Love Your Boss
Work For Yourself
It’s possible that you’ve been thinking about going out on your own and becoming a barbershop owner but the thought of crazy overhead of an entire building keeps you from pulling the trigger.
For much of your professional life you’ve thought about becoming a successful entrepreneur, and who can blame you!
The chance to run your own business as an independent contractor, create your perfect brand, and operate your barbershop the way you want? It is not only a dream come true, but it is now possible through with the evolution of salon suites.
What is a Barber Suite or Salon Suite?
A suite is essentially a space that allows barber professionals to own their own shop without the risks, overhead, and expenses that come with owning an entire building.
So, in short, a suite is a place that you rent from a landlord – the business within that room is yours and you’re in charge of how you run it, but the room itself belongs to someone else.
Makes sense? Great.
With a salon suite, you get the luxury of running your own business without the headache, risk, and cost of taking on ownership of an entire building. The landlord and property manager will take care of the building’s upkeep, running the facility, and maintaining a clean property. You’re responsible for paying rent, abiding by the rules, and running a kick-ass barbershop within your suite. Often, people get suites mixed up with the term “chair rental.”
They might sound similar, but they’re different.
A chair rental implies that you’re paying someone to let you rent space within their salon suite, or rather, you’re literally renting a chair/station within someone else’s salon.
You’re not exactly running your own business with a chair rental, but you’re also not exactly under a boss, either.
You’ll typically be confined to the established rules of the person running the barbershop, though you won’t always be considered their employee. With a chair rental, you don’t make decisions about the space, and you’re certainly not in charge of what you charge, how you organize, or operate the entire space.
In a way, a chair rental agreement is like working within a barbershop and still having to abide by established rules, without the support and benefits of working with an employer of your choosing.
Why You Should Consider Salon Suites
Now that we’ve established exactly what a suite is, you’re probably asking yourself something along the lines of, “is that something that would make sense for me?”
It’s a fair question, and honestly, renting a suite for your future shop is often an excellent choice for talented professionals who have an entrepreneurial streak.
For starters, renting your suite means, in no uncertain terms, that you’re a certified, professional, don’t-mess-with-me-I’m-bad-ass, business owner. That alone is enough to consider it. Think about it – you’d be your own boss, you’d run your barbershop the way you wanted, and you’d only have to abide by certain landlord rules.
What’s better?
As mentioned earlier, overhead can be a thorn in the side of many business owners, especially when it comes to business insurance; but it doesn’t have to be.
There are now insurance policies that protect the individual barber that are much more affordable and comprehensive than a traditional business owner policy (bop policy) that works perfectly for salon suite renters. National Association of Barbers is the premier leader in barber insurance that covers barbers nationwide.
Renting your own space for you and you only means you’re not going to have to worry about shared revenue anymore. Consider this – no matter how many clients you attract into a barbershop where you work, part of that money is always going to go to the owner.
It makes sense, right?
They’re running a business and they deserve to get some of the profit if you’re working for them. But working for yourself, in your own barbershop space, means that you get to keep all the profits that come from bringing in clients and add additional services to your menu to make more money.
When renting your own suite, you’re keeping 100 percent of the rewards and bringing in all the profits.
That’s a hard point to beat, right?
While being your own boss and keeping all the profits you make are some of the biggest pros in the renting your own suite argument, it’s also important to mention that renting your own space means that you’ll have the creative freedom you’ve likely always desired. Fades, designs, hot towel shaves, etc.
Working for someone else can be a learning experience, but often, established barbershops have a specific way they like to do things, and they typically ask their employees to abide by them.
You control your clients experience from start to finish, you can decide which niches you cater to, and you can develop your own guidelines for your new barbershop.
Welcome to the future of barbershops: are you in?
