British Columbia's minimum wage rose to $18.25 an hour on 1 June 2026, from $17.85, and will keep following inflation. Vancouver licenses home-based businesses too, with its licence office open by appointment only. In Statistics Canada's census chart for the Vancouver urban centre, Mandarin, Punjabi and Cantonese lead the non-official home languages. Salongram keeps the diary and staff hours on one phone.
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A working copy of the app's screens with a sample salon in Vancouver: local staff, services and prices in CAD.
Salongram is a free salon booking app for Vancouver salons and barbershops: appointments, clients, staff hours and WhatsApp reminders in one Android app.
A wage that moves every year, a licence for a home studio and clients with many first languages. The provincial minimum wage is $18.25 an hour, the city licenses home-based businesses by appointment, and Mandarin, Punjabi and Cantonese lead the non-official home languages.
The BC government raised the minimum wage to $18.25 an hour on Monday 1 June 2026, from $17.85, an increase of 40 cents. It said the province's minimum wage remains among Canada's highest. A salon paying staff by the hour should update its rates.
Under 2024 changes to the Employment Standards Act, the minimum wage rises each year by the previous year's average monthly inflation, so the rate is set to change each year. About 141,300 employees earned the minimum wage or less in 2025.
The City of Vancouver defines a home-based business as one located within your home, where the main use stays residential. The page names no hair or beauty rules, so a stylist working from home should ask the licence office what applies before taking clients.
Access to the Business Licence Office is by appointment only. You can apply online and track the application, contact the office online, or book a visit to the Development and Building Services Centre at 515 West 10th Avenue. The page lists no fees or processing times.
Statistics Canada's 2021 Census chart for the Vancouver urban centre shows that, among people who spoke mainly a language other than English or French at home, 21% spoke Mandarin, 19% Punjabi and 18% Cantonese, with Korean at 6% and other languages at 36%. These are shares of those speakers, not of all residents.
With the wage tied to inflation, a staffed salon revisits its numbers each year. Salongram keeps scheduled days, hours and breaks for each person, and leaves pay to your own payroll tool.
A home-based stylist books clients by appointment, which suits a phone diary. Services, prices, client notes and reminders stay together, whichever room the chair is in.
Put your booking link or QR code in a social bio. A client sends a request for a real free time, and you accept it when you are ready.
Mandarin, Punjabi and Cantonese lead the non-official home languages. Salongram runs in English, Arabic or Spanish, with no Chinese or Punjabi screens, so choose who sets up the app.
The licence office sees people by appointment only. Block the hour you book there in the diary, so your booking link does not offer it. Phone and walk-in bookings would still show only a warning.
We found no official data on how Vancouver clients book, so this guide does not guess. What Salongram does is keep calls, walk-ins and link requests in one diary per person, and it warns about an overlap before you confirm.
A cut, a gel manicure and a brow tint each have their own price and duration, so the diary sets aside the right time.
ServicesPeople who find you online can send a request for a free time through your link. Nothing is booked until you accept it.
The booking linkNotes, past visits and each client's usual service stay on their record, so rebooking takes seconds.
Client recordsAn illustrative Tuesday, not research: a one-room hair and nail studio at home in Kitsilano, open five days, where the owner cuts and a nail technician rents the second chair on busy days.
The owner opens the diary: the nail technician is off on Tuesdays, so only one column is open today.
A regular messages for a trim; there is an hour free at noon and she is booked straight in.
A colour appointment cancels. A client on the waiting list who wanted a Tuesday afternoon takes the slot.
Two requests arrive from the booking link for Friday. The owner checks her hours and accepts them.
Type in your own numbers. A no-show is a slot nobody else could take; reminders and a waiting list are how most salons win part of it back.
An estimate from the numbers you enter (a month counted as 4.33 weeks). Nothing is sent or stored. Salongram is free to download.
Add hair, nail and brow services separately, each with a price and how long it takes, so the diary sets aside the right time.
Give each person their days, hours and breaks, so the diary only offers times when the right person is in.
Create the optional account to get your link and QR code, then put it on your social pages, Google listing or door.
The BC government set it at $18.25 an hour from 1 June 2026, up from $17.85. Future increases follow the previous year's average inflation. Salongram keeps staff schedules but does not work out wages or run payroll.
Yes. Salongram is free to download on Google Play for Android. It keeps services, clients, staff hours and payment notes on the phone and prepares WhatsApp reminders you send yourself. It does not take card payments or deposits.
The City of Vancouver licenses home-based businesses, and its licence office works by appointment only. The city's page gives no hair or beauty rules, so ask the office what applies to you. Salongram does not handle licences.
Statistics Canada's 2021 Census chart for the Vancouver urban centre shows that, among people who spoke mainly a language other than English or French at home, 21% spoke Mandarin, 19% Punjabi and 18% Cantonese. Salongram runs in English, Arabic or Spanish only, so check what your team can use.
Yes, as requests. A client opens your link or QR code and asks for a free time, and nothing is booked until you accept it. Salongram does not take deposits or payments online.
Set up tonight, add your services and team, and book your first client in under a minute.
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