How to Open a Salon in India: Costs, Licences and a 90-Day Launch Plan

Opening a salon in India comes down to six decisions taken in the right order: format, location, fit-out, budget, team and launch. This guide gives the formulas, the traps that cost owners most, and a week-by-week 90-day plan.

One example runs through the guide: a 4-chair unisex salon of 800 sq ft in a tier-2 city. Its numbers are assumptions that show the maths, not benchmarks, so swap in your own.

#Which salon format should you choose?

Choose the format before you look at shops, because it decides how much space you need, which equipment you buy, who you hire and what a good location looks like.

The test that settles most choices: which services can you or your senior stylist deliver to a high standard from day one, to people near a shop you can afford?

#How do you choose a location and check the rent?

Choose a location where the people your format serves already pass by, and where the rent stays below a ceiling you work out from your own month-six revenue. Check footfall first and do the rent maths second.

Check the footfall the way clients actually arrive

• Count people for 30 minutes on a weekday morning, a weekday evening and a weekend afternoon, and note who they are.
• In tier-2 and smaller towns, find out the weekly market day. A street that is packed on market day can be empty on the other six, so count on an ordinary weekday too.
• Check where a client parks a car or a scooter, and whether the shop is visible from both directions of traffic. A first-floor salon needs a sign at eye level from the road and a staircase that doesn't feel like a back entrance.
• Search Google Maps for nearby salons. Note their prices, ratings and review counts, and visit two or three as a client.

Metro and tier-2 rents behave differently. A metro high street charges more per sq ft, but clients there accept higher prices. In a tier-2 town, rent is lower but so is the price ceiling for a haircut, so the same rent can be harder to carry. That is why the test below uses your revenue, not someone else's rent.

Work out the rent your salon can carry

• Expected monthly revenue = chairs × hours open a day × days open a month × utilisation × revenue per hour sold
• Rent ceiling = expected revenue − salaries − product cost − commission − utilities and other costs − the profit you need
• Rent share = monthly rent ÷ expected monthly revenue × 100

Utilisation is the share of chair hours you actually sell. Use the figure you can defend for month six, not your best Saturday.

Treat your ceiling as a hard line. If the rent is above it, negotiate it below or walk away; a salon that needs everything to go right from month six onwards has no room for a slow monsoon or a stylist who leaves.

What to ask the landlord before you sign

Don't sign an agreement that makes you restore the shop to its "original condition" at your cost without saying what that means. Wash-area plumbing and a false ceiling are expensive to undo.

#How should you plan the fit-out and layout?

Plan the layout around how a client moves through the salon, then size the power, water and air conditioning for your busiest hour, not an average one. Fixing a bad layout after you open means breaking floors and walls; fixing an undersized supply means weeks of waiting on the DISCOM.

Client flow and zones

A client should move in one direction: door, reception, waiting, consultation at the chair, wash, chair, then back to reception to pay, without crossing a stylist's working space or the colour-mixing area. Put reception where it can see the door and the floor. Keep the wet zone (basins, pedicure, colour bar) together so plumbing runs are short, and the private zone (waxing, facials, threading) behind a door, away from the waiting area.

These are starting points. Draw the layout to scale from the spec sheets of the furniture you will buy, and mark where each stylist stands, not just where each chair sits.

Water and drainage

Put the basins on the wall nearest the existing drain stack. Waste water needs a steady fall to the drain, so every metre a basin sits away from the stack means either a longer, flatter pipe that clogs with hair, or a raised platform under the basins. Fit a hair trap on every basin, and make the drain line wide enough for hair and conditioner; ask your plumber what size and fall the run needs before the floor is laid.

Size hot water for your busiest hour: count the washes you expect in that hour, measure the hot water one wash takes, and compare the total with what your geyser holds and how fast it reheats. If the water pressure from the overhead tank is weak, mixer taps at the basins will run lukewarm; a small pressure pump is cheaper to add now than later.

Electrical load

Add up the watts of everything that can run at your busiest hour, and compare it with the sanctioned load on the meter. Read the rating plate on each appliance; the figures below are assumptions for planning.

At a Saturday-evening peak, with all four dryers, all three ACs, one geyser, the steamer and the lights on, this salon draws about 17.5 kW.

Ask your electrician for a separate socket circuit for each styling station: one 2,000 W dryer draws about 8.7 amps at 230 volts, so two on a single 16-amp circuit will trip it. Ask for earth-leakage (RCCB) protection on every circuit near water. Tell your AC dealer how many dryers and steamers run at peak, because an office-style heat estimate will undersize the AC for a salon.

Lighting and storage

Light for colour work: LED fittings with a high colour rendering index (CRI 90 or above) at one neutral colour temperature throughout, and light on the face from the mirror side, not only from the ceiling, so the client sees the shade the stylist sees. Check a colour swatch under your lights and at a window before you finalise.

Keep backbar stock in a locked store away from heat and sunlight, with only the day's opened products at stations. Staff lockers away from the store remove the easiest route for product to leave the salon.

The fit-out sequence

1. Draw the layout to scale with furniture spec sheets; mark stations, basins, sockets and AC positions.
2. Apply for the electricity load enhancement.
3. Civil work, then plumbing: water lines and drains with fall to the stack. Test with water.
4. Electrical conduits, the distribution board with RCCBs, and a socket circuit per station.
5. AC copper piping and condensate drains, before the false ceiling.
6. Waterproofing in wet areas, then flooring, with non-slip tiles around basins.
7. False ceiling and lighting, then paint.
8. Furniture, basins, mirrors and signage.
9. Run every dryer, steamer, geyser and AC together for 30 minutes before opening day.

