Baby Boomers are demanding more and more personal care services: They are starting to have the time and the money to devote to it, plus aging means that they could see more and more spa or salon treatments as part of their regular routine.
So with all of those potential customers, it could just be the business move for you! Spa services have been around practically as long as human beings have.
Amazingly, there are records of formal personal care attention being paid professionally dating back to more than a million years ago.
In Spain and France there are cave drawings with brushes, and one theory is that those brushes were adapted for hair care purposes.
And it is also interesting that many or even most of the technology that is used on hair today has been around since the nineteenth century.
So it is no wonder that such services are popular, as they have existed since before even many of the more important technologies like plumbing or cars.
In statistics taken in 2002.
The United States alone provided 1.
4 million personal care services, and a good proportion of these, over three hundred thousand were hair salon services.
The revenues are even more staggering than the numbers.
The hair service industry had revenues of nearly 50 billion dollars, and product sales were well over 5 billion.
Hair coloring was twice as much as that, at well over 10 billion.
And that was in 2002! If anything, the industry is growing quickly and is surely well over these numbers by now.
So there is no need, with numbers like these, to wonder why there seems to be a beauty salon practically on every corner.
It is because not only do lots of people need and enjoy the services they receive there, whether it is just a maintenance haircut or serious pampering like pedicures or massages, there are tremendous profits to be had in the business.
And particularly, baby boomers as a group are starting to either retire or be in their peak earning years, they have plenty of money to spend maintaining the looks they enjoyed when they were younger.
In fact, baby boomers are now the single biggest group now partaking of personal care services.
Not only of course are they the largest group population-wise, they seem to be even proportionally more interested in spending money in this way.
Getting rid of grey in their hair and getting facials for those increasing crows feet are a great way for them to spend that extra money as they enter their peak earning years or as they retire and have more time on their hands.
What this means is that a trend that is already growing strong has even more room for growth.
So business owners of salons can take heart that there will be plenty of profits to be had if this group is successfully marketed to.
In a survey recently put out by the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Services, there was a 2002 Job Demand Survey that suggested that total average income for salon owners was well over fifty thousand dollars a year.
And if these owners take advantage of the growing clientèle and the increasing number of services they seem willing to pay for, this could only be the beginning.
Prospects for these owners have never been better, and they will continue to grow as demographics continues to shift.
There are several ways that salon owners can take advantages of the trends to get a bigger share of the profits.
First, you can become a franchisee.
This will mean that you don't have to take on the whole start-up responsibility yourself, including thinking of a marketing plan or advertising strategy or products to offer by yourself, it will already all be done by the particular franchise, of which there are a growing number.
Another idea is to buy an established business when someone is retiring or moving from town.
This will be another example of an established business where you are just keeping things going with existing clientèle and ways of doing things.
You won't have to learn as you go, just as with a franchise.
Of course if you are a brave and confident business person and like to do things your way, you can always as a third option start up your own business.
It will mean that you have to think of a lot of things yourself, such as the name and motto of your business, a product and service list, and a marketing and advertising strategy, but if you are successful, all of the profits will be yours alone and you will be free to do things your way.
So if you are a risk taker, if you have ideas for how to succeed in the salon business that you have always wanted to try, there has never been a better time than now.
More and more baby boomers are retiring with that retirement money and time to spend on looking younger and feeling their best.
With a vision mind set, entrepreneurial goals, and an interest and willingness to work hard to succeed, this could be just the business, and the time, for you to get involved in.