How to Start Barbing Salon Business in Nigeria

In this article you will learn everything you need to know about barbing salon business in Nigeria. The capital needed to start the business, how profitable barbing salon business is in Nigeria, and the steps involved on starting a barbing salon business in Nigeria. Yesterday, I went to barb my hair and trim my beard and I dropped another N800 as usual for payment of service rendered.

I do this at least twice a month just to make sure I look sharp and nice and I guess you too. We do not have a choice except you don’t have beards in your genetic make-up. Like my barber will always say “You need me more than I need you”. Prior to yesterday, two weeks earlier when I visited him we were in a good mood and alone in the salon so I decided to ask him some questions about his barbing business.

I wanted to know if he will tell me how he started or just decide to hide the business secrets but however, he talked and I was glad he did. These are his details. On a good weekend (Saturday and Sunday) he said he makes N50,000 minimum and if there are more customers he could make as much as N70,000.

Keep in mind that his barbing business is a sole proprietorship business. So he enjoys the profit alone. And it was not surprising to hear him talk about how much he makes on weekends because I know some other barbing salons earn much more. So I decided to know why this was such a big deal to him. Then he went further to give me a breakdown of his expenses.

According to him because he owns his container – the barbing shop, he only pays for the land he uses which is N10,500 per month. On electricity, he pays N5,000 because he shares with other shops. For fuel and generator maintenance he pays 5,000 per week meaning N20,000 per month and uses 5,000 for the repair and maintenance of his gen.

Expenses of Barbing Salon of Benue Guy

1. Land lease per month = N10,500
2. Electricity Bills = 5,000
3. Fuel = 5,000
4. Generator maintenance = 5,000

Total Expenses = 25,500

This is the breakdown of how much he spends monthly to keep his barbing salon going. But when we talk about the profit he makes a whooping profit of N120,000. Take note, I have not added the barbing services from Monday to Friday if I did this should be about N150,000 monthly. 

That’s more than what some bankers make monthly as a salary. This got me thinking if handwork (rendering services) can make this much why are Nigerian youths looking for white-collar jobs? It’s like we have been cursed or jinxed to think that white-collar jobs are the only option out of poverty.

Who said the barbing salon business is not lucrative (if you know what you’re doing). This was a wake-up call for me. What if this guy was charging N2,000 or N3,000 for his barbing service or not let’s not even go too far? What if he was charging N1,000? So today I am going to be sharing with us how to start a barbing salon business in Nigeria and how to make massive profits.

Also, I will after much study and findings I will be sharing with us some of the mistakes my Benue guy was making – basically why his profit has not doubled or tripled. This is not to make jest of him because I have already had a sit with him on this. This is for us to learn so that you will not be trapped when you finally start yours.

Trapped in the sense that you are not making enough profit yet you cannot close the business or advance further. I call this stagnancy in business but the common term many people use is “it’s still manageable”. So without further ado let’s go into it right away.

Capital Needed to Start Barbing Salon Business

There’s no specific cost as regards starting a barbing salon in Nigeria because it all depends on the state and area you’re in. For example, the cost of setting up a barbing salon in Abuja will be totally different from the cost of setting it up in Enugu.

It all depends on the area in the sense that the cost of setting up a barbing salon in Maitama, Abuja is different and far more expensive than the cost of setting it up in a random village in Enugu. There’s no fixed price to this. You just have to decide where you want your salon to be and how much you can afford.

List of Barbing Salon Equipment

There are many barbing tools or equipment needed to start a barbing salon business in Nigeria. These barbing salon equipment or tools can be cheap or expensive it depends on where you are buying them in Nigeria.

1. Hair clippers

2. Hair Trimmers

3. Edgers

4. Barber Shears

5. Barber Comb

6. Straight Razor

7. Sterilizing and Disinfectant Supplies

8. Professional Hair Dryer

9. Barber Chair

10. Barber Shop Hair Products

11. Mirrors

12. Fans

13. Reception or Waiting Couch

14. TV or Music Player

How to Start Barbing Salon Business in Nigeria

These are the steps on how to start a barbing salon business in Nigeria.

1. Learn How to Barb Hair

This is the first and most important step in how to start a barbing salon business in Nigeria. Except you just want to go into the barbing salon as an investor (you establishing the business yourself and looking for a barber(s) to barb for you) it is very important to learn how to barb first. In fact, I will say this is the most important part of the business.

