QuoteReplyTopic: Advice on opening hair extension salon Posted: August 22 2005 at 11:08am
I am in the process of trying to open my own salon that specializes in hair extensions only.
My problem is that I currently live and work in a small, country-like town about 30-40 miles away from the nearest big city, which is Sacramento, CA.
Now I want my shop to specialize in synth hair, dreads, braids, all the fun stuff, (also human hair too). I don't know if I should open my salon closer to the big city, or stay local in my small town. I don't really want to go to the city because then I would lose all the clients I currently have where I work now, and also I don't want to commute all those miles each day.
I have been searching, and there are not any shops in Sacramento, CA who does the synth extension work. Most shops just do Great Lengths. In fact, the closest shop who does synth extensions is located in San Francisco, which is about 150 miles away.
So my question is this: If I open a shop in my local area, can I expect that clients will travel 20-50 miles for this specialty extension work or should I open my shop more near the big city?
If I open my shop near the big city, I would most likely lose at least half of my current clientele because they won't travel to get their hair done. Right now, my clientele consists of about 50% 'normal' hair services (cuts, colors, etc) and 50% hair extension clients. I think the extension clients would follow me, but I don't think that the 'normal' service clients would follow, and frankly I can't afford to lose any income right now.
Hi there chick, I live in the Midlands and people travel to see me from London and Wales which are three hour journeys away. Believe me if its what they want and the price if right, they'll travel and its only every 12 weeks which isn't bad for brilliant looking hair x
Good advice Amanda. Living close to work is great. I had a home based business and I had clients all over MA,USA although it was a service, it wasn't hair extensions. It worked out well and I didn't have to drive far. Kept overhead down too.
Ilexica
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Yup, I'm moving to Birmingham, UK, but I'll be going back to London to get my hair done :) I am sure that your clientele will follow you. Otherwise, are there any larger towns between Sacramento and your home town? You could base yourself in an intermediary, to attract both client bases.
So my question is this: If I open a shop in my local area, can I expect that clients will travel 20-50 miles for this specialty extension work or should I open my shop more near the big city?
YES, they will travel. I just got a call from a Houston girl. I am setting up some kind of 'getaway' package and would love some advice!
metalgirl wrote:
If I open my shop near the big city, I would most likely lose at least half of my current clientele because they won't travel to get their hair done. Right now, my clientele consists of about 50% 'normal' hair services (cuts, colors, etc) and 50% hair extension clients. I think the extension clients would follow me, but I don't think that the 'normal' service clients would follow, and frankly I can't afford to lose any income right now.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I would stay where I am the most happiest- sounds like you are leaning more towards your locals.
I would first compare shop rental prices in Shingle Springs "V"
Downtown Sacramento. If you plan on buying a shop then
will you need renovations or will you be buying an existing
salon? Do you have a budget plan? Do you plan on hiring hair
extension stylists, assistants or working solo for a while? Which
salon has the better location….flow of people? Are you fine
with driving in rush hour traffic and spending the extra time
driving to and from Sacramento? Work out the extra expenses
needed to travel to and from Sacramento. Work out all your
starting up & running costs for both locations and compare
them. Get feedback from your regular clients. What does your
gut tell you?
To get an idea if your clients would follow you….you could just
put your idea out there and ask what they think? This way you
will get a feel of what your clients think about traveling. You’ll
get a pretty good idea if they would follow or not. I think the hair
extension clients WILL definitely follow as you can get very
attached to a great hair extensionist. I wouldn’t worry too much
about them not following you. If you were to lose a few it may
be in the normal service clients……now those people you
know pretty well so I think you could tell who would be
prepared to travel and who might not. The only way to find out
is to ask them. I am sure that most or all of your extension
clients will travel. You see some people driving hours or flying
to get their hair extensions done!!
I would go to www.behindthechair.com and post there for
advice too ….as there are as many salon owners as booth
renters with a wealth of salon knowledge. I am sure Charlene &
Club Salon (Keri) can give you all in’s and out’s of salon
owning…..which is a big step up from booth renting. It would be
great to get advise from people who own and what the pros
and cons are on a daily basis. Do you have an idea if you are
going solo or want to have staff? Get advice on hiring
commission staff "V" hiring booth renters for the regular
services (if you decide you still need that in the start)????? You
could still have booth renters for regular services which might
tide you over and pay overhead costs in the beginning until
your hair extension side takes off. I know you said you wanted
a hair extension salon only, so maybe you are thinking of hiring
other extension artists to work for you? Although I find most hair
extension artists want to work for themselves…….so not sure
what your plan is on that end and even if you want other hair
extensionists working with you??? It’s just a lot of overhead for
a one person salon….although I do know hairstylists with their
own solo salons.
