Salon & spa

1. Book with a card on file and a stated cancellation window. The policy should be short, written, visible at booking, and the same for everyone.
2. Confirm at booking and remind 24 to 48 hours ahead by the channel the client chose. Most no-shows are forgetfulness, and reminders remove them.
3. For long or multi-service appointments — colour corrections, extensions, packages — take a deposit. These are the slots that cannot be refilled and they are where the money is.
4. Keep a standby list for the day and work it when a cancellation comes in. Filling a two-hour hole the same morning is the highest-paid hour the front desk works.
5. Charge the published late-cancellation fee consistently. Inconsistency does more damage than the fee ever will.
6. Rebook at the chair, before payment, while the client is pleased with the result.

1. Consult before touching the hair: what the client wants, what their hair will do, what it will cost, and how long it will take. Agree the price before starting, especially on colour.
2. Record the formula, timing, developer, products and the result after every colour service. The formula record is what makes the second visit reliable and the stylist replaceable.
3. Patch-test where the product's instructions require it — colour and lash adhesives in particular — and record that you did, with the date.
4. Photograph before and after, with consent, for colour and transformation work. It settles disputes and it is also the marketing.
5. Note allergies, sensitivities, scalp conditions, medications and pregnancy where the client discloses them, and respect what the product's own instructions say about each.
6. Where the requested service would damage the hair or is not achievable in one visit, say so, write down what you said, and offer the staged plan instead.

1. Know which regulation applies to your premises. In Ontario, personal service settings are regulated under the Health Protection and Promotion Act and inspected by the local public health unit; other provinces inspect through their health authorities. Get the inspector's own checklist and work to it.
2. Separate single-use from reusable. Anything that cannot be properly reprocessed — wooden sticks, buffers, pumice, files that cannot be disinfected — is single use, used once and discarded in front of the client.
3. Clean instruments first, then disinfect or sterilise to the level the service requires: high-level disinfection or sterilisation for anything that can break skin, and a product registered for that use at the label's dilution and contact time.
4. Keep a reprocessing log and, where you use an autoclave, run and record biological indicator tests at the interval your health authority requires. The log is what the inspector reads.
5. Launder and store linens clean, dry and covered; one towel per client, no exceptions, and a visible separation between clean and used.
6. If a client is injured and skin is broken, stop, provide first aid, discard what cannot be reprocessed, record the incident, and follow your health authority's guidance on blood exposure.

1. Decide the model deliberately: employees on wage or commission, or independent renters who pay for a chair. They are different businesses with different economics, risks and tax treatment.
2. Understand that calling someone a renter does not make them one. Tax and employment authorities look at the substance — who sets the hours and prices, who owns the tools and products, who takes the client's payment, who bears the risk of no clients. Getting this wrong produces retroactive payroll assessments with interest.
3. If you rent chairs, use a written licence agreement with rent, term, hours of access, insurance obligations, booking independence and who owns the client list. Then actually operate that way.
4. If you employ, write the commission structure down with the product-cost treatment and how it interacts with minimum wage — commission-only arrangements still have a wage floor in most jurisdictions.
5. Register for payroll and workers' compensation where you employ, and keep tips handling consistent with the rules in your jurisdiction.
6. Review the classification annually, and whenever the arrangement changes in practice.

1. Separate backbar from retail in the inventory system. Mixing them makes both the service cost and the retail margin unknowable.
2. Count retail weekly and backbar monthly, by one person who does not also order.
3. Set colour-dispensing discipline: weigh and record what is mixed per client. Colour waste is the largest silent cost in a salon.
4. Price retail against the manufacturer's terms and the reality that a client can buy it online; compete on advice at the chair, not on price.
5. Track retail as a percentage of service revenue per stylist — it is both a margin and a client-engagement signal.
6. Reconcile stock to purchases monthly and investigate gaps immediately. Shrinkage in salons is common and quiet.

1. Licence the music. Playing recorded music in a commercial space in Canada requires tariffs from SOCAN, for the composers and publishers, and Re:Sound, for performers and record labels. A consumer streaming subscription does not cover commercial use, and these tariffs are enforced.
2. Handle gift certificates as a liability, not as revenue: money received for a service not yet delivered. Several jurisdictions also restrict expiry dates and fees on them.
3. Check prepaid package rules in your jurisdiction — consumer protection legislation frequently governs prepaid services, cancellation rights and what you may require a customer to commit to.
4. Post what the law requires posted: prices where required, health permit, business licence, and emergency information.
5. Keep the premises accessible and the exits clear, and know your occupancy limit.
6. Diarise every renewal — business licence, health permit, music tariffs, insurance — on one annual calendar with a named owner.

Licences and registrations

• Public health permit and inspection of the premises — The local health authority — in Ontario the local public health unit, under the regulation for personal service settings made under the Health Protection and Promotion Act
  This is the binding regulation for most Canadian salons: inspection of instrument reprocessing, single-use items, linens, surfaces and records. Inspections are unannounced and results are frequently published.
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• Occupational certification where it exists — Provincial apprenticeship authorities; Hairstylist is a Red Seal trade
  Hairstyling and esthetics are not licensed occupations in most Canadian provinces, so certification is voluntary and a hiring signal rather than a legal requirement — Quebec is the notable exception, and US states licence practitioners and establishments. Check your own jurisdiction rather than assuming either way.
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• Municipal business licence and zoning — The municipality
  Confirm the use is permitted at the address, and check signage rules and parking requirements at the same time.
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• Music performance tariffs — SOCAN and Re:Sound
  Both are required to play recorded music commercially in Canada: SOCAN for the composition, Re:Sound for the recording. A personal streaming subscription does not license commercial use.
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• The medical boundary — Provincial health profession regulators
  Injectables, prescription-strength peels, laser treatments and anything that penetrates below the epidermis are restricted procedures in most jurisdictions, performable only by authorised professionals and sometimes only under delegation. A medical spa needs the right practitioner and the right insurance, and the regulator does not accept enthusiasm as a qualification.
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• Payroll, workers' compensation and employment standards — Federal and provincial
  Particularly important here because of commission structures, tips and the chair-rental classification question — all three are routinely audited in this industry.
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Insurance

• Commercial general liability — Slips, burns, property damage and third-party injury. A landlord will require it, usually at $2M, before the lease is signed.13
• Professional liability for the services performed — The claims in this trade are chemical burns, allergic reactions, damaged hair, infections and lash injuries — a service failure rather than an accident, and general liability does not answer for it. Confirm the policy covers every service you actually offer, by name.13
• Cover for chair renters, and proof of theirs — If stylists rent, they need their own professional liability and you need evidence of it on file, renewed annually. An uninsured renter's claim will arrive at your door regardless of the agreement.13
• Property, contents, stock and business interruption — Salon fit-out is expensive and specific. Interruption cover matters because a water escape closes you for weeks while the rent continues.13
• Workers' compensation coverage — Mandatory for employees. Repetitive strain and chemical exposure are the characteristic claims, and both are preventable with ventilation and scheduling.6