Let's start of with some words of discouragement.

Start with your research. Many people jump into a business and fail. I would guess it's about 90% of hair businesses never making it of the ground, so if you can't come up with a solid marketing strategy based upon your research, you might as well not start, save the money and save the effort.

There are people who succeed when getting out of highschool, but in general I would still recommend people to go to university and get a degree. I'm not sure about USA education, but I heard it's quite expensive, and if that's something making it harder, then I could understand the decision not to.

Make sure that you have financial stability during the time you start a business. Relying completely on your business incomes, when starting out, fails for many.

But that said, I didn't have the chance to go to college as well, and turned out alright. The first year of business income was low, and fortunately I had saved up long enough to keep going to get the business going.

Most business fail as they think it's some quick and easy money, find a vendor, think they can just put some pictures online, and hope it will sell. You can see how many people are still buying vendors, most of them unsuccessful, and the only people actually making money, are the ones selling the vendors, because they convinced you that you need time. That's marketing for you. With bundles, there are millions of people doing the same in your country, who have not much more to offer than your asian vendors, and basically compete with all asian sellers as well, making it incredibly hard to stand out. If you can't think about what would make you stand out, and how you're going to get there, I think you're more likely to end up with the 90% failed businesses. Especially these pandemic times make it even harder.

Some business I see who are more successful nowadays, they're more well-established and offer something other people can't offer. Sometimes they're custom products, and some customize some pre-made wigs, style and color them beautifully, and manage to sell them in this way.

So really, do the research, find a path you want to go on, and if you need to develop a specific skillset to get there, like wig making, now would be the time to start learning

Do I Need A Business License?

It’s very simple if you are selling out of a brick and mortar shop you will need a business license

If you are not then you don’t need one.

 

Business license is good to have because it will protect your personal assets from lawsuits etc.

 

So you want to start your own hair business but you are unsure of how much you will need to get started Most women that are ready to start their own hair business wait till around tax season to start.

This is good for 2 reasons:

 

1.You have extra money that hopefully doesn’t need to go to anything else to start your hair business stress free 2.Majority of hair sales happen around tax season so you will see a quick return on your investment.

In my opinion that is the absolute best way to start a hair business is to only buy 3 bundles and try to sell that. No logo’s, no marketing, just you one on one with the customers

Reason I say this is because you’re going to learn everything you need to know in about a month. And you’re going to be able to see if this is truly right for you.

If you can’t sell hair with little to no money do you really think you can sell hair “with” money? And not to sound negative

I’m sure there are situations where people can sell anything because they are that good and just need a loan to be up and running.

 

But for the majority of us you need to know what you are capable of and be honest with yourself if you able to improve on selling something especially hair.

 

But anyway to better understand how much you would need to start let’s look at 2 options

 

WholesaleBuying hair at a wholesale price will allow you to spend less money and have way more inventory on hand. For example you will be able to buy bulk hair for $300 turn around and flip it for $1200.

And if you can’t seem to sell the hair you could always resell it for the same price that you bought it for. When buying in bulk don’t just pick random lengths.

Find out what the most popular lengths are for the hair you’re selling and buy that. It will save you a lot of headache.

Just be careful, friends should never be your target audience. If you can't sell outside your friends' zone, it's really difficult to measure succes, and your marketing campaign probably isn't working.

If you're willing, could post it openly, and people would try to give you feedback. Not all of it will probably be nice to hear, but sometimes it will be what you need to move forward.

Dropshipping

 

Dropshipping is a very popular option for woman looking to start a business with little to no money.

 

You will be able to leverage another company’s hair inventory and logistics to get the product to your customer.

 

Some companies require you to pay a fee or buy into their website network while others are altogether free (Although this kind of falls into being a brand ambassador at that point).

 

The Vendor

 

The largest portion of your initial investment and probably your biggest money sink will go into finding a vendor.

 

There are a lot of scams and companies that will showcase stock photos of hair and it’s not at all what you are getting.

You have to do a lot of research to find the right vendor and sometimes you may get lucky right off the bat. I

Play To Your Strengths

 

The best way to sell something is to sell what you know, so for example if you are good at sew-ins don’t just buy hair and sell it.

 

Buy enough hair to do a sew in and sell that.If you play to what you are good at when it comes to hair the payoff will be huge.

 

Test Your Hair Before Sell It

 

This will save you a lot of money and headache

 

But be honest with yourself and the customer as to the type of hair you are selling.

 

If you are selling hair that only lasts 3 weeks, let them know the hair will only last 3 weeks maybe 6 if they take care of it.

 

Because if you don’t inform them you will most likely end up spending more money to give that same customer free hair so they don’t blow you up on Facebook.

 

Keep that in mind.

Flash Sales

 

An easy way to save money is to buy during flash sales

 

Flash sales is when a company sells a certain type of hair for lower than the wholesale price.

 

If you are buying hair from a company that you trust find out when their flash sales are and of what type of hair they will be offering.

 

Make sure to save up enough money to buy when they have flash sales going on. But also make sure you have clients that will want to buy that particular hair.

Real Pictures

 

I actually did a case study using Facebook ads to see how stock photos hold up against real photos. Real photos win every time

If the customer knows what they are getting and can imagine how it will look on them you will have little to no refunds and you gain a loyal client

 

The Basic 3’s of starting a hair business with little to no money is - Research

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