Esthetician commission vs booth rent

On commission, the spa keeps a percentage of every service and you keep the rest, usually with some hourly floor. Tips and retail commission can layer on top. The spa absorbs marketing, rent, utilities, software, and (usually) front-desk costs. You absorb a smaller variable cost — typically nothing per service unless you bring your own products.

On booth rent, you pay a fixed weekly or monthly rent for the room and keep every dollar your services and retail bring in. You absorb product cost, supplies, software, payment processing, and marketing. The math is cleaner but the floor is lower — when bookings drop, rent still arrives.

Commission wins when:

• You're early in your career and the book isn't full yet.
• Benefits, training, and shared marketing have real value to you.
• You don't want to absorb variance week to week.
• You're testing a new market or service mix.

Booth rent wins when:

• Your book is consistently busy and your bookings exceed break-even.
• You have 1–2 months of rent in savings.
• You can run the marketing, booking, and policies side of the business.
• The commission split you're being offered is below 40% of services.

Open both calculators and enter your real bookings. Use the same average ticket and weekly client count in each. Compare monthly take-home, effective hourly, and guaranteed weekly pay (commission) vs. break-even cushion (booth rent). The interesting number is rarely the headline pay — it's the gap between best week and worst week.

A commission offer at $18/hr + 35% with 12 weekly bookings at $100 typically nets $5,000–$6,000/month before tax. A solo booth at $250/week rent with the same bookings nets $4,800–$5,500 after rent, supplies, and a 25% tax set-aside — but the solo number scales linearly with bookings while commission has a softer ceiling.

• Insurance and benefits on commission can be worth $300–$700/mo of cash equivalent. Worth real money on a tight budget.
• Schedule control. Solo gives you it; commission usually doesn't.
• Marketing burden. Solo means you fill your own book. Commission means someone else fills part of it.
• Policy enforcement. Solo gives you the freedom to set and enforce policies your way. Use the cancellation and no-show templates as a starting point if you go solo.