Smaller formats, better visibility, and high customer churn make the single specialty salons a scalable business model and interesting opportunity for first time entrepreneurs. What’s more, it’s finding great popularity among the millenials.
Whether it’s for better brand visibility or quick access to a large customer base, many prominent players like Jawed Habib have ventured into single specialty salons to gain traction. We bring you the top three single specialty salon models that are trending in the market.
We ventured into hair studio model to cater to a specific category of services, that is, only hair.”He says that the concentration of salons has to be in every potential market and not confined only to malls or high streets. Commenting on why the brand ventured into an exclusive hair studio model, Habib says, “The rising demand for hair services made us look at the retail space that is smaller as compared to our full-fledged salons. The studio model fits into a compact space of 300-400 sq. feet and subsequently the franchisee fees, cost of interiors, rent and operating costs become lesser. This encourages first time entrepreneurs and specially women to easily invest and operate. It also brings more visibility to the brand.”With over 800 stores, Jawed Habib operates across five brands – HairXpreso, Hair and Beauty, Hair Studio, The Jawed Habib and Jawed Habib Academy.
NAIL SPAS
With easy customer access to international designs and designers, and willingness to spend more on those perfectly painted nails, the demand for nail spas is much higher than what it was three years ago, notes Dhruv Batra, Founder, Claw Nails. For instance, Batra recalls the time when his first studio was launched in 2010 and only a handful of people walked into the studio in a week. “Now, about 100 customers visit our outlet in GK Market in Delhi alone and about 40 clients visit us per day in other outlets. While earlier it was considered expensive to spend on the maintenance of nails, now it’s a lifestyle choice and most of our customers have a separate budget for nail spas just like they do for cosmetics and salons,” he says. He further adds that nail trends in India heavily depend on what is trending in western countries and it’s important to invest in a brand that can bring the latest trends to India. “Millennials have easy access to trends in the foreign markets and the expectations are high.
Hence, investors should join hands with brands that can bring those colours and trends to Indian customers,” Batra says. And he maintains that nail studios are not just a fad but a longlasting investment opportunity. He says, “We have customers who are visiting our studio regularly from the last five years. And with time, the number of such regular visitors is only increasing and not decreasing.”Claw Nails has four outlets across India including one franchisee store in Mumbai and is looking for aggressive expansion in metro cities pan-India.
CELEBRITY MAKE-UP STUDIOS
From YouTube tutorials to beauty hacks, from Facebook promotional posts to newspaper ads, wherever you go, a consumer is bombarded with cosmetics and promotions of makeup services. And there’s a reason for such promotions. Consider this- If a person spends Rs 1-2.5 lakh on a training course for bridal makeup, HD makeup or airbrush makeup, a one-time investment, the trained artist can earn that money from a single wedding. While one session could range between Rs 10,000- Rs 25,000 depending on the brand of the cosmetics and the profile of the artists, often the cost of spent products is less than 5 percent of the overall cost. During peak seasons, an artist could get as much as 8-10 wedding orders in a month.
Commenting on the growing market, celebrity make-up artist Shweta Gaur, Managing Director and CEO of Shweta Gaur Academy, says, “A lot has changed over the years and what’s leading the change is that more people are taking interest in makeup studios as the sector now has a larger number of organised players. In the past, when only a section of people could afford celebrity make-up artists, now more people can afford services from such artists.” Launched in 2013, the academy has done over 10,000 make-ups so far and more than 5,000 bridal make-ups alone, with 3,000-4,000 students currently studying in the academy.
Speaking about how franchisees can benefit from this model, Gaur highlights, “Our franchise outlets will be designed to meet the standards of any company-operated outlet and the franchisee will be personally trained by me, one-on-one." Shweta Gaur Academy is looking to expand in both domestic and international markets and aims to have 30 outlets in the next few years.
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