Michelle spent fourteen years as a scheduling coordinator for a national logistics firm, the kind of job she assumed would always need a person behind it. Then the firm rolled out an AI-driven rostering system that did in six seconds what used to take her half a day, and within a year her department had shrunk from nine people to two. She was one of the seven. Sitting in her kitchen with a redundancy payout and a lot of unanswered questions, she found herself thinking about the one thing that had always steadied her through stressful years — cutting her own family’s hair, badly at first, then rather well. Nobody has built software that can read a client’s scalp, sense how she’s sitting in the chair, or talk her through a hard week while shaping a fringe that suits her face. That is the whole case for hairdressing and barbering as a career restart: it is tactile, personal, and endlessly human, and no algorithm is coming for it.

Hair and grooming services are also one of the most enduring small business categories in Australia, recession-resistant in a way office jobs are not, because people keep getting haircuts even when they cut back elsewhere. This post walks through what it actually takes to open a salon or barbershop — from the qualifications you’ll need, through registration and start-up costs, to the mistakes that trip up first-time owners and a realistic 90-day plan to get your chair full.

What Does It Take to Start a Hair Salon or Barbershop?

Unlike some of the businesses in this series, hairdressing and barbering are formally regulated trades in Australia. To practise as a qualified hairdresser or barber and legally call yourself one, you generally need to complete a Certificate III in Hairdressing (or the barbering-specific equivalent offered by some registered training organisations) through an apprenticeship, which typically takes around three to four years combining paid on-the-job training with structured study through a registered training organisation (RTO). If you were made redundant from an unrelated career and are starting from scratch, this is the biggest practical hurdle — you cannot simply buy some clippers and open a shop.

There are a few realistic pathways. You can enrol as a mature-age apprentice, which is increasingly common and often supported by state-based incentives for career-changers. You can complete a fast-tracked Certificate III through a private college if you already have some informal experience, though you will still need supervised practical hours. Or, if your ambition is to own the business rather than stand behind the chair yourself, you can employ qualified, licensed hairdressers and barbers while you run the operations, marketing and customer experience side — a valid model, though most successful owner-operators in this trade are qualified stylists themselves who built a loyal clientele before going out on their own.

Beyond the qualification, the temperament that succeeds here is steady hands, genuine listening skills, comfort with small talk and silence in equal measure, and the stamina to stand for long shifts. Basic bookkeeping, comfort with booking software, and an eye for social media presentation round out what a modern salon owner needs.

Setting Up the Business

Once you’re qualified, or have qualified staff, the administrative setup follows a fairly standard path. Register for an Australian Business Number (ABN) through the Australian Business Register, and decide early whether you’ll trade as a sole trader, partnership, or company — a company structure is worth discussing with an accountant once you plan to employ staff or take on business risk, as it offers a layer of separation between business and personal assets.

Your local council will require premises registration for a hairdressing or beauty business, which typically involves an inspection covering hygiene standards, sterilisation practices, waste disposal (including sharps if you offer razor work), ventilation and disability access. Requirements vary by council, so contact yours early, ideally before signing a lease, since fit-out standards can affect which premises are suitable. You’ll also need public liability insurance as a baseline, and many salon owners add public and products liability cover (in case a product causes an allergic reaction) as well as business insurance covering equipment, stock and interruption. If you employ staff, workers’ compensation insurance is compulsory in every state and territory.

Check whether your state requires any additional hairdressing-specific licensing beyond general business registration — most states regulate the premises rather than issuing an individual “hairdresser’s licence,” but rules do shift, so a quick check with your state’s fair trading or consumer affairs body is worthwhile before you commit to a site.

What It Costs to Get Started

Costs vary enormously depending on whether you’re opening a modest two-chair barbershop or a multi-station salon, but here’s a realistic range for a first-time owner-operator setup in Australia:

  • Fit-out (basins, chairs, mirrors, storage, plumbing and electrical work): $20,000–$60,000 depending on whether the space is a shell or already fitted for hair services
  • Equipment (clippers, scissors, dryers, chemicals, trolleys, sterilising equipment): $5,000–$15,000
  • Point-of-sale and booking software subscriptions: $50–$200 per month
  • Insurance (public liability, contents, workers’ compensation if employing): $1,500–$4,000 per year
  • Council registration and inspection fees: a few hundred dollars, varying by council
  • Signage, branding and initial stock (retail hair products): $3,000–$8,000
  • Working capital buffer for the first three months of rent and wages before the client base builds: $10,000–$20,000

All told, a realistic total start-up budget sits somewhere between $40,000 and $100,000 for a small salon or barbershop, with the lower end achievable if you take over an existing fitted salon space (a “chair rental takeover” or buying an existing small business) rather than building from a bare shell.

Finding Your First Customers

Set up and fully complete your Google Business Profile before you open — photos of the space, services listed with indicative pricing, and your opening hours all help you show up in “hairdresser near me” searches, which is where most local clients start looking. Encourage every one of your first clients to leave a review; a handful of genuine five-star reviews in your first month does more for local search ranking than almost anything else.

Instagram and TikTok are the natural home for this trade — before-and-after photos, short transformation videos, and behind-the-chair clips build trust fast because people are choosing someone to handle their appearance, and seeing the work is far more persuasive than reading about it. Partner with local photographers, wedding planners and makeup artists for referrals, and consider an opening-week promotion (a discounted first cut, or a referral bonus for existing contacts) to seed your booking calendar. Community Facebook groups for your suburb are still surprisingly effective for hair and barbering recommendations — ask happy early clients to mention you there.

Common Mistakes First-Time Owners Make

  • Underestimating how long it takes to build a full client book — most new salons take six to twelve months to reach a sustainable, steady clientele, and owners who expect instant demand often panic and discount too heavily.
  • Skimping on the qualification pathway or supervision requirements, which risks compliance issues and undermines the trust that clients place in a trained stylist.
  • Underpricing services to compete with bigger salons, which erodes margin and makes it hard to ever raise prices later without losing clients.
  • Neglecting the business side — bookkeeping, stock control and rostering — because the owner is also the one doing every haircut, leaving no time to manage the numbers.

Your First 90 Days

Weeks 1–2: finalise your ABN, business structure, council registration and insurance. Confirm your fit-out and order equipment with enough lead time, since some items (chairs, basins) can take weeks to arrive.

Weeks 3–6: set up booking software, point-of-sale, and your Google Business Profile. Start building an Instagram presence with “coming soon” content and behind-the-scenes fit-out photos to create anticipation before you open.

Weeks 7–8: soft-launch with friends, family and past clients from any previous salon relationships, offering a modest opening discount in exchange for reviews and social media tags.

Weeks 9–12: open fully, track which marketing channels are actually bringing in bookings, and start building referral relationships with complementary local businesses (makeup artists, formalwear hire, photographers). By day 90, aim to have a repeatable weekly rhythm of bookings, a small but growing review base, and a clear read on which services are most profitable.

Still deciding what’s right for you? See how the numbers stack up for nail salon business, tattoo studio and dry cleaning business in our other guides.

Redundancy has a way of making people feel replaceable, but there is nothing replaceable about a good haircut delivered by someone who’s paying attention to you as a person — that’s precisely why this trade has survived every wave of automation so far and will keep doing so. If you’re ready to turn your idea into a real salon or barbershop, GrowOnline can help with the market research, website, and marketing systems that get your chairs booked out faster.