New-Age Entrepreneurship: What Does Turning into a Rural Beautician Have on Offer? Your creative acumen and wellness skills could be explored to the core
By Rahul R
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New-age entrepreneurship, which has been witnessing the advent of multiple unconventional approaches to issues that otherwise plagued modern society, is not restricted to the big Indian metropolitan cities alone. Entrepreneurs having trodden the path of turning into rural entrepreneurs, are now starting to believe that the tier-2 and tier-3 regions hold equal, if not greater, potential for consuming creative entrepreneurial solutions.
People in the cities simply have no idea of the craze people in the tier-2 region in India have for beauty wellness. We can call it the influence of media and the rise of consumerism but in reality it's because of increase in power of spending of people like government employees and others in the chain.It's surprising to see beauty parlour in far flung regions of India today. We can even spot a beauty parlours in the remotest regions of India like Jaisalmer in Rajasthan or Nadia in West Bengal.
To answer this question, Entrepreneur India analyses the feasibility and practicality of beginning a new beauty parlour venture right from home; within a tier-2 geography in India:
Immense Scope: Entrepreneur India spoke to a multitude of rural beauticians who believe that there is a comparatively wider scope in small cities in India. They believe that customers today are willing to spend in order look good; irrespective of the geographies they reside in.
"The response that I have received from my customers is very encouraging," stated Manoj Kumari; a rural entrepreneur who owns a beauty parlour in Hisar (a tier-2 area in Punjab); to Entrepreneur India.
"People are evolving every day and are looking for some new beauty regime or services through beauty parlours. This gives entrepreneurs like me an encouragement to venture out in this industry," adds Kumari who also overcame internal struggles to turn into a rural beautician.
Here, it is worth noting that your beauty parlour ambitions would do well to be coupled with certain skill developmental programs, as these potentially equip you to deal with challenges and day-to-day ordeals. Prior to her venture, Kumari honed her skills through Centum Learning at the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra in Hisar.
Small scale entrepreneurship feasibility: Beauticians believe that the sector affords them viable opportunities to start small scale ventures that are not fancy and are purely service oriented. A beauty parlour could be started right from the living room of your house. The need to invest on high-end equipments is eliminated as the pre-requisites ask for very bare requirements to be met, as the importance here is more on your wellness skills rather than equipments.
You could also use your own home-grown traditional beauty products to work on the appearance of your clients.
Comparatively minimal pre-requisites: With respect to arranging pre-requisites, beauticians state that the foremost requirement to be met is a decent salon chair.
"The regular services should include a foot spa, wax heater, basic facial kit, manicure and pedicure kit and sanitizer. One can start with these and later add on different types of products and other specialised services, depending upon the customer preferences," informs Kumari.
Relatively easily marketable: Good word of mouth is a key influencer in attracting customers to your small scale beauty parlour; more than hi-fi social media campaigns. This is a potential advantage of being in a tier-2 area, and not dependant on social media skills. This proves that it is only your customer service mindset and skills that come into play.
In addition to word-of-mouth publicity, you could also invest on banners advertising your attractive offers. Other marketing techniques (from a first-time entrepreneur perspective) include visiting cards and pamphlets inserted with local newspapers.
Price of services is directly proportional: In a beauty parlour scenario, the price of your offerings is directly based on customer requirements. Pricing could be very tricky in the business. But at the end of it all, what matters is the service quality.
"Customers are willing to spend in order look good in every city of the country," signs-off Kumari.
Along with the above aspects, processes involved in procuring a license to run a commercial beauty parlour are also listed in case you are looking at going big time (from within rural areas) soon. Here, Manoj Kumari states that a chartered accountant could help in license procurement. Licenses are of two types viz Trade, and a Shops & Establishment License.
