Sola Salons

The question every serious franchise investor should ask before entering the beauty industry is not whether demand exists — it is whether the business model generates consistent, recurring cash flow without requiring an army of employees to manage. Sola Salons answers that question with one of the most structurally elegant franchise concepts in the entire beauty sector: a multi-suite rental model that generates income the way a commercial landlord does, except inside a curated, professionally branded environment designed exclusively for independent beauty professionals. Founded in 2004 by Stratton Smith and Matt Briger, Sola Salons opened its first location in Denver, Colorado, and launched its franchise model just one year later in 2005. The company's headquarters is in Lakewood, Colorado, and the brand is owned by Radiance Holdings, a beauty and wellness holding company that also owns Woodhouse Spas. Ben Jones serves as CEO of Radiance Holdings, having first joined the Sola ecosystem in 2012 as an owner-operator of three Sola Salons locations before ascending to executive leadership — a detail that matters enormously to prospective franchisees evaluating whether corporate leadership understands what it actually takes to operate one of these businesses. Daryl Hurst serves as President and Chief Operating Officer, Bob Bell as Chief Financial Officer, and Jeff Pleis as Vice President of Franchise Operations. As of early 2026, Sola Salons operates over 750 locations across the United States and Canada, with additional international presence in Brazil, supporting a network of more than 21,000 independent beauty professionals — referred to internally as Sola Pros — who lease individual suites and run their own businesses within each franchised center. Sola Salons was ranked No. 1 in Entrepreneur's 2025 and 2026 Franchise 500 Salon Suites Category and placed No. 79 overall in the 2025 Franchise 500, cementing its position as the dominant brand in an industry segment it essentially helped define.

The global salon services market was valued at USD 247.02 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow from USD 264.93 billion in 2025 to USD 447.76 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate of 7.79% over that forecast period. North America is identified as a particularly strong growth region, driven by rising consumer demand for facial treatments, massage services, nail art, and specialized personal care. Within that broader market, the salon suite sub-segment has become one of the most compelling structural plays in franchising because it captures the convergence of two powerful secular trends simultaneously: independent workers seeking entrepreneurial freedom and consumers demanding personalized, one-on-one beauty experiences in private studio settings rather than open-floor traditional salons. The post-COVID era accelerated this migration dramatically, as tens of thousands of licensed beauty professionals who had worked under booth rental arrangements or as salon employees recognized that the salon suite model offered them full control over their schedules, pricing, clientele, and brand identity. Consumer behavior has also shifted toward what industry analysts describe as high-maintenance solutions for low-maintenance living — semi-permanent makeup, extended-wear treatments, permanent jewelry, and other specialized services that require licensed professionals operating in dedicated private spaces rather than open salon floors. This behavioral shift has broadened the universe of Sola Pros beyond traditional hair stylists to include estheticians, nail technicians, massage therapists, permanent makeup artists, and lash specialists, expanding the addressable tenant base for each franchised center. The beauty industry also benefits from its characteristic recession-resistance: personal care spending demonstrates notable stickiness across economic cycles because consumers prioritize services that directly affect their self-presentation and professional appearance, making this a category that attracts franchise capital even in uncertain macroeconomic environments.

Understanding the Sola Salons franchise cost requires examining both the entry investment and the ongoing fee structure with precision, because the unit economics of a multi-suite rental business look fundamentally different from a retail or food service franchise. The initial franchise fee for a new Sola Salons franchisee is $60,000, reduced to $45,000 for franchisees who have previously purchased and opened a Sola franchise location. According to the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, the estimated total initial investment to begin operation of a single Sola Salons franchised center ranges from $1,181,960 to $1,939,349. This wide range is driven by several variables: local construction costs, the physical size of the space, geographic market differences in commercial real estate pricing, and the scope of build-out required to subdivide a raw retail space into 20 to 50 individual salon suites with private locking doors, plumbing, electrical, and professional finishes. For investors pursuing multi-unit development — which requires a minimum commitment of two units — the total investment range rises to $2,363,920 to $4,238,698, which includes a development fee between $60,000 and $420,000 scaled to the number of units being developed. The ongoing royalty fee is 5.5% of gross revenue with a minimum of $500 per month, and the national marketing fund contribution is up to 2% of gross revenue per month. A technology fee currently set at $0 per month in 2025 is expected to transition to $250 per month beginning January 2026. Property management software carries a current fee of $99 per month for a single-user sublicense. Additional costs include a $20,000 market introduction fee, working capital requirements of $20,000 to $50,000 for the initial three months of operation, a conference fee of $475 to $575, and a franchise renewal fee of $7,500. Sola Salons is owned by Radiance Holdings, which acquired the brand in a transaction on November 2, 2018, facilitated by MPK Equity Partners, AHR Growth Partners, and PNC Riverarch Capital, with Centennial Peaks Capital and Crewe Capital involved in the facilitation of that transaction. The involvement of institutional private equity backing provides a degree of financial infrastructure and growth capital that early-stage franchise brands typically cannot offer.

