Hammer & Nails franchise unit economics
Hammer & Nails franchisees run a men's grooming shop of 1,700 to 2,200 square feet selling haircuts, straight-razor shaves and hand and foot care on Classic. VIP and Luxe memberships, with alcohol service where the license allows it. 43 shops open the whole of 2025 averaged $929,020 of gross sales against a median of $862,104. 32 of them filed a line-by-line expense breakdown, and profit ran from 40.6% of sales down to a 60% loss.
- Primary source
- The Hammer & Nails Salon Group, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 7 for cost to open; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 32 of 59 locations
- Our calculations
- Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
- Last reviewed
- 26 September 2026
Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.
Across 32 shops, the two biggest lines added together draw a hard line. Every one of the 17 shops holding wages plus rent under 60% of sales made money. Every one of the 8 above 70% lost money. That single ratio sorts the system better than sales, age or quartile does.
- 17 shops kept wages plus rent under 60% of sales and all 17 made money; 8 ran above 70% and all 8 lost money. The 7 in between split 5 profitable to 2 losing, and the highest that still made money sat at 69.4%.
- 10 of the 32 shops lost money in 2025, and 6 of those 10 opened in 2024. The 2024 group averages 73.6% wages plus rent; shops opened 2017 to 2021 average 54.5%.
- Wages runs from 22.7% to 90.6% of sales. Profitable shops average 45.4%, losing shops 64.9%.
- A member stays 25 months at the average shop and 11 months at the fastest-losing one. Monthly members leaving of 4.0% against 9.3%.
- Franchise fees take 8% of sales plus a $30,000 local minimum marketing charge and $12,240 of fixed fees. 11.8% of sales at the top quartile average and 14.7% at the bottom.
How much does a Hammer & Nails franchise make?
The average Hammer & Nails unit reported $929,020 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $862,104. The brand’s disclosure document puts the profit line at 12% of revenue. Fees come off the top first, at about 11% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
Sales, members and what each visit is worth
What a shop bills.
| Gross sales | 2023 (20 shops) | 2024 (31 shops) | 2025 (43 shops) | 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | $818,793 | $892,965 | $929,020 | +4.0% |
| Median | $791,574 | $864,875 | $862,104 | −0.32% |
| Highest | $920,193 | $1,845,735 | $2,138,099 | +15.84% |
| Lowest | $241,223 | $304,760 | $307,044 | +0.75% |
As the brand reported it.
How we calculated this
17 of the 43 shops beat the 2025 average and 21 sat above the median.
| Gross sales | 2023 (11 shops) | 2024 (15 shops) | 2025 (20 shops) | 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | $849,963 | $972,982 | $1,089,157 | +11.9% |
| Median | $834,886 | $922,170 | $989,156 | +7.3% |
| Highest | $1,669,013 | $1,845,735 | $2,138,099 | +15.8% |
| Lowest | $314,489 | $304,760 | $307,044 | −0.70% |
As the brand reported it.
How we calculated this
8 of the 20 mature shops beat their group average and 10 sat above the median.
Mature shops added 11.9% while the whole system added 4.0%. $972,982 to $1,089,157 against $892,965 to $929,020, and the system median slipped 0.32%. The growth is landing on shops already past three years, and the 12 newer shops that joined the 43 pulled the median down with them.
A mature shop bills $1,089,157 and the minimum of that group is $307,044. Three years open and still under a third of the group average, against a ceiling of $2,138,099, a range of 7 to 1 inside the same group. Time open moves the average and settles very little at the individual shop.
The system's high shop is worth $152,721 a chair; the low shop is worth $38,380. 14 chairs at 1,840 square feet against 8 chairs at 1,300, so the high shop is 1.75 times the chairs and 7 times the revenue. Per square foot it is $1,162 against $236.
The ticket, and how many hours it takes.
| Shop | Ticket per hour | Gross sales | Billed hours a year | Billed hours a week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| System average | $90.68 | $929,020 | 10,245 | 197 |
| System median | $89.35 | $862,104 | 9,507 | 183 |
| Highest ticket | $121.44 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Lowest ticket | $49.06 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Highest-billing shop | $90.68 | $2,138,099 | 23,579 | 453 |
| Lowest-billing shop | $90.68 | $307,044 | 3,386 | 65 |
Ticket figures are as the brand reported it. The total spent by a member or guest per hour of service, including retail and gift card purchases, across the 43 shops open the full year.
