Best Upgrades to Improve Your Small Business

How long has it been since you gave your business an upgrade? If you see worn-out furniture, dated equipment, a cramped layout and stagnant client numbers, then it's time to reinvest in your business. In fact, you should be reinvesting at least 20–30% of your profits back into your business, with some sources arguing for 50%¹. This could mean reinvesting in equipment, décor, renovation or any number of things depending on your business type & goals. Below we break down how to manage the funds you’ll use for your upgrade project, followed is a list of upgrade ideas for salons, medspas and gyms that can help you attract & retain more clients and sell higher-priced services.

Acquire Funding for Your Upgrades

Giving your business the overhaul that it needs can cost quite a bit, and it’s not always possible to reinvest such a large chunk of your profits. But there are many avenues for funding expansion, new equipment & more. Picking one is step 1.

If you’re worried about taking on new costs, one flexible option is small business funding, like Vagaro Capital. It carries simple eligibility requirements, a speedy approval process, and flexible payment options without interest. Perhaps best of all, eligible Vagaro users can get the cash advance they need (up to $300,000, potentially) in 48 hours.

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Make a Cash Flow Budget

Once you’ve got all that cash, step 2 is to plan how you’ll use it, or, cash flow management. Cash flow management helps you make informed financial decisions around expansion, major purchases, big operational expenses, debt management, and unexpected financial needs. It helps prevent insolvency and maintains liquidity, which is vital for ongoing operations.

To effectively manage your new stream of funding for upgrades and expansion you’ll need to create a cash flow budget. This covers money coming in and going out, and is structured like this:

Identify Income Sources: this includes sales revenue, loans, and investments. For individuals, it's primarily salaries, freelance income, investments, etc.
List Fixed Expenses: These include recurring expenses like rent, loan payments, insurance, and utilities.
List Variable Expenses: These are costs that fluctuate, such as advertising, supplies, entertainment, etc.
Include One-Time Expenses: This could be equipment purchases, major repairs, or any other irregular expenses.
Predict Inflows & Outflows: Estimate when the inflows and outflows will occur. Be conservative to avoid overestimating cash availability.
Calculate Net Cash Flow: Deduct total expenses from total income to find the net cash flow for each period (monthly, quarterly, etc.).
Maintain a Positive Cash Flow: Aim to have positive net cash flow. If there's a negative cash flow, evaluate ways to reduce expenses or increase income.
Create an Emergency Fund: Set aside a portion of your positive cash flow as an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses.
Regularly Review & Adjust: Account for changing circumstances, unexpected events, and to ensure accuracy.
Do Scenario Planning: Create different scenarios to see how changes in income or expenses would impact your flow of capital. This can help with contingency planning.

With all this in place, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get creative.

Salon Upgrade Ideas

The following upgrades focus on your salon’s décor, ambiance, flow and equipment. They can enhance overall appeal, attract a wider range of clientele, and encourage existing clients to explore new services.

Elevate Your Reception & Waiting Area

A new reception desk makes an immediate statement. You can also have your current desk resurfaced or laminated in lieu of buying a new one. Create an open, airy space with plenty of comfortable chairs or couches and soft-LED light fixtures. Investing in high-quality furniture and equipment is best overall because it will last longer and won’t look dated in a few years.

Revamp Your Retail Space

Salons that don’t bother with retail, or make a half-hearted effort, leave a lot of potential revenue on the table. Create a dedicated wall for all the shampoos, conditioners, creams and other products you sell. In the retail world, they call this a “power wall.” This wall should be eye-catching, with spotlights and colorful accents. It should also be positioned to the right of clients as they make their way into the waiting area. Why to the right? Most people are right-handed² and are more likely to look that way.

Strategically place seasonal, popular and/or high-priced items that you are trying to move at eye level or a bit higher.

