There’s no set process, but I wanted to tell you how I did it, even though it was almost eight years ago now! But not much has changed in that time in the general process. 

When I decided to go into a commercial space, it was because I was really sick of people coming to my home. Honestly. I wanted to really separate work and business. And I also wanted to be seen as a professional because I knew I WAS a professional but sometimes I felt that I got treated like I wasn’t. People would haggle on price and be early to appointments because they thought that I was just sitting around doing nothing waiting for them. Or on the other end of the scale they would show up really late because they didn’t realise I ran my business really professionally and booked all my clients back to back. And I didn’t really have a great setup at home either. People had to come through my front door, and they had to walk through my living area, my dining room, past the kitchen and then into a spare room. If I had wanted to stay at home for longer I think I probably would have purpose built a salon at the back of my house or built a house with a salon with a separate entrance to avoid what I was having to do. But I knew that I wasn’t going to stay in that house forever. 

My “little home beauty business” was consistently booked out a week or two in advance with clients from 4pm to 9pm, every weeknight, and usually most of the day on Saturday as well. I did have my kids in daycare on Thursdays and Fridays. So I was working nearly all day on those days as well. I was making at least $1,500 to $2,000 a week, total revenue working from home and so I knew that I could afford rent. I started looking at the Real Commercial website trying to suss out what was available in my local area. And I did make a mistake here. Not a big mistake, but I guess I really felt that I was going to be working on my own for a long time; at least two years. So I picked a commercial property that was only 31 meters squared. Which is quite small so I could only fit two rooms, a reception area, a spray tanning cubicle and a little prep room at the back of the salon where I had all my supplies and a microwave and a fridge etc. I’m very lucky that my husband is an engineer and he designed the floor plan and were able to fit all that in. But I couldn’t have any more than myself and one staff member working there. I ended up getting my first staff member within three months of being in the commercial space. I had to advertise. I needed someone because I was booked out six weeks in advance. I didn’t even have a spare 15 minutes! So I really needed someone. One room was set up for waxing and the other was set up for manicures and pedicures (both services that I don’t offer anymore). We were swapping rooms around and it was just a pain and it was really only purpose built for me; I wasn’t thinking big at that time.

Perhaps if I had have believed in myself a little bit more and realised my potential I would have chosen a larger space. And I could have saved a bit of money by staying in that space for a few more years because we really outgrew it very, very quickly; at about 18 months into that lease. I needed to go and look elsewhere for a bigger shop because my business was growing so fast and we we just couldn’t keep up. Myself and my first employee were booked out again six weeks in advance but I couldn’t grow because I physically had no space.

So…we got a bigger salon! There’s about 70 square meters and honestly I would love even bigger but I bought the building that my salon is currently in and I’m not keen on moving again out of the building that I own. So perhaps have a big think about your plans for growth and how big you want to go. It is a risk yes, but nothing in business happens without some level of risk. So if you work on your own and you’re not immediately going to hire staff, I would look at 50-60 square meters, even though that’s way too big for just one person. But you’ve got that room there for growth. If you can afford it, rent of somewhere slightly bigger. I would recommend that you do take that path because it costs a lot of money to pull down the fit out – all that money was wasted; we had to pull it all down. Then you’ll have to spend more money filling out the new salon – so it’s very expensive moving. Just go all in with somewhere a little bit bigger. 

Once you have found a space that you want to go with, you need to start negotiating the terms of the lease with the real estate and the landlord. Sometimes you can negotiate the price of the rent if the building has been vacant for quite a while or they may reduce for a period of time. You can negotiate a rent free period of 1 to 2 months when you are completing your fit out.  Sometimes the landlord is even willing to contribute to the cost of the fit out as well. When I went into my first salon I actually negotiated with the real estate and landlord that they were going to put it hot water system in for me because there was no hot water system in there. And in New South Wales, if you’re doing skin penetration (which is waxing), you have to have hot water.  They also put new light fittings in, they patched the walls for me, they pulled the old disgusting carpet out. And the shopfront had a roller door, but they changed it to a glass frontage for me with a with a swinging door.  It’s always worth trying. 

