Running a salon in Manchester: students, match days and the Metrolink

City centre, Northern Quarter and the towns around

In the city centre and areas such as the Northern Quarter, Ancoats and Spinningfields, many clients live in apartments or work in offices nearby and drop in around their day. Out in the boroughs, the trade is more about regulars who have come to the same chair for years and book around school runs and shifts. The same booking rules rarely suit both.

• Central salons: open online booking for short, popular services and keep a minimum notice period, so a last-minute booking does not land in the middle of a set of acrylics.
• Suburban shops: regulars value continuity, so keep their preferences on the client profile and let them choose their usual stylist online.
• Either way, set honest service durations. If a treatment really takes ninety minutes, saying sixty only creates a queue.

Term time, freshers and the summer dip

With the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University sitting along the Oxford Road corridor, and the University of Salford next door, the student calendar shows up in many salon diaries. Late September brings freshers looking for a new barber or nail tech, the run-up to graduations in summer brings a wave of bookings, and when students head home the diary can thin out for a few weeks.

1. 1

   Make your link easy to find in September

   Put your booking link in your Instagram and TikTok bios and print the QR code for the window. New arrivals in the city are often searching on their phones, not ringing round.

2. 2

   Plan around graduations and balls

   Open booking further ahead before graduation week and the summer ball season, so people can lock in a time for hair, nails or lashes in advance.

3. 3

   Win students back after the holidays

   A "We miss you" message can go automatically to clients who gave marketing consent and have not been in for a while. It works well when term starts again.

Match days, gigs and getting across town

On home match days at Old Trafford or the Etihad, and on nights when the arenas host a big show, trams and roads near those areas get crowded. Clients travelling across town by Metrolink or Bee Network bus may run late, or decide to stay at home. Check the fixture list when you plan the week, leave a little slack in the afternoon before a big event, and send reminders early enough that a client stuck in traffic can still let you know.

Clients who book through Telegram can cancel there themselves while there is still enough notice before the appointment, which frees the slot for someone else. A no-show is recorded on the client profile, so repeat offenders are easy to spot. Our guide to reducing no-shows has more ideas.

Part-time staff and paying people fairly

A student city means plenty of people who want part-time work on reception, as a junior or as a nail tech building up a client list. With people coming and going, keeping everyone's pay clear matters. In Makastam each person logs in with their own account and only sees their own appointments, ticket lines and earnings.

Earnings can run on a daily pay period: at the end of each day the owner approves and the staff member confirms the figure on their own screen, or adds a note if something looks wrong. When someone leaves, you can see what they are still owed and settle up. The staff commission page explains the rules you can set, from straight commission to chair rent.

Christmas markets and the party season

When the Christmas markets open in the city centre in November, footfall rises and evenings get busy with work dos and nights out. For nail and lash studios in particular, the weeks before Christmas and New Year's Eve are among the most booked of the year. The nail and lash studio page covers how infills, reminders and chair rent fit together, which helps when you add an extra tech for the season.