Update Your Workstations

If it's been five years or more since you updated the chairs in your workstations, then it's time for an upgrade. Also invest in sizeable mirrors that don’t distort visuals, and plenty of storage. To keep each workstation tidy and uncluttered, consider storage bins. Equip each station with carts or trolleys for tools, adding more maneuverability for stylists. Why do all this? So that stylists can work as efficiently as possible. Greater efficiency equates to more bookings.

Add Sections for New Services

If you find that business is good, but you aren’t quite reaching revenue goals, it may be time to expand. This can mean adding dedicated space for manicures & pedicures, facials, and waxing. This can broaden your client base and add multiple new revenue streams.

Of course, you may have to knock out a wall or two to create space. First, get an idea of the space you’ll need. According to some, the average salon is about 1,500 square feet³, which can accommodate about 5–7 stylists/stations comfortably. However, 2,500–3,000 square feet enables you to accommodate 10+ stylists with room to distribute their services.

Our advice is to consult a contractor and budget for all upgrades and renovations at once to create cohesion. If done one by one, whether to save time or money, your salon can look inconsistent, incomplete, or just a complete hodgepodge. Make a checklist, make a budget, and stick to a timeline.

Medspa Upgrade Ideas

Medspas use a lot of expensive equipment and offer many popular high-end services. They also must toe the line between medical aesthetics facility and relaxing oasis.

The latter point is a good place to start.

Upgrade Your Décor & Design

Let’s move away from med for a moment and focus on spa. The environment in which you provide your services impacts a client’s experience. They expect a welcoming, luxurious, relaxing environment as soon as they walk in for their appointment.

To create this ambiance, address the following:

Reception & Waiting Areas

These areas provide the first impression, so invest in:

Comfortable seating options—chairs, couch, coffee table, etc.
Complementary drinks to offer that aren’t just water
A sound system that plays relaxing music
A TV displaying videos of happy clients and/or treatment explanations

Lighting

Invest in modern, stylish light fixtures:

Bright practical lights for treatment rooms
Warmer lights for entry area
Stationary lights in the restrooms
Accent lights that draw attention to the best parts of your medspa

Color

An all-white, sterile space can be unwelcoming and feel more medical than spa. Invest in:

Accent pieces
Accent walls
Pops of warm color here & there to draw clients in

Add More Room for Treatments

Depending on your med spa’s layout, you may be underutilizing your space. Try to repurpose dead space or unused corners for treatments that really drive revenue.

Sometimes, repurposing space involves dealing with pillars or load-bearing walls. But this construction can be more than worth it, if it means accommodating more appointments for such popular medspa treatments as:

Botox: Costs $600–$800+ per session on average⁴

Chemical Peels: Costs $519 per session on average; can reach several thousand dollars, depending on depth⁵

Filler injections: Can cost over $1,000 per treatment, on average⁶

Microdermabrasion: Potentially $300/session on average (multiplied by 6–10 treatments, spaced 7–14 days apart, per client)⁷

Fitness Upgrade Ideas

Even small gyms and boutique fitness centers spend—or, more likely, borrow—many thousands of dollars for equipment when starting their business. But, like a good fitness routine, your gym can’t afford to grow stagnant.

Let’s start, literally, from the ground up.

Upgrade Your Flooring

In fitness, we tend to think a lot about helping people reach past their ceiling. Well, maybe bring your attention to ground level for a moment.

The type of flooring you choose for your gym is crucial as it not only impacts the aesthetics but also affects safety, comfort, and functionality. Foam tiles are common and effective for yoga, Pilates and cardio-based activities. Similarly, rubber flooring is ideal for areas with heavy free weights. But what else do you offer?

Other high-end flooring options include:

Carpet Tiles Carpet tiles with a low-pile, durable construction can be used in areas like stretching zones and group exercise rooms. They offer comfort, noise reduction, and aesthetics. Look for stain-resistant and easy-to-clean carpet tiles designed for high-traffic areas.

