Ways To Cut the Monthly Expenses of a Hair Salon

Hair salons are one of the few small businesses we haven’t been able to automate, make virtual, or otherwise disrupt. The fundamentals of cutting hair haven’t changed. What can change, however, is how much it costs to operate a salon. We’ve come up with a few ways to cut the monthly expenses of a hair salon—no pun intended—so that you can continue to thrive.

Stop Renting Furniture

Many companies who specialize in salon furniture will make their goods available for rental as well as purchase. This promises decidedly lower upfront costs without the fear of what to do with specialized furniture that, for one reason or another, you find that you no longer need. The downside, however, is that those monthly rental fees can keep coming without the promise of eventual ownership. If you have the funds to pull it off, consider biting the bullet and buying your furniture outright. It’s a move that will pay off in the long run—and if you maintain them well, you may be able to resell your chairs when it’s time for replacements.

Walk-Ins Not So Welcome?

When you accommodate walk-in customers at a hair salon, you need to have more stylists on call to handle customers who may or may not walk through your door. This can mean wasted hours—a situation that’s not good for you as an owner and no great boon to your stylists, either. It may take a little spin-doctoring to sell the allure of a reservations-only salon, but doing so will allow you to streamline your expenses, coming out ahead of what you lose in unsustainably scant walk-in business.

Embrace E-Commerce

In a world where more and more money and goods change hands virtually, hair salons, with those stylist-recommended product purchases, have been some of the last bastions of brick-and-mortar specialty retail. You don’t have to give that up altogether, but by pivoting to e-commerce, you can better control your inventory and prevent fine salon products—which have quicker expiration dates than drugstore counterparts—from going woefully unsold in your lobby. In this win-win situation, you can ultimately expand your offerings to your customers while cutting back on what sits in your store.

Have a Green Attitude

In your place of business as in your home, utility costs can sneak up on you if you’re the slightest bit careless with your allocation of heat, air conditioning, and light. One of the simplest ways to cut the expenses of a hair salon is to take a greener approach to your electricity usage. Ask yourself: do you need every light on all the time? To say nothing of the effects on your ambience, you’re wasting wattage. You may not be able to cut down on your water usage for obvious reasons, but you can trim costs on other utilities.