SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

A Comparative Analysis of 2 Businesses of Similar Industry in Different Geographical Locations

GROUP MEMBERS:

Lee Xin Ying 0322432

Vivian Tay Huey Shuen 0323869

Tang Fu Hong 0323092

Tan Jit Kim 0323854

Teoh Zi Wei 0323372

Principles of Economics [ECN30205]

Lecturer: Ms. Tay Shir Men

Submission Date: 19 Jan 2016

Table of Content

Title Page

Key Summary 1

History of Barber 2

Brief Bio of the Business 3 - 8

Comparison Table of Two Business 9 – 10

Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits

11 – 19

Recommendation 20 – 21

Interview Question and Answer 22 – 27

Reference 28

Key Summary

For our Economics assignment, we were required to choose and compare 2 businesses of our choice with the same industry in different location. The business we chose is the hair salon business. After a few phone calls, we finally have gotten the approval to interview two suitable salons. We have chosen a salon named ‘Hairitage Salon’, located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor and a salon named ‘Benny Salon’ located in Seremban.

Before going for the interview, we prepared approximately 20 questions to ask the owners to gather as much information we can about the businesses in order to do a successful report. After necessary preparation, we went to interview both salons. We took pictures of the inner and outer surroundings of the salons such as the cut hair area, wash hair area, waiting area, reception and payment counters. Both owners are really kind and generous in giving us the answers we need.

After doing the interview, we start doing our reports using the information and knowledge we learned from the visit. For example, we got to know how the salon owners and their employees operate and manage their hair salon to achieve the salons’ maximum profit. Besides, we get to see how they cut hair. Eventhough Benny salon has a limited number of employees but they still operate fine.

Hair Salon seems like a very simple and easy business. However, it is much more than that. It requires lots of time to improve and maintain the skill and technique of barbering. To maintain the customers, owners also has to find the different strategies to win against the competitors as it is a competitive market nowadays.

History of Barber

A barber also known as a hairstylist nowadays is a person who mainly provide the service of haircut, dress, groom and shave. The barbering profession or barber surgeon is one of the oldest profession in the industry. Besides cutting a person’s hair, barbers also performed surgery and dentistry. With the development of safety razors and the decreasing prevalence of beards, in English-speaking cultures, most barbers now specialize in cutting man's scalp hair as opposed to facial hair.

Archaeological studies indicate that some crude forms of facial and hair adornment were practiced among prehistoric people in the glacial age. In ancient Egyptian culture, barbers were highly respected individuals. Priests and men of medicine are the earliest recorded examples of barbers. In some early tribes, a barber was one of the most important members, as it was believed that certain evil spirits could enter a person's body through their hair, and that cutting it was a way to drive them out.

Apart from Egyptian culture, Barber is very important at the early of Christian era. Barbers became assistants to the clergy, who, on sacrilegious grounds, were not allowed to do the surgery of those days. The barbers did blood-letting. Later they pulled teeth, and for centuries this act comprised the whole art of dentistry. Later on, barbers also administered herbs and other forms of medications. For more than a thousand years they were known in history as barber-surgeons.

In modern times, the term "barber" is used both as a professional title and to refer to as hairdressers who specialize in man's hair. Historically, all hairdressers were considered barbers. In the 20th century, the profession of cosmetology branched off from barbering, and today hairdressers may be licensed as either barbers or cosmetologists.

To increase and prolong the good quality of a haircut in Malaysia, our Malaysian Government have enforced the law that every barbershop is required to have at least one barber or hairstylist who have the Malaysia Occupational Skill Qualification (MOSQ) at the year of 2009. To obtain the qualification, a barber needs to go through a 3-month hairdressing course where they undergo the necessary training. Only after that, they can become a truly qualified barber.

Brief Bio of the Businesses

Introduction of Hairitage Salon

The business we chose in the area of Klang Valley is Hairitage Salon. It is currently located at 100, Jalan SS24/2, Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya, 47301, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. This is a family business founded in 1994 and have been serving hair style design for over 20 years. Daniel and Linda Mah Chin Lian (both brother and sister) are the founders of this business. Both of them are partners who share the ownership of the Hairitage Salon. This business has no branches and they have six employees in total.

