Open a beauty salon: all you need to know about the procedures

If you get that, it's a genius business idea. To guarantee success, you must try to accomplish this, take several chances, and be ready for the consequences. Failure is a part of every enterprise, and here is a practical road map if you decide to open a beauty school.

• Before the opening of your beauty institute: carry out a market study
• The standards to respect if you plan to open your beauty salon
• The most suitable legal statuses for opening a beauty salon
• Tips for opening a beauty salon

CARRY OUT MARKET RESEARCH BEFORE OPENING YOUR BEAUTY SALON

Identify competitors and their geographic location

Being alone to carry out this activity in a large geographical area is often a plus. But we must remain vigilant since the absence of a competitor can be justified by the absence of a request.

CAUTION: do not venture into areas where the market is non-existent. It would mean that no one is interested in beauty treatments.

Identify competing services

To better stand out from the competition, it offers care that no one else provides or products that only you sell. This study is also carried out at the level of the price of your competitor's services. You can offer the same type of care for less to attract more clients.

Identify potential customers

This is the most important step. If no one is interested in your beauty treatments, you are in the wrong place because you are too expensive or because your care is not of high quality.

To overcome these shortcomings, it is important to determine several criteria:

• What local customers want: do they need a nearby institute?
• The type of care offered?
• Treatment prices?
• The use of organic or natural products?
• The level of attendance according to the type of customer?
• Create a newsletter?
• Build customer loyalty with a card?

Note: you can directly question local customers on these questions. This will allow you to know where you will have to settle, what services to offer, what products and prices, and finally, what communication strategy to adopt.

The choice of treatments offered

It is advisable to avoid for your care products already used in the sector where you are located, avoid any competition based on comparing the price of care and products between an institute and yours.

To optimize your care's quality-price ratio, it is interesting to get closer to suppliers of brands starting up, often less expensive, and of the same quality. Indeed, the financial conditions attached to this type of product are not very restrictive (no minimum order, no obligation of stock, no objective). But the downside of these little-known brands is that they don't have a reputation.

Conversely, well-known brands guarantee you quality and often a clientele. On the other hand, they present financial constraints: opening an account, heavy stock and product investment at start-up, monthly objectives ...

Moreover, with the expansion of the organic market, it is interesting to look at the use of products bearing the label. According to your market research, check that your customers are concerned about organic. Otherwise, it is not necessary to use it. On the other hand, if you are in a geographical area full of organic markets but no one offers organic beauty treatments, this is surely your chance.

As for the prices of organic products, they do not differ from that of conventional products.

The necessary qualification to work in the beauty industry

To work in the beauty industry, it is necessary to have a diploma (CAP-BEP). However, it is possible to practice without a diploma, provided that you have at least 3 years of professional practice as an institute manager, employee, or independent professional in this field of activity.

Certain treatments are not subject to a professional qualification:

• Non-aesthetic treatments: comfort treatments only, or massages for non-aesthetic purposes.
• The nail prosthetist activity (such as a nail bar for installation, decoration, varnish), excluding manicures.
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THE STANDARDS TO RESPECT IF YOU PLAN TO OPEN YOUR BEAUTY SALON

Here are the mandatory standards to be observed:

• Safety and accessibility standards: standards relating to establishments open to the public (fire safety, extinguishers); accessibility of the premises to disabled people,
• Hygiene standards,
• Display of treatment prices: only the prices of the most common services can be displayed outside,
• A mandatory display dedicated to staff (working hours, collective agreement, contact details of the inspectorate or the occupational doctor, etc.),
• Prohibition of medical activities: the expression "massage" is reserved for physiotherapists, but terms such as massage can be used,
• Hair removal: the only authorized hair removal techniques are tweezers or waxing, the rest being reserved for the doctor (laser hair removal),

Tanning: access is prohibited for minors, obligation to display the diploma or certificate of qualification, obligation to provide protective glasses, obligation to display the legal notices on the categories of the machine and the risks for the health of users, obligation to display a visible and legible health warning close to the device (mode of use and dangers).

THE MOST SUITABLE LEGAL STATUSES FOR OPENING A BEAUTY SALON

To be able to exercise, it is necessary to register your activity with the Chamber of Trades. It is, therefore, possible to consider several legal statuses for the opening of a beauty institute :

• Micro-entrepreneur: statute very simplified in its administrative and accounting formalities but little adapted to this type of activity, unless it is carried out at home;
• Sole proprietorship (EI): adapted status, but you risk seeing the number of your social charges vary from one year to another since they are calculated on the number of your profits;
• EIRL: same as EI except that EIRL allows better protection of personal assets from creditors in the event of debts;
• EURL / SARL: this is the most suitable status since the manager determines his remuneration, which serves as the basis for calculating social charges.

TIPS FOR OPENING A BEAUTY SALON

If you want to launch your beauty institute activity, here are the key steps not to be missed:

• Find a concept for your future establishment (previously validated by your market research),
• Carry out an effective nail salon business plan,
• Identify the premises or the business to be taken over,
• Look for suppliers (brands of cosmetics, linen, machines): it is important to obtain several quotes to be able to negotiate the conditions and therefore choose the right distribution contract,
• Do decoration work for the institute,
• Training in the trade (compulsory installation preparation course for artisans), and training imposed by suppliers (e.g., UV machine),
• Choose the right legal status and register with the Chamber of Trades,
• Create a network of customers through advertising and communication.

To increase your impact on the aesthetics market, you will above all need to:

• Favor top-of-the-range care,
• Create an image (hence the usefulness of the concept) to stand out from the competition,
• Be demanding of the quality of care and hygiene of the establishment,
• Supplement its health care services by selling cosmetic products to increase its income.
• The opening of a beauty salon is an important decision, which must be carefully prepared and be the subject of a complete and solid project.