The average shop sells 197 hours of service a week; the busiest sells 453. Across the busiest shop’s 14 chairs that is 32 billed hours a chair a week, against 8 at the lowest-billing shop’s 8 chairs. A chair earning 8 hours a week is a scheduling problem, and a schedule can fix it.
The ticket covers $49.06 to $121.44, a factor of 2.5. On 197 hours a week, moving the ticket $5 is worth $51,225 a year at the average shop. It lands almost entirely in profit because the hour was already staffed and already rented.
The top quartile sells about 335 hours a week and the bottom about 134. 201 hours of weekly difference on the same $90.68 ticket, which at 40 hours a chair is five chairs' worth of booked time. Both groups pay for their chairs either way.
Memberships and what they hold.
| Tier | Share of membership sales | Share of service sales |
|---|---|---|
| Non-member | n/a | 31.2% |
| Classic | 65% | 53.4% |
| VIP | 31% | 15.1% |
| Luxe | 4% | under 1.0% |
As the brand reported it, across the 43 shops open the full year.
| Shop | Monthly members leaving | Months a member stays |
|---|---|---|
| Average | 4.0% | 25.0 |
| Median | 3.9% | 25.6 |
| Highest members leaving | 9.3% | 10.8 |
| Lowest members leaving | 1.8% | 55.6 |
Members leaving is as the brand reported it, across the 43 shops open the full year, measured as cancellations in a month against members at the start of it. 20 shops sat above the average and 23 below.
A member stays 25 months at the average shop and 11 months at the fastest-losing one. The longest-keeping shop holds a member 55.6 months. Same brand, same tiers, and a member worth five times as much at one shop as at another, retention is the one number here that compounds into the wages ratio. Because a returning member fills an hour you have already paid for.
Two-thirds of service sales come from members and 31.2% from walk-ins. Classic alone is 53.4% of service revenue while being 65% of membership sales, and Luxe is 4% of membership sales and under 1% of service sales. The mix says the money is in Classic volume with VIP as the upgrade, and Luxe as a shelf item.
Cutting members leaving from 4.0% to 3.0% buys 8 more months of member life. 25.0 months becomes 33.3. On the average shop's 197 weekly hours, a third more life per member is a third less new-member acquisition to stand still. Is where the 5.4% average marketing line goes.
Top performers
What separates the top Hammer & Nails performers
Hammer & Nails splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $1,577,946 a year. The worst averaged $633,417. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $862,104. The average was $929,020. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 2.5× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Capacity, fixed at build.Locations run 1,700 to 2,200 square feet. What you can sell is set by the build, and the build does not change after opening.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $694,300 to $944,045, a 1.4× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.
Live operating levers
- Members, the operating driver.This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book.Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix.Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 11.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.32 of 59 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, as are locations under the brand’s current size standard, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no attainment figure. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.
Fees and what it costs to open
What the fees come to.
| Sales level | Net gross sales | Royalty 6% | Fund 2% | Local marketing | POS + technology | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st quartile average | $1,577,946 | $94,677 | $31,559 | $47,338 | $12,240 | $185,814 | 11.8% |
| 2nd quartile average | $1,093,937 | $65,636 | $21,879 | $32,818 | $12,240 | $132,573 | 12.1% |
| All 32, average | $1,045,412 | $62,725 | $20,908 | $31,362 | $12,240 | $127,235 | 12.2% |
| 3rd quartile average | $876,350 | $52,581 | $17,527 | $30,000 | $12,240 | $112,348 | 12.8% |
| 4th quartile average | $633,417 | $38,005 | $12,668 | $30,000 | $12,240 | $92,913 | 14.7% |
Ours, applying the filed 6% royalty, the brand development fund at its current 2% and a ceiling of 2%, the franchisee-directed local marketing requirement of the greater of $2,500 a month or 3% of gross sales, the $270 monthly point-of-sale fee and the $750 monthly technology fee against its $2,000 ceiling.
The load runs 11.8% of sales at the top quartile and 14.7% at the bottom. Three points of penalty for being small, and the whole of it is the local minimum marketing charge plus $12,240 of fixed fees landing on a smaller base. At $1,000,000 of sales the minimum and the formula meet, so every shop under seven figures pays marketing at a rate above 3%.
