How to Move Your Salon

When you move your salon, it may be the fulfillment of a dream for the perfect ambience, the happy result of growth, or a nightmare induced by the end of a lease. Regardless of the reason, you’ll have 1,001 details to arrange. To make the change as smooth as possible, plan well ahead, check with local and professional authorities about requirements for your new locale, budget your costs, set up a timeline, and devise ways to ensure your clients make the trip with you.

Here’s a guide to help you make the big change.

Check With the Authorities

Business, health, and professional regulations govern beauty technicians at the local, state or provincial, and national levels. These regulations can vary from one locality to the next, or change if you expand your operation beyond a certain number of employees or square-footage. When you plan your move, check with all the appropriate authorities first. It could change where and how you move.

Failure to check first and sign the lease later cost Alisha Sale, owner of Alisha’s Nail Boutique in Latham, N.Y., $5,000 in unexpected costs when she opened her salon in Albany, N.Y.

“Maybe if I had better researched this ahead of time, I would have picked a better location,” Sale laments. “My advice is, call your state department of licensing and tell them what type of business you’re planning to open and ask them to send you forms for any licenses you might need. Ask for any state health requirements. Call the town to find out if you need any special zoning, permits, or any building code inspections.”

Individual cities usually have a planning department or an office for business licenses. Localities may have laws governing the zoning of your building. They may have requirements for handicapped access through front doors and in washrooms, drainage and electrical hook-ups, number of washrooms per employees, or upgrades to copper plumbing. In some areas, local law requires that an electrical sign be manufactured by a factory approved by Underwriters Laboratories. To find the appropriate local authority, look in your local telephone directory in the government pages – usually at the front – under the headings Building and Construction, Business Licenses and Permits, Planning and the like.

Counties often leave codes and permits to the cities. However, it’s wise to check again in the government pages under the county listing for Environmental Health Services, Health and Human Services, and the like to ask. Some counties in California, for example, require that spas offering massages provide separate showers and dressing rooms for men and women. Also, if you plan to sell food or drinks to your clients, the health department may require a sanitary inspection.

If you have trouble finding someone who can help, try calling the county supervisor for your district. He may have the names of the appropriate officials and telephone numbers that bypass those irritating recordings. But you may have to wait, either on the phone or in line at the office, for information.

Work Up a Budget

Professional movers will come to your shop and give you a free estimate for the cost of a move, based on square-footage, amount of equipment, and distance they have to travel. Some specialize in moving businesses; check in the Yellow Pages for your area. Professional movers charge a wide range of fees and have varying degrees of professionalism; some will charge much less if you pack the items yourself.

You can save big bucks by moving yourself. The experts at Budget truck rentals suggest taking a room-by-room or area-by-area inventory. Use that to calculate how many boxes and what size truck you will need. Dealers can help you with the calculation, based on the square-footage of your current location, and an on-line calculator is available at www.yellowtruck.com. Even if you plan to have professional movers do the work, the inventory will be useful for planning.

Purchased boxes have the advantage of being clean and uniform in size, which makes loading the truck easier. Truck rental agencies and packaging sores sell boxes, bubble wrap, packing materials, tape, and rope.

Boxes for sheaf paper are sturdy and have lids, and can be gotten for cheap or free at office supply and copy stores. If you use found boxes, check that they are clean and free of insects.

Map Out a Timeline

Depending on the size of your salon and the reason for your move, you’ll want to start planning anywhere from three months ahead for a simple change-of-locale for a single operator, to a year or more if you plan major remodeling, says Lee-Anne Baker-Smith, owner of Fantasy Island in Barrie, Ontario, Canada.

If you’ll have contractors working on your new location, get completion dates in writing and negotiate enforcement clauses into the contract, advises Leslyn Zak, owner of Wild Ivy Day Spa in Rockport, Mass. When she moved into her current location, building delays and tardy plumbers and electricians cost her three months and an additional move into temporary quarters. “Oh, the stress!” Zak recalls.

Nevertheless, she found that careful planning and keeping to her schedule allowed her to make the physical move in one day, without missing an appointment.

Do as much work as possible ahead of time, and be super-organized about what remains at the last-minute. Most salon owners plan their move for a Sunday and Monday so they have the least disruption to business.

Many landlords will give you two to four months of free rent prior to move-in. In her three moves with VIP Nails and Tans in Riverview, Mich., owner Renee Borowy has used that overlap to move retail displays, extra product, and equipment she doesn’t use every day.

During the week before the move, Borowy says, she scales down appointments for her tanning service so the beds can be dismantled and taken to the new location during the week.

In addition, plan time to get any necessary permits. “They’ll tell you seven to 10 days, but plan for 20,” says Sale.

On moving day, be sure to allow additional time – or get additional help – to clean up the space you are leaving. Some landlords require departing tenants to take down partitions; check your lease agreement.

If you plan to rent a self-haul truck, remember that rental agencies get busiest on the first and last days of the month. Some won’t take reservations for those days because they cannot guarantee that vehicles will be available.

“We sell out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You need to make your reservation at least two weeks ahead to be guaranteed a truck,” says Rick Harris, owner of the Budget-Ryder RTS dealership in Pacific Beach, Calif. Rates also may rise on the weekends, and rentals may be available in half-day segments.

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Pack It Up!

“On the weekend of our move, we made sure we had all the employees get their tables packed up,” says Borowy. Each employee also packed boxes with their implements and products – each box labeled with the corresponding employee’s name. After closing on a Saturday afternoon, they all stayed after work, with family and friends helping out. Because the new location was only a few steps away, Borowy says, “We just rolled our tables down the hall.”

When packing, keep in mind some rules of thumb:

• Pedicure chairs, whirlpool tubs, and sinks should be dried thoroughly and wrapped in towels or sheets. Moving veterans says they just set the equipment carefully in trucks for short moves, but would wrap them more carefully for longer hauls. Use twine to tie down the wrapping material.
• Take apart tanning beds carefully into their two main pieces, taking special care with the heating element and place carefully in your moving van.
• When packing product, whether for use at work stations or display in the retail area, be sure that caps are on tight, and pack upright to avoid leaks. If product is kept in containers other than the originals, you may need to tape them closed.
• Tape down desk drawers and appliance pieces that could come loose or open. Washing machines and dryers can be stuffed with towels and sheets. Wrap them in blankets or furniture pads, and tie or tape them down securely.
• Books, papers, and small, heavy items should be packed in small boxes.
• Computers, stereos, television sets, and electronic equipment are best packed in their original boxes, if available. If not, wrap in plastic bags, surround with bubble wrap and set into sturdy boxes.
• Unplug your electronic equipment a day ahead of time, according to the folks at United Van Lines. Equipment moved while it is still warm could be more easily damaged.
• Mirrors and glass-topped art will stay intact by taping an X across the glass. Put cardboard protectors on the corners, wrap them in bubble wrap and set upright in sturdy boxes, or set into art-size cardboard boxes, available at moving truck rental agencies and packaging stores. Be sure to label the boxes as fragile.

• If you are moving items of extraordinary value, consider purchasing additional insurance and listing these items and their values on a separate inventory. Otherwise, their liability for loss or damage will be limited, usually to $100 per pound.

Have everything packed and ready before the movers or the rental truck arrive, Harris advises.

Baker-Smith and her employees labeled each and every box with a complete list of the contents. “We tried to keep washroom stuff in one box and nail room stuff in another box, so when you unpack, you know where your supplies will be.

“WE all basically took a room – facial, wax, pedicure – that way you don’t have eight chiefs trying to set up one room” Baker-Smith says.

Rules for Packing

• Get rid of old or unneeded implements, equipment, and product.
• Label each box with a complete, detailed list of contents, employee’s name, and the box’s destination.
• Keep a master list with the location of each box.
• Try to use boxes that are of just a few sizes so they stack easily into a truck. Close them up with sturdy tape; masking tape could come loose.

When Moving Yourself

• If renting a truck, call at least two weeks ahead to make a reservation.
• Most trucks come with ramps and some have hydraulic lifts. Ask about additional charges for lifts, mileage, and insurance.
• You can also rent hand trucks, dollies, and furniture blankets. Rope, tape, and bungee cords can often be purchased for less cost at a hardware store.
• Rental companies usually require a credit card deposit of up to $100, which will be credited to your account at the end of the move.
• Corral family and friends to help with the move.

Preparing Clients for the Move

When you move your salon, there’s something just as important to get to the new location as your tables and chairs: your clients.

Here are some tips from the techs who have done it.

1. Get your clients involved in the move. When Renee Borowy of Riverview, Mich., moved her VIP Nails and Tans for the third time, she built up loyalty by taking her regulars over to the new location to show them how work was progressing, and explained there would be room for many new services.  Some of them had been with us 15 years and two moves already. They were really excited,” Borowy says. “But be careful they don’t trip over the construction mess!”
2. Publicize internally and in local media. You should already have an up-to-date list of your clients’ names, addresses, and even e-mail addresses. Use that to send out reminders about the new location, directions for getting there, and incentives to check out your new digs.  I made postcards to send to all my clients inviting them to join me at my new salon and receive a discounted nail service and a free hand or foot treatment,” says Alisha Sale. “I made flyers that were passed around college campuses and shopping centers. I did a television commercial, I advertised in all the local papers with coupon specials, and I called the newspaper. They did an article, at no expense to me!”  Especially in smaller cities, local functionaries appreciate the public relations opportunity of a business opening. Send invitations – their addresses and phone numbers are in the telephone directory’s business pages – and follow up with a personal call.
3. Make your customers feel special. Borowy went to a local wine bottler who printed up special labels announcing her opening, and slapped it on little bottles of wine. “Then we went to a manufacturer and asked them to help us out with product. They put packages together of three different items, and we wrapped them in little containers with the split of wine,” she recalls.  Because Borowy planned her move for November, she let the package double as holiday gifts for her clients – all 2,000 of them.
4. Celebrate! A party is a natural for such a happy occasion. You may want more than one: an intimate reception the evening before for your most-valued clients, and a grand opening party on the big day. Whether elegant and catered, or homey and potluck, it will make your new locale feel like their new salon.