The Sola Salons franchise operates on what the company explicitly characterizes as a low-labor model, and that description is operationally accurate in a specific and important sense: franchisees do not employ the beauty professionals working inside their suites. The relationship between a Sola Salons franchisee and the Sola Pros operating within the center is a landlord-tenant relationship, not an employer-employee relationship. Each independent beauty professional signs a lease for their individual suite and is responsible for their own clients, scheduling, pricing, and business operations. This means a franchisee running a 40-suite location is managing a commercial real estate asset, not a staff of 40 stylists — a distinction that fundamentally changes the labor complexity and staffing overhead compared to a traditional salon franchise. Daily operations for a Sola Salons franchisee center on occupancy optimization, relationship-building with prospective and existing Sola Pros, facility maintenance, lease administration, and marketing to attract new independent professionals to fill available suites. Franchisee testimonials emphasize that this is not an absentee investment model; operators like Patrick Elgin have publicly noted that Sola Salons demands hands-on engagement, particularly during the lease-up phase in new markets where building a reputation for supporting beauty professionals takes sustained effort. The company supports franchisees with a proprietary learning management system called The Studio, rolled out in 2025, which includes training modules, support resources, and communication channels. A new Customer Relationship Management platform was launched in Q1 2025 to help franchisees nurture leads and manage communication with prospective Sola Pros, following a successful pilot program before national rollout. Sola Salons has also partnered with Vagaro to provide industry-leading booking and payment software to the Sola Pros operating within each location, adding tangible value to the tenant proposition. An insurance program piloted in late 2024 and early 2025 is now rolling out nationally to further support the franchisee network. Territory exclusivity is provided, and the company is actively expanding its focus markets including California, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document version reflected in the database data for this profile. However, the 2025 FDD itself does include financial performance representations, and those figures are meaningful for any serious investor conducting due diligence on the Sola Salons franchise investment. According to the 2025 FDD, the average unit volume for a Sola Salon Studios franchised center is approximately $420,000 in annual gross revenue. Data referencing the 2024 FDD reports an average gross revenue of $435,679. The highest reported gross revenue figure in the Item 19 range for 2023 and 2024 performance was $1.1 million, illustrating a significant performance spread between the top and bottom of the system. In 2024, of 572 reporting locations, 274 locations — representing 43.8% of the reporting group — met or exceeded the average gross revenue figure. Understanding what drives this spread is critical for prospective investors: suite count per location, local market density, franchisee engagement in recruiting Sola Pros, occupancy rates, and market maturity all influence gross revenue at the unit level. A newly opened location in a developing market will perform differently from a mature location in a high-density suburban market with a 95% occupancy rate. The revenue figures represent location-level gross revenue — meaning the total rent collected from all suites — not individual suite revenues, and profit margins depend heavily on the franchisee's lease terms with their commercial landlord, local construction debt service, and occupancy efficiency. From a benchmarking standpoint, the $420,000 to $435,000 average annual gross revenue figure for a business requiring $1.2 million to $1.9 million in initial investment places the Sola Salons model at an investment-to-revenue ratio that demands careful cash flow modeling, particularly around the timeline to reach full occupancy and the carrying costs during the lease-up period.

