The category
What is a Shared Workspace Salon?
bex+Co.® built this category in Austin in 2015. Here is exactly what it means, and how it differs from the other ways a beauty pro can work.
A Shared Workspace Salon™ is one open salon floor where each licensed beauty professional holds a membership that gives them their own station, their own key and 24-hour access, while running their own independent business. Members set their own prices, keep their own client list and take their own bookings.
Three ways of working already existed. You could take a commission chair and let the salon set your prices. You could rent a chair inside somebody else’s salon. Or you could lease a private room and work in it alone.
Bex Irvine spent twenty years behind the chair across all of them, and built a fourth. One open floor. Every beauty pro on it owns their own business, and the floor around them is stocked, cleaned and running so they can walk in and work.
There was either commission or there was booth rent. So I built a third category, a Shared Workspace Salon™. It brings people together, it creates community and collaboration, and it supports stylists the way I needed to be supported.
Bex Irvine, founder of bex+Co.®
What a membership includes
Every location works the same way. A member gets their own station on the floor, their own key and 24-hour access, and the operating layer around it: towels, capes, backbar, trays, cleaning supplies and professional cleaning of the space. They bring their color and their tools.
The membership also carries the business side. The Beauty Empire Blueprint™ covers pricing, marketing and money. A member’s bio and booking links go on bexandcosalon.com. Members set their own prices, keep 100% of what they charge for their services, earn 15% commission on retail, and there is no long-term contract. Clients stay theirs.
How it compares to the other options
None of these is wrong. They are different jobs for different people, and the honest way to choose is to know which one you are looking at.
| Shared Workspace Salon™ | Salon suite | Booth rental | Commission | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where you work | Your own station on one open floor | A private room you lease alone | A chair inside someone else’s salon | A chair inside someone else’s salon |
| What you pay for | A membership | A lease on the room | Rent on the chair | A split of what you charge |
| Who sets your prices | You | You | You | The salon |
| Whose clients they are | Yours | Yours | Yours | Usually the salon’s |
| Stocked backbar, towels, cleaning | Included | Usually yours to buy | Usually yours to buy | Included |
| Business education | Included | Rarely | Rarely | Sometimes |
| Other pros around you | Yes, all day | No | Yes | Yes |
The clearest difference is the last row. A private room buys quiet, and some pros want exactly that. An open floor buys people, and that is what a Shared Workspace Salon is for.
Where the term came from
bex+Co.® opened the first Shared Workspace Salon™ in Austin, Texas in 2015 and the name is the company’s own. Seven salons are open around Austin today with more than 100 independent beauty pros working in them, and the model is expanding to new cities.
Questions people ask
- What is a Shared Workspace Salon?
- A Shared Workspace Salon™ is one open salon floor where each licensed beauty professional holds a membership that gives them their own station, their own key and 24-hour access, while running their own independent business. Members set their own prices, keep their own clients and take their own bookings.
- Is a Shared Workspace Salon the same as a salon suite?
- No. A salon suite is a private room, leased by one person, with a door. A Shared Workspace Salon is one open floor with your own station on it and other independent beauty pros working around you. Both give you your own business; they are different working environments.
- Is it the same as booth rental?
- No. In booth rental you rent a chair inside a salon that belongs to somebody else, and that owner’s business comes first. A bex+Co.® membership includes the operating layer around the station: stocked backbar, towels, cleaning, business education and a profile on a site people find.
- Do two people share one space?
- No. Each member has their own station. Sharing a single leased space between two professionals is a different arrangement offered elsewhere, and it is not what a Shared Workspace Salon means.
- Who is it for?
- Licensed beauty professionals running their own book: hair, color and extensions, plus makeup, esthetics, brows and lashes. It suits someone who wants to own their business and still have other pros around them during the day.