1 in 10 beauty businesses have £1K or less in savings
Just under one in 10 (9.8%) of beauty businesses have £1,000 or less in savings, according to new research from Yell into the state of small business finance in the UK.
Having surveyed senior leaders of small and medium hair and beauty businesses (with under 250 staff) within the research, Yell's study reveals that almost one in five (18%) lack confidence that their business will be afloat in the next three-to-five years.
Businesses in Greater London have the lowest confidence in the future of their business, with 15.53% not confident they’ll be afloat in a year’s time. The South West and West Midlands are also facing uncertainty, with 14.29% and 13.89% of business owners respectively sharing the same worries.
The regions where small business confidence is at its lowest
| Region | % not confident they'll be afloat in 12 months |
| Greater London | 15.53% |
| South West | 14.29% |
| West Midlands | 13.89% |
| North West | 13.73% |
| South East | 11.84% |
Small businesses are much less able to save than their larger counterparts, with three in 10 (31%) businesses with a turnover of less than £100,000 making no savings each month, and three quarters (75%) of sole traders saving less than £400 every 30 days – although a third of sole traders save nothing at all.
Just under half (49%) of aesthetics and beauty businesses are saving £1,000 or less each month.
Over a third (37%) of senior decision makers in the hair & beauty sector say they are only able to save significantly less compared to what they were able to save pre-pandemic.
What can business leaders do?
With some news reports showing that the cost-of-living crisis could last until 2027, many business leaders will be wondering what they can do to enable themselves to save more, and add more security to both their livelihoods, and those of their employees.
Business finance expert Connor Campbell from comparison site NerdWallet commented, “Cutting costs without sacrificing quality is a balancing act.
“Whenever you look to make a saving, you should ask yourself whether it will materially impact the quality of your service or product. If it will, those savings may lead to greater losses down the line.”
To help you know what to expect and understand where you can make easy cuts to save money, Hollie Power, co-founder of Salonology, and salon business expert Liz McKeon have shared their top tips and tricks to get through this difficult time.
