1. Establish

1 to 4

Register the company; secure the lease on measured footfall; obtain the business licence and health approval; complete fit-out; install extraction, sterilisation and systems; recruit and verify the first therapist team

Health certificate issued; premises trading-ready

2. Pre-sell the membership

3 to 5

Recruit founding members before opening at a launch rate; build the booking base; train the team on the membership conversation as a defined process

150 founding members signed before day one

3. Open and fill

5 to 12

Open six stations and three rooms; measure utilisation daily by station and by hour; drive off-peak occupancy; establish the retail counter and attachment routine

Nail utilisation above 50%; membership above 200

4. Build the base

Year 2

Expand to eight stations and four rooms; grow membership toward 260; formalise retention and rebooking discipline

Positive EBITDA; membership churn below target

5. Stabilise

Year 3

Reach 470 members; retail attachment above 12%; commence full debt service; document the operating format

Positive net profit; format documented

6. Expand and prove

Years 4 to 5

Expand to ten stations and five rooms; grow membership to 780; benchmark revenue per station; evaluate a second site only once site one exceeds 65% nail utilisation

Revenue per station above R900 000; second site assessed

Lease signed on measured footfall

Everything

Fit-out is sunk from day one and rent runs from day one. Site selection on measured footfall rather than on centre marketing

Municipal health certificate of acceptability

Opening

A salon trading without it is trading unlawfully and is uninsurable. Inspection typically follows fit-out, so it cannot be brought forward

Salon manager appointed

Opening

The hire that determines whether capacity gets filled. Utilisation and membership conversion both run through it

150 founding members signed

Opening

A new salon that opens into an empty diary looks unpopular, and looking unpopular is self-reinforcing in a discretionary category

Therapist team recruited and verified

Opening

Qualification verification is an insurability condition, not an administrative step

Station-level extraction commissioned

Opening

An occupational health obligation for technicians and a comfort condition for clients

Twelve-month capital moratorium

Surviving Year 1

EBITDA is negative R843 000 in Year 1. Principal cannot be serviced and the term must be agreed at the outset

Nail utilisation above 65% at site one

Any second site

The format is not proven until the first site fills. A second site opened early is a second set of the first site’s problems