Website idea: Hair salon appointments - opinions and advice?

[Dreisig]

Hi Guys!

I've got a business idea in mind and wanted to get some opinions and advice.

First off a little info about me: I've read TMF , I'm 21 years old, I live in Denmark, I currently have no income.

My idea is this (don't know if you've already got this one in the U.S., but I think there's an opportunity for it to succeed in Denmark (population: 5 million):

• Setting up a website that contains a database over the hair salons near you, with the ability to compare prices, reviews etc., and of course, as the main selling point, setting up an appointment online.
• The hair salons would then have to pay a small amount for every appointment made from my website. This way they will only pay if the website generates any appointments for them to make money.
• The hair salons should be able to sign up themselves, edit prices and info and announce campaigns and offers.

Obstacles:

• I have no experience of setting up and designing websites.
• There is already a competitor, except on that site the hair salons pay a monthly fee instead of paying per appointment. I'm certain I can come up with a more simple design and more userfriendly features.
• Alot of hair salons have got a system for setting up appointmens on their own websites. But taken into account there is no risk in joining this website I can't imagin why they wouldn't.

What do you guys think? Is it worth a shot? Should I outsource the website making (what would it cost?) or learn to code/design it myself?

I hope you can help push me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance
- Dreisig


Sorry for any grammar mistakes as english isn't my native language.

 

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[pro]

I don't like this business:
a) cost to send consumers to the website
b) cost to acquire salons

 

[Dreisig]

I don't like this business:
a) cost to send consumers to the website
b) cost to acquire salons

Thanks for the reply!
Can you be a bit more specific?
Especially with acquiring salons to the website I fail to see any major expenses. Please enlighten me.

 

[karakoram]

He means marketing costs to get hair salons to go to your website, and marketing costs to get consumers looking for salons to go to your website.

I like your idea but Pro is right. You will need to figure out how to overcome your marketing costs to make this idea work.

 

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[RazvanRogoz]

To similar to Groupon for me.

Almost all business in this niche use coupons to get clients these days.

Also, the entry costs (designing everything, keeping in touch with every saloon) is too high compared to what you're getting back.

Control - Yes and no. How do you know if they convert? It's a physical service. Let's say that you send lead A. Do you have 100% certainty that they'll confirm that this lead comes from you?

Entry need - If you don't know how to design an website, then someone who knows can do this. I think it's a little more complicated than this. Why don't you post on Elance your needs (don't give specifics) and see what they can offer you?

Time - It depends on the marketing time invested. It's not much, as long as you have the skills. You'll also need to cold call. Cold calling is easy and fun, but you need guts.

Scale - Well, here's a problem. How many saloons are in your area? 5? 10? 50? Can you expand this idea nationally? Kind of beats the initial idea of local generated leads. You realize that you can't add new saloons without having to manually call them, pitch them the idea and then sign an agreement with them, no? (unless you offer this as a service, but I'd suggest you get a track record first).

I'd go against it.

If you would make it subscription based (a fixed sum per month) and not success based (pay only if they are actually getting money from the client), I would go with it. But the success based solution comes with a high risk of fraud.

And if you think people are fair and they'll pay you for every lead just because you are a nice guy ... I'd think again.

Razvan

 

[JayKid]

This idea is essentially the same as MJ's lead generation website, except instead of limos, it's salons. I don't think the marketing costs would be incredible. Ultimately, it must market itself. Either through word of mouth and/or SEO.

However, the question is, how do people approach making appointments.

With limos, you are often not a recurring customer. As a result, each time someone wants a limo, just like with booking a flight, or hotel, they will go to a service for that.

However, for salons, people find the one they like, and they keep going. So, while you might need a limo or a flight and go to a booking site multiple times, will someone bother doing that with your website? Once they have found what they like, that's it. For a salon, they know this and do not want to pay a percentage every time someone books because that adds up to a lot! They won't be using an online scheduling system to really attract anybody, but more so to get repeat customers to schedule without needing to call to do so.

