Beauty Salon Marketing

Whether you are starting a new salon, looking for finance to expand your existing salon, or want to better manage your beauty business, a business plan is an essential tool. It’s always wise to take financial advice on these matters - a good accountant will more than pay for the cost of their services in the value of their advice. But if you want some free business plan templates, here are some options to get you started (many are UK sites, but most of what they say is relevant in other countries too).

BusinessLink (UK)

BusinessLink is funded by the Government, and provides free advice for start-up businesses in the UK. If you are an experienced business owner, their services may be too basic for you, but if you are starting your salon business for the first time, they can be a useful source of advice. They have a series of articles on preparing a business plan, and links to example templates.

Banks

Many banks try to woo new business customers by offering free business plan advice and templates. If you apply for their packs, you may have to fend off a sales call, but usually they are pretty polite and not too pushy!

Barclays has a “Free Startup Guide Business planning advice for small business” which includes business plan templates and advice

NatWest has its award-winning Free Business Planning Software, which can be downloaded from their website

HSBC has a Quick Start Business Plan template available on its business KnowledgeCentre website

Lloyds TSB has a Business Planning Guide

If you haven’t already, ask your bank what services they offer for business customers, and remember you can always shop around. As the Credit Crunch bites, banks may start working even harder to attract business customers

Other free resources

Microsoft has a library of free business plan templates and articles (for MS Office software)

The “BusinessBalls” website (interesting name!) has a page with links to business plan and marketing strategy articles and free templates of differing complexity

Imperial College’s “Entrepreneurship Hub” has a short article on Writing a Business Plan, with several useful links at the bottom of the page.

There are also many sites offering “Free Business Plan Templates” but be aware that many of them sell templates or business planning software - so they may not be as “free” as they seem.