I personally employ my staff as I felt that I could keep a 'tighter ship' that way. If we have gaps between clients then the girls all muck in with cleaning, leaflet drops, stock taking, mailshots, admin etc etc I don't know how this would work for commission only or room rental staff. They may not keep things to the standard I would like and may not want to help with reception etc as they are not getting paid for it. I can also set the working hours that are mutually beneficial, provide the products that I want used, and have the treatments carried out how I want them to be.
On the flip side, at the beginning you may not be very busy and all of your staff will have to be paid regardless. You have maternity pay and sick pay responsibilities, lots of tax and NI to pay. Holidays must be paid too. Maybe a low basic hourly rate plus commission on treatments would be good?
If you end up a busy salon you would probably make a bigger profit (depending on what you wanted to pay your staff vs room rental of course) if you employed. I also found after asking around that a lot of people prefer to be employed as it gives a guarenteed wage each week plus hols and the other benefits mentioned before, and some don't want to have the hassle of doing their own books and paying tax and NI themselves.
I can see that room rental would give you a steady income each week regardless of how busy or quiet you are which would be good especially at the beginning.
It maybe worth employing your core staff and having other staff on another basis to fill up your remaining rooms??
Its a tricky one - sorry i have rambled on a bit and havent made a lot of sense!!
Wishing you all the best in your new venture xxx :hug: