe the most important one. You’re going to spend a lot of time with your client, so it better be someone who you actually want in your salon or it will be difficult to serve her well in the long run.

How Big is the Market?

It’s good to get detailed in the definition of your ideal client. The more specific you are, the more she will feel like your salon is exactly for her. But, at the same time, you need to make sure there’s actually a sufficient amount of people in the area that fit with the description of your ideal salon client or you may be niching down your salon too much.

You’ll learn more about how to define your salon’s target market as you create your salon business plan .

How Profitable can you Make the Target Salon Client?

You can make most salon clients profitable. However, your choice of salon client will influence your salon’s business model . For example, you can go after the cost-conscious client with low prices and make that profitable. However, your operations will need to follow. Meaning, shorter appointments, basic services, and less attractive salon location potentially. This is why you need to have the overall salon vision in mind when choosing the client to go after.

Does she have a Problem you can Solve?

Finally, you should think about how you deliver value to the target client. And you do that by solving her problems. 

Understand what her problem is and how you can solve it. Your solution will often be part of the salon services you offer but it can also be how you offer them. For example via attractive prices, a rich experience, or convenience.

6. Study Your Competition

Competition is a good thing.

You shouldn’t be scared just because you see other beauty salons in the area.

The opposite actually.

I would get more suspicious if there weren’t any other salons in the area as this may be a signal that there’s no need for one. 

The fact that there’s competition proves there’s a market.

But you should stay close to the competition, understand what they are doing, and what’s working and not working for them. This way you can avoid making expensive mistakes yourself. In fact, coming in later to a market gives you an advantage. You have fresh eyes while they are, in many cases, locked into how to do things which makes it more difficult for them to be innovative and come with new thinking. This is what you will do and that will give you an edge over them.

But how should you study your competition? 

Do a Google Search

One of the most common ways that people will find your salon is via search. Having your salon showing up at the top of the search result page will be crucial for your success. So you should check out who’s currently owning that space in your area and study that salon.

Have a Coffee Outside the Salon Near You

Just spending a few hours looking at what their clientele looks like, how they meet their clients, and what they offer them can give you a lot of insight into the positioning of their salon and what clients they serve.

Follow them on Social Media

Like with search, social media is an important marketing channel for salons . You want to see how they use it and if they have an engaged following. Following them will also give you more insight into what they are doing in the salon and any salon promotions they are currently running.

Browse Other Salon’s Websites

You must go over the websites of all salons in your area. Here you can make note of salon services offered and their pricing . Note all this information down in a spreadsheet or document as you’ll need it when you’re designing your salon offer . 

But you shouldn’t only look at salons in your area. In the end, you want to be different from them. Spend some time also going over other salons’ websites and make notes about their salon branding, marketing, price list, and offer. To help you with this, I’ve pulled together a long list of nail salon websites, hair salon websites, and beauty salon websites here . 

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Mario Puzo

Create your Blue Ocean

The competing salons in your area will influence how big share of the market you can get. This is something we’ll go into in more depth as we start writing your salon business plan .

However, the size of the market is not definite. You can make the market bigger. When you know what competition is up to, you can focus on how you can be different to them. And how you can add additional revenue streams to your salon that they don’t have. 

You can create a Blue Ocean to compete in.

The concept of Blue Ocean Strategy was coined by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne in their book with the same name . In the book, they make the distinction between a red ocean and a blue ocean where the red ocean is where traditional business compete for market shares. While businesses with a blue ocean strategy go and increase the size of the market by being different from the other.

I’d recommend you to look at competition with that lens.Think about how you can make the market bigger vs. just eating share from your competitors. 

Plan and Setup Your Salon Business

It’s time to build the platform you’ll launch your salon business on. In the coming steps, you’ll be creating your business plan and complete all the requirements when opening a salon.

7. Start Drafting Your Salon Business Plan

Opening a salon is a big project.

And the journey to getting there can seem overwhelming in the beginning. Where do I start and what do I do next?

You need a plan.

And I suggest you start drafting one already now. It doesn’t need to be perfect from start. But it will help you ask the right questions when you move forward with your salon business setup.

Let’s cover an overview of the key components of your business plan.

What is a Salon Business Plan?

A salon business plan is a summary of how your salon business will function and clarifies why it will be successful. It provides a roadmap with goals and milestones to lead your salon to success.

Why do You Need a Salon Business Plan?

The primary reason you need a salon business plan is for you to get in control of your beauty business and to enable the right decisions up front.

A well laid out plan gives you a clear path to follow as you set out while it also helps spot weaknesses in your salon business early. You also need a salon business plan to communicate with others.

If you need to raise money, the bank or investor will want to see your salon business plan before issuing any funds.

Tracking your Progress

Any plan you build is useless unless you’re able to measure and track how you’re living up to the plan. To enable this, you need to get a salon software with strong reporting capabilities that allow you to understand the numbers.

The tool I use and recommend is Mangomint . Not only because of all the powerful reporting features (as shown in the video below), but because it’s simply a pleasure for you, your team, and your clients to use.

What Should a Salon Business Plan Include?

To learn more about all the parts you need when creating your salon business plan, I’ve put together a step-by-step salon business plan guide here .

8. Define Your Salon Start-up Budget

One of the biggest worries for new salon owners is money.

You likely have bills to pay mouths to feed. And it’s hard to predict exactly how much your salon business will generate when.

But you can mitigate this stress through proper budget planning. 

How to Create a Salon Budget

The easiest way to plan out your salon expenses is to create an expense forecast in Live Plan. This allows you to automate the whole process.

If you’re good in Microsoft Excel, you can use that as well of course. 

What’s most important is that you get a realistic budget in place that you can update and maintain as you move forward and learn about what the actual costs are.

But what you you include in your salon expense list? Let’s go over what the common costs are. 

Salon Start-up Costs List

Common  costs when starting a salon  are:

• Rent deposit
• Buying out previous salon owner
• Leasehold improvements
• Salon equipment
• Initial supplies and inventory
• Certifications and licenses 
• Salon insurance
• Salon launch marketing

Your expense forecast should also include the going costs your salon will have. 

Monthly Salon Expenses List

The biggest monthly expenses a salon have are:

• Rent and utility bills
• Product purchases
• Education 

I’ve also put together a salon cost guide that I recommend you go through which covers the topic in more depth. This guide will help you identify the costs you need to include as well as give you some assumptions that you can work with. 

Access the article here: How much does it cost to start a salon?

