Beauty Salon Feasibility Study in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area

Small tickets in a large market

SBA approved 238 beauty salon loans across Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach during FY2017 to FY2026, for $49.9 million gross, putting the area 6 of 546 nationally and salons 6 of 39 by class locally. Its location quotient is 0.97x: salons hold almost exactly the national share. What stands out is the size of the loans. The median is $55,000, 0.55x the national class median, with quartiles at $25,000 and $206,875. Miami-Dade County has 119 loans, Broward 64 and Palm Beach 55.

At that scale a feasibility study is as much about a single chair count as about a market. Rents for storefront space, the number of booth renters versus employees, and the owner's own production all drive revenue, and a lender reading a request near the median is financing equipment and a lease deposit more than a building. The franchise share is 8.4%, so most salons here are independents. Loans split 228 under 7(a) and 10 under 504.

Lender names

Bank holders: TD Bank, National Association (47 loans, $1.4 million); Readycap Lending, LLC (24 loans, $1.9 million); Wells Fargo Bank National Association (19 loans, $393,800); JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (15 loans, $755,000); Newtek Bank, National Association (14 loans, $1.2 million). Dollar totals this small show that the holders' books here are made of micro-sized loans. Remember the rule for this page: the entries are SBA's record of loans a holder owns or owned, not a view of its present lending.

Floors that matter to a lender

Cancelled salon approvals reach a floor of 15.0%, and the matching ceiling is withheld. Charge-offs hit at least 9.1% of a 66-loan cohort so far, while the five-year rate is withheld, which is not the same as none. Salon requests carry a high charge-off floor against a low loan size, so the study should show the owner's experience, the stylist pipeline and a realistic ramp to full chairs.

A salon loan with an unmatched county is missing from the totals above, so the South Florida figures understate volume slightly. A study for a Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach location should also test walk-in traffic against appointment demand, state licensing for stylists, and what rent per square foot leaves for the owner after chair costs. Salon loans reach the 238 from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, three counties the July 2023 delineation recognises; a salon whose county went unrecognised would vanish from every metro total, so read 238 as a lower bound.