Everything You Need to Know Before Starting a Barber Shop Business

As an aspiring barber, you’d be forgiven for believing that the hard part is over with and you’re ready to start your own business. You may even have worked for several years already while renting a chair and be looking to start out on your own.

But any business owner will tell you starting a business is no small feat. There are a lot of important decisions to be made to ensure that, once you open the doors of your barber shop, the business will start flowing through.

First things first: a barber business plan

However courageous, there are so many things that can go wrong when starting a business. Even with business plans, huge numbers of startups go bust within the first few years.

Creating a barbershop business plan should be your first step. A business plan will function both as a checklist and resource for how you will execute on your priorities. Items in your business plan will range from your business concept, market analysis, marketing strategy, financials, and more. 

Your business plan should not just help you get as far as opening day, but also anticipate incoming finances and how they will be utilised. This requires long term planning as it’s likely you will take out business loans and not purchase everything you might want for the business before your first day.

Researching how much financing you expect to need and budgeting each part of your enterprise will be part of your plan. Once that is done, you will have broken down each requirement and can start to anticipate needs which can prevent mistakes further down the line.

For instance, you may find a location that falls beneath budget and think you’ve found the right place, but may later learn that you’re unable to get the right insurance on it, or make certain changes due to building restrictions, or even more basic requirements like fitting the number of barber stations in the main room to meet your needs. A barber’s business plan will help you make decisions that work both for specific needs but also fit within your model as a whole.

Planning for later: how to grow your barber business

One of the most crucial parts of getting started is finding the right location. This means knowing whether you’ll be renting or buying, as well as knowing what to look for.

Creating your vision for the business also includes researching what people find difficult about barbering. Many barbers find the work physically draining; this is understandable as the work involves being on your feet for long periods, bending over clients, and focusing hard on dextrous, finger-straining tasks. But purchasing and placing the right equipment well can help make barbering better for all involved. 

Equipping your barbershop

Investing in good, adjustable seating is a must, and having well-placed workbenches at a good height can both speed up work and take some of the pressure off the bodies of you and your workers. Badly placed steps around your workbenches might not only be inconvenient but hazardous, and a good choice of flooring material can make it easier to keep a tidy shop floor while taking strain off your feet.

High maintenance clients are a common complaint of barbers, and keeping both yourselves and your more difficult clients calm and restful can be helped by music or television playing in the background^[1].

This means acquiring the correct license for the media you want. This usually comes with a small expenditure, but if it makes those difficult parts of the day a little easier and creates the right atmosphere, you’ll recoup those expenses in no time.

How about starting a mobile barber business?

Looking to grow your business in the barbershop industry can be very difficult. The market is not as large as it used to be, and with so many things to consider when looking for the right place to start out, you may want to consider alternatives to save startup and running costs and help you corner a slice of the market.

Mobile hairdressers have been around for quite some time, and visiting clients’ homes as part of your service might help you entice more potential customers that want the slick look that a professional barber provides but don’t want the trouble of heading to the shop.

To go mobile, you’ll need to ensure that you can provide a fully mobile barbering kit, from portable chairs and tools, as well as a vehicle that is capable of transporting them. This is comparatively simple, and going mobile will simplify your business plan template considerably. As a freelance hairdresser, you will also have much lower running expenses.

However, without the visibility of a brick-and-mortar shop, your marketing ideas will need to be strong. Word of mouth is not as effective for mobile businesses, but some well-placed barber business cards can help get you started. Don’t forget the value of a good loyalty program to ensure maximum retention of existing clients.

Whether you go mobile or not, there are two essential marketing tools for the modern business: social media and Google advertising. Creating social media pages for your business and posting regularly can help you remain present in your clients' minds and makes them much more likely to pop back in.

Setting yourself up on Google Business ensures you will appear on Google Maps, and your clients will be able to place Google reviews to confirm yours is the best barbering business around.

Finding the right EPOS system

The perfect barber with the perfect scissors and shop will still struggle to grow without every business’ most vital tool. 

EPOS systems have revolutionized the way we do business, speeding up the sales process and simplifying product and inventory management. They can also be used for managing marketing and accounting processes, as well as building reports so you always know where trade is flourishing and which parts of the business need your attention.

Epos Now provides barbers with dedicated barbershop systems designed to fit the needs of businesses like yours. Even mobile barbers can flourish while using EPOS, with the mobile Pro+ device. 

EPOS systems bring every aspect of your business into one, easy-to-use, flexible software that can work around your needs. Epos Now customers can:

• Access latest reports and make changes to any part of the business from anywhere using cloud technology
• Control data and establish a staff hierarchy to create a more secure business, and only allow management full access to vital back-office information
• Integrate with marketing tools like Mailchimp to maintain stronger relationships with customers quicker and more easily
• Send all of their latest reports directly to your accounting software for stress-free tax management
• Benefit from the expertise of a support team there to ensure business runs smoothly, providing support to businesses across the globe 24/7

Submit your information below or contact us to speak to our experts about what Epos Now technology could do for your barbershop business.