9. Find a way to Finance your Salon

If you’ve completed the previous step, you should now have an idea of much money you’ll need to start your salon business.

Hopefully you have some money saved for you new venture. But chances are you’ll need more money than that to set your salon venture off to a successful start.

There are of course ways you can get additional funding for your salon start-up. I have summarized the options you have here. Needless to say, you need to use caution and conservative business assumptions when you’re raising capital from other sources than your own. This comes with additional risk which you need to be conscious about.

1. Get an Overview of the Money You Already Have

The best is if you can fund part of your salon using money you already have. Consider what you have on your savings account, if your have any stocks you can sell, if you own a property you can draw credit from, or if you have things you can sell like jewellery or cars.

2. Let Family and Friends Invest in Your Salon

You may have people around you who believe in your venture and are ready to support you. The benefit of this is of course that it eliminates credit approvals and bank fees. However, you want to make sure that you’re not putting your relationships at risk. Thus, I would really only consider accepting friends and family support if you are confident you can return the payment.

3. Use Credit Cards for Short Term Financial Help

Credit cards are commonly used when starting up a business to get short term funds for investments. This can be a great help for your cash flow but you of course need to be certain that you’re able to pay back after the short payment period.

Interest rates for credit cards after the payment period can be high so if you’re not using it safely you can end up in a bad place that you want to avoid.

4. Get a Bank Business Loans for your Salon

There are providers that specialize in small business loans. A popular place to turn for loans is Fundera. They compare different loan providers for you so that you can find the best solution for you.

It can be difficult to get a regular loan from providers if you’re just starting out and don’t have and proven business performance to show. This is where SBA financing comes in.

5. SBA Financing for Salons

If you’re not able to get a regular bank loan you may still be able to get an SBA secured loan. What this means is that the U.S. Small Business Administration guarantees the loan for you. This reduces the risk for the lender and in turn the cost of the Loan.

To find out who offers SBA secured loan, you can compare SBA loan options at Fundera. You should be prepared for that the application process for these loans to be long even if the cost of the loans are typically lower than traditional bank loans. 

So you should apply for your SBA loan as soon as you know you need one.

Financing Summary

It’s not as easy to get good financing when you’re starting a new salon business as when you have a well-established salon and just need additional funds to grow.

You can always check what loans you can get at Fundera. They also have a proven track record of being able to find solutions to new business where the traditional banks have said no.

Even if you can get a loan, you still want to make sure you do not take too high risk yourself. You want to be confident in your ability to pay it back. What will help you get that confidence is a good salon business plan . This is also something that bank will want to see to give you a loan.

10. Decide on your Salon’s Legal Business Structure

You’re making good progress!

You’re starting to get a log of the foundations in place to launch your new salon business. So it’s soon time to officialize your new business!

But before you do, you need to decide what legal structure your business should be.

What Legal Business Structure Should a Beauty Salon Be?

Salon owners can choose from five possible legal structures when starting a salon business: Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC), S Corporation, or C Corporation but an LLC is probably your best option. 

The choice of business structure affects how much taxes you’ll pay, your liability, how much administrative work you need to do as well as your ability to get loans and raise money.  

An LLC business setup protects you from personal liability. It’s only the money that you put into your business that you have at risk. This is the main reason you should consider an LLC vs. a Sole Proprietorship. 

LLCs are also flexible. They don’t require shareholder meetings, a board of director and other formalities that a corporation does.  On top, there’s also more flexibility when it comes to taxation. 

However, the right legal structure could be different for you. There are services like Zen Business that can help you here.

11. Come up with a Good Salon Name

You have reach the exciting (or daunting in some cases) part of your opening a salon checklist.

It’s time to come up with a name for your salon.

There are four questions I recommend you as yourself as you start brainstorming on good salon names for your business.  

A) Does the Salon Name Reflect You and Your Salon?

Your salon’s name should be unique and distinct to you. In order to land on the right name, take 2 minutes to think about how you’d like your salon to be perceived (e.g. classy, creative, or cool) as well as what it is that makes your salon unique. This can be the specific services you offer or the story about why your hair salon exists in the first place.

B) Does the Name Make it Intuitive that it is e.g. a Hair Salon?

You will be using your salon’s name in all your future  salon marketing activities . And in many cases, you only have a split second to communicate who you are.

This is why it’s vital that people immediately understand what type of business you run or you’ll lose their attention. So if you’re using a more cryptic but cool name, you might want to add “Salon”, “Hair”, or “Nails” to the name so that people understand what you’re about.

C) Can you Find an Available Website Domain Name?

Soon after you’ve locked on your salon name, you’ll need to  create your salon website  and business email addresses. To do that, you need a domain name (e.g. examplesalon.com).

As all businesses are increasingly moving online and the cost of a domain name is low, the number of available domain names are becoming fewer. This is why it’s good to do a check already now to see if the name you want is available or you might want to adapt your name.

The easiest way of doing this is by using Namecheap. They allow you to search for names and generate more ideas. If it’s busy, you can try with appending your “hair”, “salon”, or your city to the name. When you find something good, you can grab it at a low price with Namecheap to ensure no one else takes it.

D) What will the Name Look Like as a Hair Salon Logo?

Your hair salon name not only needs to sound good. It needs to look good.

You don’t necessarily need to finalize your logo at this stage but it’s a good idea to at least test what it could look like when you turn it into a logo. As you do this exercise you might realize that certain letters would be better than others which could influence your final hair salon name.

It’s really easy to do this test with Canva. Canva is a free design tool that most entrepreneurs use to design things for their businesses. They also offer a free 30 day trial of their paid plan which gives you access to great logo assets. Thus, I’d suggest you get on the free trial to generate your logo ideas (which you can complete in less than the trial period).

E) Brain Storm Name Ideas

As I get a lot of questions about name ideas, I’ve put together this enormous salon naming guide. It’s a PDF that contains thousands of name ideas while walking you through a process to help ensure you decide on the right name for your business.

Download the salon naming guide PDF here .

12. Register your Salon Business

It’s time to get your business registered with the state.

How you should register your business is determined by the business structure and location. But you’ll likely need to get a tax ID first as well as required licenses and permits for your salon .

This is not difficult but to make life easy for you, you can use a service like Zen Business to set up the business for you.

You just need to select the desired business structure and fill out a simple questionnaire.

This will save you time that you instead can invest into getting your new salon up and running. 

