There are some people who enter beauty school to become hair stylists. Then there are others who study for a beauty license in order to one day own their own salons. If you are part of this second group of people, then you’ve probably wondered just how much education you need to become a hair salon owner.
For starters, you will need a beauty license from an accredited beauty school. As a future business owner, it is important to learn the ins and outs of the industry in which you will be working not to mention that most people wouldn’t pay money for a haircut from someone who doesn’t know their scissors from their elbow! So it’s in your best interest to enroll in your local beauty school, where you’ll get started with the basics of hair cutting and design.
But your time in beauty school will be anything but basic if you have salon ownership on your agenda. Some schools concentrate on hair design and technique alone, but there are other beauty schools that combine basic business and marketing classes along with practical salon-based classes. If they do, be sure to add them to your class roster, even a basic education in business and marketing is better than no understanding of it. You don’t want to go blindly into your business; by learning the basics of running a business and marketing your services, you’ll get your business off and running, and you’ll have the rest of your life to grow both as a hair stylist and as a business owner.
Some people who really want to grow their hair salon business might enroll in a business degree program. While it is certainly possible to run a thriving business without the benefit of a business degree, a certificate or degree program in business studies could be a great way to tune up the logical side of your creative personality. After all, it’s all well and good to have designed the next “it” hairdo, but it will add up to nothing much at all if you don’t know how to market yourself or your business to potential customers.
In addition to studying hard and practicing your techniques, be sure that you talk to and interact with classmates and faculty while you are enrolled in beauty school. By establishing your professional network as soon as possible, you will be building your own success. Your beauty teachers will become your mentors, and your fellow students may become your allies or fierce competitors. Either way, your classmates from beauty school will drive you to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
Outside of formal beauty school training and business classes, you will learn as you build your business. You’ll make some mistakes, because no business plan is perfect, but when you work hard for something you enjoy doing, you’ll find that even the bumps on the road along the way won’t get you down.