Beauty Salon Feasibility Study in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metro Area

Parity on the count, a premium on the ticket

Charlotte's salon record sits almost exactly at the national mix. The location quotient of 1.01x shows beauty salons make up about the same share of loans here as across the country, while loan size runs high: the midpoint of $146,900 is 1.47x the national midpoint. SBA counted 64 approvals worth $13.8 million over FY2017 through FY2026. Nationally the area is 32 of 546 for salons, while inside the area they hold ninth place, 9 of 39.

A wide band of tickets

Half of the loans fall between $32,625 and $316,575, a wide spread between the smallest and the largest requests. Franchise concepts take 32.8% of loans, a notable minority, so a franchise model is plausible but not the norm. Charlotte shows no program split: Loan Analytics holds back both the 7(a) count and the 504 count, since few loans stand behind each.

Mecklenburg County dominates

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, accounts for 48 of the loans, with Union County 7. The metro reaches into South Carolina, but only two counties, both in North Carolina, have enough loans to be named here. The holders SBA names are Wells Fargo Bank National Association on 8 loans worth $1.1 million, Pinnacle Bank (TN) on 7 worth $3.4 million, Newtek Bank, National Association on 7 worth $900,000, and Readycap Lending, LLC on 5 worth $208,500. Pinnacle's seven loans carry the highest dollars, so its tickets are the largest of the group.

Years and the unprinted loss rates

SBA prints FY2017 with 12 loans and $2.1 million, FY2018 with 8 and $2.6 million, FY2019 with 8 and $2.1 million, FY2022 with 7 and $2.0 million, FY2024 with 5 and $443,500, FY2025 with 9 and $897,000, and FY2026 with 8 and $734,000. Other years do not appear. The cell prints no cancellation or charge-off rate, as Loan Analytics holds a rate back when the count is small; a blank here is no zero and no guess.

Testing a Charlotte-area salon

Any salon study in this metro should test the price point of the neighborhood against the $146,900 median and the number of stylist stations the lease can support. It should check competitors in the same shopping center, stylist retention, product and supply costs, and the booking pattern across the week. Leasehold improvement cost against the lease term is a major test. Payment coverage should hold if stations fill slowly, and the appraisal should say whether it rests on the going concern or on the premises.