Six-Step Business Plan Writing for Setting up a Salon

David Ingram reports:

"Business plans describe a company's mission, operations, financial plan, marketing strategy and management qualifications. Writing a business plan for a salon walks you...through the steps necessary to open a business in the hair and nail care industry...Write a summary of your company, [its] mission and [its] operational philosophies. Include your company name, address and other contact information, as well as your business structure; sole proprietorship, LLC., etc. Briefly state the purpose of your organization and describe your customer service philosophy...Write descriptions of your products and services. Describe how the customer experience in your store will differ from your competitors' services. Discuss line-queuing systems and goals for minimizing customer wait-times. Discuss whether you will cater to the upscale end of the market by taking reservations for personalized services, or the budget end of the market that serves walk-ins at the lowest price possible, or even the segment in between. Discuss whether you will include hairstyle consultation services, nail grooming services or haircare products...Create a financial summary section, and include projected financial statements spanning at least three years. Include all expected startup expenses and list potential sources of initial funding. Use your experience and your best [judgment] when creating forward-looking financial statements. Use your marketing goals to gain a perspective on how many customers you will serve and how quickly your customer base will grow, then base your revenue and direct cost estimates on these figures...Create a marketing plan and an initial marketing budget. Describe how you will publicize the new salon using advertising and promotions. Discuss any incentive programs you plan to offer to frequent customers. Family-oriented salons may do well to use local mass-market media...to advertise their services. Upscale or niche salons' ads will be more effective in specialty publications. Keep in mind that word-of-mouth advertising can make or break salons serving this segment...Include a succinct, professional biography highlighting your experience and qualifications. Incorporate professional bios of any co-founders or investors with a management stake in the company as well...Write an executive summary and use it as the first section...Use this one- to two-page summary to provide an overview of your business plan, quickly highlighting important features of each succeeding section."