Beauty Salon Design
Salon Changes – GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR BUDGET

Salon Changes – GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR BUDGET

Hellen Ward, our resident business guru and co-owner of the highly successful Richard Ward Hair and Metrospa, takes a logical approach when tackling hair salon refurbishments , warning of the pitfalls of spending your budget too quickly.

She explains: “What’s critical is to ensure your budget looks at the practicalities not just the design elements-we all know interior designers that could spend x-amount of money on some artwork without remembering you’re a functioning salon!”

Franchisee Daryl Greenaway of Essentials, Marlborough had a budget of £50,000 for salon design when he first set up his salon but that didn’t see him go on a shopping spree. He approached Essentials with the proposal of taking a more personal approach to the revamp by sourcing local tradesmen for the majority of the work.

“It’s human nature to want to express yourself and as a salon we were keen to concentrate on making the salon more bespoke, plus the demand for a personalised service meant we had to step things up a notch- our clients wanted more and so did we.”

Daryl started off by looking at existing problems in the salon to be able to work out which areas needed work. “For us, everything was too congested so we started by clearing some space that ended up becoming a whole new grooming area for men- now our MAN Zone,” says Daryl.

His entire philosophy of the salon refurb was concentrated on changes that would benefit the client experience but also stand the test of time as he explains: “We updated the flooring and for we fixtures we chose hardwearing, contemporary brilliant white.”

Lighting was top of his list, where no expense was spared: “We budgeted for completely new lighting because the existing lights weren’t doing us justice. We had top of the range illuminating lights fitted to enable us to show off our technicians’ work,” Daryl reasons.

a

b

He admits he did go over budget after underestimating how long the salon would be closed, which is a common mistake but it’s not the only one you have to look out for.

Where your salon is located geographically can make a huge difference to your budget and Hellen warns that rates for manpower can churn up unexpected costs, especially in London.