Starting up a spa has always been the dream of thousands of beauty fans. Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to afford the unimaginable cost to enter this highly competitive industry. So, what if you can start your spa business with NO MONEY at all?
This idea seems to be too unrealistic at first! However, with what we are about to share in this article including spa strategies, solutions & operations, opening a successful spa business will be never easier for you that much! Keep scrolling down to discover 19 Secrets On How To Start A Spa With No Money that other spa owners will never tell you!
5 Challenges Surely Happen To Every Spa Manager When Starting The Business
Before digging into top secrets for starting up a spa business with no money, let’s start with the obstacles you surely face up within the first phase full of unpredictable problems when opening your own spa business.
Poor Level Of Professional Training
The spa industry has been growing dramatically in recent years resulting in dozens of side services for those who desire to open one including spa training courses to help spa owners earn their spa management degrees,…
However, most of the professional spa training programs come from specific & foreign organizations such as famous university & well-credited spa chains making it harder for others to access directly to the professional system of knowledge, especially for spa managers in developing countries where spa industry has not been as strong as developed ones.
Customer Disloyalty
It is the matter of fact that there exist tons of spas to choose and the number will never stop to grow because of the popularity of spas in this day and time.
Every day, customers are exposed to a large number of advertising posts & continual temptation from different spas which makes it really hard work for spa managers to think about one efficient way to hold the customer’s loyalty. Nowadays, spa owners have tried a lot of methods to attract customers like offering lower price, giving away gift cards and extending service menu.
>> Read How to manage a spa business & find out 17 tips of spa management to draw customers’ attention in the most natural way!
Exceeding Working Hours Of Spa Staff
Customers can appear at any time of the day regardless of noon break or holiday when the number of your salon staff is at the lowest point and their mood is going down.
Unluckily, good service based on customer’s experience and feeling so that you have to be well-prepared at every hour of the day by having a staff willing to work every time. Overworking hour will be counted at a competitive rate for hard-working employees increasing the final cost of the product.
The Unstable Demand On The Market
What makes you think the overall number of customers will remain during the year? In fact, there are many factors affecting their decision about going to a spa. For example, the holiday is the busiest time of the year for spa managers since the demand will significantly increase and some spas also unable to serve all the customers.
On the contrary, on some seasons, customers do not pay much attention to spa & beauty salons as much as they used to which making demand prediction impossible for a large number of spas in this industry.
The Hesitation On Which Product Should Be Mainstream
You can easily name a lot of products a spa can provide ranging from facial treatment, nail, hair care to medical therapies… However, a spa cannot have enough cost and resources to invest into all those things. Instead, spa owners have to pick some main products and focus on developing them to be the unique selling point of their spas.
Along with the unstable demand on the market as mentioned before, this work will cost the leaders a lot of effort, research & determination.
19 Top Secrets On How To Start Your Spa Business With No Money
Make A Great Spa Business Plan
Making a great spa business plan is the first step in building a successful spa. A spa business plan plays a key role to the frame of all your business model.
At first, you may face up to tons of unexpected problems, mostly from low start-up business loan & liability issues. Therefore, a well-prepared plan will shine up the path to success, helping you answer all the doubted questions on “What, Why, When” to act so as not to lose from the first phase. By making a plan, your business will definitely save up lots of money & time spent on other important goals.
Spa partnership can build your spa stronger!
Having to say that you are trying to start a business with NO MONEY, so that the difficulty and hardship will double many times. As a result, finding the true partnership who possess your same passion, ideas & eager to jump into your venture will help you to develop your spa business and share risk.
Obviously, you may get their time, sweat, blood, and tears by a strategic partnership agreement, please make your partners feel respected that they are truly a part of your spa business plan and your spa is a potential venture to invest in with great success ahead.
Sometimes, you can even take advantage of your partnership’s available spa – related stuff from their other business to reduce to the overall cost.
Save Money For A Tight Budget
Fundraising for start-up at the first stage is regarded as an immense challenge for spa owners since you haven’t had any specific product yet so the investors have no proof to believe in your idea. Nonetheless, there are still various sources you can get finance from.
At first, you may consider asking for your family, close friends or take personal loans. Using networks can be a possible solution to your problem too.
In addition, venture capital groups are also willing to help start-up companies with the loan up to $1 million dollars as if spa owners can show off the business future potential.
Find A Complete Vision For Your Spa
How many kinds of spa do you know? Which one will you decide to chase? (day spa or massage spa?) Is it a combination of mingled & confused problems meeting at salon and spa business?
Make sure to answer all the above questions before defining the vision your spa as a right vision will assist you in developing your spa in the very long term with a right strategy as well as improve customer’s experience at your spa. If you want to win all the competitors, your spa must be both well-equipped & emotion-evoking.
Identify Your Spa Target Customers
Finding potential customers costs a time-consuming demanding on highly-qualified & time-consuming research so as to define the target clients. After that, you can make a persona of customers including their tastes, likes & affordable budget to make sure that your spa service suits them.
Another way to research customers is to divide them into small sessions based on sex, age, occupation, education, and locations. Don’t forget to look around your spa neighborhood residence to see if you can get some loyal customers from it!
Make Your Brand Memorable
Now that you have found out your target customers, their tastes, likes, and budgets, it is high time to create a strong brand making your spa unique & draw customers’ attraction. In your spa, you may have offered a lot of services. However, some other authentic treatment as added value for the customer such as using the facial cream sample as gifts is highly recommended.
Additionally, offer them a hot cup of herbal tea or free medical examination will help to raise up your spa trust and credibility.