13. Obtain Required Salon Licences and Permits

There’s a few licenses and permits you’ll need when you open a salon. 

We should be thankful that this is the case as it ensure professional knowledge and service quality which protects salon clients. It also keeps unserious players away from our industry. 

Let’s go over what the common ones are.

What Licenses do I Need to Open a Salon? 

The licenses and permits you need to open a salon are:

• State Cosmetology or Beautician’s License
• Salon Retail Seller Permit
• Salon Business Operation License
• Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• Certificate of Occupancy

On top of the above, you’re (in most states) also required to have a salon insurance . I’ll cover what salon insurance you need later on in this guide.  

To learn more about the licenses you’ll need when opening a salon as well as how much you should expect your salon licenses to cost, you can read my complete guide on licences for beauty salons here . 

Build out your Salon Location

Your physical Salon is at the heart of your business. In the coming step, we’ll go through how you find and set up your salon facility.

14. Find a Good Salon Location

Location, location, location.

These are the three most important things for a salon or spa business.

But is the salon location as important as it used to be?

If your salon has a strong presence on social media , you’ll not be as dependent on street traffic as in the past.

Your salon gets visibility and attract clients online instead. This is why I thought the quote from Jeff Bezos was fitting here.

The three most important things in retail are location, location, location. The three most important things for our consumer business are technology, technology, technology. Jeff Bezos

But even if you build a strong online presence, the location of your salon remain important. 

Where you’re located says a lot about you.

And it needs to be convenient for your target client to get to you.

Salon’s based in an area with a high amount of people walking or driving by also need to invest less in marketing their salon . They get that for free thanks to the location. 

But picking the right salon location comes down to much more than street traffic and the convenience for clients to get there.

In fact, in my guide to choosing a salon location , I include a checklist with 21 things that you must consider before signing your lease agreement.

15. Protect Yourself, Your Employees and Your Salon with the Right Salon Insurance

Running a salon comes with risk.

Things will go wrong.

A client could slip and break an ankle. You could accidentally give the wrong advice to a client that causes them injury. One of your staff could get injured. Or you could spill out chemicals during a mobile salon home visit.

These are just some examples of things you’re liable for as a salon owner. And just some reasons why you need to ensure you have the right insurance policies in place for your salon.

It’s natural to look for savings opportunities when starting a salon, but don’t let your insurance be one of them. This could cost you a lot down the line. Some insurances are also required in most states.

Below are common insurances you’ll need even if it can differ depending on the salon type.

You can combine some policies to help you save money. I explain more about that in my guide to salon insurance that you can read here . 

16. Design Your Salon Layout

First impression.

This is the most important thing when people walk into your salon. The experience people have when they arrive is what will set the standard of what type of salon you are and if your salon is right for them.

Your salon is also the workplace for you and your staff. And it’s not laid out in a way that is practical, you’ll soon go crazy.

So when you create your salon layout, you need to balance the appearance with the practicality.

How exactly to layout your salon will, of course, differ depending on your salon dimensions. You can learn more about the recommended common salon room dimensions in my other article .

I have put together a list of salon decor and design ideas that you can check out for inspiration. For more salon design and decor ideas, I think Pinterest is the best platform for free inspiration. I try to pin nice ideas that I come across on my Pinterest board here .

Your salon lighting also plays a massive role in your salon’s appearance. Check out my article about salon lighting design to learn about lighting fixtures and options for salons.

Below are some specific salon design ideas to have in mind as you layout your salon.

Small Salon Design Ideas

It’s natural that your first salon will be smaller which means optimizing the space will be crucial to you. Here’s some small salon design ideas: 

• Make the most of salon daylight. A brighter salon feels more spacious.
• Use a mirrored wall as this creates a perception of larger space.
• Consider to island styling stations vs. against the wall to create more space

Read my article on small salon design ideas for more inspiration here.

Salon Reception Area Design & Layout

The salon reception and retail area should be the first thing clients see as they walk into the salon. 

You want to keep your reception tidy and clean. This is a working space for making bookings, answering phone, and in many case other administrative tasks. But you need to be careful that it doesn’t end up looking messy with paper a stationary lying around.

Don’t hide your retail behind the reception desk. Your client need to be able to pick up products during check out without the receptionist having to give it to them. You can also make room for promotional display and impulse purchase products at the check out. 

The reception waiting area is a good place to promote your services and products. Make sure your retail is visible from the waiting area and have your salon service menu available to people as they wait.

As a rule of thumb, the amount of chairs you need in your waiting area is about half of the number of styling stations you have. Let’s say you have eight styling stations, in that case it should be sufficient with four chairs.

Get more inspiration for salon reception designs here .

Styling Station Area Layout

This is where your clients will spend the most time. Privacy is important here. Your clients need to feel comfortable. It can be tempting to add in more styling stations to grow revenue but you need to consider the space for your clients and also staff working around the chair.

Allow at least 40 inches between salon chairs to avoid that clients sit on each other. And ensure there’s sufficient working space around stations and behind the chair.

Make sure you have good styling station lighting so that your staff can work effectively and the result on the client looks as good as possible.

Get more ideas for styling station designs here .  

Salon Backwash Area Design

The backwash area is not just a place to wash hair. It’s a place where you provide a client experience. It’s also one of your best opportunities to upsell your client on care treatments and talk about the products you’re using to increase sales of retail.

Try to separate out backwash area from the busy salon space. This should be a calm and relaxing area. Allow for 32 inches left to right for each shampoo station and 36 inches behind the station for the stylist.

As a rule of thumb, you need a shampoo station for every three styling stations. That is, if you’re a large salon with 15 styling stations, you should be ok with 3 shampoo stations.

17. Order the Salon Equipment and Tools you Need

Salon equipment is a big expense when you’re just starting a new salon. So you want to get this right. The best place to find salon equipment, at good price, is on the web. 

Most salon equipment manufacturers are now present on Amazon. And this is also where I’ve found the best prices for salon equipment and accessories. 

Equipment Needed for Hair Salons

Some of the large equipment you need as you start out your salon are:

• Salon chairs
• Styling station
• Back wash unit

These will be your bigger expense items. But on top, there’s a number of other things you’ll need like cutting shears, combs & brushes, styling tools, carts, and service accessories. 

To help you build a check list of the things you’ll need, I’ve put together a complete list of recommended hair salon equipment here .  

This list includes cost estimates for each items to help you build a budget. I’ve also included recommendations for the best equipment as well as low cost alternatives if you’re just starting out.

