September 29, 2026·7 min read
What’s your commission split really costing you?
The quick answer
What’s your commission split really costing you?
Most commission salons keep 40% to 60% of every service, and 45% to 50% is the most common split, per Zenoti’s 2026 guide.
- On a 50/50 split, a $6,000 month sends about $692 a week to the salon, or $36,000 a year.
- Going independent adds costs: color and supplies run $200 to $600 a month, per Hill Country Salon Suites, plus self-employment tax.
- Your break-even is the most a membership can cost while still leaving you more than your split does today.
- The calculator on this page runs your own numbers in about three minutes.
I have this conversation with stylists every week. They’re booked. Their clients love them. They’re really good at what they do. And they want to know one thing: am I keeping enough of it?
So let’s find out, with your real numbers. It takes about three minutes.
Making money and keeping money are two different things
How much you make is what your clients pay you. How much you keep is what’s left once everyone else takes their share. Most of us only ever look at the first number.
On commission, the salon’s share comes off the top of every service. The stylist’s cut usually runs 40% to 60%, and 45% to 50% is the most common, per Zenoti’s 2026 guide.
That split pays for real things: the space, the product, the lights on. The question is whether it’s still the best deal for you now that you’re booked.
I tell my students the same thing every time. Fresh out of school, go to commission and learn. Once you’re booked, look hard at the split.
How do you work out what your split costs?
It takes two numbers you already know: what you bring in each month in services, before tips, and the percent you keep. I’ve loaded a $6,000 month on a 50/50 split, the most common split per Zenoti, so you can see how it works. Change them to yours. It’s the same math I walk my students through.
Commission split calculator
See what your split really costs you.
This is simple math on the numbers you enter. It isn’t tax or financial advice, and it isn’t a promise of what you’ll earn.
What does a 50/50 split cost you in a year?
A $6,000 month on 50/50 means about $692 a week stays with the salon, per the calculator’s default numbers. Over a year, that’s $36,000 of your work.
What would you pay for on your own?
Going independent has costs too, and I want you to see every one of them. I teach my students to count all of these before they leave a salon. Here’s what I loaded into the calculator, and you can change all of it.
- Your own color and supplies: $400 a month. Independent pros spend $200 to $600 a month replenishing supplies, per Hill Country Salon Suites. At bex+Co.®, backbar is stocked for you, so $400 is on the high side.
- Other business costs: $50 a month. Things like booking software (Vagaro is $30 a month) and liability insurance ($199 a year from Associated Hair Professionals).
- Self-employment tax: about 7.65% more. On a W-2 commission job, your salon pays half your Social Security and Medicare. On your own, you pay the full 15.3%, per the IRS. Business costs like your membership are usually deductible, which brings it back down. Ask a tax pro about yours.
What’s your break-even?
Your break-even is the most a membership could cost while still putting more in your pocket. It’s the number I want every one of my students to know by heart. The calculator takes what you keep on commission and what you’d keep on your own, and does the math for you.
At a $6,000 month, that’s about $483 a week. Any membership under that leaves you with more than your split does today.
Membership pricing changes by location, so we don’t post it here. Your local team gives you the real number on a quick call. Get your number, and you’ll see exactly what you’d keep.
Who keeps your next raise?
On your own, every raise is yours to keep. On a 50/50 split, when you raise a color from $180 to $200, you keep $10 of that raise. On your own, you keep all $20.
And where you work shapes what clients happily pay. In my course I teach that luxury open salons often command higher service prices, and I’ve watched it happen for twenty years. The same beautiful color feels different in a beautiful salon. Move the price slider in the calculator and watch what a small raise does.
What does a bex+Co.® membership handle for you?
Most of what you’d pay for on your own is already handled on the floor. When I built bex+Co.®, I built it so you could walk in and work.
| What you need | On your own | At bex+Co.® |
|---|---|---|
| A finished salon | Moving into a suite runs $3,250 to $11,100 before your first client | Built, styled and ready. You walk in and work |
| Your chair and workstation | A chair, station, shampoo bowl and dryer run $1,600 to $7,500 to buy | Your own chair and full workstation, with lockable storage |
| Backbar | $3,000 to $5,000 a year, per Vagaro | Stocked for you |
| Towels, capes, trays, cleaning | Your laundry, after your last client | Handled |
| Retail | Buy your own inventory | 15% on retail, no inventory to buy |
| Business education | The Beauty Empire Blueprint™ is $2,497 on its own | Included, with ongoing coaching |
| Getting found | Build it yourself | Your bio and booking link on a site with about 30,000 visits a month |
| The lease | One national suite company’s minimum is one year | No long-term contract |
| Your hours | Set by the building | 24-hour access with your own key |
| The people around you | Just you | A floor full of pros who want to see you win |
Will your clients follow you?
Plenty of clients do, and the Google reviews on my own floors show it. It’s the question I hear most. I can’t promise anything about your book, so here’s what clients wrote about the pros they followed.
“I actually followed her from another salon about a year ago”
“First time at bex+Co.- followed Bronwyn here and for good reason - she’s the best”
“I think so highly of Hannah that I followed her when she moved from another salon.”
“I fly back to Austin from NC to get my hair done”
Clients book the person. Keep being great at your work, and your people will find you.
