Starting up a new business- beauty Salon.

[Beauty65]

Hi I’m writing on here for some advice.

I have always wanted to own my own business, and have a keen interest in the beauty industry.

I want to open up my own beauty salon in 18 months time, I wanted to ask some questions if anyone has any experience of owning a business or better yet a beauty business.

How much did it cost to start up the business?

What could you claim back from the government on expenses ?

How many members of staff did you have ?

how much money did you make in profit and was it lucrative ?

how successful would it be, was it successful straight away, something that happened over a few years ?

any other pointers or advice would be appreciated.

thank you

A lot of those questions are subjective. Start up costs will vary enormously depending on size of the premises, location, what kind of services you'll be offering, whether you'd be employing staff, etc.

You really need to prepare your own business plan, incorporating the number and price of all the services you'll be offering, the capital cost of all the equipment you'll need to buy/rent, the wages and other costs of the staff you'll need. Get those basics filled in, and then you can start to flex it with other costs that depend on the premises, i.e. rent, business rates, utilities, security, bank charges, professional fees, etc.

You have to start the business plan somewhere, and personally, I feel it's better to start with what a "normal day" looks like in terms of number of customers, their average spend, the direct costs you need to service that, i.e. purchase of products and staffing, etc. When you know what your "normal" day looks like in terms of gross profit (i.e. sales less costs to make those sales), you see how much you've left over for overheads and can then see if it's viable.

The business plans I see that don't work out are where people work backwards and start with overheads and end up with wholly unrealistic figures for sales because that's the only way to make it work.

There is a business founders forum on here
You do sound quite naive
I would Google business plan template and have a think in more detail.

As for expenses, you don't get anything paid for by HMRC. Eligible/allowable costs are deducted from your income before arriving at a taxable profit figure, so you basically reduce your taxable profit by the expenses. If you pay tax/nic at 29%, then if you buy a piece of equipment for £1000, your taxable profits are £1000 less so you pay £290 less tax, meaning the equipment costs you a net £810. (That's assuming profits are high enough to breach the tax free allowance - if it's not profitable, there's no tax to pay anyway so no relief for the £1000 cost!). That's very simple terms.

Thanks for the advice so far guys, I already have a business plan template in place and was just musing really and asking different questions on other things I can think about really.

I want to be able to cover all bases and anything extra I haven’t thought about.

interesting on the expenses, that I need to explore in more depth really as i do find it confusing and would need to know exactly how it works.

You need to study the local area that you want to open in. The first question I would be asking is: is there a demand? Are there others offering the same? In my village there is a ridiculous number of salons and another has just opened. I can't see it staying open for long.

Yes the area I want to open the salon in doesn’t have many, 3 places in total there and it’s an ideal location to travel to as well.

Renting out premises are reasonably priced too.

See if your local area has any free business advice / support services. They are often linked to eg Chamber Of Commerce or Local Enterprise Partnerships. Sometimes Universities can be a source of grants / programmes aimed at supporting new or growing businesses.

That’s a really great idea thank you

Yes, I think understanding Tax is essential!!

If you think that you can 'claim things back' from the Govt you should not be risking running a business tbh.

Are you a qualified beautician/ beauty therapist?

@baileybrosbuildingandloan

I’m just finding my feet, and asking questions and trying to understand things so I do stand a good chance of running a business from people that may be able to offer me solid advice before I go and explore options out there in regards to setting up a business.

Like I said in my previous post I’m still getting to grips on understanding expenses etc.

I have a lot to learn on the process of setting up a business, so there really wasn’t any need for the put down.

Starting a beauty salon sounds like such an exciting adventure. It’s a lot of work, but building something you’re passionate about can be rewarding. First off, make sure you’ve got a solid plan. Think about your target customers, the services you want to offer, and what makes your salon unique. A cozy vibe, excellent service, and skilled staff can make all the difference!

Also, look into the legal stuff—registering your business, licenses, taxes, etc. Websites like https://www.houseofcompanies.io/ can be super helpful for setting everything up step-by-step. They guide you through registering your salon and sorting out your business name.