Career math · September 2026
The short answer: with a typical 55% commission split, booth rent beats commission once your service sales pass roughly rent ÷ 0.45 per month — about $2,700/month in sales for a $1,200 booth. Below that line, commission pays more. The catch is everything the line doesn't show: supplies, taxes, and slow weeks.
Commission: the salon keeps a split (typically 40–50%, so you keep 50–60%) and covers rent, water, electricity, front desk, product and laundry. Your money is smooth — a slow week is a smaller paycheck, not a loss.
Booth rent: a flat weekly or monthly fee ($400–1,200+/mo depending on market and salon), and you keep every dollar of service revenue. You also buy your own color and product, do your own laundry and books, and pay the rent in a slow week all the same.
The working guideline: rent should run 15–25% of your service revenue. A $1,200 booth needs roughly $5,000–8,000 in monthly service sales to stay inside it. Above 25%, only a very loyal rebooked book makes renting work — negotiate the rent or keep building on commission first.
Commission nets you sales × your split. Renting nets you sales − rent. Setting them equal gives the crossover: sales* = rent ÷ (1 − your split).
| Booth rent | Crossover at 55% split | Crossover at 60% split |
|---|---|---|
| $800/mo | $1,778/mo sales (~$410/wk) | $2,000/mo sales (~$460/wk) |
| $1,000/mo | $2,222/mo sales (~$515/wk) | $2,500/mo sales (~$580/wk) |
| $1,200/mo | $2,667/mo sales (~$615/wk) | $3,000/mo sales (~$695/wk) |
Pass the line consistently for three months before you switch — one strong month is a schedule anomaly, not a book.
Self-employment tax and benefits (both structures are usually IC now, but renters feel it first), product and supply costs (color alone can run 5–8% of service sales), no-paycheck weeks, and the rebook rate — a book that's 80%+ rebooked is the real qualification for going independent. Renting with a walk-in-dependent book is renting risk.
The Booth Rent vs Commission Calculator compares both paths from your weekly sales, your split and the rent quote — including the 15–25% check. When you have a price list of your own, build it with the Service Price List Builder, and take payments with a clean Receipt Generator. Prefer a ready-made one? 10 printable price list templates for salons and other service businesses, with sample prices already filled in.
$400–1,200+/month depending on market, salon and whether product is included. Judge any quote against the 15–25%-of-revenue guideline, not against other stylists' rents.
New stylists commonly start keeping 40–50%, moving toward 60% with a proven book. Splits above 60% usually come with fewer salon-provided supports — compare the whole package, not the split.
No — tips follow you under both structures. Keep the comparison to service revenue, and keep tips out of the qualification math entirely.
When your book isn't rebooked. Renting converts a stable paycheck into a business with fixed costs; an 80%+ rebook rate is the practical threshold most owners quote.