Choosing The Spa Location That Fits Your Budget
You may think the spa location is not so important that much, especially when having no money & having to face up with tons of problems urgently needed to be solved. However, that idea will make you regret soon! Hiring a strategic location for the spa makes your place accessible and convenient for customers to come. In some cases, customers may ask for a parking lot too!
Moreover, strictly take design into consideration since you are working in the beauty industry. With a low cost, you can search for a suitable pattern that meets your brand & customers and decorate by yourself!
Estimate The Overall Cost For Your Day Spa
Budget is always a vital factor affecting your spa business plan in the long – term.
With low start-up loans, bear in mind to note every expense you had paid (design, marketing, gift cost…) or have to pay in the future (development, unexpected cost,…) so as to maintain your business.
Control your inflow and outflow money strictly to make sure till the end nothing exceed your budget plan. It is the first step to guarantee your business’s stability.
Don’t Forget An Impressive Spa Logo!
One catchy logo is essential for every spa as it is the identity of the business. Spa logo needs to meet the two main requirements: unique & attractive so that customers can easily be impressed.
Furthermore, the logo will appear in lots of places ranging from your spa location, advertising materials to social media and display your company values. However, with no money, an inexpensive logo design is much more preferable. You can find a small agency or ask for people in your personal network such as family, friends, partners to help.
Pat Attention To Your Competitors
You can not be successful if you don’t know your competitors very well. Therefore, company competitor analysis is necessary at every stage of spa development.
You can find your competitors everywhere from other spas in town or in the city. Get to know them by visiting their fan page, website and observe what you can learn from them or what are their drawbacks to avoid. No matter what, make sure your spa will provide unique value for customers to stand out in the crowd.
Create A Thorough Sales & Marketing Strategy To Boost Up Your Spa
Nowadays, Internet & social media is always available for spa manager to use & boost sales of their spa. Spa marketing tools can be used flexibly to raise brand awareness along with other campaigns. In this highly competitive market, spa staff has to create meaningful marketing products that easy to impress customers to step ahead of their rivals.
As far as sales are concerned, a strategic sales planning process must be carefully prepared to boost up revenue. You can open training sessions for your employees to help them find & convince the potential customers about your service more effectively or use FREE point of sale platform like bePOS to save the sales cost to the maximum!
Think About Your Spa Unique Selling Point
After researching competitors, spa owners may understand the importance of creating a unique selling point for their spa, especially, this product could be seasonal. For instance, in winter, the weather is dry making the demand for body lotion increase sharply. Unlike other spas, your spa provides a sort of special body lotion added more essence & oil.
You can consider this product as your unique selling point in the service menu and also think about the marketing strategy for your unique product to raise the revenue more quickly.
Prepare High-quality Spa Equipment
Firstly, ask your partners, family & friends if they can help with the spa equipment since it will cost a lot of money to buy 100% new facilities! Another way is to contact the supplier to hire equipment such as massage table, specialty shower, sauna equipment and facial steamers for a lower expense.
Training Inexperienced Spa Staff Is A Good Choice!
The experienced spa staff is not in shortage but you can not afford such a large amount of labor cost so that hire less experienced ones seems to be a wiser choice.
On the other hand, inexperienced employees can make basic mistakes that degrade your brand identity at any time. As a result, spa owners are advised to build professional training for their labor at all level to minimize unexpected incidents.
Consider The Operating Spa Working Hours
The standard working hour is 8.00 am – 5.30 pm from Monday to Friday. Unfortunately, this working hour cannot be applied in the spa industry as customers can come at any hour of a day because of the fact that your target customers are only free to come out of the standard working hour. Therefore, arranging your staff carefully and be able to work at 7.00 am until 11.00 p.m will be great for your customers!
Find Niche Products To Sell
Note that never let your most favorite spa products out of stock since a lot of customers choose one spa for one most-favored product by them. Selling customers the high-qualified products will make a good impression on them and hold back their customer.
Additionally, determining which products to keep available helps you get out of the inventory cost caused by reserving less favorite ones.
Always Improve Spa Guest Experience
The first rule to make customers feel in love with your spa is to make them feel special. If possible, do everything in your ability to provide the most unique & excellent service for your potential customers.
Moreover, consider rewarding customer loyalty as much as you can! In this modern day, spa business is a highly competitive industry which attracts a lot of investors so that rewarding customer loyalty will strengthen their love, trust, and reliability for your spa.
Offer Your Customers An Attractive Price
At the first phase of opening your own spa, attracting customers is one of the hardest work. However, you can always find the solution to this problem by reducing the price to the most attractive level & boost sales (20% to 70% off)
Applying competitive pricing strategy is also an effective way to advertise for your own spa by using word-mouth and draw the attention of the crowd without having to pay for press and online ads!
Gain More Investor For Your Business
Last but not least, after building your business frame good enough, let’s prepare for the 2nd round for capital call. If at the first round, you can ask for family, relatives, friends & venture capital groups, now then you have met all the requirement to take part in a start-up competition with millions of dollar prize or start-up programs such as Shark Tank or share stock to turn your spa business into a joint-stock company.
The Easiest Way To Start A Spa With No Money
In summary, it must take heart & a great passion to make such a brave decision like opening a spa with no money. The most important thing is that this start-up idea is totally POSSIBLE with a well-prepared strategy and wise steps.
In fact, there are plenty of different tools to help you manage your spa, one of these is using POS system – a combination of booking, inventory & sales software which is proven by experts to efficiently optimize cost and labor for spa business.
bePOS is a powerful Australian POS system based on web mobile app & customized for every model of spa business. Especially, bePOS is now providing a free version including all the outstanding features which can make this software become the CLOSET spa assistant!
Do you want to get 50% increase in profits from your spa in only one year? Click HERE to find out!
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