How to Open a Salon

To open a salon, get your individual license sorted, choose between renting a booth, renting a suite or leasing a full space, write a plan and a budget, find a space with enough room and plumbing, lay out the floor, then apply for the shop’s own establishment license before you open the doors. The same path works whether you call it a hair salon, a beauty salon or a salon business.

The order matters. A lot of new owners sign a lease first and find out later that the space can’t hold the chairs or the shampoo bowls they need. Plan the floor before you sign, and the rest gets easier.

What Licenses Do You Need to Open a Salon?

Most states license two things: the people who do services and the place where they do them. Your cosmetology, barber, esthetician or nail license covers you. The shop needs its own establishment or salon license, and that is a separate application.

The establishment license is cheap but it has rules. Texas charges $78 for its establishment license application, and the owner signs a promise not to open until the license is issued. California charges $50. Pennsylvania won’t open a salon until an inspector has passed it. Florida inspects after the license is issued.

Every state handles this differently, so read your own board’s rules before you look at spaces. The salon license guide walks through Texas, California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania side by side.

Should You Start With Booth Rent, a Suite or a Full Salon?

You have three ways in, and they cost very different amounts.

• Booth rent means renting a chair inside someone else’s salon and running your own book. Vagaro puts booth rent at about $100 to $500 or more a week, with a median around $200 to $250 for a mid-tier salon.
• A salon suite is a small private room you rent inside a suite building. Vagaro says $200 to $500 a week is typical, and suites usually come with the chair, station and shampoo bowl. See what a salon suite is.
• Your own salon means leasing a space, building it out, and hiring stylists or renting chairs to them. Booksy puts a small 3 to 4 station salon at $69,000 to $145,000.

A suite or booth lets you test your prices and your client base before you take on a five-figure build-out. If you want to own the building side of suites instead, that is a different business, covered in how to start a salon suite business.

How Do You Write a Salon Business Plan?

Write one even if nobody asks for it. The SBA business plan guide describes two kinds: a traditional plan that lenders and investors usually want, and a one-page lean plan you can write in an afternoon.

For a salon, the plan should answer a few plain questions. Who are your clients and what will they pay? How many chairs will you fill, and will those stylists be employees on commission or booth renters? Vagaro says commission usually runs 40 to 60 percent of service revenue. What does the build-out cost, and where does the money come from?

The employee or renter question has tax weight. The IRS looks at the whole relationship and how much control the business has over the worker, so a booth renter you schedule and supervise like staff may not count as a contractor.

How to Open a Salon With No Money

You can’t open a full storefront salon with nothing. You can open a small salon business with very little and grow from there. These routes are real:

1. Start in a booth or suite. It is the lowest entry point by far, at about $3,500 to $12,000 for a solo setup by Booksy’s estimate. You keep the client list when you move to your own space later.
2. Apply for an SBA microloan. SBA microloans go up to $50,000, and the average is about $13,000. They can pay for furniture, fixtures, equipment, supplies and working capital, but not real estate. Nonprofit lenders make the loans, terms run up to 7 years, and rates generally fall between 8 and 13 percent.
3. Lease the furniture. Buy-Rite Beauty’s lease-to-own program starts at $3,000 and goes up to $300,000. It does involve a credit check.
4. Take over a salon that is already built. Chairs, plumbing and a shampoo area already in place cut the biggest cost, which is the build-out. Booksy estimates salon tenant improvements at $120 to $200 per square foot.

Small things are free. An EIN from the IRS costs nothing, and the IRS warns against sites that charge for one.

How Much Space Does a Salon Need?

Plan on about 150 to 200 square feet per stylist for the whole salon. That Buy-Rite Beauty figure covers reception, shampoo, drying, the dispensary and restrooms, not just the chair. At that rate a 1,000 square foot space holds about 5 or 6 stylists.

Some states also set a legal minimum. Pennsylvania wants a cosmetology salon at least 10 feet wide and 120 square feet, plus 60 square feet for each added licensee. Florida’s rule starts at 100 square feet and adds 50 for each added cosmetologist or specialist. New Jersey starts at 350 square feet. Many states set no number at all. More detail is in how much space a salon chair needs.

How Do You Lay Out a Salon Floor Plan?

Draw the floor before you sign the lease. A sketch on the real dimensions tells you how many chairs fit and whether the plumbing is in the right place.

Plan these zones:

• Reception and waiting: a reception desk in sight of the door, a few seats and any retail shelving.
• Styling: a row of salon stations, each with a chair. Minerva Beauty recommends about 54 to 56 inches between chairs, center to center, and at least 5 feet clear in front of each station.
• Shampoo: put the shampoo bowls on the wall closest to the existing water lines and drains. Each bowl costs $500 to $1,500 to plumb by Booksy’s estimate, and longer runs cost more. A common rule is one bowl for every two stylists.
• Color and drying: a color bar or dispensary, and a hood dryer or two near the shampoo area.
• Restroom and back room: Texas and Florida both require a restroom, and the ADA has clearance rules for it. Leave room for a washer, dryer and storage.
• Walkways: the 2010 ADA Standards set 36 inches as the minimum width of an accessible route.

The salon floor plan maker lets you type your room’s inside measurements, drag in stations, chairs, backwash units, dryers and a restroom block, and see square feet per chair as you go. It flags chairs closer than 54 inches center to center and walkways under 36 inches. Export the plan as PNG, SVG or a printout for your landlord, contractor or state board.

What Has to Happen Before Opening Day?

Work through this list once the lease is signed:

• Form your business and get an EIN.
• Ask your city which building permits the build-out needs. The SBA notes that local permits depend on your activity and location.
• Apply for the establishment license and wait for it. In Texas you certify you won’t open before it arrives.
• Pass any inspection your state does before opening, as Pennsylvania requires.
• Post what your state requires. Texas lists the establishment license, each practitioner’s license, sanitation rules, a consumer complaint sign, a human trafficking sign and a list of booth renters.
• Line up insurance. New York, for one, requires proof of liability coverage with the application.

Then book your first clients. If you’ll offer nails too, read how to open a nail salon before you build, since the ventilation and plumbing needs are not the same.