How to open a hairdressing salon

In recent years, hairdressing salons in Quebec have undergone a veritable revolution, and the profession of hairdresser is no longer associated with an old aunt from the local salon, but with masters of the trade, capable of doing everything with hair.
Men’s salons, where moustaches and beards are taken care of, are also becoming increasingly popular.

Depending on the salon’s offer, this can also include cosmetic treatments, manicures and make-up.
Hairdressing is a service profession and is not regulated by law.
With the right qualifications and skills, a hairdresser can set up a successful salon in Quebec.

How do I set up a hairdressing salon and is it profitable?

Having your own hair salon is a dream for many people.
If you have a flair for hairdressing, are interested in hair care and are wondering how to set up a hair salon, this post is for you.
We’ll explain how to get started in hairdressing, what it costs and whether it’s profitable.
We invite you to read on.

To open a hair salon, you’ll need between $20,000 and $60,000, part of which can be obtained through various funds.
The initial cost depends on the salon’s equipment, and should be around $10,000.
Over time, you’ll also need new hairdressing staff.
Running a hair salon requires a variety of skills, both hairdressing and business.
You need to be a good stylist and have an entrepreneurial spirit.

How can I make a profit by reselling Myla Bella products?

I don’t know if you’re aware, but the most common misconception in Quebec is that hairdressers don’t offer their customers hair products.
Yet most customers are very interested in buying them.
When you wash your hair at the salon, customers often wonder what kind of shampoo you use.
When you use mousse, oil or hairspray, the same questions arise in the customer’s mind.
Many hairdressers fail to recognize this interest. Customers are usually even embarrassed to ask.

This is a mistake.
Tell customers what products you use during their visits and offer to buy them.
According to statistics, a hairdresser can increase sales by 15% to 25% just by reselling products.
This goes hand in hand with customer satisfaction thanks to appropriate cosmetics.

• Become a Myla Bella affiliate

How do I start my own hairdressing salon?

Haircuts don’t just happen!
The first step in setting up your own hair salon is to get the right training, such as a diploma from a hairdressing school.
Want to do your own hair?
It’s worth doing some research into the market and your immediate environment to find out if the business is viable.
Also, start identifying your customer profile, thinking about the services you want to offer and the people who will frequent your salon.

Before setting up your salon

Ask yourself if you’d like to provide hair care using a single brand or if you’d prefer to mix different products to suit your customers’ needs, analyze the salon’s location and choose your offering based on the needs of customers living in the area.
If there are a lot of hairdressers in your neighborhood, ask yourself whether hairdressing might be a better option than coloring, or cutting.

And if your competitors offer haircuts for adults, think about offering hairdressing and hair care services for children.
Look for a niche where your services will meet a customer need, never stop perfecting your skills outside school, take part in industry training courses, keep up to date with the latest hairdressing news, learn how to create new hairstyles and keep up to date with hairdressing trends and products.

In fact, anyone who’s up to date with the latest trends and wants to open a hair salon can set up their own business.
Of course, it will be much easier for those who have learned the trade and know their hair inside out.

A few steps to make your dream a reality

Find a building where you can offer hairdressing, cutting, coloring and other services.
Another option is to set up a mobile hairdressing business.
The costs of maintaining such a business are much lower.
Company registration: providing hairdressing services for profit requires entry in the company register.
Cooperating with an accountant when setting up the business, the entrepreneur is obliged to pay social security contributions and taxes.

The company’s headquarters may be in rented premises or in the entrepreneur’s own home.
The workplace must meet hygiene, health and safety requirements.
There should be several areas in the salon, such as the changing room, waiting room or sanitary and hygienic facilities for the hairdressers.
In a hair-cutting and coloring salon, a separate area with a washbasin must be set aside for washing and coloring hair.

Also read: How do I choose a (good) hair salon?

Salon equipment

Whether you want to set up a hair salon in a big city or a small town, the equipment required for the premises will be very similar.

