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Are you ready to venture out and taste success as a Solo Salon Operator? If you venture out on this route you will no longer be an employee and entrepreneur and you will be your own boss. You will have to pay booth rentals to your landlord either at a flat rate or as a percentage of your business. This business of renting out the hair salon chair and the hair salon booth rentals business model is becoming more frequent today. It is estimated that 70% of the salons follow this booth rental business model.
However, becoming an entrepreneur has both pros and cons to it. In order to make it succeed, there are some crucial things you need to take care of. First and foremost is the formation of the booth rental agreement. The booth rental agreement outlines the terms and conditions between the salon owner and the solo stylist. You need to ensure that your fixed cost, that is, rent should be reasonable enough to give you a decent margin of profit on your business. You might consider the total fixed expenses of the salon and apportion it to each of the rental spaces and arrive at a figure. However, based on the number of clients you have and your potential income you might want to see whether it is affordable for you. You might also want to see how business will be managed operationally. For instance, will you get the freedom to use and sell your products or will you have to use and sell the products recommended by the salon owner.
Once the booth rental agreement is secured you are on your way to becoming an independent contractor. The other advantages of being a solo stylist are:
- You are free to set your own working hours. You can work as long as you want or as little as you want or set your timings as per the client's demand
- If you want it that way, you can come only when there is an appointment with the client. With your cell phone you can always be available for your clients
- Normally, when you are working as a solo stylist, there will be no dress code so you can wear what you like
- Unless the booth rental agreement with the salon owner states the contrary, you can use and sell whichever products you like
However there are also a number of hurdles to overcome in order to make it as a successful solo salon operator. Some of those are:
- You have to build your client base. You may also have to bear incidental expenses like advertising expenses and promotional expenses to get your business going
- Since you are now the owner of your business, you have to take time to do the ownership tasks also. For instance, you have to take out time to meet the distributors and order the products.
- You will also be required to handle accounts and book keeping for which again, you need to spend time. You might have to hire consultants, lawyers, etc who could help you in sorting out the tax and legal matters like checking whether you have adequate liability and other insurance, checking out your booth rental agreement, etc
