45% of beauty salon owners have considered shutting their business

Just under half of beauty business owners have considered shutting their salon, according to new statistics from salon software provider Phorest. 

Of the 1,000 salon owners surveyed, 45% have considered giving up on their business and most have felt this way at around three or more years into running it, the report found. 

The challenge of finding good therapists and managing staff (32%), especially while the beauty industry is in the midst of a recruitment crisis, was cited as the top reason for salon owners wanting to shut up shop; while issues such as the economy, rising rent rates and tax (22%), and it feeling like their passion for the trade has turned into a chore (19%), has also had an impact. 

Other factors such as trying to manage hefty sales and marketing strategies (12%), as well as an ever-growing amount of admin and accounting tasks (10%), have left salon owners feeling disheartened, while others said it is tough juggling the business and family life (3%). 

“Salon professionals spend a lot of their time lending a supportive ear to clients but when it comes to having someone they can lean on for support, being an owner or manager of an independent salon business can be lonely and isolating,” said Ronan Perceval, chief executive of Phorest Salon Software. 

This news has broken at the same time as new Government statistics which revealed that beauty therapists are in the top 10 worst paid workers in the UK. 

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