An IMAGE® Studio salon in Birmingham, Alabama, could be the perfect way for all you beautiful hair stylists, barbers, estheticians, lash and nail techs, makeup and microblading artists, massage therapists and MedSpa professionals to finally embrace the benefits of being your own boss!
Read on to see how our Birmingham salons can help you find your freedom, unleash your creativity and step into your #success as a business-owning beauty professional.
IMAGE Studios was born from one man’s drive to disrupt the traditional beauty salon model. You know the one — talented and skilled professionals isolated from their peers and stuck on the rental-chair treadmill, forced to limit their fees and services in someone else’s salon then fork over a chuck of their earnings at the end of every month.
Our founder, Jason Olsen, saw a better business model. He envisioned a community of beauty professionals who are independent mini-salon owners working together to provide high-end services to clients in luxuriously appointed spaces. His vision went further to include day-to-day business support for professional growth that leads to long-term success.
His dream became reality in 2009 when the first IMAGE salon suites opened in Draper, Utah. Since then, we’ve watched the entrepreneurial spirit flourish across the country in vibrant, vetted locations from Portland, Oregon, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and from Waukesha, Wisconsin to Boca Raton, Florida.
Tired of toning down your fabulousness to fit into someone else’s idea of a “professional” persona? We see you, Gorgeous!
As a salon suite owner, your IMAGE Studios salon is the clean slate on which you are free to create your ideal workspace. Whether you love being surrounded by fresh greenery, sumptuous furnishings, vibrant artwork or wild wallpaper, you can decorate your salon however you like. We love seeing how inventive our salon owners get so much that we reward the most eye-catching decorative efforts with our annual Studio Design Awards for regional and national recognition.
Of course, each salon suite comes fully equipped to start servicing clients on Day One, includinga dedicated:
Plus, all IMAGE Studios Salon Suites are housed in secure facilities that feature breath-taking European design with curved walls, open ceilings and luxurious, high-end fixtures. You’ll also enjoy more benefits of renting a salon suite from us, like:
But remember: You’re not doing this alone! We make it easier to start a salon with new business support from IMAGE Studios that many startups can’t afford, like professionally designed grand opening mailers, business and appointment cards, and other personalized marketing materials. We’ll set you up with your own custom website and GlossGenius, the app that impressed us with seamless appointment booking and payment processing. Then we’ll keep you growing with our IMAGE Pro 360 educational program of live Zoom workshops designed to help you develop the skills and strategies that will take your success to the next level. With topics that cover everything from goal setting to understanding the client experience to upping your social media game, these free courses will inspire and motivate you to raise the color bar for your bright future!
Dreaming of building your beauty career in an up-and-coming neighborhood that features gorgeous green spaces surrounded by fabulous food, knockout nightlife and cosmopolitan convenience? Want to start a salon in the midst of over a million potential clients living in one of the Southeast’s most important economic hubs? Looking to exchange harsh Northern climates for long, lush summers and an average of over 200 sunny days a year?
An IMAGE Studios Birmingham salon at Lakeview Green sounds like a good fit for your next entrepreneurial move.
If the sum of your knowledge about Birmingham centers around Martin Luther King’s famous letter penned from its jail in 1963, have we got news for you! B-ham, as locals call it, is a forward-thinking metropolis that builds on its pivotal role in both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement to create a future of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Birmingham was founded in 1871 at the planned intersection of four major railroads. The Appalachian mountains form into a series of long even ridges and deep valleys here, known as the Ridge-and-Valley region, where the striking rust-stained faces and crimson hematite seams inspired the name Red Mountain. The Confederate army mined iron from these mountains for their war efforts, and mining continued in the newly United States with a renewed commercial zeal.
This region is the only place in the world that is within 10 miles of all the natural ingredients for making iron ore, a main component of steel. Capitalizing on this fortuitous placement led to such fast and vigorous industrial growth by the beginning of the 20th century that the city seemed to have been conjured up by sorcery — so it was nicknamed the Magic City.
A 56-foot-tall statue of the Roman fire god Vulcan pays homage to B-ham’s industrial inspiration as the world’s largest cast-iron statue — second in size only to the Statue of Liberty, which is made of copper. Originally constructed for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Vulcan towers over the metropolis from atop Red Mountain with a spear pointed skyward and buttocks as wide as a city bus bared to residents of suburban Homewood. And yes, you can find artwork depicting those famous buttocks in the gift shop of the Vulcan Park and Museum at the statue’s base.
From those steely beginnings, Birmingham went on to become the site of violent protests against segregation in the 1960s, including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s arrest alongside other peaceful marchers. His story and a wider view of the tumultuous period are preserved in the city’s Civil Rights District that encompasses the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park and more.
Into the 21st century, Birmingham has become a vibrant cosmopolitan city with an eclectic arts scene, a wealth of award-winning restaurants, sporting events from college football to IndyCar racing to world-class professional golf — and more urban green spaces than any other metropolitan U.S. city.
Speaking of green spaces, the IMAGE Studios Birmingham salons are located in the Lakewood Green development, which features a publicly accessible man-made river, koi pond and beautiful landscaping surrounding cozy conversation spots. This brilliant reinvention of a former public school brings a breath of fresh air to B-ham’s up-and-coming Lakeview neighborhood. It’s within easy walking distance of scores of craft breweries — Hi-Wire Brewing is on the main floor of Lakewood Green — loads of nightclubs and eateries for every palate from tacos at Babalu’s to pizza at Bird’s to burgers at Jack Brown’s to upscale coastal delights at Automatic Seafood & Oysters.
If you’re hungry for a true Alabama specialty — the smooth and spicy BBQ cousin simply called “Alabama white sauce” — drive 15 minutes down US-280 East past the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and the Birmingham Zoo and into the Cahaba Heights neighborhood where you’ll find Miss Myra’s Pit BBQ. Since 1984, Myra Grissom Harper and her family have been smokin’ pork butts, chicken and ribs in a custom-built brick pit and serving them up alongside homemade deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole and other Southern staples in a friendly, casual setting. Travel mag Far & Wide named Miss Myra’s BBQ chicken sandwich with white sauce the “Best Sandwich in Alabama” in 2020, and Food Network personality and James Beard award-winning chef Andrew Zimmern has declared Miss Myrna’s banana pudding “dessert heaven.”
Birmingham has long been a hotbed of entrepreneurial spirit and innovation, making it a perfect pairing for IMAGE Studios’ salon suites owners. It’s home to more than 550 technology companies that employ over 6,000 skilled workers, as well as the Innovation Depot startup incubator and dozens of major corporations like Regions Financial Corp., St. Vincent’s Health System and AT&T. Crimson Tide fans will also note that the University of Alabama at Birmingham is the region’s biggest employer with some 23,000 employees. That translates to thousands of opportunities for building your clientele and creating your brand identity in your very own Birmingham, AL hair salon, nail salon or lash business.
With a cost of living and crime rates that both fall well below the national average, good schools and an international airport just five miles from downtown, Birmingham, Alabama, is the perfect place to put down roots, unleash your creativity and jumpstart your beauty career in an IMAGE Studios salon!
Ready to step into your success as the owner of the best Birmingham hair salon, nail salon or other targeted beauty business? IMAGE Studios is ready and waiting to join your journey to being your own boss in our gorgeous Birmingham salons. Catch our vibe in a virtual tour, then come on down to B-ham and get all the benefits of touring IMAGE Studios salon suites in person. We’re excited to see what your bright future has in store!
