Barber tools › Money
What your empty chair costs you
Every slot you could have sold and didn't is gone for good. This works out what that comes to over a week and a year.
How many cuts you could fit in
Last week is fine
Takings divided by cuts
That is one week. The gaps that matter are the ones that repeat.
Know Your Chair logs seven numbers a week and turns them into utilisation, revenue per hour, and what your gaps are costing you — tracked over time instead of worked out once.
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Why utilisation matters more than takings
Two barbers can take the same money in a week and be running very different businesses. One is full and charging too little. The other has half a diary and is propping up the total with a handful of expensive cuts. Takings alone cannot tell them apart. Utilisation can.
What counts as a slot
A slot is a booking you could have sold, not an hour you were in the shop. If you work eight hours and a cut takes forty minutes, that is twelve slots, whether or not anyone booked them. Count the ones you would have taken if the phone had rung.
Why average spend, not list price
Your list price is what a standard cut costs. Your average spend is what a client actually leaves behind once you count beard trims, kids' cuts, mates' rates and products. It is the honest number, and it is usually not the one on the price list. Divide a week's takings by the number of cuts and use that.
The number nobody likes
Multiply a week's gaps by 46 and the figure gets uncomfortable. That is the point. It is not a debt and nobody is coming to collect it, but it is the difference between the business you have and the one the same chair, in the same hours, could be running.
Common questions
How do I work out chair utilisation?
Divide the cuts you did by the slots you had available, then multiply by 100. Forty-seven cuts out of sixty slots is 78% utilisation. Count slots as bookings you could have sold, not hours you were in the shop.
What counts as a good utilisation for a barber?
There is no universal figure, and anyone quoting one is guessing. What matters is the direction over several weeks. A chair that moves from 70% to 80% has found roughly six more cuts a week without adding an hour, and that beats hitting somebody else's benchmark.
How much does an empty chair actually cost?
Multiply the slots you did not sell by your average spend. That is the week. Multiply by 46 for a working year, allowing for holidays and quiet spells. The yearly figure is usually the one that changes behaviour.
Should I use my list price or my average spend?
Average spend. Your list price is what a standard cut costs; your average spend is what a client actually leaves once kids' cuts, beard trims and mates' rates are counted. Divide a real week's takings by the number of clients.