Welcome to the Preened Pilot for businesses!
Thank you for your interest in joining our first group of Cape Town salons and studios. We're right at the start, and the shops that come in now shape what this becomes.
Preened for Business gives your team one shared calendar, your shop its own booking page, and every person in it their own profile — without paying per chair or handing over a cut of what you take.
What we're trying to do
Salon software usually grows by charging you per chair or taking a cut of clients it decides are new — so every hire and every good month costs you more. We think a shop should pay one small flat fee for its tools, keep every rand it earns, and own its clients outright. Preened for Business is our attempt at that.
The pilot is how we find out whether we've actually built it. We're looking for a handful of Cape Town shops to run real bookings through Preened over the next few weeks — a full week's diary, your actual team, your actual clients — and tell us honestly where it falls short. You run this every day, so you'll spot things we can't.
There's no cost and nothing to cancel. You can set the shop up yourself in about ten minutes, or we'll do it with you over a call or WhatsApp if you'd rather — and pilot shops keep a founding rate when we do open it up.
What we ask in return
Use it properly, and tell us what's annoying, confusing or missing. Blunt is more useful than polite — if something gets in the way of a real booking, we want to hear about it the same day.
That's the whole deal. No minimum bookings, no posting requirements, nothing to sign beyond the standard terms.
How it works
- 1
Set up the shop
Name it, then add your address, hours, services and prices. We check it before it shows up in search.
- 2
Add your team
They each make their own free account, then you add them by that email address. They'll see the invitation next time they log in.
- 3
Share one link
Clients book the shop and pick a person, or leave it to you to assign.
What you'll be testing
Pilot shops run on Business Standard, switched on in full and free for the whole pilot. Everything below is live today — not a roadmap.
Business Standard
Free for the pilotThe shop. Up to 5 people, appointments at your place.
- Up to 5 people on one shared calendar
- Your shop's own booking page and link
- A profile for every person on the team
- Deposits, paid straight to you via your own payment link
- Booking alerts and automatic client reminders by email
- Opening hours, time off and per-person shifts
- Who-does-what: each service assigned to the people who do it
- Shop analytics — what you took, busiest services, returning clients
- Custom branding on your booking page
- Safety check-in for your team, free and always
Business Plus
Coming soonThe shop that also travels. Everything in Standard, plus the below — not part of the pilot yet.
- More than 5 people
- Mobile visits — the full toolkit for a team that travels
- “On my way” live updates for clients
- Dispatch and routing for mobile jobs
- Roles and permissions for your staff
- Per-person reporting — who's busiest, who has room
- Featured placement in discovery
If your team travels to clients, that's Plus — Standard covers appointments at the shop. Tell us anyway: knowing who's waiting on it is how we decide what to build next.
Not per-chair software
Salon software usually charges by the chair or takes a cut of new clients. Both punish you for growing.
- Priced per chair, so every hire costs you more
- Takes a cut of clients it decides are new
- Staff profiles belong to the shop's account
- Holds your deposits and pays out later
- One flat fee for the shop, never per chair
- 0% commission, on every booking, always
- Each person owns their profile and their reviews
- Deposits paid straight to you, never held by us
Questions
Nothing. Business Standard is switched on in full and free for the whole pilot — no card, nothing to cancel. There'll be a flat monthly fee when we open it up, we'll tell you what it is well before it starts, and pilot shops keep a founding rate for staying with us.
There's no end date yet, and we'd rather say that than invent one. It runs until a handful of shops are genuinely running their week on it and telling us what's wrong. When we do set an end date, pilot shops hear it from us first and well in advance — nothing switches off without warning.
That's Business Plus, which isn't part of the pilot yet. The five-person cap on Standard is about keeping the flat fee fair rather than metering you — nothing stops working, and we'll talk to you before anything changes.
Yes, and that's the point. Each person gets their own login, profile and reviews. If someone leaves, their reputation goes with them and your shop keeps its page, its calendar and its clients.
Yes. You set that per person when you invite them — full-time, committed days, or an independent renting a chair. Someone who is independent keeps their own booking link alongside your shop's.
You add your own payment link — Yoco, SnapScan, PayFast, Ozow — and set an optional deposit per service. Clients pay it directly to you. The money never passes through Preened, and we still take 0%.
No. Not on Standard, not on Plus, not ever. We make money on a flat monthly fee and nothing else.
Yes. Every new shop is looked at by a person before it shows up in search — the same as we do for individual professionals. It usually takes a day. Your booking link works from the moment you finish setting up, so you can start sending it to clients straight away.
We're starting in Cape Town with a first group of shops, then expanding.
Set up your salon
The shop's name, your name, and whether you take clients yourself. You can add your team and your services once you're in.