January 26, 2026

How to Start Your Own Beauty Salon

Running and opening your own business is a great way to own your own labor and profit from your skills and organization. Owning a business is one of the best ways to increase your income and your personal and family wealth. Starting a beauty salon is a relatively easy business model to start, and if you have interest in beauty and salon care, then opening your own beauty salon may be the perfect move for you. But starting any business can be confusing for first timers. Here are a few crucial steps that you need to follow to start your own beauty salon.

Find a Space to Lease

The first thing that you are going to need to start your own beauty salon is to find a space to lease. You are going to need a physical location from which to run your salon. The best salon locations are going to be areas that get a lot of foot traffic, and are near other restaurants, shopping, and activities. People tend to go to the salon as an activity before shopping, eating, or going out, so positioning yourself near shopping and dining locations is ideal.

Learn How to do Treatments

Another crucial step that you will need to take to start your own beauty along is to learn how to do treatments. You need to get results right if you want to compete with other salons. While things like location and ambiance play a role in your success, it is the quality of your beauty treatments that will be the major draw. You can get licensing and training from many beauties tech schools and programs, or through certifications and training elsewhere. Make sure you invest heavily in the skills of yourself and the other salon beauticians to offer the best quality services to your clients.

Market Yourself

The final step to starting your own beauty salon is to market your salon to the world. Nobody can come to your salon if they don’t know that you exist! Starting out with a beauty salon can be difficult, as most people have a salon that they frequent. This means that in order to grow your clientele, you will have to attract them from other salons. Start marketing your new salon early and offer deals to get new clients in the door.

Running a business is a difficult endeavor. But with the right tools under your belt, you can start a successful salon business. Just follow these three steps and you are on the way to owning your own successful beauty salon.

Check out this article on productivity tools every small business needs!

Skills That an Operations Manager Should Have

Running a business smoothly and successfully is far from easy, you dedicate time and thought to your business from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, and occasionally your sleeping hours too. After a certain point, it may seem like you could benefit from hiring an operations manager to take some of the day-to-day responsibilities of running your business off of your shoulders. But you can’t hire just anyone to be an operations manager. If you are looking for an operations manager, here are the three skills they absolutely must have.

Good Organization

The first essential skill that any operations manager that you hire should have been stellar organizational skills. There are countless things to stay on top of to keep organized when running your business. While everyone has their own organizational style, you have to make sure that your hiring manager candidates have a good organizational system and can keep your business under control. Organization is the first step to effective management, and poor organization at your business can quickly turn into lost profits and revenue or potentially worse issues like legal trouble. Organizational skills are a must of operations manager hires.

Interview Skills

Another crucial skill that any operations manager that you hire at your business needs to have is top notch interview skills. Your operations manager will take over the task of interviewing and hiring other employees at your business. You want to make sure that they have the skills required to make good hiring decisions. Asking the right questions is a skill and there are certain questions you can’t legally ask. You should ask about their previous experiences interviewing and hiring candidates, their process, or even doing a mock interview so that you are able to discern their interview skills.

Delegation Skills

The final skill that any operations manager you hire should have been great delegation skills. Delegating work to other coworkers can be difficult for many people, particularly entrepreneurs and upper management who may worry others won’t do the work to as high a standard as needed. Make sure that you are hiring an operations manager who understands the importance of delegation and how to delegate without compromising results and end product.

Running a business can be overwhelming for any business owner, which is why hiring an operations manager is almost always a great idea. But before hiring any operations manager, they need to have the proper skills. If your operations manager candidate is organized, has good interview skills, and knows how to delegate, you have found the ideal hire.

Check out this article on productivity tools that every small business needs!

Retirement Plans That Can Minimize Complexity for Your Business

Offering a retirement plan for your employees is great for employee satisfaction, but the plans can be complex. Make sure you go with the plan that works best for you and your company. Below you’ll find a few of the most simple retirement plans you can offer. 

A SEP-IRA

An SEP-IRA plan is also known as a Simplified Employee Pension plan. This plan allows an IRA to be established for every employee within the company, and gives you the freedom to decide how much to contribute every year. This option is incredibly simple for you as a business owner. There is little upkeep and the start up costs are low enough that it’s a great option for a small business. There is also a high limit with how much you can contribute to the plan every year. The maximum contribution for SEP-IRA accounts this year is 25% of your employees’ salary. This is the most popular option for businesses with only a few employees.

A Safe Harbor 401k

A safe harbor 401k plan is another great retirement plan option for businesses. This option is common because it allows you to offer a fixed contribution rate to your employees with little hassle. A safe harbor plan can ensure the plan passes non-discrimination tests. With this option, you’ll be able to set a specific percentage amount that you will match your employee’s contributions. For example, the most basic option for a safe harbor 401k plan allows you to match 100% of the first 3% of your employee’s elected deferral. Other options are available based on your business needs. This is a great option if you want your focus to be on motivating employees to save for retirement.

