How to Set Up An At-Home Cosmetology Salon
Even with the panic surrounding the spread of the virus, life must go on and businesses need to stay open to the best of their ability. Don’t let social distancing impact your success as an esthetician. In this article, we’ll give you all the tools and information you need to open and successfully manage an at-home cosmetology salon.
This is part one of a series of articles we’ll be running in order to help estheticians stay in business despite the economic barriers that have arisen over the past few weeks.
At-Home Esthetics: What to Consider
You’re probably used to working in a spa or a professional salon, where hours are set in advance and a receptionist waits at the ready to take calls and clients. While it’s nice to have access to these perks, it’s worth noting that an at-home beauty business can be equally fulfilling, manageable, and lucrative.
Before you decide to set up an at-home cosmetology salon, you should ask yourself a few questions. These may include:
- Do you have the disposable income or savings to spend on a residential startup?
- Will you work alone or hire additional help (contractors or employees)?
- Do you have a strong client base already, or will you need to rebuild that?
- Is your mainstay salon and place of employment set to open again anytime soon, or do you need to plan for the future?
- Is your home clean, inviting, and large enough to accommodate equipment, products, and multiple people?
- Do you have roommates or living partners with potentially conflicting schedules and routines?
- What is your branding vision, and does this mesh well with a home-based salon business?
Clearly, there is much to consider before beginning to lay the foundation for an at-home esthetician’s practice.
Getting Started As An At-Home Cosmetologist
If you’ve decided that a home-run beauty business is your calling and you have the means to do it, then go for it! Before you open your home up to the masses in need of beautification, however, it’s crucial that you devise a marketing plan and strategy. This will increase your likelihood of success, not just immediately, but for the long haul.
The primary marketing strategies to consider are your target demographics, your promotional tactics, and your methods for growing business and clientele size.
Ask yourself, for instance, do you mainly serve men, women, or both? Are you more comfortable with younger customers or older adults? Do your services cater more to those looking for youth and rejuvenation, or just general beauty upkeep?
You should also look into the average income and spending habits of your target market, since you’ll want to dictate the price points of your at-home beauty salon accordingly. Customers don’t like to be overcharged, but they don’t want your esthetic offerings to be so cheap that clients question whether they’re getting a quality service!
The great thing about running a salon out of your own home is that you get to devise whatever promotional strategies you want. However, it also means you’ll be competing with some of the larger corporate cosmetology businesses, so you want to be strategic and intentional with every message you craft and every design you disseminate. After all, you’re footing the bill for branding!
If the target audience for your at-home esthetician salon is younger, you’ll likely want to use major social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to reach them. Conversely, if your beauty services are tailored more to those looking for youth enhancement, skin rejuvenation, or age-related haircuts and hair coloring, you may gravitate toward more traditional methods. Whether it’s a print advertising campaign, an email newsletter, or simply the purchase of online ad space, there are no shortage of ways to get customers involved and to spread the word about why your at-home beauty salon is the best in the business.
Since you’re operating a cosmetology salon out of your home, odds are that you won’t have massive amounts of space to tend to your clients. With this in mind, you want your customer base to be large enough to fill up scheduled appointments, but not so large that those in the waiting area feel cramped and uncomfortable.
The most important thing to growing and keeping a loyal cliente for your at-home salon hinges on the cultivation of close, genuine relationships. Get to know your clients, learn their names, and establish rapport. Ironically, the more they see you as a friend, the more likely you are to receive a generous tip!
Conclusion
In the next installment of our guides on at-home cosmetology salons, we’ll delve a bit more into how your beauty services may or may not translate well into a residential environment.
Thank you for reading! For more information on how to best manage your beauty business in light of the coronavirus outbreak, please visit our website or call South Hills Beauty Academy today!
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