Owning a salon is not an easy proposition. Not only do you need to pay slavish attention to operation costs and monthly taxes, but an owner needs to be sensitive to myriad intangibles.

Things such as choice of location, marketing, education of staff and community involvement can make a salon successful or, if ignored, can doom a salon to a lonely existence on the edge of failure.

Here are ten intangibles that, in the estimation of most successful salon owners, can make or break a salon's upstream swim to success.

It is often said that the top three things that make a business are: location, location, location. Much like a bear feeding on salmon, it is crucial to understand the neighborhood and where potential customers are working and living. Salon owners need to analyze the flow of traffic and make assessments about the people who travel to their salons.

It is a good idea to observe the demographics of immediate neighborhoods and decide which groups would appreciate your services. When Gene Juarez was a small salon in Seattle, the staff would dress funky and generally behave like the hipsters they were. When Gene opened up in Seattle flagship Nordstrom's, jeans turned to suits, magazines went French and music moved away from the Police towards Kenny G.

Gene went after the moneyed clients of Nordstrom's. By changing his environment to look and feel like the Nordstrom's experience he got them and their daughters. The rest is history.

Sometimes the salons with great interiors have deficient storefront treatments. The absolute worst are strip malls and office building retail spaces. They have the toughest signage and entry rules and are often unsympathetic to your requests for uniqueness.

Despite limitations, signage, doorways and windows must be treated as the most important invitations you could send to the community. Cluttered and random entries chase away many people. This is why mall stores and restaurants spend a fortune on creating entry points which invite attention. Keep it clean, keep it simple and make it as eye-catching as good taste, landlord rules and the law will allow.

Do not put an "under construction" sign in your salon. The "keep it clean and simple" rule certainly applies to the way the inside of your salon looks to guests. The entry and reception area should be cleared of all hair styling debris, extra magazines piles and orphaned product displays.

The salon area should be clear of styling tools, stylist products on stations, ceramic "I Love Tips This Much" sculptures, and pictures of reality stars pinned to the walls. Keep every station in good repair, clean each station each night. Immediately fix any broken thing or get it out of sight. You know the drill, so enough said about that.

You should care about how others see you. We forget that our clients come to us expecting to see Frederic Fekkai - all swank in his designer jeans and silk turtleneck - and we sometimes present them a stylist sporting flip flops and a faded T shirt that once bar-crawled Reno. They deserve Frederic.

We need to remind ourselves daily that we are the total package - someone who dresses sharp, conducts themself with diligence and respect, and has a deep well of ability with mademoiselle's hair. There can be drawn a direct line from Antoine of Paris through Vidal Sassoon to Oribe and, then, to us. We have a duty to uphold their vision and meet their expectations of our work. Make 'em proud.

The toughest obligation for salon owners is the assurance that stylists are current in skills. There is no immediate return in paying for guest artists and shows. Salons have a hard time allocating and have to use wile and ingenuity to provide stylist education. Some salons have an education account stylists pay into and from which they may draw monies out and others tie this fund to retail commissions and volume incentives.

This author is familiar with a salon which hosts monthly education events. Obadiah Salon in Bellevue pays for education from its large volume of retail sales, and the owner, Michelle Kleppe, is constantly working her vendors to get better training for her staff. Michelle deems this education critical to skills exhibited by her stylists and to stylist confidence in their abilities.

Ms Kleppe's involvement in her salon's growth is visible and the results show how positive this attitude can be on client retention. Her enthusiasm for her salon and beauty inevitably spills out into her stylists.

Any time a salon owner is present and dedicated to the growth of the hairdressers, the salon is on the path to success. The stylists become motivated ambassadors for the business

Absentee owners miss opportunities to advance their position in the market and often are blind to looming disasters. They are always caught by surprise when the inevitable walk-out occurs.

Offer as complete a menu of services as you have staff and facilities. If you offer color, increase this platter to include Balayage, twilighting, chunking, and shine treatments. If you want to emphasis a service, encourage the stylists and staff to utilize the service or wear the look. One example: from Seattle to Manhattan, a renewed interest in men's shaving and skin care is apparent by the number of top salons which offer these services.

You can often drive demand by offering the latest and greatest. You can sell services or products by simply mentioning them to the client in the chair. This is not selling but simply telling and the results are immediate.

Salons that add value to the client's experience are often the most successful. Play music they do not often hear, include magazines in the waiting areas they do not see at the grocery store, and offer clients beverages a little less common.

You can establish mood with a distinctive piece of art, such as the wall-sized fashion photograph in the entry to Robert Leonard Salon and Spa or with a sculpture, such as the bronze Buddha in Bellevue's Salon 7. The Calder Flamingo sculpture, which is an iconic addition to downtown Chicago, says it all. A unique and individual art piece to establish tone works every time.

Complimentary services, such as a scalp massage, a selection of tony beverages or gift bag with every color, are always appreciated by clients. You show that you are focused on them and that this is their time to relax and recharge.

Our time in the salon belongs to the clients and every delightful addition to their experience is appreciated by them. The stylists benefit, too, when focused on the comfort of the client. Our day goes by pleasantly and quickly when we are not thinking about our own issues.

Your best marketing tool is still word of mouth, but a presence on the Internet can help reinforce personal recommendations. Salon websites are searched by those who are either referred to you by existing clients or by sites such as City Search and Yelp that have reviews of your salon. Facebook and My Space are great places to market your salon and can send you dozens of new clients each month. Following hair and beauty blogs with your own contributions and comments is a way to create track-backs to your own site.

The worst marketing can sometimes be the most expensive. An ad in traditional coupon mailers or phone reference books can cost upwards to one hundred dollars per new client. You would be better off handing out fifty dollar bills at your door to people willing to get a haircut or color.

The best marketing is to create visibility in the community. Charitable involvements, editorial work, donated work to beauty pageants, and doing cheerleaders hair at game time have all helped this author in his career.

Smart salons are involved salons, whether it is with a hospital charity, efforts to clean up a park or in support of an arts center. This not only increases the sense of team in the salon, but sends a clear signal to the market that this salon and its staff care about others. Many stylists will give away a hair service or two each week either to promote their business or to send a message that they are committed to beauty and not just to ring ups.

Recently, a salon was doing hair in a wedding party. The bride and bridesmaids were surrounded by moms and sisters, all watching the beautiful transformations. It was learned that they, too, were going to the wedding but some were not having their hair done because they were not part of the wedding party.

The salon immediately offered to do their hair at no charge. The offer was accepted and, for the next hour, the salon was a whirl of activity while stylists worked in tandem to get every head finished in time. The stylists refused tips or pay from the additional guests because, as one stylists said "this is our gift to you and any pay ruins that." The mood was one of celebration and the salon felt further involved in this joyous occasion.

We hope these ten intangibles not only help salon owners to define their upward swim to success, but also help refine the good things you are already doing to assure your salons' success in this, the most beautiful business on earth.

Victor Kapper, 2010