Question for the salon owners

[classixuk]

Just a quick question...

Was reading a thread in the hair forum where someone was asking if £115 a week was fair for renting a chair.

Do any of you rent chairs out? If so, can you explain the attraction to me?

I see each chair as being worth at least £500 income each week. Out of that £500 I pay the staff member and overheads. The rest is profit.

Why would I want to 'rent' that chair out for 20% of that - the only thing I'd save is the staff member's wage. It's totally lost on me.

I can give a staff member 2 chairs and s/he can bring in £1000. They take £300 wage. I'm left with £700 to pay for overheads.

How can a 'booth rent' salon survive if that £700 is reduced to £230 (assuming that when you rent a chair out you strictly limit access to one chair at any one time?)

Totally confusing. :eek:

[kimi1101]

I only rent a chair to an established stylist with their own clients. I get £160 a week from her and very rarely will she get new clients through the salon. Just now, I still have spaces for new people but as the salon gets busier I am planning on employing another stylist. Hope this gives you a bit of insight into how it works for me.

[persianista]

I used to do it as I had spare space. To be honest it is not ideal both from a financial perspective, and also having someone who is not part of the team working there.
For me it was a bit of pocket money, and I have no idea how people run salons on it.

[Bluerinse]

I used to do it as I had spare space. To be honest it is not ideal both from a financial perspective, and also having someone who is not part of the team working there.
For me it was a bit of pocket money, and I have no idea how people run salons on it.


My very first boss used to run a salon from just renting out a chair...but she took half of what the girls took a week..14 stylists at one point and they all used to take no less than £800 a week .but actually the boss took £75 a week ;) if you get me!! I might look at employing next year x

[JoJo1980]

Ive never got my head round this one either. I personally want control of my staff and working hours and attire etc. Its not worth £100 or so a week for me, when I can put the effort in to management and make £1200 out of them........
Rent a chair baffles me
xxxx

[Blue Rose]

I'm beauty, not hair, but have never understood this myself either. Why would you rent space to a hairdresser/therapist and 'earn' to £150 without having full control whereas employing them you can earn 3-4 times that if not more, depending on your prices!

[Jemima26]

I suppose it is to do with the risk factor. You HAVE to pay wages every week, if you a new salon you might not have the clients to earn £500 per chair per week in week out.

I do agree though it doesn't make sense financially if you are in it to build a business. I'm beauty not hair, but wouldn't get into renting spaces etc.

[alpina]

I wouldn't do it again. I rented a spare beauty room out to a massage therapist once for a few months and that didn't work out. I don't like the fact that a booth renter is technically running their own business and can run that business in anyway that they see fit, it's the reputation of the whole salon that will be affected though.
The lady renting from me didn't do anything wrong but also didn't do anything right iykwim. In the end it was affecting my business, I would try to cross-promote services and have my hair/nail clients see her too but they weren't happy with the service/way she ran the business. I wasn't going to let that effect the reputation me and my staff have worked for.

[taggyboy]

We took on a chair renter last year and it works well. However, I think it's successfull because she used to run her own salon and has her own client base. I wouldn't consider someone who had no clients to be honest.

I agree with Kimi, we will eventually employ again. We have tried but can only offer part-time at the moment. They need to prove their worth, retain clients, cover their wage (at least).

We don't do percentage either, it's a flat rate.

Fully appreciate it adds no worth to the salon in terms of wealth.

[makeupartistzoe]

my whole salon works on booth rental....a nail desk, beauty room, 3 hair stations and my makeup/ lash room...I started out as a mobile mua, lonely and missing creative collaborations like you get at training/college, slowly building up clients....now we all recommend clients and the staff that don't want to work hard, dont last very long! If they choose to leave, it's their choice and my business isn't affected. Set rent tho, not percentage that just leaves resentment all round....

[angelina221]

£115 to rent a chair out is, in my opinion, far too low.
Another problem with renting a chair out is that your employed stylists may start thinking that they would want to rent a chair out too if it's too cheap.
You'd never really want to ask for less than £40 a day.
On the flip side, if you have a stylist that isn't doing too well then you may very well take more from a chair renter. If your stylist is say, only taking £500 a week then by the time you have paid wages, paid tax and insurance, taken off the product costs and overheads then you may very well end up getting more money from a chair renter. Plus only their rent is going towards your totals and not the total cost of their services.
I prefer to employ.

[taggyboy]

Also, how do new clients get shared out? If a new client walked into the salon who would she get her appointment with, a salon employee or the chair renter?
I'm guessing the salon employee would get first chance with the new client so how would a chair renter build up a client base???

For us it's not a problem, the chair renter runs her business entirely independantly as you would if you were mobile - home salon - shop. Has own website, own booking system, mobile phone, own marketing etc.

We as salon owners with the shop front have exclusivity for walk-ins and it is in the contract. If a chair renter has her own client base and builds it up from her marketing/website etc she wouldn't really need the salons walk-ins.

At the moment we don't employ, have tried this but can only offer part-time. We cannot afford for someone full time to be sitting around doing nothing. Part-timers, we have found eventually look for full time work.

[tillymay]

Hi , it works for us very well., I think a lot more salons do this since the state of the countrys financial problems as its a gaurennteed and no stress of wages/ holiday pay/ finding hours for staff ... I personally believe its all down to the strength of.business in each salon .. xx

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