Boulevard Launches Flexible Funding Offering for Salons and Spas

Boulevard has added a new capital program to its client experience platform for self-care businesses like salons, barber shops, spas and med spas.

The new Boulevard Capital financial offering provides these businesses with access to fast, flexible funding based on their demonstrated business performance rather than credit history, the company said in a Wednesday (March 20) press release.

“For years, the self-care industry has been underserved by lenders who understand little to nothing about how these unique businesses work,” Matt Danna, co-founder and CEO of Boulevard, said in the release. “Traditional small business loans have only been accessible to business owners who don’t actually need them.”

With Boulevard Capital, the self-care businesses that use the Boulevard platform can be pre-qualified based on the financial performance of their business, as the sales and cash flow data captured by the platform gives Boulevard a real-time understanding of the business’ health, according to the release.

This understanding enables Boulevard to create offers tailored to that business, the release said. Once approved, the businesses can select how much of the offer amount they need and then receive the funds in their bank account in as little as 24 hours.

Businesses pay a one-time capital fee and pay the remainder of the balance through a fixed percentage of their daily sales, per the release. There are no late fees or compounding interest, and no requirement of personal guarantees.

“Boulevard Capital enables customers to bypass the months of waiting, credit checks and tedious paperwork that accompany traditional loan applications — a process that often ends in rejection anyway, especially for minority-owned businesses,” the press release said.

Boulevard was founded to help businesses in the self-care industry support an elevated consumer experience and meet several industry-specific back-office challenges, Danna told PYMNTS in an interview posted in November 2019.

“Salons and spas have very specific operating procedures that cannot be shoehorned from other horizontal [point-of-sale (POS)] or vertical [Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)] platforms,” Danna said at the time.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that salons and spas are expanding their digital presence, from booking and payment capabilities to customer outreach and advertising. For example, digital payments are enabling these businesses to both lower costs and provide a convenient way for customers to pay, according to “The Digital Transformation of Beauty and Wellness Services,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and American Express collaboration.