Sola Salons has demonstrated consistent unit count expansion that signals genuine market demand and franchisee confidence in the model. The brand celebrated its 700th studio location in January 2024, with that milestone location opening in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. By April 2025, the system had grown to over 730 locations nationwide, and by July 2025 that figure surpassed 740. As of early 2026, the total system count exceeds 750 locations in the United States and Canada, with the brand having crossed the 21,000 Sola Pros threshold systemwide earlier in 2025. In 2024, the brand held 729 total units, with 660 franchisee-owned and 69 company-owned, reflecting a healthy mix of validated corporate operation and franchise expansion. Sola Salons closed 2025 with 19 new openings and over 125 additional locations in the development pipeline, including flagship sites in Denton, Texas; Athens, Georgia; and Naples, Florida. The brand's stated growth ambition is to open up to 275 new locations nationwide over the next few years, with a target of 50 or more yearly openings annually. In Q2 2025 alone, the brand sold 20 new franchise units, with 7 opened year-to-date at that point and 12 more projected to open across California, Florida, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Arizona before year-end. International expansion has also accelerated, with four franchise agreements signed in Canada in April 2022 establishing nine future locations across Toronto, Durham, Kitchener, Markham, Richmond Hill, and Hamilton. In 2024, nine new franchise owner development agreements were announced covering markets including California, Houston, Michigan, and South Carolina, guaranteeing 26 additional U.S. locations. Tracy Ramos joined as Director of Community and Brand Partnerships in Q2 2025, further strengthening the corporate team supporting growth. The competitive moat Sola Salons has built is multidimensional: brand recognition as the No. 1 ranked salon suites franchise, proprietary technology partnerships with Vagaro and an internally developed LMS, a national network of 21,000-plus beauty professionals who actively refer peers to open Sola locations, and a real estate strategy optimized around second-generation retail space in high-traffic suburban corridors.

The ideal Sola Salons franchisee candidate is not a licensed cosmetologist or beauty industry veteran — it is an investor or operator with business management experience, an understanding of commercial real estate fundamentals, and the interpersonal skills required to build relationships with independent entrepreneurs. Franchisees like Sharon Gates, who transitioned from corporate hospitality to Sola ownership, and Marvin Goldfarb and Seth Goldstein, who describe their investment as combining strong ROI with the personal satisfaction of mentoring independent professionals, represent the profile that tends to perform well in this model. Multi-unit development is both available and expected as the system scales, with the minimum multi-unit development agreement requiring commitment to at least two locations. Florida is highlighted as a high-performing, near-sellout market, with new locations in Orlando, Bonita Springs, and Lakeland having opened or been announced in 2025. Primary growth focus markets include California, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, with several markets previously closed due to existing agreements having reopened for new development. The franchise agreement term length and specific renewal conditions are governed by the FDD, with a renewal fee of $7,500 applicable at renewal. From signing to opening, the timeline for a Sola Salons location involves site selection, lease negotiation, construction permitting, and a full build-out of the multi-suite interior — a process that typically spans several months depending on market and construction conditions. The Brand Marketing Fund, established in 2011, funds national marketing campaigns that drive awareness among beauty professionals considering the transition to suite-based independent operation.

The investment thesis for a Sola Salons franchise rests on three converging forces: a global salon services market growing at a 7.79% CAGR toward $447.76 billion by 2032, a structural shift among beauty professionals toward independent operation that shows no signs of reversing, and a franchise system that has scaled past 750 locations while maintaining the No. 1 ranking in its category across both the 2025 and 2026 Entrepreneur Franchise 500 rankings. The recurring rental income model, the low-labor operational structure, and the $420,000 average annual gross revenue figure from the 2025 FDD provide a foundation for financial modeling, though the $1.2 million to $1.9 million total initial investment range requires diligent underwriting of local market conditions, occupancy ramp timelines, and financing structure. The PeerSense FPI Score of 45 — rated Fair — reflects a balanced assessment that warrants thorough independent analysis rather than either unconditional enthusiasm or dismissal. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark the Sola Salons franchise cost, revenue performance, and unit economics against comparable concepts across the beauty and personal care category. For any investor seriously evaluating this franchise opportunity, the depth of data available through independent research platforms is the difference between informed capital deployment and an expensive lesson. Explore the complete Sola Salons franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data.