06/07/2026
Many clinics and salons don't work to a target. They work to a feeling.
Full book? Must be doing well.
Team are busy? Must be profitable.
But busy and profitable aren't the same thing, and if you don't have a number to measure against, you can't actually tell the difference.
A target isn't a number you pick at random. It's built from the other numbers already sitting in your business: therapist wages, running costs, product spend, and what you're charging for each treatment. Put those together and you get the number every hour worked actually needs to bring in for the business to be profitable.
Without that target, you're managing on vibes. Rosters, bonuses, and hiring decisions all become guesses dressed up as instinct.
But, the industry no longer can follow one target and apply it to every clinic or salon the same way. What your target needs to be depends on how equipment reliant your business is because adding high end equipment costing tens, often over a hundred thousand introduces an additional huge expense the target needs to cover.
If you're running a minimally-equipment-reliant business (think skin treatments with low cost equipment such as LED, micro needling, microdermabrasion along with beauty treatments), your overheads are lower. Your target needs to be a minimum of $185/hour.
If you're moderately equipment reliant (higher priced machines in the mix for many of your treatments but not the whole offering), you've got more capital tied up and more servicing to account for. Your target needs to be a minimum of $230/hour.
If you're heavily equipment reliant (higher priced machines for just about every treatment), you're carrying finance repayments, servicing contracts, and depreciation that don't care whether the room's booked or not. Your target needs to be a minimum of $275/hour.
Work out which category your business sits in, then set the target for every therapist on your roster to match. That's the number that tells you if you're actually profitable, not just busy.
Save this so you've got it on hand when you're building your pricing and rosters next quarter.