Before you even start thinking about opening a nail salon (be it at home or location based), you need a good nail salon business plan. Here’s everything you need to know.
Opening a nail salon is no easy task. It requires a lot of patience, research, and planning. And, before you even start ordering supplies and working on your interior design, you will need to create a business plan.
A good business plan has to cover every aspect of your business – inventory, costs, market analysis, services, and even marketing opportunities. That’s why coming up with a strong business plan can take several weeks and can be quite a challenging process.
To make it easier for you to come up with a business plan for your nail salon, this article covers most of the things that you will need to include in a good business plan.
Table of Contents
Mission Statement, Products, and Services
Your business plan should start with your mission statement and an overview of your products and services. A mission statement is several short sentences that tell people exactly what your brand is about. The statement should be honest to your values and business intentions.
After you’re done with the mission statement, it’s time to list all of the products and services that you will be offering to your prospective clients. Make sure you don’t forget any services, as you will have to come back to these later when you start drawing up your pricing strategy.
At this point, it’s important not to plan too far ahead. If you have a service you’d like to include in your offer at some point in the future but you don’t yet have the resources for it at the moment, it’s best if you leave it out of your strategy for now.
Roles and Responsibilities
The next step would be to draw up your organizational structure. If you’re starting a small business where you’re the owner, CEO, technician, and marketing manager, you can skip this step. On the other hand, if you plan to hire a staff, this is one of the most crucial steps in the whole plan.
Every position needs to have a detailed job description that highlights exactly the skills and responsibilities that an employee must have. A well-established organizational structure will give your business better stability and more opportunities for growth.
SWOT Analysis
Another very important phase in the creation of a business plan is SWOT analysis. This is a framework that will allow you to gauge your company’s position relative to your competition. To execute a good SWOT analysis, you need to identify your:
Strengths
This is what separates you from the competition. You need to find certain aspects of the business that you’re very good at
Weaknesses
This is what can prevent your company from succeeding. Identifying the areas that you can improve is the key to remaining competitive
Opportunities
External factors that your company can use to its advantage. For example, a low number of nail salons in your area could be defined as a good opportunity
Threats
External factors that could harm your company. For example, more competition and higher taxes on sole-proprietor nail salons could be some of your main threats.
Market Analysis
Market analysis is often confused with SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is focused on discovering your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but market analysis looks at the market as a whole. This includes:
Market trends
Analyze emerging trends in the industry and write them down. Trends can be very important, as they are often a good indicator of customer behavior and the general direction in which an industry is heading.
Your target market
You should also identify your main audience. Since you’re opening a nail salon, it would make sense that your audience is predominately female. However, you need to break this group down into smaller fragments (teenagers, housewives, etc.) and use specific messages to target each of these groups.
Market Positioning and Pricing Strategy
Once you’ve learned more about the market, it’s time to find your place in it. Will it be a posh nail salon with high prices and high levels of expertise? Or will your nail salon focus more on nail art and creative solutions for a younger audience? These are all important questions that you need to answer, as they will dictate many aspects of your business.
For example, your position in the market will have a strong impact on your pricing strategy. Lower prices usually attract more customers, but higher prices can make you seem more professional and attract customers that are willing to spend more. Choose your pricing strategy carefully while keeping your competition in mind.
Sales and Marketing Strategy
Even if you have the best nail salon in the country, it may never take off without adequate promotion. That’s why it’s important to have a good sales and marketing strategy in place. You can take care of sales and marketing yourself, but it’s best if you hire a consultant or an agency. Having a team of professionals to take care of your marketing will leave you more time to focus on growth and development.
If you do decide to do it on your own, increasing your online presence would be a great start. This will help you get the word out and increase brand awareness.
Sustainability and Growth Strategy
A business will flourish if it has a steady supply of customers. That is why you need to have a plan on how to keep the existing customers and add new ones. By doing this, you will ensure the steady growth of your company.
There are several things that you can focus on to implement a successful growth strategy. For example, creating a healthy work environment and hiring very professional employees is a good way to set your business up for growth. You should also think about your future plans and ultimate business goals, such as opening new branches or merging with other businesses so you can increase your market share.
Final Word
A good nail salon business plan should include everything listed above, and more. If you need help creating a strong business plan, consider hiring a business consultant. Your business plan is the very foundation of your enterprise, so you’ll want to make sure it’s bulletproof.