What do clients say about the space?
The space is part of what clients love, in their own words about my own salons on Google.
“The salon is beautiful and calm.”
“The salon is a good size, the vibe feels good and it’s very clean. I feel totally pampered every time I get my hair done”
“Bex and co has a beautiful salon set up and welcoming atmosphere.”
“It’s nice to just actually relax at a salon.”
Your next step takes 30 seconds
- Apply. It takes about 30 seconds, with no commitment.
- Get your number. Someone from your local team calls within two business days with the membership price for your location.
- Walk the floor. Come see the space and meet the pros you’d be working next to.
Bring your calculator numbers to the call. We’ll finish the math together.
Key takeaways
- Making money and keeping money are two different numbers. Look at the second one.
- On commission, salons usually keep 40% to 60% of every service.
- On your own you carry color, supplies, software, insurance and extra self-employment tax. Count all of it.
- Your break-even is the most a membership can cost and still put more in your pocket.
- On your own, every price raise is yours to keep.
Questions people ask
Is commission ever the better choice?
Yes. Fresh out of school, commission is the best place to learn. If your book is still growing and the calculator shows a break-even below what a membership costs, stay, build, and run it again in six months.
How much is a bex+Co.® membership?
It depends on the location, so your local team shares the number on a quick call. You keep 100% of your service revenue and earn 15% on retail, and backbar, towels and cleaning are handled.
What about taxes?
On a W-2 commission job, your salon pays half your Social Security and Medicare. On your own, you pay the full 15.3% self-employment tax, per the IRS. Business costs like your membership are usually deductible. The calculator adds the extra half so you see the honest number. A tax pro can tell you your real one.
I’m already paid as a 1099 on commission. Does the tax line apply?
No. Switch it off. You already pay self-employment tax, so your math is just your split against your costs.
Do I keep my clients?
Yes. You set your own prices, book your own clients, and your client list stays yours.
How this page was made
Written with AI from Bex’s teaching and her course. Every outside number links to its source. Open the card for what we checked and what we couldn’t.
How we verified this page
What we checked, what we couldn’t, and who read it.Published by bex+CoChecked September 29, 202610 sourcesReported with AI
The page
What this page is for
Lets a booked beauty pro on commission run their own numbers: what their split sends to the salon, what they would carry on their own, and the most a membership could cost and still put more in their pocket.
Who we wrote it for
A beauty pro on commission who is doing well and wants to see the math before deciding anything. Not for someone fresh out of school, where commission is the best place to learn.
Our lens
bex+Co. is a Shared Workspace Salon™, one open floor, and we franchise it. We make money when a beauty pro becomes a member, so we lean toward showing what independence can keep. That’s why the calculator lists the costs of going independent too, and lets you change every number. This page carries no membership price, by standing policy. Nothing here is tax or financial advice.
Decisions we made
- Preloaded a real example so the math is on screen before you type anything.
- Showed the costs of going independent, taxes included, so the break-even is an honest number.
- Left the membership price out, so you get the real number from your local team on a quick call.
- Used reviews as they were written, with no stars and no edits.
The work
How we researched it
- Re-checked every outside figure at its source on September 29, 2026: the commission range, supplies, software, insurance, the self-employment tax rate, suite move-in costs, chair and equipment prices and the one-year lease minimum.
- Worked the calculator’s default example by hand: a $6,000 month on a 50/50 split, with $400 of supplies and $50 of other costs.
- Took the review quotes word for word from public Google reviews and linked each one to its own review.
What we could not verify
- The calculator’s starting costs ($400 of supplies, $50 of other costs) are typical figures from the sources cited. Yours will differ, so change them to your own.
- The 7.65% tax line is a simple estimate of the extra half you pay on your own. Your real tax depends on your return, so ask a tax pro.
- The Beauty Empire Blueprint price and the site-visits figure in the table come from bex+Co. itself and have no outside source.
- The review quotes come from Google reviews captured on August 11, 2026. We didn’t re-open each review on the day this page was published.
Who wrote it
Written with AI from Bex’s teaching and her course. Every outside number links to its source.
Dates
Published September 29, 2026. Last checked September 29, 2026. Check again by December 29, 2026.
Changes and corrections
- September 29, 2026: first version.
Sources
- Zenoti, Salon Commission Structure guide (2026)
- Hill Country Salon Suites, Realistic cost breakdown when you rent a salon suite (2025)
- Vagaro, Pricing (2026)
- Associated Hair Professionals, Hairstylist Liability Insurance (2026)
- IRS, Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)
- HairSalonPro.com, How Much Is a Salon Suite? (2026)
- Buy Rite Beauty, Styling chairs (September 2026)
- Vagaro, Salon Commission vs. Booth Rental Guide (2026), backbar estimate
- A national suite company, lease Q&A (2026)
- Google reviews of bex+Co.® locations (each quote on this page links to its own review)
100+ beauty pros chose freedom. There’s room for you.
Across 7 bex+Co.® floors, running their own businesses with other pros beside them.
Your move
You were never meant to do this alone.
Tell us which salon you’d like to work in. We’ll show you which bex+Co.® salons have space for a new member and which are full, then set up a tour if you want one.