The key to running successful hair salons is to make people feel good about how they look by giving them the much needed products and salon services. If you currently own a hair salon or are planning to open one in the near future, it is important that you should know where the industry is heading in the next few years.

An overview

There are approximately 82,000 hair salons and beauty salons and about 4,000 barber shops. These salon shops have a combined $20 billion in annual sales last 2012. The small time salons are the greatest contributor to this annual sale while the 50 largest companies are just drawing 15 percent of the entire revenue.

The target market

According to a surveying body, people within the age bracket of 34 to 64 years old spend at least 10 percent above the average on having these beauty services and products. The best target market for this industry is households that have children since they spend approximately 35 percent more than the pooled in average. According to Franchise Help, selling skin care products as well as hair products to men is also a promising market. If you are planning to sell hair care products aside from giving salon services to customers, focus on those households which have female children since they spend 83 percent more than those that do not have kids.

Trend in Growth

There are different factors to consider when you speak of the growth potential of beauty salons. This will include the characteristic of the target market as well as the growth of a nearby population. You also have to be up to date on the latest beauty techniques out there and you have to take advantage in taking any opportunity growths. The revenue in this industry is expected to increase at least 3.3 percent annually until 2017. This is partly heavily attributed to having more disposable income of consumers to spend on high end services like the salon and other beauty services. The Professional Beauty Association made a statement that the number of positions that are available in the industry is likewise expected to grow by around 16 percent until 2020. Finding an experienced salon worker may become tougher through the years.