They provide services such as wash and blow, cut, set or bun, treatment, straighten, releaser, coloring, highlights, perm and rebonding. Every services have a different range in price. For the wash and blow service, it cost about RM25 to RM29, the cost of cut has a range from RM49 to RM89 and set or bun cost from RM49 to RM79. The cost of treatment, straighten and releaser are about RM119 to RM199, RM129 to RM229 and RM189 to RM299. For coloring, it cost about RM109 to RM229 and highlights is RM139 to RM229. The cost of perm and rebonding have a range from RM189 to RM229 and from RM350 to RM499. Besides providing various type of hairdressing services, Hairitage Salon also constantly come out with some new product to fulfill customers’ needs.

The main product in Hairitage Salon are the hair care products such as Dry shampoo, Magnetic shampoo, Hair wax, Repair conditioner and color save shampoo that purchased from Wella System Professional (Wella SP). Wella has been a front runner in the hair care industry for over 125 years. The current number of customers are around 100. Most of the

customer visit Hairitage salon are regular customers that like and enjoy the hair cut design of the barbers. The customer age range is about 30-50 years old(middle-aged) and most of them are ladies. From the price of the haircut services, we found out that most of the customer have middle class or upper class income level (Per hair cut charge about RM79). Daily income of Hairitage Salon is around RM300 to RM2000 and has an annual revenue figure of approximately RM304,000.

From Linda, we knew that their motives for starting this business is because both of them are interesting in hairdressing and hair designing is all about their life. Apart from that, they are seen to be more motivated when customer enjoy their hairstyle. In 2013, Hairitage Salon moved to a new shop in the same street. They ran the business almost 20 years in the old shop.

Introduction to Benny Salon

Benny Salon is the salon we chose in the area of Seremban. We chose Benny Salon because it located at Seremban, a smaller and quiet town compare to Petaling Jaya, a busy city. Benny Salon located at Jalan Lee San Hawker Central, 70450 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. Benny Salon is a small business of Pang’s family. Hence, there is no any branches, a part time and one permanent workers.

Elisa Tam Yit Peng has motivation in starting this business as it received cash directly after the services unlike other employees who will only receive their salary at the end of a month. In a 1 to 10 ratio, she rates 10 over 10 for how much she likes this job as she really enjoyed making different and unique hairstyle for different people especially her family and friends.

Benny Salon provide all type of hair services such as wash and blow, cut set or rebonding, treatment, and coloring. For every services have a different price is set. For wash and blow services is only for Rm6, coloring services is Rm60 for short-haired people and for long hair rebonding services is for Rm80. Benny Salon also sells all type of hair care and hairdressing products such as liquid wax, solidify spray and hair preservation shampoo. The prices for wax and spray are about Rm30-50 and the hair preservation shampoo is only Rm15.

Benny Salon is founded by Elisa Tam Yit Peng in the year of 1990 and it is currently run by his son, Pang Kang Ying, the manager of Benny Salon. Elisa Tam Yit Peng, the owner of Benny Salon has received the qualification of Malaysia Occupational Skill Qualification(MOSQ) at the year of 2009 for her impressing hairdressing skills.

From the interview with Pang Kang Ying, manager of salon and son to Tam Yit Peng, we knew that Tam Yit Peng started the business because she fell in love with the act of haircut and hair designing is all her life. The customer’s age range is in between 18-30 as most customers who visit the shop is either a secondary school student and university student. The income level of the customer should be average as the hair cut services only cost a low price. (only Rm6).

The income of Benny Salon is quiet optimism. As it can earn at least for RM 6000 per month for the peak season especially during the week of Chinese new year it can earn about RM10k. The annual revenue figure for the Benny Salon is about RM166,000.

Benny Salon have moved from Jalan Seremban to Hawker Central at Jalan Lee San at the Jun of 2014.The reason for them to move is because the renting price is lower and the have an attic for them to store their products and rebonding machine. The new shop had gone through renovation to provide a more comfortable environment.

Comparison Table of Two Businesses

Business Name Hairitage Salon Benny Salon

Current Address 100, Jalan SS24/2, Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya, 47301, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Jalan Lee San Hawker Central,70450 Seremban.

