Beauty Salon Feasibility Study in Colorado

Colorado salons borrow more

The figure that marks Colorado out is the size of a salon loan. Its median of $150,000 is 1.50x the national median for beauty salons, a gap that sets the cell apart from both the class nationally and Colorado's own record across all asset classes. The rest of the profile is close to the national pattern: 235 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $71.1 million, rank Colorado 12 of 54, salons place 8 of 39 among Colorado classes, and a 1.03x location quotient is near parity. Colorado borrowers are not financing more salons than elsewhere; they are financing bigger ones.

Ticket range, programs and lenders

Colorado's middle half of loans stretches from $50,000 to $350,000, so the cell spans chair-rental refits at one end and full studio builds or salon purchases at the other. SBA 7(a) carried 218 loans and SBA 504 carried 17, the latter mostly property. Franchise systems account for 14.0% of loans. U.S. Bank, National Association holds the most 7(a) loans, 35, but they total only $2.8 million, while The Huntington National Bank's 20 loans reach $4.8 million and Newtek Bank, National Association's 10 reach $4.2 million. Wells Fargo Bank National Association has 18 and Readycap Lending, LLC 10. B:Side Capital leads 504 with 13 loans worth $3.4 million. Denver County holds 55 approvals, Jefferson 34, Arapahoe 28 and Boulder 25. Lending has risen, from 15 loans in FY2017 to 44 worth $11.7 million in FY2025.

Outcome floors in Colorado

Cancellation claimed at least 12.3% of Colorado salon approvals made in FY2017 to FY2024, and 15.4% on the ceiling that counts undisbursed loans as cancelled. Charge-offs are the sharper warning: 7.4% of the 68 Colorado salon loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021 are charged off to date, against 2.9% inside five years of approval, which puts much of the Colorado loss after the fifth year, when leases renew and stylists move on. Both are floors.

A feasibility study for a Colorado salon therefore has to justify the larger ticket. It must show demand for the service menu in the specific neighbourhood, tie the build-out cost to a lease long enough to amortise it, and prove debt service coverage with realistic chair occupancy and stylist retention, not only in the opening year but through a lease renewal. Where property is financed, the appraiser has to value the Colorado building as real estate, separate from the salon business.

No coding caveat attaches to this class; every count here rests on the industry code carried on each Colorado loan record.