Beauty Salon Feasibility Study in the Columbus, OH Metro Area

The smallest loans, and a stubbornly high loss floor

Columbus salon loans are small and have a hard record. A $50,000 median makes Columbus loans 0.50x the national size, with the inner half running $25,000 to $150,000. In the disbursed group of 40 loans, FY2017 to FY2021, no fewer than 15.0% are charged off so far; while cancellation removed 16.8% or more of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals. Columbus holds sixteenth place among 546 areas, salons rank fifth locally, and its 1.13x location quotient sits a little above the national weight.

The 113 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026 total only $16.5 million. The 7(a) and 504 counts are not released for this cell, but loans this small most likely fund working capital and equipment. Franchise flags appear on 14.2% of loans. Franklin County has 78 of the loans, Delaware County 17, and Fairfield and Licking counties 6 each.

Huntington at the center

Under SBA's records, 58 of these loans, worth $7.3 million, belong to The Huntington National Bank, far more than to anyone else. The other name on the list, U.S. Bank, National Association, has 9 worth only $411,000. No other lender reaches the list. A concentration like this describes a portfolio, and a borrower should not read it as a lender's policy.

Columbus has two suppressed figures, a cancellation ceiling and a loss rate for the first five years; both are blanks, and neither is a zero. The yearly record shows 13 loans in FY2017, a low of 6 in FY2020, a peak of 18 in FY2024, worth $1.8 million, and 6 again in FY2026, worth $1.3 million. Small counts mean that one or two loans can move a year's total.

What a Columbus salon study should test

Loan size here usually signals a modest studio or suite, so the study should be proportionate yet careful on three things. First, chair economics: what each stylist pays or earns, how long a new stylist takes to build a book, and what happens when one leaves. Second, the lease, which should be long enough to recover buildout. Third, the borrower's experience, since the 15.0% loss floor and the cancellation floor both suggest that execution risk is real. Demand is local, drawn from households within a short drive of a university-heavy and fast-growing area, and competition includes chains and independent suites. Franklin County figures could be understated if a loan's county failed to match the July 2023 list.