SIMPLE IRA

SIMPLE IRA stands for Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees. This plan allows both you as the employer and your employees to contribute to the retirement plan. This plan can be helpful because it doesn’t require the same startup costs or operating costs as other plan options. In order to qualify for this plan option, your business needs to have 100 or fewer employees. With this option, your employees are also vested from the beginning. Do some research into this plan and see if it would work best for your business.

Offering a retirement plan to your employees is a great way to keep employees long-term, and attract new employees. This shows your employees that you value them and their futures. However, do some research into different plan options to see which is the best option for you and your business.

Check out this article on boring but critical parts of running a business!

How to Avoid Trouble With Taxes at Your Business

Tax season is tough on everyone, but especially for business owners. A lot of financial data has to be compiled and dealt with in order to pay taxes. In order to avoid any mistakes or extra stress, make sure your business is prepared with what it needs. 

Meet Your Deadlines

If you run a business, meeting tax deadlines is essential. Missing these deadlines can lead to expensive fees, penalties, and other legal action. Mark these deadlines far ahead of time so you can consistently look ahead. It’s not just income tax that you need to keep track of, however. If your business has employees you also need to keep track of the tax you withhold from their paychecks. The IRS provides businesses with a free tax calendar so business owners can keep track of important dates. There are also professional services you can hire to help you keep track of your taxes as a business owner.

Keep Things Simple

As far as tax purposes go, it makes it easier if you keep your business structure simple. Different types of business structures pay taxes in different ways. It’s important, when starting a business, to take these differences into consideration. An LLC is among the most simple of business structures. If you register your business as an LLC, you can elect to pay taxes as a corporation, a partnership, or as a disregarded entity on your own personal taxes. This business structure is a good idea if you’re starting a business or if you’re a sole proprietor. Do some more research on different business structures to decide which one works best for you.

Keep Track of Finances

If you’re a business owner, especially of a small business, it’s absolutely essential for you to keep track of your finances. As a general rule, this is a good idea because it can help you keep track of what is and isn’t working within your business. For tax purposes, it’s necessary to save you a lot of headache when it’s time to file. A year’s worth of expenses and earnings is a lot of data to compile all at once. If you wait until tax season, you run the risk of making a mistake on your taxes, which could be incredibly damaging to your finances. Instead, make it a priority to keep record of all your business’ finances throughout the year. 

Filing taxes as a business owner is stressful. There’s a lot that can go wrong, and mistakes can be detrimental to your business. Taking the time to set your finances up successfully can save you from making these mistakes, and make tax season a lot less stressful.

Check out this article on how to save on taxes for your small business!

Productivity Tools Every Small Business Needs

Productivity Tools Every Small Business Needs

Every business wants to increase productivity. Luckily, you live in an era when excellent tools are literally at your fingertips. Sometimes, you only lack the implements you need because you don’t know what’s available. Here are three productivity tools that every small business needs.

CRM Software

Customer management is a massive, critical aspect of any business. It can get overwhelming to keep large amounts of customer data organized, manage direct customer marketing, and keep up with customer relations on your own. With Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, you don’t have to; the software does it for you. CRM software streamlines, automates, and tracks everything relating to your customers. With a CRM system to organize and categorize your clients, you won’t ever drop a good lead or lose a loyal customer again.

Storage Space

Businesses store a lot of data. The cloud can help you save time and storage space. Cloud storage allows your data to be accessed by the entire team. It also gives you far more storage space than most physical storage tools can. Furthermore, cloud storage provides instant access to the data you need. There are many options for cloud storage providers. Look for important features, such as collaboration tools and automatic backups. Your cloud storage should also offer high levels of security with encryption services. Microsoft OneDrive provides excellent cloud storage. It is affordable, offers unlimited storage on unlimited devices, and encrypts your data for safety.

Accounting Software

Your time is too valuable to be spending it on mundane tasks like number crunching. Accounting software will free you up to work on more important aspects of business. Accounting software can track your business expenditures, monitor your earnings, assist with tax filing, and more. With accounting software, you can trust that your finances are being managed accurately, free from human error. Once again, there are many options to choose from. Look for user-friendly accounting software that is cloud-based, can be integrated with third-party apps, is accessible through both a mobile app and a web browser, allows for multiple users, and is affordable. One popular accounting software used by business owners and accountants alike is Intuit’s Quickbooks.

If you are ready to scale up on your business, you need to take advantage of the many tools that can help you manage your company more efficiently and effectively. Three of the best tools to start with are CRM software, cloud storage, and accounting software. You will be amazed at how much more time you will have to focus on the core aspects of your business.

Check out this article on how to save on taxes for your small business!