Beauty Salon Feasibility Study in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metro Area

A two-lender salon market with small tickets

The median beauty salon loan around Baltimore-Columbia-Towson is $75,000, 0.75x the national class median, with $25,000 and $200,000 as the quartile edges. The 112 approvals add up to only $15.7 million for FY2017 to FY2026. Baltimore is 17 of 546 among all areas for the class, and salons hold 5 of 39 locally, while a location quotient of 1.57x shows salons far overrepresented in local lending relative to the nation.

Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company holds 68 SBA 7(a) loans and $5.4 million, a commanding position, and The Huntington National Bank holds 6 loans and $1.8 million. Loan Analytics withholds the program totals for SBA 7(a) and SBA 504 because too few loans back them, and SBA 504 shows no named lender. Franchised units are 17.9%. The list reflects SBA's holder data and no verdict on practice.

Counties and the cancellation record

Baltimore County, MD has 29 loans, Howard County, MD 23, Anne Arundel County, MD 20, Baltimore city, MD 17 and Harford County, MD 16. Cancellation is low, at 6.4% on the floor and 6.4% at the top limit for FY2017 to FY2024 approvals; undisbursed loans change nothing. No charge-off rate appears, and the FY2020 and FY2021 counts are missing too, both held back under Loan Analytics' own rule, so they stay blank rather than nil.

Yearly approvals were 12 loans and $2.2 million in FY2017, 11 in FY2018 and FY2019, 6 in FY2022, then 15 loans and $1.4 million in FY2023, 18 in FY2024 and 19 loans and $2.3 million in FY2026. With such small dollars, an applicant near the upper quartile edge of $200,000 should expect questions about collateral. The 2023 delineation places loans by project county.

Testing a Baltimore salon

A study should count households and workers near a site in Baltimore County or Howard County, list the chairs already competing, and cost plumbing, chairs and build-out against $75,000. A request near $200,000 needs a clear reason. Ticket volume and stylist retention have to carry the loan. Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company holds 68 of the 112 loans, so the holder list is heavily concentrated and should not be read as a spread of lenders. The 0.75x median ratio and the 1.57x quotient pull in opposite directions: salons are common in Baltimore lending, yet each loan is small, so a study should size the request against $75,000 first and explain any amount that climbs toward the $200,000 quartile edge.