A hairstyle, hairdo, or haircut refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human scalp. Sometimes, this could also mean an editing of facial or body hair. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.[1]
The oldest known depiction of hair styling is hair braiding which dates back about 30,000 years. In history, women's hair was often elaborately and carefully dressed in special ways. From the time of the Roman Empire[citation needed] until the Middle Ages, most women grew their hair as long as it would naturally grow. Between the late 15th century and the 16th century, a very high hairline on the forehead was considered attractive. Around the same time period, European men often wore their hair cropped no longer than shoulder-length. In the early 17th century, male hairstyles grew longer, with waves or curls being considered desirable.
How fast is the market growing?
The market is growing at a steady rate; with most revenue growth being experienced in men's based salons, which are making twice as much as the other salons. Posh salon will attract all clientele serving children, men, and women of all ages. Research also indicates that clients are more interested in personalised and private salons as opposed to the traditional mall-based salons. Also, to add, salons have been have been providing new hair products as well as services such as eye lash extensions in order to turn over the economic growth. With that said, according to IBIS world revenues are expected to increase as much as 2.6%.
Posh Salon will strive to answer the demands of the growing market and ensure that. This will be achieved through modifications based on clients' desires because they are the most important stakeholders in the business. A research carried out recommended that personalization or privatization of the salon will enable it to survive the fast growing market demand because it will be able to attract more clients. Posh Salon is, therefore, aiming at ensuring that its services are sustainable and that its market is growing together with the rest of its counterparts to ensure that it benefits from the fast growing market.
What are the relevant trends?
As indicated earlier, clients are no longer interested in mall-based salons they want the real salon experience they currently want salons that offer privacy and personalised care. This business has highly considered these trends. Posh Salon will be located in New York City near Wall Street, where business women and men are always trying to look their best. This will attract people of all ethnicities and ages as well as children in whom are brought into day-cares with their parents during their busy workdays. On occasion we might have a small percentage of tourists that will also like a service done just for the experiences. Another trend relates to creativity and innovation. The clients want to feel that they are the only ones wearing a particular style in the whole world, Posh Salon aims at delivery this customers' desire.
2.2 SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Posh Salon showcases its strength in a well-train team of employees. A well-trained team includes having qualified personnel that offer high quality satisfactory services to the clients without compromising the client's comfort or requests and personalities. Every employee will undergo vigorous trainings in the best academies around the world. If the business is set in a location that appears to be classy and convenient while offering personalised services, this will be additional business strength.
The business may improve on this by integrating specialization (Pride & Ferrell, 2008). This includes having specific employees deal with specific services, such as hairstylist doing hair, nail technicians doing nails, and massage therapist performing massages, wax specialist performing waxes, thus mastering them. Another advantage is location, location, location! What a better place than for Posh Salon to be located in the big apple! Our salon not only will attract the local business men and women but also celebrities.
In addition, Posh Salon will attract diverse clients from various parts of the country through advertising and endorsing its services using celebrities. Advertisements will be on TV stations, on the salon's website and on bill boards using well-articulated graphic designs that will attract people's attention and inform them about the kind of services offered in the salon. Similarly, celebrities like actors will be useful to endorse the services and products that are available in the industry. These people have many fans from various parts of the world hence will attract more clients to the salon. Although this is quite expensive, proper planning and management of the salon will enable it to acquire funds for such activities.
Weaknesses
Posh Salon lacks a defined management system. The business owner appears to work different positions, which might compromise the leadership and management needed in the business. The business needs to higher another manager who may carry out the marketing part of the business, while he/she manages the internal affairs of the business. Another issue that constitutes is large costs associated with starting up the business which lacks funding for the Posh Salon. It is important to analyse the costs of all supplies, costs of building, salaries and expenses.
Another weakness for Posh Salon is the efforts from the side of the employees. Some employees are not well-equipped with the required skills, especially customer care skills. Customers need proper treatment to ensure that they are comfortable during the whole process of serving them. It will enable them to develop a habit of coming back to the salon. Posh Salon, however, has developed a plan to solve the problem. It will ensure that all its employees receive proper training to offer proper customer care service and the managers will make sure every employee understands its importance to the business at no extra cost. This will enable them to develop passion for their job and, therefore, perform effectively.
Opportunities
Posh Salon has numerous opportunities; this is because it has no limits in the targeted market. Although there are numerous competitors in the market, the clients are in demand about their personal looks as well as its upkeep and they need these services as frequently as daily or weekly. The salon can progress these opportunities by being innovative in styles. This will include experimenting on the various types of styles that suit various clients in regards to their personalities, physical appearances and the type of work/event they have in mind.
In addition, the market for its products and services is sustainable because human beings will forever need beauty products and services. Posh Salon has, therefore, an opportunity to plan for its future. Recent technology has made it possible for prediction of the future behavior of the market through the use of business models developed from computers software to project the future of any company or any business. Similarly, the current technology enables people to acquire information about a company or a business through seeing the inside of the business, in this case the salon. Posh Salon can use this sophisticated technology to display its products and services and hence attract more clients. The salon can effectively exploit such opportunities. These and many other opportunities realized in future can be useful while enhancing the effectiveness of the business.
Threats
The main threats include the unstable economic situation affecting consumers' incomes. The recently experienced recession caused a fall in consumer income. As a result, salon businesses experienced a decrease in nonessential facials, hair care products and manicures (IBIS World, 2014). This can be counteracted by creating discounts for particular services that seem to be in demand or creating joint offers for services that are more and less in demand. For instance, a business could offer free haircuts for customers who need full service hair coloring.
Another threat facing the salon is extreme competition from similar enterprises. This cannot no longer be a threat if the salon creates environment that will foster creativity and innovativeness for its employees. This will enable the salon to develop unique styles that no other competitor can do and, therefore, be able to compete effectively in the market. In a salon business, the most fundamental factor is creativity and innovation. This factor can be enhanced through allowing the employees to try new styles and products on willing clients and see if they will like it. By so doing, the salon will be able to achieve uniqueness.