When were the business founded

1994 1988

Founders -Daniel

-Linda Mah Chin Lian

Elisa Tam Yit Peng

Number of branches 0 0

Number of employee 6 2

Main products / service sold

Hair services

-wash and blow

-cut

-set or bun

-treatment

-straighten

-releaser

Hair services

- wash and blow

-cut set

-treatment

-coloring

-rebonding

-Digital Perm

Hair products

-coloring

-highlights

-perm

-rebonding

Hair care products

-Dry shampoo

-Magnetic shampoo

-Hair wax

-Repair conditioner

-color save shampoo

-liquid wax

-Solidify spray

-hair preservation shampoo

-coloring products

Annual revenue figure RM304,000 RM166,000

Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits

I. Number of competitors in the respective geographical market

Hairitage Salon located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor has 3 competitors around the area. Petaling Jaya is a rapidly growing town and many shop lots are being built. Jalan 24/2 at Petaling Jaya is a perfect location for a barbershop as it is so near to residential area such as Taman Megah. This means that the population in the area are high and the quantity demanded for hairdressing is also high. Therefore, a lot of hairdressers chose this area to run their business.

Benny Salon located in Lee San Road, Seremban. It is inside the hawker center to reduce the renting expenses. It has about 3 competitors around this area. Seremban Town unlike any other developing city, is mostly occupied by old-age citizen who seldom go for haircuts, the population of citizen of Seremban is only around 300k, so that means the demand for hair dressing is very low compare to Petaling Jaya. Apart from that, Benny Salon constantly has a big advantages compare to others salon which is their price for hair cutting and product are really low that is how it ward off those competitors.

II. The market share of the business and its top competitorsHairitage Salon in Petaling Jaya and Benny Salon in Seremban are family business. Hairitage Salon is owned by Linda and Daniel (brother and sister). Both of them have share the shop and it is a partnership relationship between them. Benny Salon is owned by Pang’s family. Tam Yit Peng the founder of Benny Salon,first cooperate with her brother to raise capital and open up this shop. They first work together after few years. Her brother decided to open up a new shop and the business is now fully operated by Elisa Tam Yit Peng.

III. Brief Bios of each business’ top 3 competitors

Petaling Jaya At Petaling Jaya, we found 3 main competitors around the same area with our target business, Hairitage Salon which are You & Me Salon, Stylers Guys and Hair Texture Salon.

The first competitor, You & Me Salon, was founded since year 1999. They have 2 employees in the salon and there is no any branches. They have sell a few of hair care products.

Compare You & Me Salon with Hairitage Salon,It is mush more smaller in size.You & Me salon offer a cheaper price for it product and services

The second competitor is Stylers Guys. This business was founded in 2001. They have 4 employees currently and also no branches. They show their hair products next to the window to attract the customers.

Hair Texture Salon is the third competitor that founded in 1997. It is a family business same with Hairitage Salon. They have 5 employees and sell several hair care products. This business does not have any branches.

Seremban

Beyond Cut Salon

Beyond Cut Salon is a Salon located inside a shopping mall (Terminal One) near Benny Salon. Beyond Cut is the biggest competitors to Benny Salon as it offers a lower price if compared to others competitors. For the haircuts and wash service it offer Rm33.00 to the customers (higher prices then Benny Salon).Hair Rebonding and coloring services for Rm80++,and it is a very low price in this area.

Beyond Cut is run by Chinese and this become one of its advantages as most residents in this area is Chinese people and they prefer to go to barber who are the same races and speak the same language.

The strategy use by Beyond Cut Salon is using lower prices and promotion but it is not selling any of the hair product but only focus on the services.

IF Unisex Salon

IF Unisex Salon is the second competitor of Benny Salon. It also located inside the Terminal one shopping mall. IF Unisex is the branches of Beyond Cut Salon. Although both of them own by the same owner but they offer a different price for it services.

IF Unisex Salon offer a very cheap price for its Hair Perming and hair colouring service (cheapest in Seremban Town area). For the colouring and perming services is for Rm50 and hair cut is for Rm17.

IF salon also sell various type of products. Their main supplier is Loreal Company, a well-known international company. They are selling products such as Hair Shampoo, Hair Conditioner, Hair colouring and wax.

Pika Barber Shop

Pika Barber Shop is a Barber shop which located at Jalan Lintang, 70000 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. It is running by Indian and most of their customers are Indian.

The price for the hair service is pretty low. Hair cut for only rm10, hair color Rm70, rebonding Rm80, haircut and wash is for Rm15 and haircut and face massage is for Rm25.

It is famous for its speed of cutting the barber can finish a haircut within 5 minute and they promote themselves with the Slogan which is:’ speed, neat, nice”. Pika Barber only provide barber services and not selling any product. Pika Barber shop has its own demand as it is the only Indian barber shop in the Seremban Town area.

