Rewarding opportunity at your fingertips

The beauty salon industry has grown rapidly during the last few years. Organised Indian beauty and cosmetic industry is growing at 15 to 20 per cent as result of people becoming more beauty conscious. Till a few years back clients used to visit beauty salons occasionally. Moreover these salons were small unorganised salons with limited services. However presently, people have realised the significance of even minutest beauty service like nail care and are readily spending on it. Beauty salons today are no more believed to be fairer sex’s hub, with men equally becoming beauty conscious. The demand for beauty treatments by men is increasing by 40 per cent per annum. Thus the industry has grown enormously with organised players like: Lakme, Naturals, Shahnaz Hussain, Jawed Habib and many more branded players.

Generally beauty salon offer full range of wellness and body relaxation services like body spa, hair cut, skin care, manicure etc. Therefore, to offer more specific services in the salons inspired beauty experts to diversify the beauty industry in to different segments. This has given rise to spa, hair salons, skin clinics and nail salons being emerged as separate entrepreneurial opportunities.

Concept of Nail salons

Nail salons offer various services like manicure, pedicure, hand/foot spa, hand/foot massage etc. An emerging trend in nail salons is nail art which is a creative and specialised field in cosmetics. Some of the popular ideas in nail art are nail painting, nail piercing, nail decoration and nail lacquering. There are array of nail art designs available ranging from subtle to funky and outrageous. Pammy Kaul, CEO, Scratch Nails shares her views: “Nail Art and extension service is a specialised service and therefore destination service. However with the changes in lifestyle, consumers are spending more on personal products. Nail Art & extensions is part of the same domain.” However nail services is not an Indian concept. Like many other profitable opportunities, it is also derived from western countries.

Swift shift from west

Professional nail salon is an established business in western nations. Presently there are at least 500,000 nail technicians in the United States and Canada alone. Nail salons have proved to be competitive and mature industry in the US with more than 59,000 salons listed as of December 2009. The industry is at its peak in west and has taken a swift move towards India.  Gurpreet Seble, COO, Nail Spa Trainers & Dist Pvt. Ltd shares: “The North American beauty and nail industry has been flourishing for over three decades. After spending several years in it we launched India's first full service Nail Spa. In order to give the nail industry a platform and a favourable environment to grow in, we felt that a standalone nail salon was a better option.”

In India nail salons are a new trend for women to pamper themselves with various nail services. Seble shares: “In 2003, we started our survey in India and realised that the market was prime for artificial nails. Ever since the launch of Nail Spa then, the nail industry has exploded, causing several companies to enter and take advantage of the rapid expansion in the nail industry.” The demand for nail extensions and nail art has skyrocketed over the past few years attracting women from all walks of life, whether homemakers, students or working corporate.

Players in the domain

Even though the concept is in its nascent stage, the nail industry has presented itself as a very lucrative venture for businessmen and beauty enthusiasts alike. In India the industry is emerging rapidly with organised players such as:

Nail Spa: Nail Spa was established in 2004 building a new business opportunity in India. The brand runs a nail spa and a nail spa academy. Presently the brand has four franchise spas. Franchise investment depends upon the size, location and feature set of the outlet and the average area can start from 150 sq ft going up to 1000 sq ft.

Scratch Nails: Scratch Nails is a nail bar and academy with 10 franchise outlets. For franchise a franchisee will require an area of 100 to 200 sq ft approximately and the investment of Rs two to three lakh.

Perfect Ten Nail Salon and Bar: It is a sub brand of Strands Salon. The nail bar has two franchisees.

Rewarding opportunity

Nail salon business is increasing enormously with time and can prove to be lucrative opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs. Kaul tells: “Nail care is a mandatory service in the salons. It achieves best results in high traffic places because of impulse desires of the customers. The market size potential is as big as any beauty service and the opportunity is increasing rapidly. Therefore it is safe to say that the market size in few years will be substantially large and profitable.”

Franchising benefits

Franchising gives a quick visibility and growth to the brand. Seble shares her view on franchising: “Running a franchise has many advantages over long term. On a business prospective, we showcase the viability of expansion without huge investments by us. In addition, we became market leaders in nails through the various outlets and provide a channel for our products and services. Overall, it is a win-win situation and has made us be the best we can in India.” Similarly Kaul also shares: “Ability to grow fast through franchising is the biggest reason. It gives quicker visibility to the brand and requires less supervision.”

Low-cost high return package

Nail salon franchise is a low-cost and high return business which adds to the beauty of this concept.  Kaul informs, “Nail salon has low investment and initial set up costs. Manpower training time is very short. The business does not need high management skill and it is ideal for women aspiring to become entrepreneurs. For Nail Spa franchise investment amount require is three lakhs with an area about 100 to 200 sq. ft approximately.” Perfect Ten Nail Salon and Bar franchisee requires an investment of Rs 10 lakh.

Bumpy rides

Being a new concept, Nail salons can prove to be challenging in the initial stage. Seble shares: “Finding the right kind of people for franchising can be challenging. We also have a strict requirement on quality control which is harder to maintain when we are not running day to day.” Another challenge can be that people still are unaware of the benefits of this concept. Moreover this concept can be successful in metros and big cities only.

To end, it is rightly said by Seble: “We are just at the beginning of an evolution in the nail industry. With intense R&D being conducted in North America and across the globe, there are new developments in products and techniques that have yet to be showcased in the Indian market. Those who are in or entering this industry for the long term can be assured that they will never run out of innovation or clients.”