So, that's where I think the idea misses the mark, ultimately. It's not about salons and customers not using it. The problem is that, even if they do use it, salons don't want to pay per appointment because each appointment is not really a new lead. Only a NEW customer is a new lead that would be worth a percentage.

This is why the competitor is using a monthly fee. They are providing a scheduling service, NOT lead generation. Yes, lead generation is part of it, but it's not really the sole driver.

 

[fellipe]

yes, I think lead generation only works with commodities services.

 

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[Dreisig]

Thanks for the replies, it's greatly appreciated!

RazvanRogoz: I don't see how this is anything like Groupon. It was thought to be nationally. Your other points are spot on, and I really don't want having the salons to pay a fixed sum every month. I think that ruins the focus of the idea a little - that they should only pay as long as they get something from it.

JayKid: Wow, I hadn't thought of it like that. I agree with you, the salons probably only want to pay for NEW costumers and that's why the competitor is using a monthly fee. And letting them pay for new costumers only, probably won't be such a good business. I understand that for this kind of business to work properly it has to be a new costumer almost every time a lead is generated, and with hair salons I must admit that's not the case.

I don't think I will go with this idea, but I'm very pleased with the opinions you guys are throwing at me, really helps me see things from all angles. Again, thanks alot. Now it's time to come up with a new idea

 

[NewWorldOrder]

I would say go out and talk to actual people in hair salons. Without talking to them, you could formulate any number of theories to support anything you WANTED to believe. Nothing beats empirical evidence.

 

[CommonCents]

Your model sounds more like OpenTable.com, see how they did it.

 

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[karakoram]

Dreisig
Here's another idea for you (not real original) and its success depends on your ability to sell it.
Create a web based appointment system that also texts appointment reminders. Charge the salons a monthly fee to use your system. Their clients make appointments through the front desk (receptionist) of the salon, and she(he) logs into your system and sets the appointment, and sets the reminder text to go out. The receiver (salon client) gets a text the day before or the day of their appointment. THey can then send a text back to confirm, cancel, ask for a call back to reschedule.

System like this already exist. THere are several that offer "white label" or reseller packages. Given that you don't know how to program, this might be the best route for you. You put up a Wordpress front end, with a nice theme and payment integration, and integrate the white label appointment system (they will be able to help you with this). Your job is then simply to sell the system to salons.

You could also sell to doctors, dentists, etc. as well.

 

[BeachBoy]

I agree on the sms reminder part. and you should definitely rebrand and resell a package, coding something like this is not that easy.

I think it's a good rising trend (the reservations websites) but I hope it won't make the next groupon thing.. everyone is now starting sites to find painters/landscapers/name it, and the market gets fragmented. as the entry is quite easy.

 

[theBiz]

b) cost to acquire salons

I want this, if its easy i wont even do it. Why? Because its your job to get creative and get the people there much cheaper than other people. is it expensive? Can you hire 60 people per day in another country to call non stop for a couple hundred and be effective? Yes. How much would it cost to get a decent amount of companies onboard $10,000... Is that alot for a business that could potentially make that in a day or two?

I actually know someone worth a few hundred million who has hired people to walk from store to store and sign up businesses to his website...... salesman have to sign up the businesses for free. I kid you not, may sound stupid but you have to start small with some businesses.

Also once you have built your business, if competitors are going how the hell did they get the customers? Thats sometimes a good thing, you have a real business not a tech fly by night that some 14 year old in Indonesia can copy. Sometimes, good things take time. Work on the monetization model. Sign up one company yourself and see if it works.

 

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[DeskSnacker]

There is actually already something like this online for individual salons. A salon or dentist office, or whomever service-oriented business, can purchase a software or software service that a patron can go online to schedule instead of calling the business to schedule. It's definitely the wave of the future. Funny how the wave of the future is always avoiding personal contact.