Check out my recommended equipment for hair salons

Create Your Salon Brand and Offer

You should now have your salon location and all the requirements to open a salon in place. Awesome!

But what should you offer in the salon? What’s your salon’s value proposition?

This is what we’ll work on next.

18. Create a Salon Logo

Your logo is a core asset of your brand.

You’ll use it everywhere: social media, website, business cards, and more.. 

So you want to get it right. 

There’s two ways that you can go about creating your logo. Either you hire a salon marketing agency to do it for you or you do it yourself.

Using a salon marketing agency will cost you a bit more but ensures you get a perfect result. However, you don’t actually need to be a Photoshop guru today to create a professional logo. 

You can use Canva to generate a logo for you in just a few minutes using their online service.

For logo inspiration you can check out my list of salon logo design ideas . In the video below, I’m also walking you through some good principles to consider when designing your logo.

19. Design the Visual Identity of your Salon

Your salon brand is much more than just your logo.

Several visual components make up the look and feel of your brand.

• The colors you use
• The look and feel of images
• The font(s) you use
• The way you write and talk

How you put this together is crucial for your brand. You need to do it in a way that resonates with the target client. If you know your target salon client is old men, you probably would not use bright pink colors and pop music in your salon. You’d probably go for a more traditional, dark color, approach. 

Your salon software should allow you to customize the booking experience and client interactions to fit your brand colors.

Below is an example using Mangomint for online booking where you can see how big the difference is when you customize the booking experience to your brand.

You need to be consistent here.

The colors you choose should be reflected in your salon decor, your social media , and your website .

People should feel that they are in contact with your salon even if they don’t see your name and logo. The visual identity should be enough.

This is how you build a strong connection with your client. 

This is how you build a brand.

Let me tell you more in the video below.

20. Create a Strategic Salon Service Menu

Your service menu is at the core of any salon business.

In fact, what you list on your menu and how you use it can make a massive difference to your business.

An issue I see all too often is that salon owners irrationally discount their services. It’s as if they “want to be nice” to their clients and don’t think they can charge full price.

This is one of the biggest issues in our industry.

It comes with several negative consequences. It’s the start of a negative spiral where salon owners aren’t able to pay competitive wages, which in turn leads to high staff turnover, which in the end can lead to burnout of the salon owner.

This needs to end.

And a simple way to deal with it is by being disciplined with your service menu.

Take the time you need to build your menu and set your prices.

If profitability is important to you (which I hope it is), you will price your services differently depending on who delivers the service. You may even offer different prices depending on if the service is booked at peak hours or not.

To be able to support a more sophisticated price list like this, you’ll need intelligent salon software. Below is what it looks like when I’m setting up service in Mangomint .

This platform allows for a lot of flexibility when it comes to pricing and managing your services.

Let’s go through some more principles when building a strategic price list.

Designed with your Target Salon Client in Mind

All your services are there to serve your target client. If you’re not sure what she wants, ask her. She might not know what it is that she wants but as you get to know her better you’ll spot ideas that you can add to further strengthen your offer. 

The Role of Core Services

You’ll have two types of services on your menu. Your core services and your add-on service. 

The core services are your bread and butter. This is the haircut, basic color services or the standard pedicure or manicure. These are the services people would call and book even if they had not seen your menu. 

There’s a natural demand for these services and it’s typically what a first-time client would come in for.

You should avoid discounting these services unless for a special, tactical promotion. But it’s risky. Instead, you should benchmark prices for these services closely with competition in the area. I’m not saying you should have the same price. But if you go higher, you should have a reason why. And the same if you go lower. These are the prices that your client is most aware of when comparing you to other salons. 

For more examples of hair salon core services, check out my separate article with a list of salon services to consider for your hair salon menu .

The Role of Add-on Services

Add-on services are different. As the name suggests, these are additions or upgrades to a client’s visit. It could be a premium version of your core service. Like a balayage color instead of a regular color service. It can also be a care treatment that you add to the appointment.

These are powerful tools to increase the client spend per visit. Some of them will have to be pre-booked, but others can be added on during the visit.

For ideas on add-on hair salon services, check out my salon price list guide here . 

Promoting your Services

There are many ways you can run promotions on your services.

And service promotions can be a very effective tool to drive and grow your business. But you don’t want to do it in a way that undermines your prices. And there’s strategies to enable this. 

To learn more about how you can create salon promotions without undermining your pricing, you can read my salon promotions guide here . 

Keeping your Salon Menu Up-to-Date

Maintaining an up-to-date service menu should be part of your service strategy.

This is how you keep clients for long. You’re their go-to-person for beauty trends and they expect you to bring what’s new to them. By continuously updating your menu you’ll explore new ways of growing your business – you remove what doesn’t work and build on what’s working. 

21. Decide on Your Salon Retail Assortment

Retail sales is a powerful profit driver in your salon revenue model . 

Income from retail is typically split 50/50 between you and the brand where you part adds directly to your profit as the costs associated with retail sales is low. It doesn’t take up extra time from you to sell a product with the service and you only need a small area at your reception with some shelving solution do so. 

But what retail products should you offer?

Let’s go through a few principles to have in mind when designing your salon retail assortment.  

Figure out what your Client Wants

Like with many things in this opening a salon checklist, designing your retail offer start with understanding your target client.

What type of brands is she looking for? What products complement the service offering you’ve designed for her?

By talking to her you’ll get insight into what she’s looking for. Listen and test things out to see what works. 

Don’t Offer Products that Compete

There’s little point having many similar products from different brands. Unless you have a very large retail area and your strategy is to be a one-stop-shop for all retail, it should focus on fewer brands that complement each other.

For example, let’s say you’re a hairdresser, then you could have one good base styling brand, one good base care brand, and one electrical styling brand. On top of that, you’d have specialized brands. For example, a haircare brand for hair loss, or a vegan brand if that’s a feature desired by your client.

Research shows that too many options lead to people not making any choice instead ( Psychology Today ). Your sales of one brand will just cannibalize on the other similar brand so you don’t necessarily make more sales but just need a larger retail area and more brands to be trained with your staff.  

Start with a small core brand offering and then expand. Having fewer brands looks more professional and it’s also easier to upsell a client to a product within the same brand than to recommend products from two different brands.

Working with one product supplier also means you’ll purchase more from them compared to if you were shopping from multiple suppliers. This typically enables you to get more favorable terms with them.

