In the last ten years, I've watched a lot of barbers go independent. Not only renting a chair in someone else's shop, but opening a space of their own. I see it in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and here in Chicago. One setup I see often: a barber leases 600 square feet on the third floor of an industrial building, puts in three chairs, and brands it as their own shop, studio or suite. Others keep it minimal, with one extra chair next to their own, or simply their own chair on the days they aren't in it. None of these are storefronts on a main street. They're private workspaces, built around the way that barber wants to work. The keyword is space. Your own space.
Owning the Space Changes the Math
When you rent a chair, your income stops when you stop cutting. When you hold the lease, the space is still there on the hours you aren't: the mornings before your first client, the days you're off, the weeks you travel. Those hours can be rented. A stylist who needs a chair on Tuesdays. A barber who only cuts evenings. A cosmetologist building a book who isn't ready for a lease of their own. If the space is already yours and someone else can use it while you're away, you aren't only a barber with a studio. You have a business model.
The Math on One Day a Week
Take one day a week you aren't there. Rent the chair for that day at $250, and over a month that's about $1,000 of additional revenue, from a space you were already paying for. That's one chair and one day. Add a second day, a second chair or a few morning shifts, and it grows from there. $250 is just an example. It's your business, so the price is yours to set. You created an intentional space, the reality you wanted to work in, and it deserves to come at a premium, or at whatever price you decide it's worth.
What You Cultivated Is the Premium
The premium isn't the chair. It's the environment. The music, the energy, the way people feel when they walk in, the way clients are treated, and the culture you built around all of it. Spaces like this have a lot of love and a lot of life in them. That's what a barber or stylist is paying for when they book a day: somewhere that already feels right to bring their clients. That environment is your moat, and you get to price it like one. You built it once. Opening it to others on the days you aren't there lets it keep giving back.
What I Learned at ABS Workspace
I found this out with my own studio. ABS Workspace started as a creative barber studio in Chicago. On the days and hours I wasn't cutting, I opened it to other barbers. The studio earned on time that would have sat empty, and the people renting it got a space they wanted to work in without signing a lease of their own. It worked. It was also a lot of texts, handshakes and keeping track in my head: who was in on which day, what they owed, what we had agreed. I'm grateful to see more studio and suite owners doing the same thing today. Most of them are running it the way I did.
Where BOOTH Comes In
BOOTH is the system I wanted then. List your space by the hour, the shift or the day, put the terms in writing, and see who's booked and what's been paid. Barbers, stylists and cosmetologists looking for somewhere to work can find your space by city. You decide when it's available. You keep your studio the way you built it. BOOTH handles the listing, the agreement and, when you want it, the rent.
More Freedom, More Control
Think about what this opens up for the people renting. A barber or stylist can work in three different places in a week: their home chair, a studio on their day off, a suite across town. That changes how they live and how they think about their work. They stop renting a chair and start running a business. For the owner, opening the space is the same step in the other direction. You become the one building something other people can work from. That's why most of us got into this work. Not only to cut, but to have control over our time, our money and our space. More control. More independence. More freedom. If you've been thinking about going independent, opening a suite or starting your own studio, this is a real path. And if you already have the space, open the doors on the days you aren't there.
Does your space sit empty for part of the week?
List your studio on BOOTH by the hour, the shift or the day. Looking for a space to work from? Explore studios and shops.