What does the shop need just to stay open?
Barbershop Break-Even Calculator
The floor under the business: the revenue and service count that covers rent, utilities, software and wages before any profit exists.
YOUR NUMBERS
YOUR RESULT
$9,231 a month to break even
- Break-even revenue
- $9,231
- Services per month
- 205
- Per chair per month
- 51
- Per chair per day
- 2.0
- Contribution per service
- $29.25
Each chair needs about 2.0 services a day just to reach zero. Everything above that line is the business.
Educational calculation from the numbers you entered. Not financial, tax or legal advice.
HOW THIS CALCULATION WORKS
Break-even reframes a shop from 'busy or quiet' to 'above or below the line'. It also tells you instantly whether a new chair helps or just adds cost.
- Contribution = average ticket × (1 − variable cost share)
- Services to break even = fixed costs ÷ contribution
- Per chair per day = services ÷ chairs ÷ open days
A WORKED EXAMPLE
$6,000 fixed costs, $45 ticket, 35% variable: contribution is $29.25, so 206 services a month — about 2 a day per chair across four chairs.
These figures come from the example inputs above, not from industry data. ChairScale does not publish benchmark numbers until it has enough verified data to do it properly — read the methodology.
QUESTIONS BARBERS ASK
What counts as fixed?
Anything you pay whether or not a client walks in: rent, insurance, utilities, software, salaried wages, loan payments.
Where do commissions go?
In the variable percentage — they only happen when a service happens.
Should I include my own pay?
Include it if you take a set wage. That gives you the real floor rather than a break-even that quietly depends on you working for nothing.
RUN YOUR NUMBERS
Save your numbers to a free ChairScale profile and get a business assessment that tells you which of these levers to pull first.