5 Ways to Save Money for the Salon (& Save the World)
Foil Collection, 2021
As salon owners and hair stylists are finding themselves caught in the crossfire of how to properly conduct business, the service industry has been presented with new challenges. A pandemic, a recession, an interrupted supply chain, and the death of ~ 750,000 people has caused a trickle down effect for all industries. However, when you see appointments continually canceled or overbooked, the supply stores are usually bare, and the bills rising… your personal quality and quantity of services you provide takes a hit.
While we can’t fix all of these problems right away, we can protect ourselves by giving us a bit of financial cushion while we navigate through this stage of history.
Cutting corners in regulations and quality of products will not help, but being conscious will. Sustainability and awareness pushes you further in your business success because you are learning how to cut using as many resources while saving you money and providing high quality services. At first you might think, “is this really worth it?”. When you start earning $15 for your recycling every month, saving $200 per month on utilities, and not paying your trash bill as often as you were… it really starts to add up by the end of the year.
In this article we will be discussing five easy ways to make a little money, lower costs of your business, and put your salon on a more environmentally stable path.
1. Don’t throw that away, bring it to your local scrap yard!
What can you bring?:
Aluminum foil
Empty aluminum product/color tubes
Burnt out hot tools
Empty drink cans
Most scrap metal places will take your dirty aluminum, old wires, and so on. The best part is you can make a few bucks from it! I always look for “local scrap metal yard in (state)” on whatever search engine (usually Google or Ecosia) or use iScrap App to see which one is closest to me. When you find a place, It’s always important to look on their business website to see what they accept. I still suggest always calling ahead to make sure they take dirty foil and small appliances.
For foil, squeeze out the water and compact the aluminum as much as possible! Put all of the aluminum in a box or bin with a bag inside (so you can take it out easier/keep your box) and step on it to mush it all down. The more you compact it, the more aluminum you can collect and less trips you have to take to wherever you take it.
If you want to really get into the spirit of it all, iScrap App also compares metal pricing per business to see where you can acquire the most money from your metals. Prices change constantly due to supply and demand, some days you can get $.40 per pound or you can get $.55 per pound depending on the market that day. The national average is around $.41 for 2021.
Some of the benefits of metal recycling include:
Saving natural resources
Less energy invasive
Profitable
Bridges the gap for the increasing need for material
2. “Water” we talking about?
Beauty salons on average use about 270 gallons of water/day, barbershops use about 55 gallons, and the water bill adds up quickly because of this. Water is essential in salons for beauty services and you can’t really use a whole lot less (unless you’re really going overboard on the water usage).
However, some ways you can save water and money in the salon are:
Monitoring your water bill and checking for price increases (it could mean there’s a leak)
Keeping your pipes maintained -
by insulating them against frost
keeping sinks clear from hair and product clogs, hair traps are particularly useful for this.
Getting them checked periodically, especially over if they’re +25 years
And if they're made of lead.. get rid of them
Purchasing water efficient equipment, (this is a long term investment) -
Looking into the EPA’s conservation projects for reusable water, especially for areas where water is top priority (experiencing drought crisis or high lead levels) and can see if they would be interested in trying it out in your salon (states with these issues are more likely to be approved).
3. Upgrading your energy company
Who is supplying your business’s electricity and what resources are they using?
As renewables become more efficient and popular, there are so many options available such as:
Solar
Wind
Nuclear
Geothermal
If your current electric company doesn’t offer renewable options, here are some suggestions if you’re interested in switching to a new electric energy efficient company.
Out of all the renewables, one thing is for certain: solar energy now has the cheapest production rate. You can even set up your own solar panels if you want to take it a step further, but that is a long term investment that should be weighed carefully if money is currently tight. However, there are ways that you can do a “solar lease” or look into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) which can also give tax credits and income from sales of electricity (meaning your neighbors can benefit from your solar as well and you can make some extra $$$).
4. Switching your light bulbs
Replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs with LED (light emitting diodes), CLFs (compact fluorescent lamps), and halogen incandescents can reduce energy usage from 25%-80% and can last 3-25x as long. You save money by not having to pay as much for the energy bill or paying for new light bulbs often.
Eco Friendly light bulbs:
LED (Light Emitting Diodes)
CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamps)
Halogen Incandescents
Lighting is everything in a salon. From formulating color to the photos we take of our clients after - we need good lighting, especially as the natural lighting (the best lighting) changes throughout the day. Another way to reduce your electrical use is the practice of efficient lighting. Efficient lighting is everything; having them placed in the right areas in your building will provide the lighting you need without feeling like you need more light than necessary.
And last but not least…
5. Dropping off your recyclables
Most cities have a recycle center that you can drop your recycles off to that are free or low cost. Compared to your normal trash bill, it saves you money because you’re taking a lot of that trash out of your dumpster. Your trash will be collected less and save you money because of that. Plus, you’re diverting these items from the landfill and putting them back into a renewable economy. Win-win.
Some items you can take to your local recycling center are:
Beauty cosmetic hair product packaging
Shampoo bottles, conditioners, and other hard plastic containers are usually made of #1 or #2 plastic - which is the easiest plastic to recycle (but always check, they are usually on the back of the bottle or underneath).
Glass containers
Paper/Cardboard
Color tube boxes and cardboard from shipping products to the salon end up taking up a lot of space in the dumpster
Daily use recycles such as
Drink cans, office paper, etc can be diverted from your bin as well.
It’s amazing how much room all of these materials take up in your trash and frees up quite a bit of space when you can divert them elsewhere. You can find out more how to recycle your everyday recyclables in our resources page under Recycling in the Salon.
So with this article, we discovered that…
The scrap yard is beneficial for our industry
Our water infrastructure is a big role in how we run our business
Electricity comes with new different options
It’s as easy as switching out our light bulbs to be more energy efficient
And last but not least:
Taking the extra trip to the recycling center is worth it
As inflation and the earth’s temperature continue to rise, we can take comfort that we have each other to keep us grounded. Our job as an industry is to look out for one another, to care for each other, and to enhance beauty all around us. We have a responsibility to ourselves, our coworkers, and our clients to do just those things. Money isn’t everything, but it helps us care for our clients and run our businesses; just as being concerned for our environment.