Booth rent calculator

How to use it

1. 1Type your figures into the calculator. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored. The answer is worked out in your browser.
2. 2Read the result and its caption. The assumptions are shown on the screen beside the number.
3. 3Save your figures once in the back office. Then this screen, and every other one, answers for your shop instead of a generic one.

What it does

• Every model is paid out of the same pot: the price of a service minus what its colour and product cost. Time is not in that figure, which is why the three ways of buying time can be compared against it.
• An hourly wage is the same bill whether anybody sat down. Commission moves with the day. Rent does not move at all, which is why the quiet weeks land on the person renting rather than on you.
• The crossover is the number that settles most arguments: below it the rent is worth more to you, above it a busy chair on commission is. It is printed in clients a day, so you can check it against a normal Tuesday.
• Both sides are shown on every model. An owner comparing only their own column picks rent every time, and then cannot understand why nobody takes the chair.
• Tips are not counted, and neither is tax. Whether renting a chair makes somebody self-employed where you are is a question for an accountant, not for a calculator.

Common questions

Is booth rent better than commission?

For the owner, rent is better while the chair is quiet, because the sum arrives whether anybody sat in it. Commission is better once the chair is busy, because you keep a share of every extra service. The calculator prints the clients a day where the two cross for your numbers.

What is a fair booth rent for a salon chair?

Work backwards from what the chair earns. Put in the clients a day and the average price, and look at what the stylist takes home after the rent. If that number is not a living wage on a normal week, the rent is too high and the chair will not stay filled.

What commission percentage is normal?

Between 35% and 50% of the service price is common, but the percentage matters less than what it leaves. If the cut is bigger than the margin after materials, commission can never pay you better than rent, however busy the chair is. The calculator says so when that happens.

Does renting a chair make someone self-employed?

Often, but it depends on where you are and on how much control you keep over their hours, prices and clients. Getting it wrong is expensive. Ask an accountant before you change anybody’s arrangement.

What if the chair does not earn its own rent?

Then the person renting it takes home nothing and owes you the difference, which nobody accepts twice. The calculator says this in words rather than printing a negative number, because it means the rent needs lowering, not that the deal is a bargain.

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