When does renting your chair beat the shop's cut? Free, no signup.
Start by choosing how you enter weekly revenue: type it directly, or use the Clients times ticket builder if you want to start from your book. The builder multiplies clients per week by your average ticket and also unlocks the break-even clients line later. Next enter your booth terms: the chair or booth rent per week and your other weekly costs like products, your booking app, and insurance. Then the commission side: the shop's cut as a percent, with quick presets for 70/30, 60/40, and 50/50 splits, plus your own weekly costs under commission, which are usually lower because the shop covers supplies and walk-ins out of its cut. The tool shows booth take-home and commission take-home side by side, the weekly and yearly difference, and your break-even revenue, the exact weekly number where booth rent starts winning. A big verdict box names the winner for your current numbers. Below that, the slow week versus busy week table runs your same terms at 75 and 125 percent of revenue, showing why rent is riskier in a slow January and kinder in a packed December.
Example only, not typical earnings. Say you bring in $1,200 a week directly, your booth rent is $250 a week, and your other weekly costs are $40. The shop's cut is 40 percent with no other costs on commission. Booth take-home is $1,200 minus $250 minus $40, or $910 a week. Commission take-home is 60 percent of $1,200, or $720. The difference is $190 a week in favor of booth rent, which is $9,880 a year. Your break-even is ($250 plus $40) divided by 0.40, or $725 a week: below that, commission wins. The slow week table shows that at 25 percent less revenue, $900, booth still nets $610 against $540 for commission, so the verdict reads Booth rent wins by $190.00/week.
Above your break-even revenue, which the tool computes as (rent plus your renter costs minus your commission costs) divided by the shop's cut. Earn more than that number and you keep every extra dollar; earn less and the fixed rent hurts.
The tool's presets cover 70/30, 60/40, and 50/50, and the right one depends on your market and what the shop provides. A shop that supplies product, marketing, and walk-ins justifies a bigger cut.
Commission shrinks with your revenue, so a slow week costs you less. Rent is fixed: it is due in a slow January week exactly like a packed December week, which is why the slow versus busy table exists.
Everything the shop used to cover that is now yours: products, your booking app, liability insurance, towels and laundry, and card processing. Undercounting these is the most common way the math lies to you.
Often yes, which changes your taxes: no withholding, and you generally owe self-employment tax. That is a tax question with real consequences, so confirm your status with a tax pro. This is information only, not tax advice.