Running a successful salon business is more than delivering gorgeous hairstyles and relaxing beauty treatments. It’s about making moves behind the scenes to keep your salon running smoothly, ensure clients are safe and happy, and operate efficiently within regulatory compliance. It’s easy to get busy taking care of clients and letting the salon maintenance tasks go, but doing so can affect your profit margin. From emergency repairs to lost business, missed spa and salon maintenance can significantly affect the total cost of running a successful business.
Commonly Overlooked Salon Maintenance Areas
1. Equipment Maintenance and Routine Checks
Your salon equipment works hard – every day, your hair dryers, curling irons, shampooing sinks, chairs, and more help you provide exceptional service. If you’re not regularly checking and performing routine salon maintenance, the tools may break down during client services. If your hair dryer dies or a salon chair breaks, you’re left with frustrated staff members and no customer satisfaction.
Cost Consequences:
- Emergency repairs or unexpected replacements of high-cost salon equipment.
- Lost revenue from appointment cancellations or being unable to book new clients.
- Possible legal liability if equipment malfunction causes injury (which can drive up liability insurance costs).
2. HVAC Systems
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems help create a comfortable atmosphere for everyone in the beauty salon. They also ensure air quality and compliance with energy efficiency regulations.
Cost Consequences:
- Poorly maintained HVAC systems aren’t energy efficient. Even a failure to change filters will drive up your energy bill.
- Dirty filters also make the system work harder, and when the system is overburdened, you risk extra costs for emergency repairs.
- You may face fines for noncompliance with sustainability laws and legal requirements for eco-friendly salons in the United States.
3. Plumbing and Drainage
Your salon uses a lot of water daily, from sinks and shampoo stations to the restrooms. Failing to keep an eye on your plumbing system could lead to clogged drains, pipe leaks, and, in the worst case, major water damage.
Cost Consequences:
- Costly water damage repairs in heavily used areas.
- Service disruptions may occur if the plumbing issues render your stations unusable.
- Poor customer experience, reputation damage, and revenue loss since your facility isn’t fully operational.
The Significance of Water Heaters and Hot Water Systems
Hot water is as important as salon maintenance checks in the salon business. If you’re not taking care of your water heater or don’t have the right one for your business volume, you could be costing yourself more money.
Hot Water Plays a Major Role in Daily Operations
For daily salon operations, you don’t just need a lot of water; you need a lot of hot water. No one wants a shampoo with ice-cold water. You’ll also need hot water for spa treatments and to clean your salon.
Keeping your salon clean means more than getting rid of surface dirt you can see. It’s also about keeping everything sanitary to maintain hygiene standards. Hot water is necessary to sanitize tools and linens, especially in nail salons.
Common Issues with Water Heaters
A common issue with water heaters is having insufficient capacity. If you’re running a smaller water heater than your business usage demands, you’ll run out of hot water quicker, especially during peak business hours.
No matter what size water heater you have, all of them may get mineral deposits from your water supply. The greater the sediment build-up, the less efficient your water heater becomes, leading to higher utility costs. The mineral build-up can disrupt the mechanics of your water heater, leading to more frequent repairs or replacement, especially if your hair salon operates in a locale with hard water.
Maintenance Best Practices for a Steady Flow of Hot Water
To keep everything in tip-top shape, conduct regular inspections and preventive maintenance. It’s also a good idea to periodically flush your water heater to remove sediment and maintain efficiency. And when it comes time for more comprehensive maintenance, always hire qualified technicians who can spot issues before they become major headaches.
Other Ways Neglecting Maintenance May Cost You
Of course, it’s not a huge deal if you’re off your regular maintenance schedule by a few days, but in a high-volume establishment, even a few weeks or months of neglect can have a significant impact.
Unexpected Downtime
Equipment failures may lead to service interruptions. You may need to cancel appointments, and that means lost revenue. If it happens often, maintenance issues can heavily influence your salon’s reputation, leading to lost clientele and booth rentals, leaving you scrambling to find experienced staff to take care of the clients you do have.
Increased Operational Costs
Because of their urgent nature, emergency repairs are more expensive than standard planned maintenance. Having a technician come out during standard business hours isn’t necessarily cheap, but try having one come at night, on the weekend, or a holiday. Those outside regular hours come at a premium and are often outside budgeted operational expenses.
Poorly maintained equipment consumes more energy because it must work harder to do the same job. That means higher utility costs for the same operations, cutting profit.
Strategies to Prevent Hidden Maintenance Costs
Implement Preventive Maintenance Plans
Instead of following a reactive approach where you fix stuff when it breaks, adopt a proactive approach where you service all your equipment regularly. This way, you’ll spot minor issues before they become significant problems. A small fix now keeps you running and costs less than a major repair that takes your equipment out of commission or requires a new replacement.
Preventative maintenance will only get you so far if you don’t know what you’re looking for or doing, so investing in staff training is essential. Teach everyone the basic maintenance tasks you must do and the signs of trouble to look for.
Invest in Quality Equipment
Budget for high-quality equipment. Yes, it may come with a higher upfront price tag, which can be challenging to manage if you’re on a tight budget or working with limited cash flow, but it’s worth it because the overall cost of ownership is lower.
Which would you rather do? Spend $20 on a cheap hair dryer from your local big box store that will likely last a few months to a year with high usage, or spend $400 on a high-end, top-quality hair dryer that will last decades when treated right? You’ll save money in the long run by opting for a higher-quality product.
On that note, look closely at the warranty and support for each of your equipment. That $20 hair dryer isn’t going to have a strong warranty or support compared to the higher-tier products. That extends beyond the tools of your trade, including the water heater and other appliances in your building.
Conduct Regular Financial Reviews
As a business owner, you should always know your financial situation: what’s coming into your business and what’s going out of it. But part of this also means taking time to plan for expenses and operations. That means allocating a portion of your budget for ongoing maintenance costs to avoid further financial strain.
By meticulously tracking your expenses, you can find patterns and areas for improvement. For instance, if you start to see your utility expenses creeping up but haven’t changed operating hours or client volume, you know it’s a good indication that you should change HVAC filters and check the water heater to ensure everything is running correctly.
How RWS Can Help Keep Your Salon Running Smoothly
Keeping up with salon maintenance while serving clients can feel overwhelming. But you’re not alone. At RWS, we offer solutions tailored to salons, including water heater redundancy and preventative maintenance support. We can help keep your salon safe, energy-efficient, and operationally sound, improving your client experience and helping salon owners avoid unforeseen and hidden fees.
Don’t let overlooked maintenance hinder your salon’s success. Proactive maintenance and support protect your bottom line, uphold your reputation, and keep clients happy for years.
