Beauty salon loans take four main forms: equipment financing for stations, chairs and lamps; a term loan for one fixed cost; working capital, as fixed payments or line draws, for product orders; and a card-sales advance, which a funding source collects as a share of daily card sales. This comparison prices them with invented figures for a Smyrna, TN salon.
A side-by-side table of four salon funding options, a nail salon equipment example, one $12,000 need priced as a term loan and as a card-sales advance, and the records a salon can gather. Dollar figures are invented.
Beauty salon loans side by side: four options for a Smyrna, TN salon
| Option | What it can pay for | How it is paid down | Cost stated as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment financing | Stations, chairs, dryers, lamps | Fixed monthly payments | Annual rate |
| Term loan | One fixed cost, such as buying out a partner | Fixed monthly payments | Annual rate |
| Working capital | Back-bar and retail product, staff education | Fixed payments or draws on a line | Annual rate |
| Card-sales advance | A short need the salon can cover from card sales | A share of each day's card sales | Factor rate |
The first three are loans with an interest rate. The advance is a purchase of future card sales: the total amount collected is fixed at the start, and slower card weeks stretch the time it takes rather than lowering it.
Rutherford County, TN had 46 beauty salons and 30 nail salons with paid employees in 2023 (County Business Patterns, NAICS 812112 and 812113).
Salons with no staff on a payroll are tallied apart, in Nonemployer Statistics: 1,036 beauty salons and 632 nail salons in the county had no paid employees in 2024.
Salon equipment financing at a Smyrna, TN nail salon: extraction tables and LED lamps
Illustration only, invented figures: a Smyrna, TN nail salon replaces 4 manicure tables with built-in dust extraction at $1,380 each and adds 6 LED curing lamps at $165 each, a $6,510 quote.
Financed over 24 months at an annual rate of 12.35%, the tables and lamps cost the salon $307.51 a month. The 24 payments come to $7,380.24, which leaves $870.24 as the price of spreading the quote out.
Each table plugs into a standard outlet, so the quote is equipment alone. Anything that changes the room itself, such as new wiring or ductwork, is building work and sits outside this site.
A lease is the other route for tables and lamps like these; the equipment financing page sets a lease beside a loan. With a loan, the salon owns the tables when the last payment clears. With a lease, the end of the term depends on the lease: some end with a small buyout, others with a choice to return the equipment.
One invented $12,000 salon business loan, priced as a term loan and as a card-sales advance
Illustration only, invented figures: a salon needs $12,000 for a color line change: new back-bar stock plus two months of staff education classes.
As a term loan over 18 months at 12.9% a year, the change costs $736.81 a month; the 18 payments total $13,262.58, with $1,262.58 in interest.
Still using invented figures: as a card-sales advance with a 1.22 factor rate, the provider collects $14,640.00, or $2,640.00 above the $12,000. With 8% held back from card sales of $1,150 a day, the salon sends $92.00 a day and finishes after about 160 days of card sales.
Those are days with card sales, not calendar days. Days the salon is closed send nothing, so the calendar time runs longer than 160 days, and a slow week stretches it further without changing the invented $14,640.00 total.
Set side by side, the invented advance costs $1,377.42 more than the term loan, though the salon is done with it sooner. The same numbers also show what paying from the salon's own cash, a few weeks later, would avoid.
Booth rent, service sales and retail: the records behind a salon loan request
A salon earns in up to three ways: booth rent from renters, service sales from staff stylists, and retail product. A funding partner may review each one separately, so it helps to have them apart before the call:
- Booth rental agreements showing what each renter pays and on what schedule
- Point-of-sale reports that split services from retail product
- Card processing statements, which matter most for an advance
- Business bank statements covering recent months, with deposits visible
- The equipment quote or the list of costs the request covers
Salon-specific costs, from pedicure chairs to facial beds, are on the salons page. More articles are listed on the blog.
By Deltaspring Lending Group · Updated