I think you would be successful wherever you went…..just
knowing you the short time I have. I think you are the type of
person if you decide to stay in Shingle Springs you will make
the shop work for you there, just as you would if you choose to
go to Sacramento. You have years of hair extension
experience, your smart, amazing personality, you have a
marketing degree…….you have ALL the skills to make it work
wherever you go!!
From the many emails I get from consumers looking for good hair extension people, I know for a fact that people will travel for someone great. A good friend of mine does Great Lengths in Florida and he has people traveling from Europe to see him. They tell their friends and so on and so on.
The guy in Dallas that I know who does Great Lengths...gets so many out of town visitors that a couple of years ago his wife created a special package with a couple of local hotels.
My friend Barbara who does GL in New York gets calls from all over the US and she actually travels twice a month to Wash, D.C. area because a pocket of customers popped up there.
The key is doing great work with fair prices and doing great advertising in the right locations. And of course taking your time to make good business decisions when setting up and setting your fees.
You could stay in your local town but consider trying to find a place where you could work once or twice a month in the big city so that you could also harvest new customers from there but not have to drive all the time. You might even consider doing a traveling show at some point like my friend in New York. She is even considering coming to Dallas to work on a rotating basis because she gets so many calls.
When she travels to DC she "rents" a chair in a large salon there for just her time visiting. The salon in D.C. books her appointments for her and she just shows up and does extensions. Some of her DC clients have actually referred friends that have visited her in New York.
Based on what I've seen, anyone good with good pricing that does smart advertising and marketing can draw from just about anywhere.
I think it is amazing that you are taking this step and wish you the best with your new biz.
Karen
That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger or drives you totally insane. :-)
Syren123
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Metalgirl, you know full well just from the people on this board that people WILL TRAVEL for a good extensionist! Heck - some of us (that would be me) almost flew to Seattle to have Boogiemama do our hair, I - I mean we - were so desperate. And I live in So Cal! I did drive 50 miles to get my pinchbraids done and felt lucky that there was a stylist to do it in the same state! Look at Hair Police Heather - people drive/fly in to see her all the time. Fina even went to Atlanta for her stylist. And those are just the ones we know about! The message is - open the salon, and they will come.
Your work speaks for itself. You'll be successful in your little town, for sure. People will be driving from Sacramento, San Francisco, and points beyond. No question.
Edited by Syren123
leia1979
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I totally agree with Syren! People will travel and make the extra
effort for something special, like a good extensionist. They're
much less likely to travel for the more mundane services like cut and
color because they can go to someone closer.
Believe me, there has been many a time I've considered going to see
you, but I'm not quite desperate enough for a three-hour
drive. However, it's still pretty convenient for the Sac
folks, and come winter, I might just have to make a little detour to
Shingle Springs while on the way to Tahoe.
I think a lot of sound advice has been given here...
Ultimately, you are more focused on going solo because of your passion/dedication to your extension business. (Not to say you want to give up your other services) In terms of profit...your driven to do this because of the extensions.
No matter where you go, people will follow and travel(especially for extensions) Now, the commute(I drive 40 mn.) It's not always fun, but I wouldn't let that be the deciding factor.
For those who don't follow...you'll be amazed how quickly you rebuild!
From personal experience: I moved salons, after being at a Mega Salon/Spa for 5 yrs, I moved(10-15 mn. travel from the Salon) towards downtown. I lost a large percentage of clientele.IT WILL HAPPEN. Some people are creatures of habbit. With that said...I rebuilt quickly! With NO commision(55%) goin to the man ! So, in the end it mathed out...my demographic was a higher area allowing me to raise my new client haircuts, etc. to match that area. The icing on the cake...I'm not workin to make HIM money. Now I'm workin to make ME money!
Good luck and trust your instincts and your heart!
