Buying a salon or barbershop in South Florida

• A large, loyal client base with high rebooking rates, and client records kept in the salon's own booking system rather than on stylists' phones.
• Stylists who have been there for years and aren't likely to leave with their clients. In this business, clients follow the person who does their hair.
• New clients arriving steadily from walk-ins, online booking and referrals, not only from stylists' own followings.
• A good lease in a visible spot with parking, and years left to run.
• Retail sales that add margin without a pile of unsold stock.
• Revenue spread across many providers, so one stylist leaving doesn't sink it.
• For spas, memberships or packages that bring clients back on a schedule.
• A manager who runs the floor without the owner.

• Client counts and rebooking rates, and who owns the client records and booking data.
• Each provider's arrangement: employee, commission or booth renter. Treating employees as renters creates tax risk, so ask your accountant.
• Revenue by provider, and how much the top few produce.
• Agreements that keep departing stylists from soliciting clients, where they exist, and realistic plans to keep key people.
• The lease: rent, term, renewal options and landlord consent to a sale.
• Equipment, furniture and the condition of the buildout.
• Gift cards and prepaid packages: services you'll owe but won't be paid for.
• DBPR and Department of Health inspection history.
• Retail inventory: how much is on the shelves, how old it is, and any minimum orders required by product companies.

• How many active clients do you have, and how often do they come back?
• Are your providers employees, commission staff or booth renters?
• Which providers bring in the most revenue, and how long have they been with you?
• Do you work behind the chair yourself, and how many clients are yours personally?
• How much of your revenue is retail?
• What's left on the lease, and has the landlord agreed to a transfer?
• How much do you have out in unused gift cards and prepaid packages?

South Florida covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties: Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and the Florida Keys down to Key West. It's the state's largest metro area and its most international. PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport tie the region to Latin America and the Caribbean, which supports a deep base of wholesalers, freight forwarders and logistics firms, many of them near the airport. Tourism and cruises, finance and wealth management, health care, real estate and construction carry much of the rest. Palm Beach County adds wealthy seasonal residents and, out west near Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane and vegetable farms. In the Keys, nearly everything turns on visitors, fishing and boating.

Companies that serve homes, condo buildings and other businesses do well here: the building trades, property services, insurance agencies, medical and dental practices, and professional firms.

Costs run high: commercial rent, wages and, above all, property and windstorm insurance. Price the insurance before you make an offer, not after. Miami-Dade and Broward make up the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with stricter rules for roofs, windows and structures. That raises building costs, and it also gives steady work to the contractors who know those rules well.

Much of the workforce and many customers speak Spanish as well as English, and a company that works well in both languages has an edge. The winter season matters more in Palm Beach County and the Keys than in Miami. In the Keys, the cost of housing makes hiring and keeping staff one of the hardest parts of running a company. Ask any seller there how they find workers and where those workers live.