Synthetic Turf Synthetic turf is great for functional training areas, agility drills, and indoor turf sports. It provides a natural feel underfoot and can withstand high-intensity workouts. Best of all, synthetic turf is durable and requires minimal maintenance compared to real grass.

Hardwood Flooring It may need regular maintenance, but hardwood flooring can lend a classic and upscale look to a gym. It's a suitable choice for areas where aesthetics is a priority, such as group exercise rooms or dance studios.

Luxury Vinyl Flooring Luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) or luxury vinyl planks (LVP), offer a combination of durability and aesthetics. It can mimic the look of wood or stone, provides a comfortable and supportive surface for workouts, and is resistant to moisture, making it great for areas like locker rooms and bathrooms.

Buy New Fitness Equipment

We know that fitness equipment is expensive; you’re probably still paying off those equipment loans from when you first opened. But an effective way to lose clients and scare away new ones is to showcase dated, rusty equipment on your workout floor. An even better way is to have a machine break while they use it. Clients are gone after that, along with a nice piece of your reputation.

Whether you run a small fitness studio or large gym, giving a tour of your facility is part of the gym membership sales script. So, give them something to look at, like a row of heavy bags along the wall, or high-quality weights and machines. People expect these, as well as several other types of equipment (barbell sets, good benches, elliptical machines, rowers, etc.)⁸.

More equipment means more exercise stations, or more class space for clients. This is an easy equation that ends in more revenue for you.

Add Rooms for Group Classes

If you find that your group classes are consistently filling up, it may be time to give them a bespoke room to maximize profits. But how much room do you need?

Yoga studios and group fitness studios can comfortably hold up to 20 students in a 20 x 20-foot room. That is 400 square feet. Using the above numbers, you may be able to fit 10 exercise bikes comfortably in this new room.

Yoga and cycling are incredibly popular, as is Pilates, for which people may be willing to pay upwards of $50 for a group mat class, depending on your instructor⁹. There is also great demand for boxing, kickboxing, rowing and strength-training classes, like BodyPump¹⁰.

Is it worth it to create a separate space or expand your current workout floor for these classes? That depends on:

Local demographics & demand
Your target audience
If big-box gyms nearby offer these classes
If boutique franchises are nearby that specialize in these classes

Do some light research, and you’ll find your answer.

Expand Your Main Workout Area

Let's say that your goal is to increase total revenue by increasing your studio’s general membership by 25%, and doing so would give you 200 members, total. It’s common to have about 10–15% of your total clientele in your space at one time, so you’d need enough room to accommodate 20–30 people at once. Can you do that?

Your main fitness area is where members spend the most time, and so it should account for the most space. Estimates vary, but the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) suggests 40–60 square feet (about half the area of an apartment bedroom) for each piece of fitness equipment and at least 10–14 square feet (about half the area of a queen-sized bed) for each client. There are other equations out there to follow for figuring out spatial needs¹¹.

Research all funding options available and choose one that works best for your business model, budget and timeline. Set yourself up so that when you have clear goals, a mapped-out plan, and the profit numbers to back you up, you can act.

Large-scale business upgrades don’t have to be pipedreams, nor should you have to wait long to tackle smaller ones that can provide an immediate boost to your bottom line. Whether your plan is to add square footage for new services and classes or replace worn-out tools with top-of-the-line equipment, small-business funding like Vagaro Capital helps convert those thoughts into action. It’s flexible, fast and tailor-made for any direction you want to take your business in. It lets you seize your opportunity and build toward success now.

Vagaro Capital opens doors to many possibilities—but it’s just one way. Once you have the space and resources to accommodate more clients, it's time to think about selling more. Vagaro Pay Later opens that door by making it easier for clients to afford your pricier services, packages and memberships. Then there’s scheduling all those new appointments, marketing these services...You’re going to reach these goals sooner than you think. Sign up for your 30-day FREE trial and experience all that you can unlock for your business.

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