Get the Support Needed to Get your Salon Started

Your new salon is starting to take shape. But you’ll soon realize that you cannot do everything yourself. You’ll need good support systems and partnerships to effectively run your salon business.

In the following section, I’ll cover some of the foundational things you’ll need to get your salon setup.

22. Get a Good Salon Software

The right salon software can be your best friend when starting and running a salon business.

It can drive your business forward through built-in salon marketing features. It gets you in control of your business through the right reporting. It takes care of the mundane tasks you shouldn’t really be wasting your time on – like appointment and inventory management. 

Before you open the doors to your new salon, you need to have a good solution in place. 

Some of the things a Salon Software will help you with are:

• Online Booking
• Client Management
• Automated Text and E-mail Messages
• Inventory Management
• Payroll Management
• Point of Sale Checkout
• Credit Card Payment

I’ve mentioned Mangomint a few times already in this guide. This is the most sophisticated and well designed platform available today.

This thing is beautiful, super intuitive to use for you, your staff, and your clients. It also leverages smart automations that allow you to run your business with much less friction compared to other platforms.

Below is what the Mangomint calendar looks like.

I strongly recommend you give this a try. In fact, it’s free to create an account which you can play around with for 30 days before you need to decide.

Try Mangomint for free here .

If you want to learn how Mangomint compares to other options available, I recommend you go through my list of the best salon software in 2023 .

23. Get a Domain Name and E-Mail Address for your Salon

Few things look as unprofessional as businesses with a Hotmail or Gmail address. Wouldn’t you agree?

When you start your salon you want to make sure you also register a domain name that reflects your business. A domain name is your address on the internet e.g. “yoursalonname.com/.ca/.co.uk”. Registering a domain like that allows you to have it pointing to your website using “www.yoursalonname.com” as well as for your e-mail “ [email protected] ”.

The cost of a domain name is very low. This is why all businesses have them. It also means it can be difficult to find one that is available for your salon. Especially if you want a .com address.

However, given your salon is most likely a local business that only exists in your country, you should register a domain for your specific country. For example, if your salon is based in the UK, you should register a “.co.uk” domain.

Even then it can be difficult to find a name that fits your salon. So you’ll probably need to try a few variations. Let’s say you’re starting a nail salon with the name “Infinity” and you’re based in London UK. You’ll need to try some variations of “Infinity.co.uk”. For example “Inifinitynails.co.uk”, “Inifinitylondon.co.uk”, or “Inifinitynailslondon.co.uk” etc. until you find something that works for you. 

Check what domain names are available using the search bar below.

24. Setup your Salon Website

All salons need a website today.

There’s no getting around that. 

This is the hub of everything you do. This is where all your salon marketing activities points to and this is where clients get to know you before they book their first appointment. 

Your website is often the first impression people have with you.

So you want it to be a good one. 

And it’s critical that the salon software you choose to go with allow you to integrate online booking on your website. Not all salon sofware does this but forces you to link out to a separate website that they control for clients to book.

Not great for the client experience.

Below is how Mangomint solves this. Independently on how you website is designed, the booking widget fades in on top of your website so that people can book, purchase gift cards etc. without leaving your website.

You have a two options when it comes to creating your salon’s website:

You can hire a salon marketing agency to create the website for you or you can do it yourself using a salon website builder .

It’s not difficult to create website today. You don’t need to know any coding to do so. So if you’re on a small budget, this is certainly an option today.

Independently on how you decide to go about this, I recommend you go through one of the lists below to capture some ideas and inspiration for your website.

• Top salon website examples in 2023
• Best barbershop website examples in 2023
• Best spa website examples in 2023

25. Setup your Salon’s Social Media

I’m sure it doesn’t come as a surprise to you that social media is important when you’re opening a new salon.

This is where your clients are and this is how you get your new salon visible in front of them. So you need to start setting up your new salons presence on social media immediately. 

But where should you start? 

I understand this can feel overwhelming at first. And you need to be smart about how you use social media for your salon.

It’s very easy to spend a lot of time posting and interacting with others on social media without it really leading to new clients for you. 

This is why I’ve put together a complete guide to social media for salons here .

This is a good place for you to start when your building out your salon’s social media strategy and setting up your account.

26. Order Salon Business Cards and Branded Material

Now that you’re starting to approach your salon opening, it’s time to order some branded material to use when promoting your salon.

Branded material includes Business cards, salon menu, promotional signs, clothing, etc. All the help bring to life a consistent picture of your new salon brand.

I have compiled a list of salon business card ideas that I recommend you go through for more inspiration.

Scale Your Salon Business

Awesome! Your salon business is setup.

It’s now time to move from being a new salon into a profitable and growing salon business. The final part of this open a salon checklist is focused on accelerating your salon business growth.

27. Build a Salon Marketing Plan to Accelerate Your Business

Now that you have your salon setup, your focus should shift to growing it.

You’ll need more clients through the doors and you need each client to spend more with you.

In fact, the reason I write on this blog is to help salon owners start and grow their business. So you’ve certainly landed in the right place. If you haven’t done so already, I suggest you sign up for one of my free courses that’ll give you more ideas on how you can grow your salon business.

But let’s already now build a plan for how you can grow your salon business.  

How do you Grow a Salon Business?

There are 7 ways you can grow a salon business:

• Grow your salon clientele
• Get your existing clients to visit your salon more frequently
• Sell more services/products per salon visit
• Sell more expensive services/ products during each salon visit
• Reduce your salon operation cost
• Add additional, non-traditional, income streams to your salon business
• Scale up your salon business

You can read my article on how to grow your salon business here . In this article, I break down each driver of salon growth which will help you define how you should measure and track your business to ensure you focus on the right things. 

What Activities can you do to Grow your Salon Business?

Now that you know what you need to focus on an measure to grow your business, what activities should you fill your plan with that will get you there?

Only you can decide what activity is right for you. It all depends on the specific challenges your salon business has. 

To get your started, I’ve curated a list for you with the most effective salon marketing ideas here . I recommend you go over the list and pick a few that you’ll focus on over the coming months.  

28. Hire Salon Staff and Motivate Your Team

You’ll not be able to make your salon successful without a strong team to support you. 

And to scale your business you’ll need to shift your focus to hiring talented staff to grow the business together with you. 

But you cannot only focus on hiring new salon staff. 

You also need to make sure that the team you have in place enjoy their work and perform their best.

Salon staff turnover is a big concern for many salon owners. The cost of hiring and re-training staff is high. 

