The Problem

This is a business I have been thinking about for years. While this may not be applicable to all cities, it certainly is applicable for our area. I am sure there are thousands of areas like ours.

Our small city had 22 salons at last count. If there is an average of six stylists per salon, that is 132 potential clients and a potential of $1,980 dollars per week.

Salons Need Supplies

Each town has about as many salons as it has bars and churches. This is a big number. Salons purchase a great deal of supplies each week. In just about all cases, their needs are very well defined each week. It's simply a matter of filling out a grocery list and buying the items at the supply store. The catch is, these supply stores are specialized brick and mortar stores. Their clientele is very limited: only licensed cosmetologists are allowed to shop in them. Since the clientele is limited, these stores are not found on every street corner. In our case, the nearest supply store is 20 miles away.

A salon owner / independent contractor in this town must make this trip at least once a week. Sometimes twice. When you break the cost down to the stylist, it can be daunting.

• This trip will take at least two gallons of gas, or $7.50.
• This trip, by the time it's said and done, will cost about two and a half hours in time. This time could be more productively spent marketing the business and generally working smarter.

Enter Opportunity

Wouldn't it be nice to have a person who would make that trip for the stylist each week? wouldn't it be worth $15 to have them you this for them? They would only be paying $7.50 for the service, as they will save $7.50 on gas. in the end, they will be paying $3 for each hour that they can spend working on developing their business.

I can't imagine why no one is doing this yet.

The Business Plan

Well, I wouldn't call it a business plan, but a business outline. Here's a quick play by play:

• Contact the supply house. Make arrangements to pick up completed (and paid ) orders from the supply house for delivery. While I have not looked into it, I am sure some arrangement could be made.
• Start contacting stylists in the area and offering the service. Depending on the proximity to the supply store, adjust your rate to something reasonable.
• Establish a schedule. Do your runs twice a week at first. As business grows, this can be adjusted.
• Require payment at time of delivery. This is a business that you don't want to run a billing system for.

Startup Costs

Startup costs would be minimal. Design (it doesn't need to be done professionally) a postcard. Have it printed professionally, as contrary to popular belief, it might be faster and cheaper to have a pro do it.

Once you have bought your first stack of postcards, it's just a matter of making sure every stylist in town knows about your service.

Conclusion

Since this is something I have thought through for a very long time, I would love to hear a success story from someone doing this. Keep me posted!