If you run a beauty Salon, Clinic or Spa one of the hardest things to decide is where to invest your money next. I get asked all the time how do you know what machine to buy for your Salon?
Well you shouldn’t leave it to guess work, although many Salon owners admit they have just gone to a beauty exhibition and been seduced by the look of a machine and the promises of the salesperson. As you can imagine it hasn’t ended well.
As the owner of a chain of Salons and also a business advisor, I’ve written many guides to purchasing equipment.
Here I’m going to give you 3 areas to focus on when deciding what machine to buy for your Salon.
Step 1 – What fits your Salon?
Ask yourself what currently fits your Salon? By that I mean a couple of things…
- What are your most successful treatments at the moment? And what equipment if any do you already have? Perhaps you specialise in skin or body treatments, then I would look at a machine which will improve your skin or body services further. It’s far easier to convert existing clients to something they already ‘need’ and are interested in than it is to find a new set of clients for something completely different.
- Where are you now in terms of what time you have available or what staff you have available? Will you be operating the new equipment or will it be your staff? This can really make a difference to your perspective and decision.
Step 2 – What fits your Clients?
Who is your ideal client and what do they come to you for? Are they mainly in their 20s and 30s, female or male? Or are your clients in their 50s and 60s and concerned with ageing? What fits your Salon and what fits your Clients go hand in hand. Your clients are attracted to your salon because of your services, your message and the fact you are providing a solution to their problem.
- Eg. they say they look tired and dull – you solve it with a facial.
- They are going out and want to look their best – you are solving that by doing their eyelashes or nails.
- They don’t like hairy legs, and you are removing their hair.
You are better starting with equipment that fits in with your current clients, and you continue to ‘solve their problems’ but in a better more efficient way. So if you offer waxing – you could also offer laser hair removal. If you offer facials, then you could offer a better version of your facials with Radiofrequency, Micro-current or Microneedling.
Step 2 – What fits your Numbers?
Your Numbers can be broken down into two categories when you’re looking at what machine to buy for your Salon.
- Money In – the revenue you’ll make from your machine
- Money Out – the payments you’ll make every month paying for your machine & consumables.
Money In – How much money are you realistically going to make from your new machine? This is where many Salon owners get tripped off. That’s because they look at the ‘money charts’ which suppliers often provide to show you what’s possible.
PLEASE REMEMBER – these charts are just potential earnings, not what you’re likely to achieve in the first 12 months if ever!
Here’s an EXAMPLE CHART of what you’re likely to see from a SUPPLIER
The issue with this is that you’d need to carry out 6 x treatments every single day … for 365 days a year to earn £120,000! This is obviously highly unlikely. I’d recommend scaling down this chart to give you a sensible ‘worst case scenario’ of what you’re likely to achieve in the first year operating your new piece of equipment.
Here’s my revised ‘WORST CASE SCENARIO’ chart.
- So doing 1 treatment per week at £100 per treatment – generates you £4,800 per year, or £400 per month
- 5 treatments per week at £100 per treatment – generates you £24,000 per year, or £2,000 per month
This puts a very different perspective on what you can afford to pay out per month on machine costs.. that’s before you factor in any other payments such as staff, overheads or consumables.
This is why you need to think properly about your numbers, and be realistic about your potential earnings with any new piece of equipment. This will then determine what you can afford or are prepared to pay out every month.
EXAMPLE ONE
- Eg. 1 Machine costs you £400 per month – and you are only generate £400 per month
- Then £400 income MINUS £400 machine costs = £0!
- You still need to factor in staff costs, overhead and consumbables.
- But we can see based on this example you’d be losing money, so it’s not worth buying the machine!
EXAMPLE TWO
- Eg. 2 Machine costs you £400 per month, you generate £1,200 per month
- £1,200 MINUS £400 = £800 per month
- Factor in staff costs, consumables etc, which depends on number of hours worked etc. Let’s say it’s £200
- £800 MINUS £200 = £600 extra revenue
- Based on this example you may decide that £600 per month is good and you’d be happy with that.
I hope this has helped you get some clarity when trying to work out what machine to buy from your Salon. Please don’t get seduced by pretty new machines promising the world, and instead go through this check list!
If you need more help then please feel free to get in touch with me here; rachael@comeandcopyme.co.uk