There’s several strategies you can implement to keep your salon staff motivated .  

In fact, I’ve put together a complete guide for you with 13 ways to motivate salon staff that I strongly recommend you read as you start to grow your team of salon employees. Check out my article  “13 Highly Effective Ways to Motivate Salon Staff”.

29. Review and Adapt your Salon Business Plan

If you’ve followed the opening a salon checklist outlined in this article, you should have a salon business plan in place now. 

But your salon business plan is not a document you create ones and never touch again. 

The opposite.

It’s a living document that you should revise regularly to set new goals for your business and incorporate all the learnings that you’re making on the way.

Because you’ll learn a lot as you open your salon. 

But it’s easy to lose the big picture when you’re busy dealing with the next issue ahead. You need to make sure you find to work on your business and not only in the business.

Take a step back regularly to look at what is working and not. Double down on what’s working and drop the things that didn’t go as expected.

This is an ongoing process.

And this is the art of running a successful salon business. 

Congratulations! 

You made it to the end of this article. Well done!

I told you at the start that reading this through would be the best investment of time you can make today. I hope I delivered on that. If I did, I would be very grateful if you wanted to share this with friends using the social buttons on this page. 

We’ve covered the list of 29 steps to open a salon. 

It was a long list. But starting a salon business is also a long journey.

You’ve taken an important first step on the journey today. But there’s more to come. Let’s stay connect on the way. This website is packed with resources to help you along the way.

I’m really excited for you now. 

All the best on this new and beautiful adventure!

Common Questions & Answers

How to open a salon with no money.

To open a salon with no money you need to create a detailed salon business plan  in which you minimize up front salon equipment investments, are highly prudent about all salon operation costs, and enable smart loans and investments into your business. Below are specific tactics you can implement to enable a salon start without money.

• Build a one year “salon bootstrap plan”: Start with a low cost salon business model  (booth rental, home salon, or mobile salon) that carries minimal cost but allow you to build up capital and experience to open your ideal salon.
• Borrow salon equipment:  Build a plan for what equipment you need to buy when and borrow tools in the beginning until you’ve built some capital. 
• Get a full view on how much you can self-fund:  Identify any savings accounts, real estate, pension accounts, 401k, that you can use as security for a loan. Also turn to friends and family for capitial support. Self funding gives you full control of your business but you also carry all risk so you need to be careful and seek personal financial advice first.
• Get venture capital from investors: Give a share in your salon business to an investor in return for up front capital.
• Apply for an SBA backed loan:  When banks thinks your business is too risky to lend money, the U.S. Small Business Administration you can agree to guarantee your loan. You can compare SBA loans at Lendio. 

I’ll go into more detail on salon financing options in the finance your salon section of this article but these are some of the common ways to get support if you want to start a salon with no money.

How Much Does it Cost to Open a Beauty Salon?

The cost of opening a beauty salon is around $62’000 for a good but basic setup in your own physical location. Nail salon start up cost is typically lower than for hair salons or barber shops. Cost can be significantly higher ($500’000+) but there are also ways you can start your salon business on a much smaller budget ($2’000).

Common salon startup costs are:

• Buy out of current salon
• Leasehold improvement
• Salon marketing
• Legal and consulting fees

For a full break down on salon startup costs , you can read my article here

Did you find this post helpful? Share it with your friends!

Related Posts

• 77 Unique & Classy Hair Salon Names for High-End Salons
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• How Much Does Salon Insurance Cost?

John Hallberg

Beauty marketing expert and content creator at The Salon Business and Mangomint

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Barber Shop Business Plan

Gym Business Plan

Hair Salon Business Plan

Massage Therapy Business Plan

Nail Salon Business Plan

Skin Care Business Plan

Beauty Supply Store Business Plan

Personal Trainer Business Plan

Did you find what you are looking for.

Beauty, fitness, and wellness are some of the fastest-growing industries, making them a lucrative and scalable business venture.

So whether you plan to start a yoga studio, a spa, a wellness center, or a beauty salon—there’s ample potential as long as you have a solid business plan in place.

This library of beauty and fitness business plan examples here can inspire and guide you as you begin to plan your business. So, don’t worry; we got you covered on that part.

Let’s learn more about these sample beauty, spa, and salon plans, starting with their benefits.

Benefits of using an industry-specific business plan example

Believe it or not, using an industry-specific business plan example is the best and probably the quickest way of writing a business plan.

Doubt it? Hold, this may change your perception; an extended list of the benefits of using an industry-specific business plan template.

• Inspiration : Reading a business-specific template can be incredibly helpful in getting content inspiration. Furthermore, it helps you gain insights into how to present your business idea, products, vision, and mission.
• Risk-free method : You are taking a reference from a real-life, let’s say, medical spa business plan—so you know this plan has worked in the past or uses a method subscribed by experts.
• Deep market understanding : Analyzing and reading such examples can provide clarity and develop a deeper market understanding of complex industry trends and issues you may not know but relate directly to the realities of your business landscape.
• Increased credibility : A business plan developed using an example follows a standard business plan format, wisely presents your business, and provides invaluable insights into your business. There’s no question it establishes you as a credible business owner, demonstrating your deep business and market understanding.
• Realistic financial projections : Financial forecasting being a critical aspect of your plan, this real-life example can help you better understand how they project their financials—ultimately helping you set realistic projections for your business.

These were the benefits; let’s briefly discuss choosing a business plan sample for salon and spa businesses that best suits your business niche.

Choosing a Beauty Salon or Fitness Business Plan

This category itself has 15+ business plan templates for various fitness, spa, and salon businesses. With many similar business types and templates, you may not find the most suitable one through manual scrolling.

Here are the steps to consider while choosing the most suitable business plan template.

Identify your business type

Are you going to be a health and wellness center for female clients? Or a tanning salon? Or a unisex beauty salon?

Asking yourself these questions will help you identify your business type, which will help in choosing a niche-specific business plan template.

Once you identify your business type, you can choose between templates for different business segments.

Search for the template

We have an in-built search feature, so you can easily search for a business-specific template using your business name as a key term(e.g., barber shop business plan). Once you have the search results, choose the most suitable one. Simple as that.

Review the example

Look closely at the content of the sample business plan you are considering. Analyze its sections and components to identify relevant as well as unnecessary areas.

Since all the Upmetrics templates are tailored to specific business needs, there won’t be many fundamental customizations. However, a hybrid business model targeting multiple customer segments may require adjustments.

