Every hairdresser at one stage or another must have thought of owning a salon. It is only natural to want to have your own business. In the past it was rather easy. You looked for a place to rent in a shopping strip, you borrowed some money to outfit the salon and with the help of family and friends, within a couple of months you were in business. Your customers would follow you and with two or three employees you could make a profit.

Today’s technological advancements, economic development and more sophisticated consumers than ever before, saw hairdressing salons evolve from a corner shop in to large businesses with sophisticated management, functional and well designed salons and greater financial independence. All of this means that, to be able to compete a salon owner not only has to built a great salon but also be well equipped with the skills necessary to manage a modern progressive and competitive business. 

The public nowadays is more educated, sophisticated and demanding. Salons must be able to attract clients by meeting their demands at all levels. People are now accustomed to buying in comfort from big department stores and malls with pleasing surroundings. They know large business are more likely to be reliable, consistent and satisfy their demands better than the shop around the corner.

This trend is also followed in the hairdressing industry. Unless salons manage to gain a reputation for comfort, excellent hairdressing standards, proper training, reliability for excellent and consistent service and above all good management, they will find it very difficult to compete with those businesses that meet these prerequisites.

Your artistic ability and creative talents are very important to the success of your salon but without the help of good management skills to direct, control, organize, plan and coordinate your staff and the other resources available to you, success can only be limited. It is often said that a good hairdresser does not necessarily make a good manager or a businessman. To a great extent this is true. A hairdresser must be creative and artistic and a businessman must be analytical and enterprising. Even though it’s unusual for one person to possess all of these qualities, learning about management principles will help you tremendously.

I believe that a team effort with emphasis on both managerial and artistic aspects will have more chances of success. If you concentrate on improving profitability, hairdressing may suffer and if you concentrate on only improving your salons hairdressing skills and neglect staff relations, salon design, service and finances, your business will suffer.

The world’s leading authority on management Peter Drucker sums it up:

“ The only choice of an institution is between management and mismanagement. But managers are inevitable and the job of management cannot be evaded. Whether it has been done right or not will determine largely whether the enterprise will survive and prosper or decline and ultimately fall”

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