6 Things To Consider While You Are Setting Up a Spa & Salon Business Once you are ready to open your salon and spa the biggest question you need to answer is "who is your spa & salon for?"

Bhavna Vohra, Founder of Heaven on Earth Wellness gives us insights on what to keep in mind while setting up a salon & spa business seamlessly. Here, are a few key aspects to consider while you're thinking of starting your own salon or spa business:

The first and the most important attribute you need have is passion and experience. To setup any successful business you need to have the passion and drive to make it successful, while setting up your own salon & spa from the word go, you need to understand, gauge and soak yourself in the dynamics of beauty and wellness. Your background and experiences of your past also need to add value to your new venture. If you come from a complete non-creative and a logical background, you should probably spend some time and effort in learning and understanding this industry. In the pursuit of making you spa & salon a successful money making business you must balance your wellness quotient as well.

Once you are ready to open your salon and spa the biggest question you need to answer is "who is your spa & salon for?" i.e. identifying and defining your target audience. If you are clear, it's easier to position the brand in the market. However if you are not, there are two ways of identifying your TG; one is your brand will be an answer to a need that exists or two you will fill in a gap.

The next most important decision while setting up a spa & salon in the early stages of establishing your new business is the location. The spa has to be located centrally, should be well connected with all the areas in the locality. The location should be attractive, popular, a well-lit and safe area. It will be a cherry on the cake if there are other retail businesses nearby as they can always generate more business for you.

Services: after you have done the base, now comes the detailing. While setting up a spa & salon its necessary that to decide on the services you are going to offer. How do you do that? All the above factors will also come into play while you create your service list. Where is you spa? What kind of mix of people will be your clientele? And therefore, what are the services that will attract them and keep them hooked to your spa or salon.

The market is extremely competitive and it is difficult to differentiate. There are a gamete of spa and salon services available worldwide today. Create your service list based on what your prospective clients will be most attracted to. There are a few basic services (reflexology, aromatherapy, deep tissue, body wraps, facials, mani-pedi) that all have or you can target a niche market by offering only the special, exotic and more premium services (like hot stone, ayoma, thai yoga, marma, red rice)

Also, while deciding your service range you must keep in mind skilled staff, training, consumables that will all be required to deliver the services.

Once you are done with all the operational aspects of your business, like every business requires a business plan that helps you understand the investments and profit margins, a marketing and promotions plan is also essential to achieve those numbers. Communicating with your prospective clients clearly and frequently helps achieve your brand's recognition, recall and loyalty. Therefore you must have a robust marketing plan ready during the first stages of setup.

After all of these tasks are checked off your to do list, there might be a question that comes to you mind: Are you suited to run a salon business? Your research and understanding of the location, TG, market etc. you might realize that you are not suited for this business. Becoming a successful spa & salon is a competitive & challenging task. A service business like this, requires 200% attention, energy, effort and know-how.

So before you plan to open a spa or salon you should spend some time in research. Do a background study about the industry. Speak to a few entrepreneurs around you to get a flavor of the work. You can also consider taking up a small part time course on spa & salon management. These will help you get first hand understanding of the business model and operations.

These experiences will only be a trailer for what's in store for you. So carefully gauge all the dynamics of the business and keep in mind that there's absolutely no shame in deciding that this business in not for you after all.