No customer will be ever satisfied with you barbing nonsense with hair despite the comfort you give them when they visit your salon. What is the use of a beautiful all equipped salon that its barbers cannot barb good hairstyles? It’s just like buying a beautiful car that has a bad engine.

If you are able to understand this aspect of the business and take your time to learn well it will not matter where your shop is located or how crappy it looks people (customers) will look for you. In fact, they will stock you. A co-worker of mine once followed me from our workplace to my barbershop just because he liked the way my barber barbs my hair.

This tells you that distance has no barrier sometimes when it comes to getting what customers want. So you really need to take your time and learn first how to barb.

How Long Does it Take to Learn Barbing in Nigeria?

This usually depends on the boss or oga you are going to learning from. While some bosses believe that you have to learn for 1 year some believe you can still learn it perfectly within 3 – 6 months. Most bosses are never certain but they will all tell you one thing for sure – the period you use in learning totally depends on how much effort you put into it.

It is just like learning how to play musical instruments. It’s not about the time you put into it. It’s about how serious and passionate you are about it. There have been cases of many people learning handwork at a particular period and some learn on time so therefore to be freed while some take more time before they are freed.

I think it’s also about how fast you can learn. Learn and whilst you are learning do not just learn the barbing aspect, learn the business aspect. How your boss treats his customers. How he pays bills. How he maximizes his profits. Basically how he manages his business in general. Remember that! After learning to be sure you have really learned the skill offer to barb hair for your junior ones for free.

Since they pay less attention to themselves they are likely to pardon any mistakes you make while barbing, unlike adults. And if you don’t have younger ones, you can offer to barb children’s hair for free. I have seen this happen at the barbing salon I used to barb where the boss instructs one of the learners to barb the hair of a customer’s children and after he or she is done, the boss looks at the haircut and adds one or two corrections to guide the apprentice.

Learn by barbing for children and when you are now getting it and have perfected it to an extent you can now start barbing for adults.

2. Start Rendering Home Services

After learning the barbing skill, most business advisers will advise you to go and rent a shop immediately and start barbing for customers but we all know this does not happen most of the time in real life successfully. People will have to know you well before they can drop their hard-earned money for your service.

This is the reason so many writers start a blog first before writing their first book and so many photographers do free photoshoots for free before they start charging for their services. People (customers have to know you first, what you stand for (your brand), and how far you are going in your barbing business before they can invest in you or your business directly or indirectly.

This is why I strongly recommend home service barbing first. Another reason why I suggest home service barbing first is to have something to do first if you cannot afford a shop immediately after you are done with your learning. Instead of waiting for the big break to get money to open your shop, you can start home service first.

And I must be honest with you getting your first customer for the home service barbing might be the toughest for you but if you are able to get one at the end and you do the service well – I mean barb the hair well your haircuts will speak (advertise) for you.

Your customer’s friends will start asking “Who is your barber?” and before you know it your customer will have no choice but to introduce you and your service to them. This is what happened to me earlier that made a co-worker of mine come to my area to barb his hair all the way from our workplace.

Render home service for like a year or 2 and use the money you’ve gathered from it to register your business and rent a shop.

3. Buy Barbing Salon Equipment

At this stage, you need to go to the market and buy your barbing equipment/ tools. Barbing tools or equipment prices vary but one major factor is where you buy them. What you buy should depend on your budget. You can buy the necessary ones now and as time goes by you can buy others.

The most thing is to start and as time goes by grow the business to where you want it to be. It is always about the humble start.

4. Get the Name and Logo for your Salon

In as much as making a brand for your barbing salon is important, you should not spend tons of money on it as a business starter. My best advice for you here is that you look for a graphic designer who can do a good job for you by suggesting a perfect name and creating a good logo that makes you stand out within your budget.

In as much as branding is important, what people (customers) really think about your business is what matters. Branding experts will tell you “Branding is not your logo, it’s not even your brand name. It is what customers think about your goods or services”.

Also, keep in mind that when it’s time to generate a name for your barbing salon you need a name that your customers can easily spell and easily remember. Do not worry, one of these days I will write an article on how to brand your goods and services in Nigeria just in case you are still confused about this.

A simple logo also matters. The more complex it is the harder it is for people to understand. Just think of what you represent and give the ideas to your graphic artist. He will bring these ideas to life.