The bottom quartile pays $30,000 of required local marketing on $633,417 of sales. 4.7% of the top line, pre-approved by the franchisor and spent inside your own territory. That shop is also the one averaging a $94,259 loss. So the minimum marketing charge is a third of the gap to break-even and it stays fixed at every sales level below $1,000,000.
$12,240 a year is fixed regardless of volume. $270 a month for the point-of-sale system and $750 for technology. The technology fee may reach $2,000 a month. That would take the fixed load to $27,240. At the lowest-billing shop in the system that ceiling alone would be 8.9% of sales.
What it costs to open.
| Line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $60,000 | $60,000 |
| Construction and building work | $278,000 | $382,545 |
| Furniture, fixtures and equipment | $178,000 | $196,000 |
| Site plans, designs and signage | $19,500 | $35,000 |
| Lease and utility deposits | $31,000 | $50,000 |
| Initial inventory | $35,000 | $50,000 |
| Grand opening marketing and pre-sales | $32,000 | $48,000 |
| Technology, training, insurance, fees and licenses | $10,800 | $47,500 |
| Additional funds, three months | $50,000 | $75,000 |
| Total | $694,300 | $944,045 |
As the brand reported it, except four grouped lines. Are marked *. Site plans with signage. Lease deposits for three months with utility deposits; grand opening marketing with pre-sales member acquisition. And technology with the point-of-sale system, travel for initial training, professional fees, licenses and permits, twelve months of insurance deposits and the $0 to $10,000 liquor license administrative review fee.
$456,000 to $578,545 of the investment is construction and equipment. Two-thirds of the whole budget, spent before a single haircut. Build quality settles very little. The shop with the best margin in the system pays 12.7% of sales in rent. The one with the worst pays 20.8%. Tenant improvement allowances have reached $100,000 here, a fifth of the construction line.
Three months of additional funds is $50,000 to $75,000. Against the 2024 group's average loss of $36,146 across a full year. A first-year shop carrying wages plus rent at 73.6% of sales, that reserve funds the build-up only where the build-up behaves. The shop that lost $358,531 opened in 2024.
Lease deposits of $24,000 to $36,000 for three months price rent at $8,000 to $12,000 a month. $96,000 to $144,000 a year, which needs $738,462 to $1,107,692 of sales to sit at 13%. The five shops paying rent above 17% all lost money. The lease is the one line in this table that keeps charging you every month.
Multi-unit, territory and the network.
| Shops committed | Cumulative fee | Per shop |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | $60,000 |
| 2 | $120,000 | $60,000 |
| 3 | $135,000 | $45,000 |
| 5 | $225,000 | $45,000 |
| 6 | $210,000 | $35,000 |
| 10 | $350,000 | $35,000 |
As the brand reported it, showing selected rows of a schedule that runs from one to ten shops; the per-shop column is marked *.
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Closed | End | Transfers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 20 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 3 |
| 2024 | 31 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 6 |
| 2025 | 43 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 59 | 1 |
As the brand reported it.
The network tripled in three years and closed one shop. 20 to 59 franchised outlets, 40 openings, one termination. Ten of the 32 reporting shops lost money in the year those figures cover. So the system is adding shops considerably faster than its newest shops are reaching the 60% line.
70 shops are signed and waiting to open against 59 open. If most of those arrive over the next two years the reporting base more than doubles. The 2024 group's numbers are the guide to what they look like in their first full year. $730,203 of sales, 73.6% wages plus rent, and a 6.7% loss on average.
The territory is generally 1.50 miles by road, with a minimum size of zero. The franchisor reserves the right to shrink that circle for population density or confine it to a mall’s walls. Options and rights of first refusal on further shops sit outside the deal. Growth here means committing up front through a multi-unit agreement, where the schedule prices six shops below five.
The 60% line
Two lines decide the year.
| Wages + rent | Shops | Profitable | Losing | Average profit | Average profit % | Average sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 60.0% | 17 | 17 | 0 | $269,547 | 20.4% | $1,260,265 |
| 60.0% to 70.0% | 7 | 5 | 2 | $64,164 | 6.3% | $873,017 |
| