Glam growth in beauty business

The Indian Salon Congress 2014 was a hotspot for entrepreneurs, who want to invest in beauty business for making people beautiful. Focusing on the aim to provide new growth opportunities for budding entrepreneurs, the congress witnessed participation of key players from salon, spa & beauty industry, who shared their brands success stories for giving an in-depth analysis of the Indian beauty salon and spa industry.

The recently held Indian Salon Congress 2014 at Taj Vivanta, Faridabad was a great success. The congress was organised by the Franchise India Holdings Ltd. in association with Naturals. It got together number of industry leaders, who shared their experiences and information for giving budding entrepreneurs a kick start. The conference was attended by the best minds from the industry who exchanged their thoughts to take industry forward. The event witnessed presence of leaders from the leading salons and beauty brands like Naturals, Avon, Blossom Kocchar, YLG, Enrich, Nanditas, Cleopatra and many more.

The first session of the conference was started with the inaugural address by Ritu Marya, Editor in-Chief, The Franchising World magazine who welcomed all guests and briefed about the industry. She said, “It is true that “Consumer is King” and only those brands can crown the king that have the right balance of upgraded facilities, right pricing, product and services acceptance, professional human resource and the right place to set-up & showcase. Indian Salon Industry has grown exponentially, and today it is a USD 2.6 billion industry that continues to grow at a flourishing rate. Likewise, the spa industry is growing at the rate of more than 26 per cent to reach USD 11.6 billion mark by 2015. Like technology, salon and spa industry keeps on delivering something new and interesting, which makes the consumer look smarter and appear more beautiful.” She added, “Overall, India has more than 10,00,000 salons. Out of them about 6,000 are run by franchisees across the country.” The number of salons is growing constantly and expected that the industry will touch $ 3.5 billion mark by 2015 with the growth rate of 35 per cent per year. But before starting beauty business entrepreneurs need to know the fundamentals of this industry.

During the session, industry leaders talked about the process of starting of business and suggested important business performance metrics along the major usable technologies for best performance. The congress discussed about how to create a strong brand presence in beauty sector via franchising and what are the potential opportunities for small and medium enterprises to invest over the years to come. On the occasion, industry experts tried to find the solution for challenges faced by the entrepreneurs and suggested ways to restructure the industry to improve the competitiveness.

The basic fundamentals a beauty business

Before starting a beauty business, an entrepreneur needs to be aware about the industry as well as the fundamentals of doing this business to stay ahead in the market. Talking about business profitability, the industry leaders spoke about factors like location, capital etc. They discussed about the burgeoning salon opportunities in India.

“Beauty industry will have remarkable growth in the coming years. For every entrepreneur entering into this industry, it is very important to think about the long term goals rather that short term profits in beauty business”, says Blossom Kochhar, Founder & Chairperson, Blossom Kochhar Group of Companies.

Sustainability is a new buzzword in the industry. C K Kumaravel, Managing Director, Naturals Beauty Salon India Pvt. Ltd. gave tips on the key factors of sustainability in beauty industry. He spoke about the mool mantra of expansion via franchising and emphasized on the LSD ( Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga) of franchising. He also said, “Naturals is building a strong foothold across India purely via franchise model. We have witnessed growth via this model and are looking forward to grab the maximum share of the beauty market in the next few years.”

Care for your clientele

Once an entrepreneur decides to foray into salon business, he /she must take care of his client's feedback and should focus on the services his staff is offering to the customers. Nandita Sharma, Founder & CEO, Nandita's TBZ said, “Simply listen to your customers as what they demand will help you to improve your brand. Also it is very important to offer your customers hygienic and standardized ambience across all salons for being successful in this industry.” Salon hygiene is a challenge and to overcome this challenge, most of the franchisors suggested a strict audit check.

Kashiff Khan, Founder & Chairman, K Group says, “To combat challenges in maintaining the brand's image, we do regular quality checks. We are always under the supervision of quality control and we have a team to monitor at regular intervals.”

Client servicing and hygiene standards are of utmost significance believes Shibani Nelson, Founder & Managing Director, Anushka Salons & Spa. “We have clients flowing in from Bangalore and Hyderabad. I can vouch for the fact that our hygiene standards, quality services and staff relation is the only reason that makes our clients flow in from other cities too.”

The Franchising way

Why and how franchising could be a valuable business idea for a beauty business? When and how you can franchise your business? How to find the potential franchise for your brand? Sachin Marya, President, Franchise India provided insights on how to use franchise business model for developing the brand trust among the customers. He highlighted that the key players in the industry are wooing the consumers by providing  convenience, effective solutions, styles and fashion, exclusivity and consumer delight. Also, the players are introducing different concepts of businesses, where they are setting-up single service salons, integration of services, providing private label products, etc. All these efforts are shaping the overall landscape of the industry. Sachin Marya emphasised on the point that glancing towards the business expansion, franchise route continues to be the best. This route helps the brand enter into new markets rapidly. Hundreds of Salon and Spa brands have strategised their growth plan via franchise expansion a win-win situation for both franchisee and the brand.

Growth drivers and challenges

Use of organic products and branded products is also a key for salon growth. Tracey Poole, Director, Six Senses Spa and Sam Paul, Managing Director, Toni & Guy highlighted that now the consumer knows international brands like the back of their hand. They are well aware of what is available in the market. Whether they visit the neighbourhood salon or a branded one, they do not compromise on the quality of products. They now ask professional stylists and therapists either for the brand they trust or equip themselves with knowledge about the products they are contemplating to use. Consumers usually ask queries like, “Is it organic?”, “What kind of chemicals does it contain?”, “Is the product vegan or non-vegan?” etc. If the salon professionals do not answer the queries clearly, they stand a risk of losing their clients.

Women still rule the roost in beauty industry. For Sachin Kamat, Director- Employee and Customer Engagement, Enrich Salons & Academy, “However, as far as spending money on beauty is concerned, women emerge as the clear winners. Men still have taken a back seat. The day men will splurge on availing beauty services or will visit the same salon which their wife is visiting that day there will be a boom in organized beauty industry.”

Like every other industry, beauty industry too witness hiccups. Unfortunately, running a beauty business is not that easy as we think. Richa Agarwal, Co-Founder, Cleopatra Spa, Beauty & Wellness Clinic says, “Lack of skilled staff and high attrition rates of staff are major challenges facing entrepreneurs in India.”

Shining Beauty stars

To recognise and acknowledge the initiatives and achievements of certain individuals and companies that have contributed significantly towards the growth of the salon and spa sector in India, Franchise India had organised the Indian Salon Awards 2014 at Hotel Taj Vivanta, on Feb 11, 2014. These awards in excellence for beauty salon professionals and topmost honours in salon and spa franchising were presented by Franchise India.