5. Register your Barbing Salon

The registration of any business is more important in Nigeria now than ever and your barbing salon should not be exempted However despite the fact that about 80% of the registration as been made easy by the Nigerian government it can still be stressful to register a business if it’s your first time so you can outsource this out for an agent to do for you.

Depending on the agent you can be charged from N20,000 to N35,000 so you can go for any agent that can do it for you within your budget.

Particulars for Registering Your Barbing Salon in Nigeria

These are:

1. Business Name

2. Business Logo

3. Address of Business

4. Name of Owner of Business

5. Utility Bill

6. Passport

Submit all these particulars to the agent and sit back and he’ll get this done for you at the right time. In about 3 – 4 weeks. When you register your business on time it keeps your mind at peace and makes you focus on other important parts of your business. Read our article on how to register your business name in Nigeria

6. Renting a Shop or Space

Renting a space or a shop for your barbing salon business in Nigeria can be daunting especially if you are trying to eat your cake and have it. And by that, I mean not having enough, or should I say abundant money yet you want to rent a space or shop in a place that thousands of people pass daily.

It’s a normal marketing strategy shop owners use. If the shop is located in a place like the main road or market the price of such shops is inflated than if the shop is in a small area. So the question is “What do you do here?” You just have to look well. There’s always a location that is nice and serene yet is highly populated with good yearly rent. This is the kind of area you should go for.

Also, consider the standard of living of the people living in the area. You can’t start a barbing salon business in a place like Mushin and say you want to charge N2,500. Not one customer will enter your shop to barb and if peradventure they give it a try, they will not come back. The area is very important when it comes to making profits from this business it can also be a pitfall.

7. Attracting the first Customers

If you really followed my step 2 instruction it should be easy to attract customers now that you have opened a barbing salon. All you need to do here is to start informing the customers you did home service for about your new shop. If possible give them crazy discounts just to drag them to your shop.

Also, you can tell them that they will have more discounts if they can refer people (customers) to your shop. There are tons of methods for attracting customers to your shop. Don’t worry, you can send me an e-mail if you have challenges with this.

8. Prepare your Financial Statement

This is one thing I like about the Igbos for no offense to other tribes in Nigeria. To the Igbos every naira counts so, therefore, everything must be accounted for down to the least. This seemed to have worked for them a lot. It’s hard for an Igbo guy to fail in business because this is one of his secrets.

You need to prepare the necessary accounts for your barbing salon business if you really want to make big money from it. Not doing this will put your business in jeopardy because you will not be able to monitor your expenses and when you cannot monitor your expenses and profits your business will collapse.

This was one of the mistakes my barber Benue Guy was making. Hopefully, he is doing it now so he can be sure of his numbers.

9. Employ More Workers

Many of us reduce the value of our businesses. We don’t even know what it’s capable of. All we are concerned about is if it is making a particular profit year in and year out but this is not how it should be. A mentor of mine will say “Your business is not really a business until it can survive without you” and I can’t agree less with this business quote.

One of the things I noticed about Benue guy was he doesn’t have workers to work for him especially if and when he is not around. When he is not around probably because he traveled for a week he will lock his shop all in the trust that he is loyal customers will wait for him to come back.

This has worked for him for a while but I don’t think it will work for him forever besides if he employs more barbers this will increase his profits although he will have to pay them wages. But let’s look at it from the bright side. When it’s time for your business to grow let it grow don’t be selfish because you want to enjoy the proceeds alone.

10. Establish your Salon Branches

Grow your barbing business and open branches but take it one branch at a time. You can borrow money from banks to do this if you have the accounts to prove your barbing salon is doing fine financially. Learn; read more on how to progress in your business and God will take care of the rest.

Conclusion

The barbershop business in Nigeria is a lucrative business if you can see the potential gold in it. Be positive and don’t let anyone discourage you if it is the business of your dreams. Believe and chase it! Start now and I’ll be waiting here for you if you need any advice.

Recommended: 

• Untapped Business Ideas in Nigeria (Comprehensive List)
• 10 Free Ways to Promote Businesses on Instagram in Nigeria
• How to Start Spa/Massage Business in Nigeria
• How to Start Hair Salon Business in Nigeria
• Top 10 Loans for Non-Salary Earners in Nigeria