Besides that, Pika Barber shop is famous for its face massage services. The barber will massage customers face with some oil and have customers to shave off their moustache and beard, Indian guy enjoy this services.

IV. Strategies used to compete with their competitors

Hairitage Salon receive constant supply of the hair care products from the Wella SP, so when Well SP advertise their product on magazine it will mention the channel (Hairitage Salon) for customer to obtain their products. This win-win situation let more customer aware about their products and also make Hairitage Salon a well-known Salon. Most of their customer are regular customers because this business started since year 1994 and it is a time-honored brand among the customers. They engaged in hairdressing more than 20 years, so they have better skills than others salon. Hairitage Salon will send their employees to other country for hair dressing skill training so that they can always perform a better skills and come out with amazing hair design for the customer.

For Benny Salon, the strategies for them to compete and survive in this small town is set a lower price for their service and products. Compare to others competitors, Benny Salon offer only Rm6 for a haircut and wash and Rm 80 for its

rebonding service but for the salon nearby, the only offer Rm 17 for haircut and Rm80 for the rebonding service

Apart from that, Tam Yit Peng is a qualified hair designer and have receive countless awards from hair dresser organization. Pang Kang Ying, the manager of the shop said that he only served about 20 customers per day as he designs their hairstyle slowly but attentively. He is confident that his service will speak for itself and customers will come back to him for his good services.

To keep on improving her hair cutting skill, Tam Yit Peng always go to the professional hair designer to learn from them. She said that she gone to the teacher at least 3 times in a year. This ensure Benny’s Salon always serve customer with newest hair design.

V. Obstacles faced by new businesses who wish to enter their market today

One of the obstacle faced by the new business is there are too many businesses provide the same products and services especially in residential areas. There are high competitive in this market. Customer also will compare the price of products and services, if the price of new business is higher than other business, most of the customer are not willing to go to their shop. In addition, majority of customer are regular customer, they will tend to visit the shop they went before. New businesses are difficult to overcome these problems because they have no their own regular customer and they have no reputation and customer trust in that area. They also difficult in achieve the economies of scale. Therefore, new businesses have not enough ability to compete with other business in same industry.

From another side of view, Elisa Tam Yit Peng, founder of the Benny Salon felt like entering the market is not the difficult as becoming a barber you no need to have high education qualification. She said that how successful you are, it is about how much you willing to put in effort and love you work.

VI. Nature of the marketThe nature of the market of Hairitage Salon is oligopoly, which is a market

that contains a few of sellers. This salon has only a few competitors, but all of them have a different in price of products and services. Although it is oligopoly, it is more likely to be a price taker as there are too many competitors around the area. They must not set a high price as customers will shift to another shop, but setting a lower price will make them to be less profitable.

The nature of the market of Benny Salon is also oligopoly. It has a strong

pricing power as it has only few competitors in the area. Due to the high demand and low supply, Benny Salon has become a price taker. For example, Customers as force to come back for services even the price are high as there are no much choices!

VII. Comparative Analysis Summary Table

Competitive Traits Hairitage Salon

( Klang Valley-Based )

Benny Salon

( Seremban-Based )

1. Number of Competitors (in ranges e.g. 2 to 10, 10 to 50, 50 to 150, etc.)

3 to 5 3

2. Barrier to Entry (Weak or Strong? Why?)

Strong, because need a lot of capital and there are many salons in the area. In the beginning, they have no regular customer.

Weak, because less salon is found in Seremban town area. The expenses for renting and equipment is low in this small area

3. Differentiated or Standardized Products (if differentiated provide 2 to 3 examples)

Differentiated Products

-shampoo

-lotion

-mask

Differentiated Products

- liquid wax

- Solidify spray

- hair preservation shampoo

4. Pricing Power (Price Maker or Taker? Why?)

Price Taker

- There are too many competitors around the area.They must not set a high price as customers will shift to another shop

-They may also not to set lower prices as it may not profitable enough to cover its expenses

Price maker

-There is a lot of demand in this area and only a few Salon in the Seremban Town.

-Due to the high demand,Salon can set at its own price.If the price is still reasonable,customers will still return to them as there are no much choice

-Hair care product is price elastic product. It will cause a

big percentage change in quantity demanded if there is a small percentage change in the price of a product. This is also one of the reason why the business will not simply adjust their price of products.