Then obviously you need to start planning the fit out and working out how much money you’re going to need. Obviously, it’s pretty hard to have a budget in mind before you find a retail space to go into because you don’t know how much the fit out spend with be (will it be bare bones or was it a salon beforehand that you can quickly and easily convert). You might have savings or you could be borrowing from a bank but usually you need to find a space before you can really start planning anything to do with the floor plan and cost. I definitely recommend having  a Pinterest board for inspiration for a colour scheme, furniture, reception desks and light fittings so you’re somewhat prepared, but you can’t actually work on the floor plan and exactly what you’re doing and how much money it’s going to cost until you actually have the space that you’re going to go with.

Once you’ve found a space, it’s time to organise trades to come in and do your fit out for you or you might do it yourself depending on your situation and how much money you’re going to spend. You’ll need to probably get some new furniture for your waiting area and reception desk etc. It just depends how you were set up at home, mine was fairly basic; I just had a bed in a room with a nail table. I didn’t have a reception counter, but maybe some of you that are a little bit more sophisticated in their home setups might have a lot more equipment and a reception counter and things that you can just move into the new salon.

You also need to think about your signage as well (the design and the trade to make it). You might need approval from the Council for your signage but you definitely will need approval from the Council for your construction and fit out; usually a change of use permit. If you’re doing waxing or nails or anything that falls under skin penetration, you’ll need to get a health inspection from the council too. You’ll need to do all the paperwork but just check with your local council exactly what’s involved before you start. They’ll give you really good information to go off because every local council is different and the guidelines can differ from area to area. I recommend that you set a firm opening date so that you actually get the work done. If you’re anything like me (I’m a little bit of a procrastinator), and while I don’t like it, I certainly work better under pressure. And I know that a lot of you out there to also work better under pressure. So if you have an opening day you have something to work towards. And what’s cool about having an opening date is planning the Opening Night Party for your best clients and your family and friends and the people that have helped you along the way. I really like to reward people. I’m actually refitting my salon this year and even though we’ve been open for a long time, we will be closed for a couple of weeks to complete the fit out. And I really want to celebrate with a little bit of a party. So it’s a really great chance to invite your clients in and spend some time with them, you know, outside of the normal way that you would spend time with them. Provide some champagne, some nibbles; It’s really fun and it’s really great content for socials as well.

It’s also really important to document the journey. Because in years to come, you’ll want to look back, and it’s also cool for your clients to see as well. Before and After photos and videos are always so inspiring. I wish that I had taken so many more photos when I was completing the fit out of my salon, even with me standing out the front. There were just so many things that I forgot and looking back on the few photos that I have, whenever I repost them on my Instagram my audience loves it. They love to see how the salon used to look because I’ve changed it so many bloody times since then, to allow for growth and getting rid of certain services; niching down our offering etc. Share it on your stories every day. We’re all very voyeuristic. We want we want to see what’s going on behind the scenes. And it just gets your clients and your potential new clients really, really excited for what’s to come. So really make sure you document the process on your socials and for yourself as well to look back at how far you’ve come. 

There might be some other things that you do like you might rebrand or change your business name from ‘Lashes by Lauren’ to something different that doesn’t have your name in it. So that means your logo perhaps a redo of your website and an embroidered uniform. It needs to be all designed and organised before you go in as well. You might offer new treatments in your salon that you need to do training and buy equipment for. There’s a lot of other things that can go into that list, but that’s just the basic timeline of what you would need to do to transition from a home salon to a commercial space. And the most important one that a lot of people forget. And it’s the easiest one, it won’t take you very long, but it’s to PUT YOUR PRICES UP. This often gets overlooked and it’s not good, because obviously now you are going to have much much higher overheads. Rent, building insurance, a whole separate electricity account, gas, water, outgoings  – it’s a fairly comprehensive list. And this is the best time to put your prices up because your clients expect it. As soon as the doors open, the prices need to go up. Please don’t forget, because you do not want to be charging your old prices and then have way bigger costs because your profit margin is going to be very low. And you’re going to wonder why you ever decided to go into a commercial space in the first place. So please don’t forget to raise your prices once you start in your bigger space. I have done another blog on this topic.

Reach out if you have any questions – send me an email at hello@laurenlappin.com.au or send me a DM on Instagram – LaurenLappin_

Lauren x