I’m a Small Business Owner (Salon) who might be able to reopen 05/23/20! (Part 1)

by goodjobjus

Hey there! I’m a Small Business Owner (Salon) who might be able to reopen 05/23/20!

I thought I would use this subreddit to document the next 2 weeks of preparing for our ‘unofficial reopening‘. I say unofficial because our state Governor has reopened the state in phases, Salons, Bars, Gyms, Spas are part of phase 2 which should happen approximately 2 weeks from phase 1 which started 05/08/20 @ 5pm.

I closed the doors to my salon on 03/16/20, approximately a week before the official stay at home order took place because I had 2 clients tell me someone in their family who they had visited had been to the doctor and exhibited signs of Covid-19, 1 client had come back from Spain and had been at the salon the weekend prior, friends who are doctors & nurses asked me to if I could because they are also seeing patients exhibiting symptoms, but have no way to test.

I also let my landlords know that I was doing this, they were on board and agreed to pause rent until I was able to reopen, at which time we would work out how I would pay the back rent. Personally I’m hoping to have all back rent paid (approximately 3 months) by the end of Summer.

Personally I don’t know how I feel about going back to work. I know it’s my business and I have the right to keep my doors closed, but I also have bills to pay and so do my employees. So I want to be as prepared as possible.

My salon is located in the state of North Carolina.

• Commissioned Employees: 3 (including me)
• Future Employees: 2
• Salon Chairs: 4

Here are the Covid-19 stats as of the time I’m writing this for my state:

• Confirmed Cases: 13,397
• Deaths: 507
• Main County Confirmed: 95
• Main County Deaths: 1

We have received no official guidance from our state licensing board as to what precautionary steps we will need to take to reopen, but a lot of the trade magazines and industry associations have been putting out their own.

Loans/Grants Applied for:

• SBA EIDL
  • Rec’d $2000
• PPP
  • Rec’d $0
• US Chamber of Commerce Grant
  • Rec’d $0
• Professional Beauty Association Grant
  • Rec’d $0

What I have done to prepare:

• Cost: $0
  • Moved Stations 6+ feet apart
  • Removed Coffee Bar Area
  • Removed Retail Area
  • Removed Seating/Waiting Area
  • Restructuring office into Color Bar Area
  • Continuing to Hire
  • Weekly Zoom hangouts with current staff and potential hires
  • Beta Testing New Software that will allow us to manage online bookings better
  • Changed our pricing to hourly to ensure our timing
• Purchased
  • Additional Lighting and various electrical stuffs for Stations that have been moved
    • Cost: $180
  • 2 (64oz) Bottles of concentrated Barbicide for disinfection of tools & hard surfaces (2oz = 32oz when combined with water)
    • Cost: $40
  • 4 (26oz) Pump Bottles of Hand Sanitizer for Stylists’ Stations
    • Cost: $40
• To Be Purchased:
  • Tablets for each station for client interaction
    • Cost: $300-500
  • Square Card Readers for each station
    • Cost: $120
  • Client Capes
    • $300
  • Additional Gloves when they become available
    • $75
  • Hands-Free Sanitizing Stations
    • $50-100
  • Additional Tools & Implements
    • $300
  • Product to be used on clients
    • Color $300
    • Backbar $300
    • Disposable Masks $50-200

In my next post I will talk about how I’m updating our salon policies and what my marketing plan will look like.

If you have questions or comments, would love to read them 🙂