Equipment must include:

• Hairdressing consoles
• Hair cosmetics (shampoos, hairsprays, coloring paints, gels, conditioning foams, etc.)
• Waiting room seating
• Equipment cabinets
• Hygiene products Cleaning products and towels
• Professional styling accessories
• Hangers

Initially, a single station is sufficient.
However, when new hairdressers join your establishment, it will be necessary to expand it with more coloring consoles, products and other equipment, to ensure professional styling.

Example costs for a beginner hairdresser

Opening a hair salon is associated with an expense of around $20,000 to $60,000.
Added to this are expenses for renovating premises, purchasing equipment, rent and utility payments, as well as social security contributions and accounting services.
Ongoing expenses for accessories, hairdressing products and advertising are also significant.

How much can you earn with this? Revenue averages around $100-200 per customer, which from a monthly perspective translates into profits of several thousand dollars, depending on the number of stations and the type of treatments performed.

Treatment sample prices

Hair coloring, for example, costs between $100 and $200.
A similar expense is associated with wedding styling.
An Olaplex treatment costs around $60, while a keratinization treatment costs around $250.
At times when there are fewer clients, a hair salon can earn around $4,000, while in high season, for example, from May to September, when there are many weddings, it can earn $18,000 a month.

Marketing the hairdressing establishment

Outdoor advertising is a very important part of salon marketing.
Every day, many people pass by a salon.
If it looks inviting from the outside, it will catch their attention.
It’s also easier to attract customers in the immediate vicinity of the salon to begin with.
That’s why it’s important that it’s highly visible.
However, make sure that the sign or advertisement in the window is tasteful and subtle rather than kitschy and flashy.

When the first curious visitors start browsing, they shouldn’t leave empty-handed.
Your salon should display business cards and flyers with your offer.
Of course, a website and Facebook profile are also essential, with up-to-date photos of the salon, recently created hairstyles, information on promotions and participation in various wedding and hair shows, etc.

Of course, the basis of successful marketing in the case of a hair salon is the provision of top-quality services.
Satisfied customers don’t spare positive reviews, both on the Internet and in private conversations with friends.

• PRP: What you need to know

It’s a well-known fact that advertising is a marketing lever, and it’s well worth ensuring that your company’s brand is recognizable in the marketplace.
Where can you meet the most potential customers?
Obviously, on the Internet, so it’s worth making an online hair salon business card available.
Many sites offer free advertising on their domains, so all you have to do is set up an account and create a profile for your business.
Where customers search for contractors based on the demand for a service.
A well-designed business card and a company’s offer of services are both advertising and a means of acquiring customers.

Whatever the city in which a hairdressing salon will operate, whether Montreal, Laval or other smaller towns, marketing is a very important issue.

Look for customers everywhere, you need to find customers not only in your immediate vicinity, but also online, for example in social media.
Create a Facebook TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest profile.
Advertise on Kijiji and LesPAC contrary to what many people think, LesPAC still holds significant traffic.
Share your work with your customers to let them know you can take care of their hair.

It’s been said that the key to success for any hairdresser is for his or her services to be recommended by satisfied customers.
This is true.
However, while this is a very important source of new customer acquisition, it’s not the only one.
Get out your cell phone, take photos of your hairstyles and share them with others.
If you feel a moment’s hesitation because you’re not a professional photographer, don’t worry at all.
People will appreciate the fact that you took the photos yourself.

Offer people a service with a high level of culture.
When they come in, welcome them to your salon, offer them a cup of coffee, give them an interesting trade press to read.
The sum of all these elements, which may seem small, will create a relationship with your customers that will make them want to come back.

Focus on good content

In addition to SEO, content marketing is also important.
In addition to your “contact”, “comments” and “jobs” sections, as well as details such as your phone number or address, publishing quality content on your website will help you increase your online reach and reach the best clientele, as well as improve engagement with your hairdressing audience.
Include a portfolio of past hairstyles on your website, profiles of your stylists and a booking request for services.
Then, customers select the service they’re interested in with a single Book Appointment button.

Salon service quality

In addition to advertising, the popularity of a hair salon is also influenced by customer contact and quality of service.
If you work alone, you have a big influence on how customers perceive your salon if they appreciate the atmosphere and like the way your stylists perform haircuts and other services.
When you have a lot of employees, this is a little more difficult to take care of.
However, try to hire only the best professionals, then you can be sure that the salon will provide top-quality services.

