Ames, IA Salon Business Loans: Buying an Existing Salon

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Nail salon loan for Story County, IA: manicure tables, nail dryers and polish displays

A nail salon’s station list is short and specific: manicure tables with built-in dust extraction, LED and UV nail lamps, nail dryers, technician stools, client chairs and wall displays for polish. Each piece has a price on a supplier quote, which makes the whole set a natural fit for equipment financing, bundled into one agreement.

Polish, gel, acrylic powder and files are another matter. They are used up and reordered, so they belong with working capital or inventory financing rather than an equipment term that outlasts them.

County Business Patterns counts 6 nail salons (NAICS 812113) with paid employees in Story County, Iowa for 2023, 5 of them with fewer than five employees.

In a separate program, Nonemployer Statistics recorded 39 nail salons in the county with no paid employees for 2024.

Hair salon loans for Story County, IA: color processors, steamers and retail shelving

A hair salon buys two kinds of things for the color bar and the floor. Some it keeps: color processors, steamers, dryer chairs, rolling carts. Some it sells: shampoo, conditioner and styling products on the retail shelf.

Retail product is the odd one out in that list: it is stock that turns back into sales, which is the case inventory financing is built for, and its term can follow how long the shelf takes to sell through.

Business loans for salons in Ames, IA: product orders, payroll and card-sale advances

Card sales reach a salon’s bank on the processor’s schedule, and the bills do not wait for the deposit. A product order from the distributor, a stylist’s paycheck on Friday and the rent on the first all land on fixed dates.

Working capital answers that with a lump sum paid back over a short, fixed schedule. A merchant cash advance works differently and is not a loan: a provider buys part of the salon’s future card sales, then collects an agreed share from each day’s card sales until the purchased amount has been remitted. A slower day means a smaller collection.

Beauty salons with a payroll in Story County, Iowa employed 222 people in the March 2023 pay period, and paid $6.5 million in wages for the year across all 29 establishments together (County Business Patterns). That total covers every salon in the count, not a typical salon.

Business loan for hair salon in Ames, IA: styling chairs, dryers and a booking system

Styling chairs, hooded and freestanding dryers, mirrors on stands and the front-desk tablet with its card reader are all equipment. The booking software that runs on the tablet is a subscription, so the hardware and the monthly fee sit on different lines of the budget.

Two contracts can carry the chairs and dryers. An equipment loan puts ownership with the salon from the start. A lease or equipment finance agreement can end in a buyout, and a fair market value buyout can mean smaller payments with a larger amount due at the end if the salon keeps the chairs. The equipment financing page works through both on one invented example. The article on salon chairs, dryers and payroll adds a new stylist’s early weeks and the booking records a partner may review.

Suites, walls, mirrors fixed to the wall and electrical work for a new station are work on the space itself, which stays outside this site.

Hair salon financing in Ames, IA: buying an existing salon

Buying a salon that already has clients is a business purchase. The price can include the name, the phone number clients already call, the booking history, the chairs and dryers, and the lease if the landlord agrees to assign it.

A term loan is shaped to carry a single purchase amount like that one. A partner reviewing it can ask for the seller’s sales records and tax returns, bank statements that show service and retail income, the purchase agreement and the buyer’s own finances. Whether the stylists stay is part of what a buyer is paying for, and the purchase agreement can say what happens to the client list.

Illustration only, invented figures. A buyer agrees on $85,000 for a salon and puts $15,000 down, leaving $70,000 on a 60-month term at a 10.5% annual rate. The monthly installment is $1,504.57; sixty of them come to $90,274.20, which puts the interest at $20,274.20.

County Business Patterns lists 29 beauty salons with paid employees in Story County, Iowa for 2023 (NAICS 812112). ZIP Code Business Patterns puts 19 beauty salons at a ZIP 50010 address the same year.

Barber shop loan for Story County, IA: barber chairs, clippers and sterilizers

A barber shop runs on a short list of tools: hydraulic barber chairs, clipper and trimmer sets, hot towel cabinets, UV sterilizer cabinets and a stock of disinfectant. The chairs and cabinets last for years and fit equipment financing; the blades, guards and disinfectant are reordered and fit working capital.

Barber shops have a NAICS code of their own, 812111, so the beauty salon counts above leave them out. Nonemployer Statistics lists 12 barber shop establishments (NAICS 812111) with no paid employees in Story County, Iowa for 2024.

Running water to a new chair position is work on the building, which stays outside this site; the chair that stands there is not. For how banks, credit unions and online lenders in Ames compare with a phone request, see the Ames, IA page. Gyms and other storefront businesses have notes on the industries page.

By Halehaven Loans · Updated October 31, 2026