Salon, spa & fitness
Salon Overhead Calculator
Totals salon overhead, where the cost per chair hour is the figure to price from.
Result
Overhead is what the business costs whether or not you work. Wages for people who are on jobs belong in job cost instead, and counting them here overstates overhead and underprices everything.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
The monthly total of what the salon costs regardless of bookings: rent, utilities, insurance, front desk wages, software and booking systems, laundry, licensing and marketing. Divided by the chair hours available it gives the overhead each chair hour must carry, which is what service prices have to clear.
What moves the number
- Rent, which is usually the largest line.
- Front desk and non-service wages.
- Software, booking and card processing.
- Laundry, utilities and consumables.
Where this one goes wrong
Stylist pay is service cost rather than overhead, and mixing it in makes the overhead rate useless for pricing. Overhead divided by available chair hours is the figure that matters, and it rises sharply when chairs sit empty, which is the arithmetic behind why a quiet week hurts disproportionately. Card processing and booking software are the lines that grow unnoticed, since both scale with activity and neither is reviewed often.
Before you quote
- Keep stylist pay in service cost, not overhead.
- Divide overhead by available chair hours.
- Review card processing and software costs annually.
Questions
About this calculator
How should salon overhead be expressed?
Per available chair hour, because that is what service prices have to clear. A monthly total is abstract; the cost each chair hour must carry connects directly to whether a service is priced correctly.
Does stylist pay count as overhead?
No, it is service cost since it scales with the work. Overhead is what the salon costs when nobody is in a chair: rent, utilities, insurance, front desk, software and laundry. Mixing them makes the rate useless for pricing.
Which overhead lines grow unnoticed?
Card processing and booking software, both of which scale with activity and are rarely reviewed. Subscriptions adopted for one purpose and never retired are the other, and an annual audit of what is paid for against what is used usually recovers something.
The formula
overhead rate = monthly overhead / monthly revenue
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How to use this calculator
- Premises per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,800.
- Office and management wages ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $5,200.
- Equipment and salon maintenance ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $2,400.
- Insurance and licensing ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $900.
- Software, phones and internet ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $450.
- Marketing and advertising ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,500.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to overhead per month, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Premises per month | $1,800 |
| Office and management wages | $5,200 |
| Equipment and salon maintenance | $2,400 |
| Insurance and licensing | $900 |
| Software, phones and internet | $450 |
| Marketing and advertising | $1,500 |
| Everything else | $700 |
| Monthly revenue | $48,000 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Overhead per month main result | $12,950 |
| Overhead per year | $155,400 |
| Overhead rate | 27.0% |
| Cost of opening the doors | $588.64 |
Overhead runs $12,950 a month, 27.0% of revenue. Every working day costs $588.64 before anybody turns a wheel.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only premises per month, this is what happens to overhead per month. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Premises per month ($) | Overhead per month |
|---|---|
| $900 | $12,050 |
| $1,350 | $12,500 |
| $1,800 example above | $12,950 |
| $2,700 | $13,850 |
| $3,600 | $14,750 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Premises per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,800.
- Office and management wages ($)
- A money amount, starting at $5,200.
- Equipment and salon maintenance ($)
- A money amount, starting at $2,400.
- Insurance and licensing ($)
- A money amount, starting at $900.
- Software, phones and internet ($)
- A money amount, starting at $450.
- Marketing and advertising ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,500.
- Everything else ($)
- A money amount, starting at $700.
- Monthly revenue ($)
- A money amount, starting at $48,000.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Overhead per month | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Overhead per year | A money figure. |
| Overhead rate | A percentage. |
| Cost of opening the doors | A money figure. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.