#How much does it cost to open a salon in India?

There is no single figure: the cost depends on the format, size, city and finish, so build it line by line from real quotes. Get three quotes per line and use the middle one.

Budget every quote with GST included. Since 22 September 2025, salon services are taxed at a mandatory 5% without input tax credit, so the GST you pay on interiors, furniture, equipment and rent cannot be claimed back. Retail stock bought only to resell is treated differently; see our GST guide for salons.

If the total is more than you have, start with fewer chairs (with wiring and plumbing laid for more), then a smaller retail range, then a simpler finish. Never cut the contingency or the working capital: interiors tend to overrun, and the easy fix is to spend the money meant for rent and salaries.

#How much working capital do you need?

You need enough cash to cover the gap between monthly costs and what the salon earns while it builds a client base, plus a buffer in case that takes longer. Rent and salaries run in full from day one; revenue takes months to reach its steady level.

• Fixed costs a month = rent + salaries (including yours) + utilities + software + other overheads + any loan EMI
• Break-even revenue = fixed costs ÷ (1 − variable costs %), where variable costs are product and commission
• Monthly shortfall = fixed costs − revenue × (1 − variable costs %)
• Working capital = the shortfalls added up until you break even + at least one month's fixed costs

This example pays the owner nothing. If you need a salary from the salon, add it to fixed costs and the break-even point rises by your salary ÷ 0.8. The GST you collect belongs to the government, so keep it out of these sums and set it aside for the return.

Month one's revenue also flatters you. Friends, family and launch-offer clients fill the first weeks, and many won't return at full price, so judge the ramp from month three. If you are raising a loan, our salon business plan template turns these numbers into the projections a lender reads.

#Which licences and registrations do you need?

Most salons need a Shops & Establishments registration (or just an intimation, in some states), a municipal trade licence where the city requires one, GST registration once turnover crosses ₹20 lakh a year (₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura), a PAN and a current account. Our salon licences checklist covers each one: who needs it, where to apply and the documents to keep ready.

Fire NOC, signage permission, professional tax, ESI, EPF and music licences depend on your building, city and team. Start all of them in the first two weeks after signing the lease. If your plan looks like this guide's example (about ₹26.8 lakh of revenue in year one, slow start included), you will cross the ₹20 lakh GST threshold within the year, so register before you open.

#How do you hire your first team?

Hire your senior stylists first, at least six weeks before opening, so they can help shape the menu and train the rest of the team. Every service hire should do a live trade test on a model, not just an interview. There is more on finding candidates in our guide on how to hire salon staff.

Put the terms in writing before anyone joins: salary, commission or incentive, hours, weekly off and notice period. The Labour Codes, in force since 21 November 2025, require an appointment letter for every worker.

In a family-run salon, give relatives the same treatment: a role, a salary on the payroll and a written letter. A brother-in-law at the cash counter with no salary and no defined job is the hardest person in the salon to correct, and his drawings never show up in your costs.

#How should you set your service menu and prices?

Price each service from its cost first and the local market second. The cost gives you the lowest price you can charge; the market tells you whether clients will pay it.

A price below cost doesn't become profitable with more clients. It loses money faster.

• Fixed cost per hour sold = monthly fixed costs ÷ hours sold a month
• Service cost = product used + (service minutes ÷ 60 × fixed cost per hour sold)
• Minimum price before GST = service cost ÷ (1 − commission % − target margin %)

If nearby salons charge less, you need a reason clients will pay more, or lower costs; see our guide to pricing salon services. Write the duration next to every service so the front desk books the calendar correctly, and say on the menu whether prices include GST.

#What software and tech do you need on day one?

On day one you need to book appointments, raise GST invoices with the right rate on each line, keep every client's visit history, take UPI, card and cash on one bill, and send bills and reminders on WhatsApp. Set it up before opening, so your client history starts from the first bill instead of a paper register. Before you pay for any system, ask what each WhatsApp message costs, whose number the messages come from, and how you export your data if you leave.

#How do you market a salon before it opens?

Start about 90 days out: set up your Google Business Profile with an opening date, build an Instagram page that shows the salon taking shape, collect a WhatsApp waitlist, and run a soft launch before the grand opening.

Google lets you add a future opening date to your Business Profile. Once verified, the profile shows on Google from 90 days before that date, with your updates, photos and opening offer. Nobody can leave a review until the opening date, so soft-launch guests review after you officially open. A home-service business is a service-area business on Google: hide the address and list the areas you cover.

On Instagram, post the build as it happens and add everyone who enquires to a WhatsApp waitlist, with their permission to message them.

Run a five-to-seven-day soft launch for friends, family and neighbours to time every service and test billing. Once you are open, ask every happy client for a Google review, but never offer a discount or free service in exchange: Google's policies prohibit incentivised reviews and can remove them. See our guide to getting more Google reviews.

#A week-by-week 90-day launch plan

The plan starts the day you sign the lease and ends on opening day, 13 weeks later. It assumes a full fit-out; if the shop is already fitted, compress weeks 3 to 9.