152: Salon Design Mistakes

In this podcast episode, we discussed ten common mistakes that salon owners should avoid when furnishing their hair salons. 

Additionally, we shared some tricks to maximize salon space, such as using continuous mirrors for smaller salons and positioning furniture in the center for larger salons.

By avoiding these common mistakes and considering these tips, salon owners can create a well-designed and functional space that enhances the client experience.

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Transcript

Unknown: 1:29

Hey there, welcome to the salon ownership Made Easy podcast. As a former salon owner, I know how tough it can be to deal with things like hiring new team members, managing your KPIs, and fixing everything that seems to break in the salon. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. But don't worry, I'm here to help you navigate the ups and downs of the industry. Let's face it, beauty school didn't prepare us for the real world of Salon ownership. But with the right techniques, systems and mindset, you can achieve amazing success. With over 30 years of experience. And for successful salons under my belt, including two that hit over seven figures, I've learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. So buckle up and get ready for some practical tips and real talk. Let's do this. Today, we're going to talk about the 10 most common mistakes to avoid when you're putting together your hair salon. And believe me, I've made every one of these mistakes, so don't feel bad, but let's just talk about them for a second. Okay, your very first mistake is you don't look at your budget. You don't even consider your budget. So don't just consider your furniture costs. But remember to include all your expenses that go into that like your electricity, your plumbing, you might want those fancy bowls. Have you considered plumbing through the floor? You got to get creative sometimes, but have a budget in mind. And really, really try to be resourceful because you don't want to spend all your money on decorations. Okay? It's a lot in the beginning. So go slow. Okay, common mistake number two, is you're cutting corners on your shampoo bowls. Okay? The shampoo experience is the clients favorite part of their salon visit, when you agree, gone are the days of just putting one of those cheap chairs in front of the sink and, and leaning over and shampoo. You know what I'm talking about, right? If you can't afford it right now, maybe that's that might be what you have to do. But start saving your money. So you can get a quality bowl that is very comfortable for your guests. And that's functional. And I'm talking about maybe putting their feet up, maybe having a neck support rest. Maybe you stand behind it. Maybe you don't maybe you don't like do that. But the shampoo really, if you're going to invest in something that really should be your first and foremost. The trend right now is like the white bowls so you can see the toner the color of your hair. And don't worry, they don't stain don't worry about that. Again, consider massage options. Have you guys seen those chairs that you lean back in it actually, it has a massage fingers almost like come up. Now I've never experienced that I've seen them. I don't know how much those cost. But if you have a high scale luxury salon, you might want to consider something like that. They even have shampoo bowls that shampoo on their own. You don't even have shampoo Crazy, huh? That's number two. Number three, under estimating the importance of lighting. Oh, my goodness, I have done this. I have designed whole salons and forgot about the lighting. Or I bought a salon and the lighting was so horrible that we had to re do all the electricity on different breakers just get enough light in there. Oh my goodness. So when you're going into design your salon, make sure there's a lot of lighting because you need to have it for hair color, right. And you want to make sure that it's not too cool. Or to warm, you might want to also consider having lights behind your mirrors, or at least on the sides of your mirrors because not only do you want light come from above, but you also want it to come directly at you as well. The fourth mistake when you're designing your hair salon is overlooking a retail space. I know this is one of those subjects but you have to create a dedicated space to display and sell all your haircare products. You have to retail sales contributes so much to your salons revenue. So you can just consider incorporating a product corner near the cash register or using your styling stations even maybe put shelves on the sides of the styling stations if you don't have room in your waiting area, but I would at least put something to display your products. If you are listening to this on the podcast. I would recommend going over to our YouTube and watching this as well because we have a video on it and there's examples of all All sorts of retail space ideas, going with the most simplistic space saving ideas to Wow, just do it yourself stuff to furniture that you buy online, they have lighting and everything inside of it, I would mind going and just taking a look at our YouTube channel. All right, mistake number five, not having a place to do proper consultation. Now whether that place is at your styling station, that's fine. Or you know what you can even take it up a notch by like maybe getting a love seat, that you're sitting there talking to them, or even just a private area that you can have a conversation that clients feel comfortable talking to you maybe even maybe privately, maybe not. But just to give you a little eyeball to eyeball instead of looking at the mirror, okay, so if you are doing it at your styling station, make sure you have a little bench or something or a little chair that you could sit down and get an eye level with them. So you can really talk to them heart to heart, eyeball to eyeball, okay, the sixth mistake is not having a clear division between your reception area and your work zones, meaning there's no