Mount Pleasant, SC Salon Business Loans: Dryers, Pedicure Chairs and Movable Furnishings

A barber shop pays for chairs bought to last for years, clippers and sterilizers that wear out sooner, and, at some point, a move into a larger space or a salon suite. Hydraulic chairs, sterilizers and a new front counter fit equipment financing; the deposit and first months of a suite lease, plus supplies, fit working capital. In a suite the barber leases a private room inside a larger building, so the request names the suite, the monthly rent and what the chairs and fixtures cost.

Barbering is a small employer group in Charleston County, SC: 15 barber shops had paid employees in 2023 (CBP, NAICS 812111). Barbers working with no paid staff show up in Nonemployer Statistics, which listed 190 such shops in Charleston County, SC for 2024.

Pedicure chairs with self-contained basins, portable filtration, nail tables and a polish wall are supplier-quoted equipment. Fixed plumbing and venting are excluded, and any landlord approval needed for supplier setup can belong in the lease file.

Illustration only, invented figures: 4 pedicure thrones at $5,850 each plus $3,400 of self-contained basins and portable filtration units make a $26,800 package, financed over 48 months at an annual rate of 10.9%. The salon would pay $691.36 a month, $33,185.28 over the term, with $6,385.28 of it going to interest.

More than two in three of the 41 nail salons with paid staff in Charleston County, SC kept payroll under five people in 2023 (28 salons, 68.3%; CBP, NAICS 812113). ZIP Code Business Patterns listed 9 nail salons with a ZIP 29464 address that year. Separately, the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics show 466 nail salons in Charleston County, SC with no paid employees.

A hair salon carries three kinds of cost: hood dryers and styling stations that last for years; color and care product bought every few weeks; and movable furnishings or supplier setup. Each points to a different route; fixed room work is excluded:

Beauty salons in Charleston County, SC are small employers: the 170 with paid staff had 772 employees between them in 2023, about 4.5 per salon by our arithmetic, and 65.9% employed fewer than five (CBP, NAICS 812112). With a merchant cash advance, the provider buys a share of future card sales and collects it from the daily card batches, priced with a factor rate instead of interest.

Equipment, working capital and a credit line are set side by side for a salon in the salon funding article.

Movable furnishings can include freestanding lighting and privacy screens; fixed plumbing, wiring and finishes are excluded. A lender reviewing the request can ask for:

• The supplier quote, with self-contained units and movable furnishings shown separately
• The lease, any landlord approval needed for supplier setup and any allowance toward movable items
• How many stylists or booth renters will work in the room once it reopens
• Card and cash receipts from recent months, out of the booking or POS system
• How the salon keeps seeing clients during supplier setup

Booth rent counts as income too. A salon that rents chairs to independent stylists can show the rent roll, and a partner can weigh that steady income next to service sales.

Adding a row of stations is an expansion priced on a quote: chairs, mirrors and styling stations. The equipment fits equipment financing; fixed plumbing is excluded, and the weeks of pay for new stylists before their books fill fit working capital.

In 2023, ZIP Code Business Patterns located 46 beauty salons in ZIP 29464. Nonemployer Statistics, which covers businesses with no paid employees, listed 1,109 beauty salons in Charleston County, SC for 2024. A lease checklist for a bigger space is on the Mount Pleasant, SC page; fitness studios have a page of their own, and the other trades are on the industries page.