For instance, if you plan to start a gym that has a yoga studio—you may need to make adjustments to your plan depending on your service offerings.

No big deal—you can view and copy sections from other business plan examples or write using AI while customizing a template.

That’s how you find and select the most suitable business plan for salon , spa, or similar other businesses. Still haven’t found the perfect business plan example? Here’s the next step for you.

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Day Spa Business Plan

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Pamperzhou Day Spa

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">, opportunity.

Freeway County CA is in need of a spa that offers massages and facials at a competitive price. There are spas that do not cater to men. All people who can afford them, not just women, should be able to get the benefit of massages 

Pamperzhou Day Spa is a new upscale destination in Freeway County, CA, offering a complete day spa experience. We offer seven ultra-chic, ultra-comfortable treatment rooms with the finest spa linens and equipment. We offer massage in a variety of styles – traditional Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue work, Hot Stone Massage, Reflexology, Sports, Pregnancy and others. We also offer facial and body treatments, like a Vitamin C Antioxidant Facial and Pevonia’s Anti-Free Radical Treatment. The day spa has the latest in anti-aging products and techniques but does  NOT  offer services on hair such as cutting, styling and coloring. The only time a pedicure would be provided, is when it’s part of a full treatment, like Kneipp’s Arnica and Calendula Foot and Leg Reflexology Treatment. In fact, for location, we prefer being located near hair and nail salon for co-marketing opportunities.

There are about 12,000 spas in the U.S. and Canada, according to ISPA, and seven out of ten are day spas. Today, Spa Industry revenues total $12 billion annually, with Day Spas accounting for over $7 billion of this figure and growing at 25% per year.

There are several existing day spas and a number of individual LMTs (Licensed Massage Therapists) in Freeway County, but none with our service/product range within a five mile radius. To find a such a comprehensive day spa, residents currently have to travel into the city. The going rate for massage in Freeway County is $70-$90 per hour, which is slightly above most of the other residential areas in the metropolis, which can even be as low as $40 per hour in saturated or low-income areas. 

Competition

Customers choose spa services based on proximity to their daily commute, quality and an exceptional experience.  With our combined services, we expect to dominate the Day Spa market. There is not one direct competitor of this nature within the area where we are intending to locate. 

Pamperzhou Day Spa is a new destination offering customers the combination of massage, body treatments, facials and anti-aging treatments. The settings are upscale, beautiful and serene. We cater to both men and women and offer the latest in skin care products and therapies. 

Expectations

We will surpass the break-even point by month four, and end the first year with a net profit margin of more than 10%. By quickly repaying our loan while increasing sales, and managing costs, we will increase the net worth of the business substantially in the first year, and continue increasing it for the foreseeable future.

Financial Highlights by Year

Financing needed.

We are planning to invest $135,000 as owner investment. 

Problem & Solution

Problem worth solving.

Freeway County,CA is in need of a spa that offers massages and facials at a competitive price. There are spa’s that do not cater to men, all people who can afford should be able to get the benefit of massages 

Our Solution

Our mission is to run a profitable business by providing high-end therapeutic massage and aesthetician services in a caring, upscale, professional environment. We offer massage in a variety of styles – traditional Swedish Massage, Sports Massage, Deep Tissue work, Sports Massage, Hot Stone Massage, Reflexology, and others. Our licensed aestheticians offer the latest in skin treatments, body treatments and anti-aging therapies. 

Our goal is to tailor the client’s experience based on initial interview information, as well as feedback during the treatments, to ensure the client’s comfort and satisfaction, and to increase repeat business. We are mindful of the overall experience – using only the finest oils and lotions, beauty treatments and aromatherapies. Special lighting, music, decor, and textiles are used throughout the spa to complete the comfortable, plush environment and enhance the client’s overall spa experience. 

Target Market

Market size & segments.

As individual as our clients are, they seem to fall into one of four general categories: Injury Recovery, Self-Pampering/Relaxation, Alternative Care Users,  and Athletes. Besides the obvious differences in the style of massage or treatments each of these prefer, they also represent separate groups for marketing and retention purposes.  In addition, the booming anti-aging market is an additional momentum builder.

The Injury recovery group is usually referred by a Chiropractor, self-referred through our listing on the American Specialty Health Network site, or referred by another client who found massage helpful during an injury recovery. Marketing to this audience is done indirectly, through the referring parties. While car insurance will typically pay for massage for only a limited time (less than one year), many health insurance policies now have Alternative Care coverage with a renewable annual maximum. Most people do not know that regular massage therapy is covered on their insurance when prescribed by a physician. We will work to educate clients of their benefits and be able to bill to insurance on the appropriate patients. 

Clients who have the disposable income to indulge in massage and body treatments for self-pampering or relaxation are the core of our long-term repeat customers. These clients will come once a week to once a month for years, and often refer other family and friends. This type of client can be  difficult to find – an ad in the local alternative news weekly (especially with a coupon for $5 off) or a donation to a charity auction may result in a one-time visit, or a long-term client. Another source of usually one-time visitors is the Gift Certificate – friends pampering friends for a birthday or other special occasion. Our desired location will provide an excellent demographic to provide this type of client. 

The third group are Alternative Care users. These are people who mistrust allopathic medicine, and prefer to use chiropractors, naturopaths, herbalists, and acupuncturists. A local networking group of alternative care providers is a great way to get referrals, as well as placing posters on other practitioners offices, and ads in the local alternative newspaper.

The final group is another backbone of this business – the amateur athletes. There is a large population of runners and bicyclists in the local area, as well as out-of-town participants who return for annual events, and book massages during those times. They are a very loyal group, and will readily give word-of-mouth recommendations, especially if they see massage as having given them a specific boost to their performance. This group will cross over from the Injury group, and become long-term clients after the specific initial injury has healed. They also tend to have chronic injuries or pain, especially as they age, which can encourage them to become repeat clients. 

Current Alternatives

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1)  Salons with Day Spa Services:   Hair salons that offer limited spa services like massage and facials.

2)  Heath & Beauty Products:   Stores selling only merchandise products covering the wide range of products available, but not inclusive of those sold by salons and spas.

3)  Hotels with Spa Services:   Major hotels with on-site spas. 

4)  Medical Spa:   Focus mainly on non surgical cosmetic but also have massage therapy, facials and microdermabrasion.

