How to open a salon or barber shop: steps, costs, staff pay

The short answer: a salon or barber shop sells time and skill, so your biggest costs are rent, chairs and the people working them. To open one, choose a spot with steady foot traffic, check business and hygiene rules with your local authority, equip the chairs and wash station, list your services with a price and a duration, decide how staff are paid, and record every service and product sale.

The steps to open

1. Choose a location near homes or offices with regular customers, and visible from the street.
2. Check licences and rules. Business registration, hygiene and tool-cleaning rules, and any staff qualification rules differ by place. Ask your local authority. This is not legal advice.
3. Plan the layout: chairs, wash basins, a waiting area, storage and a place to clean tools.
4. Buy equipment (below).
5. Write a service list with a price and the time each service takes.
6. Decide how staff are paid: a wage, a share of each service, or both. Write it down before the first week.
7. Buy starting products for use in services and, if you sell them, for retail.
8. Open softly, learn which services fill the day, and adjust prices.

What the money goes to

• Rent and deposit.
• Fit-out: mirrors, plumbing for wash basins, lighting, flooring and a reception desk.
• Equipment: chairs, wash units, clippers, scissors, dryers, towels, sterilising supplies, till device and receipt printer.
• Products: colour, shampoo, styling products and disposables. Retail products are extra.
• Staff: wages or commission, plus your own time.
• Running costs: electricity, hot water, laundry and cleaning.
• A cash cushion for the weeks before regular customers form.

The break-even tool shows how many services a day cover your fixed costs.

Choosing the first stock

Stock is small compared with a shop, so keep it simple. Buy the products you use every day first, in sizes you finish within a few weeks. Count them each month so you know the real cost of each service. If you sell products to customers, keep them separate from the ones you use on the chair.

Pricing and margin

A service price has to cover the products used, the time of the chair, the stylist and your share of rent. Work out the cost of each service in the margin calculator, then check the month with the profit tool. For commission, the salon commission tool calculates each stylist's share, and the salary slip tool prints the pay record.

A daily routine

• Open: clean the stations, count the drawer, check the day's list.
• During: ring up every service and product sale under the right staff member.
• Close: clean and sterilise tools, count cash against sales, note low products.
• Weekly: work out each stylist's share from the recorded services.
• Monthly: count products and compare with what you used.

Common mistakes

• Pricing by a rival's sign instead of your cost and time.
• Paying commission from memory instead of from recorded sales.
• Not counting the cost of colour and products inside each service.
• Cash for services that never reaches the till.
• Mixing personal and shop cash.

A checklist

• Licence and hygiene rules confirmed locally
• Service list with prices and durations
• Staff pay method written down
• Equipment bought or quoted
• Starting products bought
• Till and receipt printer tested
• Cash cushion set aside

Where Dashing helps

Dashing has a cashier that works offline, records sales and expenses, and keeps customer debts. See Dashing for salons and barbershops, the salon commission tool, log an expense and the free plan.

Costs, licences and margins vary by country; use your own quotes.

Sources

No outside figures are cited in this guide. The statements about Dashing rest on these pages (accessed 2026-10-31).

• The salon commission tool, https://dashingerp.com/en/tools/salon-commission
• The free plan in Dashing, https://dashingerp.com/en/free