5.Other Characteristics (e.g. Any close product substitutes, mutual dependence, constant advertising)

Mutual dependence

-They need to think carefully before they increase or decrease their price of products and services. This is because they do not know what should other firms do if they change the prices

They have no any close products and constant advertising. Because they are the only one salon located in that area.

6.Verdict (Monopoly? Oligopoly? Perfect Competition?)

Oligopoly Oligopoly

VIII. Conclusion

Based on our analysis, we concluded that Hairitage Salon is more commercially successful than Benny Salon. First of all, this salon has more customers compare to Benny Salon and this show that Hairitage Salon can earn more revenue than Benny Salon. Hairitage Salon also will renew their products every 2 years to their customers, this can help them to increase the number of customer. Most importantly is the customers are still willing to visit this salon although they have the higher price of products and services than other salon. This is because most of their customer think that their hair-cut skill are better than other salons.

Recommendation

Benny’s Salon ( Seremban-Based )1.Advertise more

Benny Salon should do more advertisement though Social Media and though

magazine. Benny Salon buy hair preservation products constantly from the supplier, hence

the owner has the right to bargain with the supplier to advertise their shop though their

products catalogs. As Benny Salon located inside the hawker central, hence it is not so easy

to access. The owner should advertise their shop though platform like “Trip Advisor” and

Waze, so that it can boost their existence. Besides that, they can advertise their shop though

social media such as Facebook and Twitter by creating a Benny’s Salon webpage to

constantly inform public about their promotion and services.

2.Extent the size of Salon and store.

Since Benny’s Salon is small (about 900 square feet) and unknown, less customers

know about the place. If they were to extent or enlarge the size of the Salon customers will

feel more comfortable and more likely to return to the salon. As what we observed, some of

the customers need to queue outside the shop when waiting for their turn. Benny’s Salon

products are mostly store at the attic and it is so packed and messy, the products and

machines is place all over the floor. The attic also acts as a rest room for the employees. A

bigger store and rest room is needed for Benny Salon for them to have more place to store

their belonging and a bigger space to rest.

3.Hire more employees

Benny’s Salon have only 1 permanent employee and 1 part-time employee. Both of

them work non-stop for the peak season as there are too many customers to be serve. At the

peak season, Elisa, the owner chose not the provide rebonding and colouring services to the

customers as they need to spend more hours to do so.

4.Equip with air conditioning and seat

Besides that, it is really important to gain customers like and loyalty to success in

business, the atmosphere of Asian Siew Bao is stuffy due to faulty air conditioners. The

owner should cover up it whole shop and equip with air-conditioning. Seat need to be

provided to those customers for them to have a place to rest when waiting for their turn.

Hairitage Salon ( Klang Valley-Based )

1. Pricing of Products and services

Services such as haircut,rebonding and coloring are charge at a high price. This may

be a disadvantage to Hairitage Salon as customers may shift to another Salon which offer

a lower price.

Those products in Hairitage Salon such as Dry shampoo, Magnetic shampoo, Hair

wax, Repair conditioner and color save shampoo that purchased from Wella System

Professional, a world famous branded hair care products set higher price compare to

others brand.

Promotion such as buy one free one for the Salon’s products or 20% discount for

special day should be done frequently to increase the number of buyers. Hairitage Salon

should also lower their prices charged for their services to attract more customers to

come.

2. Variety of Products

Hairitage Salon only promote Wella System Professional products.Wella

System Professional is a world recognized products so it prices are much more higher

than normal.It made customers of Hairitage Salon seldom buy their products.

Instead of serving niche market, Hairitage Salon should receive others brand’s

products to ensure that it provide products from different price range to the customers

with different economy background and family.

APPENDIX

Hair cutting equipment of Benny Salon Hair Washing Chair of Benny Salon

Store of Benny Salon

Interior view of Hairtage Salon

Counter of Hairitage Salon Linda’s brother,Daniel is cutting hair

Sofa for customers who are waitting

Benny’s Salon competitors

Interview Question and Answer

Klang Valley-Based

1) When was the business founded?

This business is founded in 1994.

Pika Barbershop IF UNISEX SALON

Beyond Cut Salon

2) Who are the key founders?

- Current position: Hair dresser

- Who is the owner: Daniel

3) Where is current location?

-Any change of location before?

Yes, we moved from 200, Jalan SS24/2, Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya, 47301, Petaling

Jaya, Selangor to 100, Jalan SS24/2, Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya, 47301, Petaling

Jaya, Selangor,

4) What prompted the founders to start this business?

- What is your motivation: she like this job and has passion in haircut and hair design.

- How much you like your job (Rate 1 to 10): 10/10

- How long have you been working on this (what make you stay so long in this industry?):

more than 20 years.

5) What are your main products or services?

- Services (any special service): wash and blow, cut, set or bun, treatment, straighten, releaser, coloring, highlights, perm, rebonding

- Products: Dry shampoo, Magnetic shampoo, Hair wax, Repair conditioner, color save shampoo

6) Who are your customers? (e.g. Age group, income-level, education-level, etc.)

- Specific age group? family? student? : especially office ladies, around 30 years old and

above.

7) What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

- daily income: RM2000

- Annual figure: around RM3,040,000

8) How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

- How many employees are there? : 6

- Sole trader or partner? : Linda Mah and Daniel

9) Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments?

- Is there a different location before? Has it always been here? : Yes.

- Start own business or take over someone business? : start own business

10) Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?

Yes, there are many salon around this area. Top 3 competitors are You & Me Salon, Stylers

Guys and Hair Texture Salon.

11) How big is your market share as well as your top competitors?

Local market.

12) How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialized field of

knowledge do you need to run this business?

- Skill of hair cutting? : Further study in hair design

- Capital, how much you spend on rental and utility? : Above RM200,000 for renovation and

maintenance. For rental and utility are around RM5000 to RM6000.

13) Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

Easy, because this industry no need education qualification.

14) How do you compete with your competitors (i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert

customers away from your competitors?)

Our skill is better than other competitors.

15) How often do you release a new product (note: this assumes the business sells differentiated

products)?

We will release new products every 2 years.

16) Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? Why or why not?

Yes, because if we set the prices higher than our competitors, we will lose some customer, so

we need to have almost the same prices with them.

Seremban

1) When was the business founded?

This business is founded in 1970.

2) Who are the key founders?

- Current position: Jalan Lee Sam (Inside a Hawker Central)

- Who is the owner: Elisa Tam Yit Peng (Benny Salon), Thun Yue Onn

3) Where is current location?

-Any change of location before?

Yes, Before at 7 up, Jalan Abdul Rahman

4) What prompted the founders to start this business?

- What is your motivation: she like this job as she enjoys dressing up the hair especially

for her family and friends.

- How much you like your job (Rate 1 to 10): 10/10

- How long have you been working on this (what make you stay so long in this industry?):

Because I have a lot of passion in this industry.

5) What are your main products or services?

- Services (any special service): wash and blow, cut set, treatment, coloring, rebonding, Digital Perm

- Products: liquid wax, Solidify spray, hair preservation shampoo, colouring

6) Who are your customers? (e.g. Age group, income-level, education-level, etc.)

- Specific age group? family? student? : students, children(with parents)

7) What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

- monthly income: Normal month: 6k, Peak season (New year): 10k

- Annual figure: around RM166,000

8) How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

- How many employees are there? : 2(one full time, one part time)

- Sole trader or partner? : partner with her brother Thun Yue Onn. Her brothers open up a

new shop 8 years ago.

9) Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments?

- Is there a different location before? Has it always been here? : Yes, exist location at Jalan

Abdul Rahman, Seremban

- Start own business or take over someone business? : start new business

10) Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?

Salon in Terminal One and all of them own by one owner.

11) How big is your market share as well as your top competitors?

Both Serve local market.

12) How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialized field of

knowledge do you need to run this business?

- Skill of hair cutting? : keep on learn from those professional barber.

- Capital, how much you spend on rental and utility? : Above 20k for renovation ,installing of

air-conditioning ,products,and hair dressing equipment.

13) Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

Easy, no need education qualification to become barber.Is only about how much you put in your

effort.

14) How do you compete with your competitors (i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert

customers away from your competitors?)

Our prices are lower, we also used good quality product and equipment. The most important

is we provide good services to the customer.

15) How often do you release a new product (note: this assumes the business sells differentiated

products)?

Come out with new hairstyle once it become a fashion.

16) Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? Why or why not?

Yes, customers may not come often if you set at a high price, especially in this bad economy

state.

Reference

The Rise of Hair Salons Through the Ages. (2014, June 23). Retrieved from http://www.curioushistory.com/the-rise-of-hair-salons-through-the-ages

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