The closest competitor is the Heavenly Spa which is a Hair salon that offers additional, limited, spa services. The Hyatt Regency Hotel also offers massage treatments, but will mostly cater to visitors to the area and not the local residential base. Finally, Atmosphere Spa, located in Plaza Center is not a traditional day spa but combines a day spa with a female gymnasium. No men are allowed at Atmosphere Spa, either. The going rate for massage in Freeway County is $70-$90 per hour which is slightly above most of the other residential areas in Metropolis which can even be as low as $40 per hour in saturated or low-income areas.

Our Advantages

Our competitive edge is our ability to market effectively and creatively to bring in the clients and then back that up with the best service and products in the business.  In addition, our combination of unique services, outstanding location and our interaction with the customers are setting us up for huge success. 

Keys to Success

Our keys to success are: 

• Marketing, Marketing, Marketing –  Owner is a proven, 15-year sales executive.  Marketing will be the first strength to our success and a huge competitive edge.
• Professionalism:  Which includes everything from maintaining confidentiality, to hiring the very best LMT and Aestheticians.
• Individual Attention:  Each client’s experience will be tailored to his or her preference.
• Repeat business/Recommendations:  giving the kind of service that brings people back for regular treatments, and encourages clients  to recommend us to friends, and other health professionals to recommend their clients.
• Unique Treatments:  We have the latest in techniques with the best products from around the world.
• Fantastic Location:  Freeway County.

Marketing & Sales

Marketing plan.

Local Advertising & Seasonal Promotions –  Local newspaper advertising, local fliers, grand opening party kick-off and promotion for first 30 days.  Continue regular advertising and plan for seasonal events like Christmas, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, Prom and New Year’s.  

Local Networking –  Charities, women’s groups, country clubs, wedding planners, and membership with the  Metropolis Chamber of Commerce .

Health Care Referrals – prior to opening,  work current contacts and create new contacts with health care providers, especially chiropractors.  Also, become a Provider with health insurance companies that offer Alternative Care to their members.  Most people don’t know that massage therapy is usually paid by insurance when billed correctly and when prescribed by a physician.  Pamperzhou Day Spa already has practice management software to handle medically billable massage.  When the insurance does not cover the entire amount of a service the client will pay the difference.  For that reason, we will not want to participate with any PPO’s that require write-off for amounts over the usual and customary fee (which tends to be too low).  A list of acceptable insurance company plans will be maintained and those clients will be able to handle massage therapy through their insurance.  Any opportunity to convince allopathic physicians – MDs – to see massage as having long-term healing benefits for their patients will also be taken, since they hold to key to having massage paid for as "medically necessary."   The client will also help drive that with the physicians if they are properly educated. 

Hotel Referrals –  Hotels that do not offer their own spa services will send their guests to our spa or use our out-call spa services. Prior to opening, I will make contacts with managers and concierges at local hotels to ensure they are aware of the services available. Promotions will be offered to professionals in these industries to create buzz and build relationships.

Online Website –  our spa will show up on every major search engine and in the phone directory. The website will have a full menu of services and eventually have the ability to schedule appointments on-line. The spa software we are using will allow a user to see the schedule and make and appointment without making a phone call.

Location traffic –  It is imperative that we be located in a high-traffic strip mall that is high-end, modern, and clean. We prefer locating near a complementary business like a nail or hair salon that does not offer any massage or facial treatments. 

If, as it has been said, the top three items which determine success in business are location, location, location, then a busy location at  Culway Plaza  in a thriving residential community represents our top marketing strategy. With the owner focusing on the sales, marketing and management and delegating the massage and aesthetician therapies to employees–business profitability potential is exponentially maximized over a one or two person operation by a direct care-giver without any marketing, management or sales background.

As the owner, Madame Pamperzhou has done extensive market research and visited some of the best spas in the world — Beverly Hills, Paris, Amsterdam, Vegas and Arizona — and has taken ideas from the best to offer an upscale, ultra-amenity, spa experience. Once a client experiences the luxurious, high-end level of personalized care that we offer, we are confident that we will have a return client. 

Locations & Facilities

Culway Plaza, where we plan to locate, has a daily traffic count of 64,000 cars. It is also only two blocks from a commuter train stop, and has an upscale hair and nail salon which would complement our services nicely. 

Milestones & Metrics

Milestones table, key metrics.

Our key metrics are: 

• The # of treatments that we perform a day 
• The # of treatments we do a month 
• The # of customers who book another treatment on the way out 
• Which staff members are the most popular with our clients. 
• Training for our staff and if that helps their popularity 
• The price we charge vs. the price our competitors charge for service. 

Ownership & Structure

Pamperzhou Day Spa is a Sole Proprietorship owned by Madame Pamperzhou. Madame Pamperzhou functions as developer and manager for Pamperzhou Day Spa

Management Team

Earlier in her career, as a leasor / manager for an Apartment community, she consistently maintained a 100% lease level while managing a 140-unit apartment community. Prior to that, she worked in the budget department for an overseas United States Military installation in Bamberg, Germany. Madame’s unique cold-calling, sales, budget, management and people skills will be a perfect fit for building the client-base in a new business and seeing it through to success. 

Personnel Table

Financial plan investor-ready personnel plan .">, key assumptions.

The financial plan depends on important assumptions, most of which are shown in the following table as annual assumptions. We assume cash payments for all services, except for the 1% of sales projected as insurance reimbursements, with collection days at 90. The collection days are for insurance billings only. Interest rates, tax rates, and personnel burden are based on conservative assumptions.

Two of the more important underlying assumptions are:

• We assume a strong economy, without major recession.
• We assume, of course, that there are no changes to the Medical/insurance Industry, such as the nationalization of health care.

Revenue by Month

Expenses by month, net profit (or loss) by year, use of funds.

The bulk of the start-up costs will be invested by the owner and the remainder will be funded through short-term financing. Details are provided in the tables below.

Start-up Expenses

Legal $2,500

Printing, stationery, bags, grand opening coupons $3,500

Brochures $500

Construction/Design $45,000

Insurance$2,000

Rent $17,000

Advertising $5,000

Accountant $950

Linens $4,000

The total startup cost is $80,450 which includes: Massage table equipment,  Aesthetician Equipment – $2,800 (2 room setup), Decor and Furnishings – $13,000, Envision Software & Equipment – $4,000, Signage – $3,500, Backbar Supplies – $5,000

Sources of Funds

Owner investment of $135,000

Projected Profit & Loss

Projected balance sheet, projected cash flow statement.

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Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia