Kathy Dent enjoys the best of two worlds at her Reno, Nev., salon: a thriving boutique area with none of the headaches of retail. “We have an agreement with a boutique owner who set up a small display of clothes and accessory items,” says Dent, co-owner of Salon Glow. “Basically, she comes in once a month and takes inventory and then restocks the items that are selling well and replaces the ones that are not. She takes 75% and we take 25%, which doesn’t leave us much profit as we pay our techs 10% commission for any retail sales they make. However, we do not have to worry about whether something will sell and we don’t have old stock that we have to discount in order to get rid of it.”

Prices are reasonable, since Dent discovered gift items with too high a price point don’t sell. “We do carry some gift items of our own — things we have had good luck with in the past — so the boutique owner brings things that won’t conflict with our products,” she says. “We feel that having new products in the salon helps with overall sales as it gets people excited to see everything — plus our techs get very excited to see all the great new items.”

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