Booth Renter Starter Supplies: The List

Booth Renter Starter Supplies

Renting a chair means you are running a small business inside someone else's, and the supplies question is really a question about where the line between the two sits. Two shops can charge similar rent and expect completely different things of you. Getting that list straight before your first week is what stops a month of small unplanned purchases.

Ask the shop what is included

Go through it item by item and get the answer in writing: towels and whether they are laundered, capes, shampoo and conditioner at the bowl, a dryer and its use, color storage space, a mirror and station tools, reception and booking, card processing, product disposal, and cleaning supplies. Also ask what is shared and what is yours alone, because a shared dryer on a busy Saturday is a scheduling problem rather than an equipment one.

Back bar and retail

If the shop does not supply shampoo and conditioner at the bowl, that is yours, and it is the first recurring cost that will surprise you. Decide early whether you will carry retail products to sell, since stock sitting on a shelf is money you are not using elsewhere; plenty of renters do well simply recommending products and sending clients to buy them. Either way you need somewhere lockable for your own back bar if the space is shared.

Towels, laundry and the unglamorous things

Towels are the item renters most often underestimate. You need enough to get through your busiest day without a wash cycle in the middle, and if laundry is not included you need a plan for it that is not your home machine every night. Add to that: a laundry bag, your own cleaning supplies for the station, a sharps or waste container if your services need one, and a small first aid kit.

Your station list

A cape or two and a supply of neck strips, your tools and a case for them, a rolling cart or tray, a spray bottle, a timer, a trash bin, your own mirror if the station does not have one, and somewhere for a client's coat and bag. Then the administrative half: a way to take card payments, a booking method, a record of appointments and income, and your insurance and licensing paperwork kept current to your state board's requirements.

Budgeting in categories

Split the opening spend into tools, back bar, consumables, station furnishing and administration, and set a figure for each rather than one total, which is how people end up with excellent shears and no towels. Expect the consumables line to repeat every month and the tools line to be mostly one-off. Keep the first three months of receipts carefully, because your real monthly cost of working is a number you can only learn by measuring it.