How to Open a Barbershop

Opening a barbershop starts with the same core decision as opening a hair salon — booth rent versus commission — but barbershops tend to run leaner: fewer specialty color products, simpler buildouts, and a business model that often leans harder on walk-in volume and marketplace discovery apps than an appointment-only salon does. Licensing, a chair-by-chair startup budget, and a plan for filling chairs with new clients from day one are the three pieces that actually determine whether a new shop survives its first year. Requirements and costs vary significantly by state and city — verify local barbering and business licensing rules directly before budgeting or signing a lease. This isn't legal or financial advice. Why a barbershop is a different business than a hair salon A barbershop and a hair salon look similar from the street, but the economics differ in a few real ways. Barbershops typically see faster average service times — a cut or a fade generally takes less chair time than a color service — which means more appointments per chair per day but a lower average ticket than a salon running color and chemical services. Barbershops also tend to draw a higher share of walk-in and marketplace-discovered clients than salons, which is why booking apps with a marketplace component, like Booksy, show up disproportionately often in barbershop scheduling setups specifically. None of this changes the fundamental startup playbook, but it does shift where the money and the client-acquisition effort actually go. Booth rent versus commission: the core decision This decision shapes your income, your management burden, and how much control you have over the shop's standards and brand — and it's worth deciding deliberately rather than defaulting into whichever model the barbers you hire first happen to expect. Booth rent model Barbers rent a chair or station from you and keep their own service revenue, typically paying a flat weekly or monthly rent regardless of how much they book. This is the dominant model in a large share of barbershops, particularly ones built around experienced barbers who already have a following and want independence. Pros for the shop owner: predictable rent income, far less day-to-day management, and lower payroll and HR burden since renters are independent. Cons: less control over service quality, pricing, and client experience — a renter who's inconsistent or rude to clients is still operating under your shop's name and Google listing, affecting your shared reputation even though you don't manage their schedule. Watch classification carefully. A booth renter has to genuinely operate as an independent business — setting their own prices, hours, and client relationships — or you risk a worker-classification problem if the arrangement looks like employment in practice but gets treated as a rental on paper . Commission model Barbers are employees, and the shop takes a share of their service revenue, typically somewhere in a range that varies by market and experience level . Pros for the shop owner: full control over standards, pricing, scheduling, and the client experience, and you're building the shop's brand and client base directly rather than each barber building their own. Cons: more management overhead, payroll, workers' comp, and the ongoing responsibility of actually filling each barber's chair with enough volume to make the arrangement worthwhile for them. Many shops blend the two — a mix of commission barbers for consistency and booth renters for established talent — or evolve from one model to the other as the shop matures. Choose based on how much hands-on control you want versus how much simplicity and predictability you're optimizing for in year one. A fictional example: choosing between the two models Consider two fictional first-time owners opening shops in the same mid-sized city. Marcus opens Six Chairs Barber Co. with a booth-rent model from day one, recruiting five experienced barbers who already have their own regular clients and simply need a shop to work from. His revenue is predictable rent, his management load is light, but his Google reviews end up a mixed bag — one renter is meticulous about cleanliness and consistently gets five-star reviews, another runs chronically late, and clients sometimes can't tell from the shop's shared listing which barber they're actually describing. Across town, Dana opens Fade District on a commission model, hiring four barbers as employees and setting a single standard for timing, cleanliness, and client communication across the whole shop. Her management overhead is heavier — she's handling payroll, scheduling, and training — but the shop's reviews read more consistently, since every barber is following the same playbook she built. Neither choice is objectively better; they're optimized for different owners. Marcus's model works well because he's comfortable with less day-to-day control in exchange for simplicity, and his barbers already bring their own client base. Dana's model works because she wants to build one cohesive brand from scratch and is willing to put in the management time to do it. A first-time owner deciding between the two should be honest about which tradeoff actually fits their own strengths, rather than copying whichever model a friend's shop happens to use. Hiring your first barbers Whether you're recruiting booth renters or hiring commission employees, the barbers you bring on in year one set the tone for the shop's reputation before you've built much of a track record of your own. A few things matter more at this stage than a typical hiring process might suggest: ask to see a candidate's own Google reviews or portfolio from a previous shop if they have one, since their existing reputation is about to become attached to your shop's listing as well. For booth renters specifically, confirm upfront how they handle client relationships and pricing, since you have far less ability to course-correct a renter's habits after the fact than you would an employee under a commission structure. It's also worth deciding your shop's basic client-experience standards — timing, cleanliness, how a late arrival or a dissatisfied client gets handled — before your first barber starts, rather than figuring it out reactively after the first bad review comes in. A one-page expectations document, even an informal one, gives new barbers (and booth renters especially, who are otherwise fairly autonomous) a clear sense of what the shop stands for beyond just "do good haircuts." Licensing and legal setup Barbering license. You and every barber working in the shop generally need an individual barbering license from your state board, which usually requires completing an approved barbering program and passing a state exam . Requirements and hours vary meaningfully by state, so check your specific state board directly rather than assuming a neighboring state's rules apply. Shop or establishment license. Beyond individual barber licenses, most states require the physical shop itself to carry a separate establishment or shop license, tied to health and safety inspections of the space. Form your business entity. An LLC is the common choice for a small barbershop for liability separation — see our guide on LLC vs. S-Corp for small business for the tradeoffs. Register and get your permits. A general business license, a sign permit if you're changing signage, and a certificate of occupancy for the specific space — see licenses and permits