Opening a hairdressing salon: The Guide

Are you thinking of opening a hairdressing salon as a self-employed person and have several practical questions?

I am a hairdresser: is my activity craft or commercial?

In principle, a hairdresser, whether working in a hairdressing salon or inquiring about becoming a hairdresser at home,  is considered a craftsman.

However, he can combine a craft activity and a commercial activity as soon as he buys and resells hair care products (shampoo, masks, nourishing creams, etc.) parallel with his hairdressing activity. This combination of activities is very common among hairdressers.

Warning, if your company exceeds the threshold of 10 employees, your hairdressing salon will automatically be considered as carrying out any activity of a commercial nature.

Can I open a hairdressing salon without a diploma?

Is not a hairdresser who wants! Real know-how is indeed required. Thus, to open a hairdressing salon, the entrepreneur must have a choice of:

• A professional hairdressing certificate;
• A hairdressing master’s certificate;
• A diploma registered in the national professional certification directory in a field directly related to that of hairdressing.

However, it is possible to open a hairdressing salon without a diploma. This requires that one of your employees or your spouse holds the diplomas required for the exercise of hairdresser activity, and mentioned above.

Should we create a company?

Opening a hairdressing salon by opting for auto-entrepreneur status is often discouraged, mainly because of the self-employed ceilings that should not be exceeded. With these annual turnover thresholds being relatively low, it is not necessarily wise to become a self-employed person in the field of hairdressing because you risk quickly exceeding them. As a result, your hairdressing salon will lose the auto-entrepreneur status’s advantages and automatically switch to the sole proprietorship regime.

Good to know: the budget to open a beauty institute or a hairdressing salon is quite large, so it is better not to have turnover limits.

It is therefore generally recommended to open a hairdressing salon in the form of a company. You can opt to create a SARL or a SAS  (or their unipersonal forms, the EURL or the SASU ). You can then open a hairdressing salon with almost no initial contribution because there is no minimum amount for the share capital of these two social forms (1 $ is enough). Also, these social forms protect you from the economic difficulties that your hairdressing salon could go through. Your professional creditors will not be able to seize your personal property to obtain payment of their invoices.

If you don’t have the diplomas required to become a hairdresser, but your spouse has them, you can choose both the SARL and the SAS. In these two social forms, the status of spouse-partner exists.

If you want to develop your hairdressing salon and why not launch a chain, it is advisable to choose SAS. This corporate form allows associates to enter the capital of the company more easily. It also inspires investor confidence and adapts more easily to changes inactivity.

Is the installation preparation course compulsory?

With the Pacte law of May 24, 2019, the pre-installation internship (SPI)  has become optional! However, this internship can be useful to you since it allows you to acquire the essential knowledge to create a craft business and its legal, fiscal, social, and accounting functioning. The course lasts between 4 and 5 days and costs 194 $. 

What obligations for hairdressers?

Several binding rules apply to the hairdressing activity.

• This concerns, in particular, the obligations in terms of price advertising and invoicing. For example, the price display must be inclusive of all taxes, and the invoice must contain, among other things, the sum to be paid, excluding taxes and all taxes included.
• Like all establishments open to the public, you must also respect the fire safety regulations.
• As regards the distribution of music within your establishment, authorization from SACEM will be required.
• Finally, if you plan to open a top-of-the-range hairdressing salon offering multiple services such as beauty services or inquire about how to open a Spa,  inform yourself beforehand: specific health regulations are likely to apply.

You now know the essentials to open your hair salon. Do not hesitate any longer and embark on this great adventure! Know that if you want to style only men and take care of these men’s beards, find out about the steps to open a barbershop. And how to make an effective barbershop business plan.