definition, there's no defining place, you need to have a distinct separation between the reception area and the workstations. Because when clients are getting their hair done, you don't want them to be listening to somebody checking out. And vice versa. When somebody's checking out, you don't want them to come back in your space while you're working on somebody else and say, How many weeks did you tell me to get to book four or whatever you want a definite, clear division. And again, if you go to our YouTube, you can see different ideas that that we've put in place. And it could be the simplest is just having some plants where you can build something or you can actually have a wall that separates the reception area from the workspaces. All right, mistake number seven. Forgetting to provide a coat rack or storage near the reception. Yeah, this is overlooked a lot and because it's just one of those little things, but especially if you live somewhere where it gets cold, you need to have a coat rack, people want to take their coats off and store them somewhere they don't want them at the styling station or what if it's raining, you don't want them to bring the rain coat to your styling station and and have water all over the place. So just having a coat rack near the reception area is just, it just offers convenience to your clients. And it just helps to keep your salon nice and clean. Mistake number eight, choosing trendy colors that don't align with your salons desired image. Okay, now you can paint an accent wall, whatever you want, but don't go overboard. And I've walked into salons that you're just like, whoa, you don't even know what to look at, because there's so much going on, or they have really red walls or orange walls. And there is nothing wrong with that. But just don't have every single wall that color for a couple of reasons. It's a lot. But also you won't be able to see the hair color properly. So if you do have a bright color, like a lot of people are using like neon green, or even even if it's not a bright color, maybe it's a dark color, a beautiful emerald green. You wouldn't want that everywhere because that just absorbs too much light. Keep your salon neutral. That way. You don't have to repaint every two or three years or when you change your mind right. And we will do a whole thing on how to how to actually pick out a neutral color. That's not too cool. Not too warm. So you get the true color of hair color. There is a science to it, believe me. All right, mistake number nine. Neglecting to organize a dedicated space for your tools. This can be hidden compartments in your styling station. I know when we had our salon we all shared curling irons, flat irons, things like that. And so we had a station near the back near our color bar that we would store all of those so they weren't cluttering everybody's styling station now the stylus could bring their own tools as well. But once we've we collected a whole bunch of different sizes of curling irons and flat irons and crimping irons and the whole gamut. Why would you want that at your station so we just had a community spot. It was in a drawer that was line so as soon as the tool cool down, we just stuck it in there. But if you're in a salon that you don't have that or you're a booth renter or something they do have stations that have a ton of storage in them, you just have to utilize I see them, right? Really, that is something that sometimes you overlook. And there's nothing worse than a client walking in. And the salon is a complete mess, right? Yeah. Yeah. All right, number 10. And this is, I don't know one of those things that maybe you haven't even considered, but pay attention to the details that enhance your clients experience, such as a bag rack near the styling chair, so they can hang their bag up and not have it on the floor where the hair is, right? A bag rack or charging outlets for charging their mobile phones. So maybe while they're sitting there, you have just a portable little charger at your station, or at the color bar or wherever they're processing. It can even be one of those like wireless ones, those are really cool. There's, they actually make dedicated tables that have that in it. But even if not, you could just plug in it just a regular charging cord, and just offer to charge your phone while they're getting their hair done. It's just little tiny details like that. So I don't know, these are just a list that I put together that I thought might help you out. And remember, there's all kinds of additional tricks that you can maximize your salon space. And you can remember you can utilize mirrors to create an illusion of a larger space. If you have a really tiny salon, you can also position your furniture in the center. Instead of on the walls, we all we tend to to think about putting the furniture on the walls all the time, you don't have to do that you can put it in the center and utilize your space that way too. Another tip that I learned a long time ago, goes back with the color of the walls. If you have like a long hallway that your guests have to walk down, and you have an accent color, put that accent color on the end of the wall. So it almost draws their eyes so they have to walk towards it. But keep the sides of the hallway, that neutral color. Anyway. I love giving tips and tricks like this. If you've liked this podcast, can you please take a screenshot share it with your salon owner friends, I'm always here if you have some ideas or if you've done something that you'd like to share, please DM me, I would love to hear from you. And until next time, remember, when you know better you do better. Thanks for hanging out with us on today's podcast. We hope you found it interesting and learn something new. If you liked what you heard, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on future episodes. We're always open to your feedback and suggestions for topics to cover in the future. So don't be shy. Drop us a line on social media or shoot us an email. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch you on the next one.