Opening a salon – advice hairdressers will appreciate!

Finally, here are some important considerations for opening your own hair salon.
As far as opening hours are concerned, a salon can operate from Monday to Friday during the day, but if you want to earn more, it’s worth opening up to work at weekends too.
Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., are enough to boost your income considerably, and many salons do this, so you can arrange for stylists to work with customers at weekends.
When it comes to the services you offer, it’s worth offering your customers more than just a haircut and a men’s cut.

We think it’s a good idea to include it:

• Women’s haircuts
• Children’s haircuts
• Hair color + haircut
• Hair straightening
• Cutting and styling hair
• Buns and hairstyles
• Perm + haircut
• Hair extensions
• Modeling and wedding hairstyling
• Communion hairstyle
• Hair Spa
• Services such as hair coloring and bleaching
• Hair treatments for everyone, such as Olaplex, Moroccan regeneration and keratin smoothing

These types of services are offered by the best salons in Montreal.
The wider the range of hairdressing services you offer, the more likely you are to meet the requirements of different people, and the broader your base of interested customers.

Dreaming of hair care?
Then take action!

There’s no shortage of hair salons in Montreal, but if you approach the question of opening your own business with integrity, good promotion and the highest quality of service, you can succeed.
Your business will quickly stand out from other salons and attract more and more satisfied customers, as well as the best hairdressers who will want to work with you.
So take your time and make it the best it can be.
We hope our tips will help you succeed!

Renting out workstations or employing hairdressers?

Do you want to run your own business, or do you also want to work as a hairdresser?
As the vast majority of salons are owned by hairdressers, the latter option is by far the most popular, and is what we’re going to focus on here.
There are several business models for running hair salons.

This solution seems to be quite practical.
As a hairdresser, you occupy one position and rent out the other positions to other hairdressers.
This is ideal if you don’t yet have a large group of loyal customers lining up to see you.
This type of salon is optimal if you’re able to serve your customers with just one station.
You rent out the rest to other hairdressers and earn a predictable monthly income.

However, there are also disadvantages.
It will be much harder for you to impose your own expectations, such as the price level of services provided by other hairdressers or the choice of cosmetics they use.
You may not care, but you should at least be careful not to compete on the price of services.
This usually leads to conflict within the team and becomes an excuse for unnecessary arguments.

Employing a hairdresser in your salon

If you’re considering this form of salon management, you’ve probably already come a long way as a hairdresser.
For this model to work, you need to estimate that you already have a fairly large list of customers who would like to sign up with you, but you need to offer them appointments far in advance.
You can’t make appointments in advance working from a single desk, which is constantly crowded.

So you hire a hairdresser who can take care of your customers.
Don’t forget that they often prefer to come and see you alone, and may be upset that you’re entrusting them to strangers.
So make sure you show your interest and attention at the beginning, during and at the end of your hairdresser’s service.

What are the difficulties involved in hiring a hairdresser for your salon?
Your hairdresser, who provides services on your behalf, may not initially perform as well as you would like.
Don’t let this discourage you.
Be patient, explain clearly what you expect of him/her, don’t skimp on his/her knowledge and send him/her on hairdressing training courses as often as possible.
This will certainly pay off.

Let’s look at the scenario in which you decide to be free to choose the hairdressing products you work with in your salon.
This is no different from a model where everything is under the banner of a well-known company.
This solution can even bring you a number of additional benefits, which we don’t talk about out loud.
First of all, no hairdresser, or even a large manufacturer of hairdressing products, has everything in its range that might be of interest to you.

This gives you the freedom to choose the products you work with.
However, it’s worth noting that the vast majority of customers prefer to identify their hairdresser with a particular brand, especially when it comes to hair dyes.
Don’t be swayed by too wide a range of products from different companies.
Each manufacturer has its own philosophy, especially when it comes to hair color.
So develop your skills by concentrating on a single brand.
The customer will appreciate it if you are a specialist in a particular brand.