How to Start a Salon Business That Makes 1 Million Monthly - Bizvestor (2024)

A salon business is one of the fastest growing businesses to start in Nigeria.

Once you take care of the skill part by employing skilled hands and managing them properly, the business can take off on its own and continue to grow.

As an essential business, the demand for salons will never cease. However, the salons that make the most profit are those that are well-positioned.

In this article, we’ll be looking at the different aspects of a salon business and how to start and grow one that makes at least 1 million Naira monthly.

Let’s dive in.

Starting A Salon Business

A salon business could be started with as low as 400k Naira up to 5 million Naira or more, depending on the scale of business.

I’ve even seen salons started with capital as low as 200k, but you’ll always improvise to operate at that scale.

A standard salon in Nigeria right now would cost nothing less than 2 million Naira to start.

You’ll have to consider the following criteria:

• A high-brow area with foot traffic
• A well-spaced and secure shop
• High-quality equipment
• High-end customers

A salon that fulfills the above criteria would be making very good cash flow on a monthly basis, as long as it delivers a variety of high-quality grooming services.

Types of Salons

No two salons are the same. While some focus on one specific market segment, others focus on a variety of other market segments.

The positioning of the salon would largely depend on the skillset of the operators and their target market.

Here are the main types of salons you can start:

Male Hair Salon

A male hair salon caters mostly for male customers. However, children and females who want to cut their hair could patronize this type of salon.

A male hair salon is the standard barbing salon we have in Nigeria. In fact, when someone says they want to start a barbing salon, they are most likely talking about a male salon.

A male hair salon mostly makes money via the following avenues:

• Hair cutting
• Hair treatment
• Hair dyeing
• Tattoo Drawing
• Body piercing
• Sales of hair and body care products

Female Hair Salon

A female hair salon caters exclusively for women folks. They mostly offer hairdressing and other associated services.

Here are some of the services offered by female hair salons:

• Hair dressing
• Hair washing
• Hair setting
• Female hair treatment
• Sales of weaves and wigs
• Sales of hair & body care products
• Sales of female wears & jewelries
• Manicure services
• Pedicure services
• Massages

Unisex Salon

A unisex salon is a combination of both a male and female salon.

Most times, a unisex salon is handled separately even though they may be located in the same location.

This is because they both require different types of expertise and equipment.

Salon & Spa

Combining a salon and spa is a rarity in Nigeria. Only a few salons add a complete spa service to their business.

However, many female salons offer spa services even though they do not clearly indicate that.

Services such as pedicure, manicure, massages, and hair therapy fall under spa services.

Launching A salon Business That Makes At Least 1 Million Naira Per Month

There are different strategies for starting and growing a salon business that makes at least 1 million Naira monthly.

You either leverage the price point, the resource point, or the brand point.

The price point is leveraged by positioning your salon in a way that it attracts high-end customers and charges high-end prices for its products and services.

The resource point is building a salon business that capitalizes on its resources to make money via partnerships and business agreements.

The brand point is leveraged by building a strong salon business brand that controls a large share of the market, thereby making huge income.

To make sense of these strategies, let’s take a look at the different ways to position a salon business for more profit.

High-end Salon

A high-end salon is a salon that offers premium services and is positioned to attract high-end customers.

I never taught this was possible until I experienced one.

There was a time I moved into a new area and was looking for where to barb my hair. There was no barbing salon close to where I stay, so I had to walk around a little bit to find a salon.

I noticed other salons as I walked by but they just weren’t standard enough for me, so I kept looking until I saw a good one.

In this standard salon, the ambience was top notch. They had air conditioner, good lightings, mirrors everywhere, enough seats, multiple TVs playing, good sound systems, good equipment, and a generally good environment that you could relax in before getting to barb.

I immediately settled down and I noticed how all their barbing equipment were well-treated and changed for every new customer. I was also enjoying the music as well.

To cut the long story short, this salon charged me 2k Naira in contrast to the 500 Naira I would normally pay for the average salon.

But guess what? I was happy to pay that amount for the top-notch service offered there. And for the moment I was in that salon, many other customers were coming in and paying the same amount because they value the quality of service being offered.

If that particular salon gets only 30 customers per day, which is a really average number, they would be making a whopping 60k Naira per day.

If they opened 6 times a week, they would be making nothing less than 360k Naira per week and nothing less than 1.4 million Naira per month.

That’s how a high-end salon makes good money on a monthly basis.

Salon Franchise Network

Another way to make good income from a salon business is to build a salon Franchise network.

Think of your salon as a business, and then think of multiplying your income sources.

Just like banks and restaurants do, they build a strong franchise first, then they multiply their branch networks.

I know of a young man who tried this business model with some level of success. His name is Josh.

Josh is a young man who didn’t see the four walls of a university. He is actually a family friend of mine and I know when he started his first barbing salon business.

Although he didn’t build a strong salon brand, he was able to create a network of salons that made him a sh*tload of money and still doing so up till today.

Right now, he owns over 15 barbing salons in Lagos, drives 2 cars and caters for his large family.

If Josh, with a truncated education could build a salon business that makes at least 1 million Naira monthly, then anyone out there can do the same.

Salon Rental Business

The final strategy for building a salon that makes at least 1 million Naira, is for those who do not have the time or skillset to manage an actual salon business.

A Salon Rental Business is a hands-off business where the owner sets up and equips a salon business, and then hire operators to manage the salon and make monthly remittance.

The agreement between the salon owner and the hired operator would hover around who manages what, who repairs what, who makes what payment, and how much monthly remittance would be paid.

The penalty for default would also be discussed in cases where the hired operator do not stick to the agreement.

Owning a salon rental business could be a form of passive income for those willing to set up this kind of business arrangement.

A high-end rental salon business that makes 60k per day could easily remit 40k per day to the owner, which adds up to almost 1 million Naira per month.

If you could set up 2 of such types of salon rentals, you would be making over 1 million Naira per month with ease.