How would you go about this market sizing question: 'How many barbershops/hairdressers are there in the UK?'

Question

Hi,

I was practicing market sizing questions, and came across this question:

How many barbershops/hairdressers are there in the UK?

I went about about this question through these steps:

1) Population (65m)
2) Working age adults (I estimated this to be 33m as I made the assumption that 0-19 and 60-80 do not work and/or they do but at negligible rates)
3) Proportion of working age adults that are hairdressers/barbers (I estimated 1%)
4) Average number of workers in a barbershop/hairdressers (I estimated 10)
5) Divide the total no. of hairdressers by average number of workers in a barbershop/hairdresser

This got me to an answer of 33,000.

I would be grateful for any suggestions as to how to approach this question and whether my approach can be improved!

Answer 1

Hi there,

Sorry to be so blunt, but you already failed at step 2.

Remember, market sizing isn't about coming to the exact right answer insomuch as it's about assessing your ability to have structured thinking and ability to think reasonably. You didn't do this :/

Wrong approach - You cannot just randomly guess what % of your total pop is hairdressers in order to figure out how many hairdressers are in the UK. This is not breaking down a problem into logical segments in order to make more reasonable assumptions. You literally just said "ah, maybe x% multiplied by the total population!"...that's not strategic thinking...sorry!

Ok, so, how to we fix this? Well, we have to look at what ways I can break this down into more reasonable steps/assumptions!

So, let's thinking about:

# of people in the UK
# of haircuts per person per year
1. Think monthly
2. Break down population into reasonable segments that affect frequency of haircuts
Throughput of an average barbershop/hairdresser
1. Think hourly and expand out
Calculate # of shops needed (by # of haricuts and throughput)

And viola! Much more reasonable to make these kinds of assumptions!

Hope this helps, but feel free to message with any questions!

Take a look here for additional practice! https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/brain-teaser/intermediate/taxis-in-manhattan-market-sizing-229

Answer 2

Hi,

I would rather go with demand:

Population (men, women, age split)
Frequency of haircuts by group
Average capacity and occupancy of a barbershop
Number of barbershops by dividing total demand and supply of one barbershop (adjusted by av occupancy)

Best

Answer 3

Hello!

Like the approach!

You can also think it by population who needs a haircut, extrapolating by the number of barbrshops you konw there are in an area, etc.

However, yours works
Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 4

Hey,

I think good first attempt. But there are some weaknesses in your approach:

Why 1% are hair dressers- how do you back that assumption?
Think about men or women's salon/hair dressers/barber
Think about hours of operations, number of people getting services in a day etc

Have a look at these threads for a similar question & solution:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-many-hair-salons-in-new-york-1795
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/market-size-5281

Answer 5

Hi there,

Interesting question! Thank you for sharing.

I agree that it makes more sense to build your reasoning starting with the demand.

Don't forget that haircut is not the only reason people go to hairdressers.

Was it helpful?

GB