~Gina
Bridget
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I currently rent a small (60 square feet) room in a salon right now. I am finding out that the 'closet' is not really big enough. It works for now, but I am wanting a place that's super comfortable for my clients, where I can have a big TV for their viewing pleasure and a refridgerator in which to keep snacks and beverages for my clients.
if they had anyone around here that did a halfway decent job of doing extensions for a reasonable price, I would be MORE then happy to travel a few hours to get it done.
I've actually done what you are asking about 12 months ago in the UK.
Much of the advice is pretty good, but I think I can expand on some of the areas that need to be taken into consideration if you are going to specialize in Hair extensions only.
I did just what you are thinking about; in June last year I rented a small venue on the High Street, in the UK and set up a dedicated hair extension studio.
I found that it was important to become a specialist not just in a couple of techniques, but all credible technique. The reason being, I found that all of a sudden people with problem hair wanted my advice because they found it frustrating that most hair extension providers concentrated on the fashion side more so than people with genuine problems.
Potential clients would have problems such as thinning hair, bad hair cut, alopecia, medical condition, apart from wanting new hair for fashion, or just to give their own hair a rest. I found I was dealing with all age group, my oldest customer being 95 years old after having an operation she became very down about her hair.
I also found that career ladies wanting to change their looks, models and even guys would be coming to my studio. Some people did not want anyone to see them, so privacy was important.
I had to become proficient in all types of hair, Caucasoid, Asian and African hair, understand the structures how they worked, the weakness and which technique worked with the client hair and life style.
What to do if a client’s hair was greasy, brittle, short or in very poor condition. What to do if a clients hair was very thick or had areas missing.
I found that these factors were also very important:
a) A set of Terms and condition (this protects the client and yourself)
b) Pricing. Each aspect, treatment and service along with maintenance had to be clearly priced and available
c) Maintenance: Advising the client on how to look after their new hair, what to use, what to do if you went swimming etc, each client was given a maintenance booklet to take home.
d) Standard: had to be very high because per unit spend was high
e) Client records: Important again, keeping a track of hair type and hair colour code used was important and ensured that if the client was coming in that you had their hair colour in stock.
f) The consultation: Very clear descriptions had to be presented, clear price with a quotation and I would keep a copy of everything to follow up with afterward.
g) Portfolio: building a portfolio of clients said a thousand words, especially once they arrived for a consultation.
h) Deposit: I adopted a non refundable deposit. This basically covered me for missed appointment because of the time factor involved and helped me gauge the seriouness of the client enquiry and order.
Setting the presidence for what you want to achieve i.e. being known as the best in the business is very important. Striving for such a position will ensure that people will travel and use your service regularly. All too often because of slopping work, most clients do not re-visit the hair dresser or extension practitioner because the job they did was short term gratification and not for long term relationship which then resulted in some of the negative description about hair extensions.
Clients are now traveling over 300 miles round trip to visit my studio, they also refer my services to their friends and family or work colleague simply because they see the end result. I have had clients from Europe and South Africa. You never know who knows who when you have done a good job.
Because I special in hair extensions only, I find that I have also developed a good relationship with other hair salons who do not feel threatened but will send clients to me because I do not cross over into their business (A point to consider)
I now train other girls around the country to become Hair extension consultants, I cover topics such as Hair anatomy and growth cycle, hair loss problems and treatments, How to conduct a consultation, the paper work, 10 techniques, hair blending techniques, trouble shooting, history of hair extension. All of this adds to becoming an expert, this give people confidence in your service.
So my point is.... focus on what you mean by specializing and what you will have to offer that is different to the mainstream. If it is different, more professional, wider based then no matter where you are people will hear of you and travel to use your service even if you stayed in your small village.
i am in so cali- were u at girl? we should hook up for coffee!
LOL! I'm in Pasadena. I know you're in Rancho Cucamonga because last year when I was completely desperate before I found this board, I found your website on the Internet! I literally had the phone in my hand to call for a consultation when some distraction most likely occurred...and then I never did call you! But that's so funny - when you started posting, I knew who you were and that you did Hairlocs!
most clients do not re-visit the hair dresser or extension practitioner because the job they did was short term gratification and not for long term relationship which then resulted in some of the negative description about hair extensions.
Dee
Hi Dee!
I love this terminology!!! We have something in common!
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metalgirl wrote:
! So, in the end it mathed out...my demographic was a higher area allowing me to raise my new client haircuts, etc. to match that area. The icing on the cake...I'm not workin to make HIM money. Now I'm workin to make ME money!
) 
