How to Open a Beauty Supply Store — Ultimate guide

Write a business plan

The most important thing a beauty shop entrepreneur should focus on since the very beginning, before even knowing how much a beauty supply store can make a month, is the design of a business plan. It is highly recommendable that you devise your business plan for at least three years of your future shop operation. If you could extend your financial and marketing planning for over five years that would be much better.

You will have to decide what purpose your business plan will serve as the first step to opening your beauty supply store. In any case, whether it is to acquire new partners and offer profitable partnerships to people who might help you out with initial capital for your beauty supply shop, or it is a plan for a financial organization where you are intending to ask for a credit line.

You will have to follow a very meticulous procedure and research a lot of data before you can come up with the ultimate project about what exactly you need to open a beauty supply store, including funding, marketing strategy, staff requirements, supply opportunities, services to the customers, customer support, after sale procedures, social media strategy, location and premises management as main points of your business plan.

How to define your niche

Beauty business is one of the most evolving businesses in the modern days, so you are intending to open a beauty supply shop you have to be thoroughly informed about the latest tendencies and advances in the industry of cosmetics and well-being.

Usually beauty supply stores offer a wide range of products related to skin care, cosmetics, hair care and other non-prescriptions products that help people to take care of their appearance. So your possibilities as a beauty supply shop are pretty broad and can be developed into various sales lines if you know how to set up a beauty business online and offline simultaneously.

But before thinking about how you are going to run your beauty supply store you need to define the line of products you want to work with. It will help you to work with a certain type or range of retailer customers and will directly affect on how much your beauty supply store makes a year on average. There are three main segments of beauty retailers:

• those that offer luxury products;
• those that offer middle range, but still quality products;
• and low cost products.

Whether you go for fancy high-end cosmetic or a middle range organic products you have to get informed about your target audience first. Many times how much it cost to maintain a beauty supply shop depends on the adequacy of your choice to the neighbourhood and the customer profile.

Walk around try to understand and analyse what kind of shops there are in the neighbourhood, what is the middle or regular price for a haircut or a beauty treatment in the area. All of this will give you a perspective on the average cost of living and running a beauty supply shop in this particular location.

How to choose a location

So you are about to start your own beauty supply store and looking for a location. The first thing you have to consider is the size of the place, because a supply store needs a pacious storage room.

You are lucky because for this type of business you do not need a wide forefront to expose your products, which can save you quite an amount of money. Keeping a forefront window to expose your beauty products can be costly and significantly heighten the average cost to maintain your place.

On the other hand, one of the main requirements for a beauty supply shops is a clear storage system where you can easily store and locate all of your products. You as well might need some special parking space in front of the shop, so your customers can easily access your shop with a vehicle, as they would usually buy in bulk.

Another good idea is to decorate your premises with items related to the beauty industry, such as mirrors, decorative elements related to woman care, attractive posters with new products and so on. Also think about lightning, it is important how and where you place the light focus, and it can even define how much you make a day in your beauty supply store.

Also ensure a quiet soothing atmosphere, you can play with different light intensity, play some relaxing music, so to make your customer feel at ease and inclined to buy from you.

Some shops even offer a free coffee or have a vending machine with a sweet treat. Any of these experiences can help you to bring more money on average in your store in a long term.

Research your suppliers for a beauty supply shop

Working in the beauty business is a rather narrow path, you have to be very selective with the product your offer to the retailers, since you have only one chance to make a successful deal that will last a long time.

That is why you need to run very detailed research on the supplier you want to work with because it will help you to know how much you need to start a beauty supply store.

Find out all information about the quality of the product, minimum quantity in order to get appropriate discounts, logistics, payment terms, after sales support.

As the quality of the product is essential to how much does it cost to run a beauty supply store because it gives you an advantage among other retailers in the areas. That is why you should prepare your interviews with your possible suppliers very thoroughly.

Also do not feel awkward to ask for several samples on each product you are planning to incorporate them into your catalogue. As well as, make sure you have enough samples to give away to your potential or current clients to ensure their loyalty.

As for ordering from a supplier make sure you purchase is proportional, and you are not ordering products you will not be able to sell in a short time. That is why you have to know exactly what you need to open a beauty supply shop.

How to make a marketing plan

A marketing strategy is very closely related to the previous research you have conducted on the type of products you want to focus on in your shop. But independently on how much you need to invest into a beauty supply shop, it has to be done according to a clear procedure called marketing plan.

Here is one tip you can use to attract more customers into your shop: display your star products under the brightest areas of the shop, as well as at the register, near the entrance and in the centre of the shop window.

The question is how do you know what products will attract pedestrian attention. There are at least two ways to do it, you can change every week your “star product” at the forefront window and see which attracts more clients. You can also look online for the trendy brands and try to find out how much it costs to sell them in your beauty supply shop and get a contract with the brand.

People are usually loyal to one brand, so if you figure out which is the brand people are most passionate about in the area, you can gain quite a number of new customers in several weeks without elevating the average cost of expenses to maintain your beauty supply shop on new products that people do not buy.

Finally, one of the most effective ways to go viral and get known in a short period of time for a beauty supply shop is to contract an online marketing strategist who will help you to devise an online campaign for your products and cut costs of running your beauty supply shop by offering products online.

How to keep up to date with the budget

Lastly, but not less important though, is the issue of money and bookkeeping. Even if your beauty supply shop is getting more popular because you did all the previous steps correctly, you still need a solid financial register.

Outsourcing your accountability to an external agent or a consultancy might be a wise idea to know how much your beauty supply shop makes on a daily basis. But, despite the fact that you might not know anything about accountancy, it is always advisable for the business owner to keep his own track of their financial status.

There are several software programs that allow entrepreneurs to keep track of their business finances in real time. Such programs enable you as an owner of a beauty supply shop to clearly see the weak and successful spots of your business.

You will be able not only calculate the average cost of wages for your employees, or monthly expenses on the premises, but how much your beauty supply shop can make during the next year, which will permit you to make business investments and make your business forecast more accurate.