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Employed, booth rental, or own salon – three different career paths
The hairdressing trade offers unusually many different ways to pursue a career. Some are employed for the rest of their working lives, others become self-employed as chair renters in someone else's salon, and others start and run their own salon with employees. No model is 'right' — but they place different demands on business understanding, and it is a good idea to know the differences long before you face the decision.
| Model | What characterises the | Business responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Employed hairdresser | Fixed wage, employer provides premises, tools, and products. | Limited — employer bears the business risk |
| Stall rental (self-employed) | Leases a chair in a salon for fixed rent or share of revenue, own customers, own prices and work hours | Own CVR, own accounting, own responsibility for customer base. |
| Own salon | Owner or operator of the salon, possibly with employees or chair renters. | Full business responsibility: premises, staff, operations and finances |
As soon as you work as self-employed — whether as a salon renter or salon owner — you must register a business with a CVR number and keep track of income expenses and VAT. It doesn't require you to be a trained accountant but you must be able to document your turnover keep receipts for purchases of products and tools and settle VAT and tax on time. Many newly self-employed hairdressers choose to get help from an accountant for the first accounting years while they learn the routines.
A chair rental agreement (also called a collaboration or combination agreement) should at minimum describe the rental size and payment form (fixed fee or share of turnover), access to shared facilities, responsibility for own product purchases, termination notice periods and how customer data and bookings are handled if the collaboration ends. An unclear agreement is one of the most common sources of conflict between salon owner and chair renter later.
If you switch from being employed to becoming self-employed or starting on your own, your previous employment contract may contain a non-compete or customer clause that limits which customers you can take with you, and in what geographic area you can work for a period. Read such clauses carefully, and have them reviewed before you plan a switch – the consequences can be expensive if you breach a valid clause.
“You learn the craftsmanship at school and in practice — you build up business understanding long before you need it.”