checklist for the general rundown. Insurance. General liability at minimum, and workers' comp if you're running a commission model with employees rather than independent booth renters — see general liability insurance cost for a sense of what this typically runs. Startup costs: what a new barbershop actually spends on A barbershop's startup budget breaks down into a handful of predictable categories, though the actual dollar figures vary enormously by city, shop size, and whether you're building out a raw space or taking over an existing salon or barbershop lease: Lease and buildout. Usually the largest single cost — plumbing for sinks, electrical for clippers and dryers, flooring that holds up to hair and foot traffic, and any walls or stations you're adding. Taking over a space that was already a barbershop or salon meaningfully reduces this line item compared to a raw commercial shell. Barber chairs and stations. Hydraulic barber chairs, mirrors, and station setups for each chair, priced per chair rather than as one bulk cost — budget per-chair and multiply by how many stations you're opening with. Clipper, shear, and tool inventory. Many barbers bring their own personal tools, but a shop still typically stocks shared supplies — towels, capes, sanitation equipment, and backup clippers. Licenses, insurance, and working capital. Budget for several months of rent and basic operating costs as a cushion while the shop builds its client base — see cash flow forecast template for building this out properly. Booking software and point-of-sale. A scheduling and payment system that works for a walk-in-heavy model, not just appointment-only booking — see online booking for service businesses. Website, Google Business Profile, and launch marketing. A basic site, a claimed and optimized Google listing, and a modest launch marketing budget — see small business website checklist. Compared to a full-service salon with color stations, retail shelving, and a broader product inventory, a barbershop's buildout and inventory costs tend to run lighter, which is part of why barbershops remain one of the more accessible beauty-industry businesses to start for a first-time owner. Filling the chairs: getting your first clients Google Business Profile and reviews. This is where most new clients searching "barber near me" or "best fade in [city]" actually find you — see Google Business Profile optimization for the setup basics. Booking-app marketplace discovery. Apps like Booksy include a consumer-facing discovery layer that surfaces barbershops to people browsing nearby, which matters more for a barbershop than it typically does for an appointment-only salon, given how much barbershop business tends to come from walk-in-style discovery. See Booksy vs. Vagaro vs. Fresha for how the major booking platforms compare, including how their review systems work. Instagram and short-form video. Fades, tapers, and beard work are highly visual services that perform well on Instagram Reels and TikTok specifically — process clips of an actual cut tend to outperform static before/after photos for barbershops in particular, since the technique itself is part of what a prospective client is evaluating. Walk-in volume and foot traffic. Unlike most salons, a well-located barbershop can build real volume from walk-ins alone — visibility, signage, and a location with actual foot traffic matter more here than for an appointment-only business. Reviews after every single cut. A new shop with zero reviews is invisible next to an established competitor with two hundred, regardless of how good the actual haircuts are. Reviews fill the chairs — and they need to track to the right barber A new client picks a barbershop based on photos and reviews before they've ever sat in a chair, and a brand-new shop starts with neither. Asking every client for a review after every cut, texted or emailed right at checkout while the fresh cut is still top of mind, is the fastest way to build a review profile that actually converts browsing clients into booked appointments. The same rule applies here as everywhere else: ask every client the same way, regardless of whether the cut went perfectly or the barber ran ten minutes behind — never skip someone because the visit wasn't flawless, and never offer a discount in exchange for a review. That's review gating, and it's against the FTC's rule on fake and deceptive reviews (16 CFR Part 465) on top of most platforms' own terms. Once you've got more than one barber in the chair, reviews need to track to the specific person who did the work, not just the shop as a whole — a review that says "ask for Marco if you want a clean skin fade" is far more useful to a new client, and a far better signal for the shop's own management, than a generic five-star rating with no name attached. Reviews for every barber in your shop means a multi-chair shop can see at a glance which barber is building a following and which one might need coaching, without having to read every single review by hand to figure out who it's actually about. Which booking app should a new barbershop use? Booksy's marketplace discovery and barber-first design make it a common default for new shops that want walk-in-style discovery on top of a calendar, particularly in a competitive market where showing up in an app's local search matters. A shop running tighter, appointment-only scheduling with a loyal repeat client base from day one might get more value from a platform built around staff management instead. See Booksy vs. Vagaro vs. Fresha for the full comparison. How much does it cost to open a barbershop? There's no single number that applies across markets — a one-chair shop in a small town and a six-chair shop in a major city differ enormously in lease cost alone. Build your own budget from the categories above (lease and buildout, chairs and stations, licenses and insurance, working capital) rather than anchoring on a generic figure from an article, and get an actual quote for your specific space before committing to a lease. Do I need a cosmetology license or a barbering license specifically? This depends on your state — some states license barbering and cosmetology separately with different scope-of-practice rules, while others combine them or allow a cosmetology license to cover barbering services as well . Check your state board directly, since assuming the wrong license type can cost real time and tuition. Is booth rent or commission better for a new barbershop owner? Booth rent tends to be lower-risk for a first-time owner since it requires less day-to-day management and payroll complexity, but it also gives you less control over the shop's consistency and brand. Commission gives you more control but requires real management skill and enough client volume to make the arrangement worthwhile for barbers you're paying as employees. Many first-time owners start with booth rent for simplicity and shift toward commission, or a blend of both, as the shop grows and they build the management systems to support it. Every review from Google, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram in one inbox → Try Tailwind free. For the salon-side version of this same startup decision, see how to open a hair salon, and for the broader picture of managing reviews once you've got more than one barber in the shop, see salon reputation management. Tailwind runs $5 a month per tool, or $50 a month for the Full plan covering every tool, with the first month free and no card required to start.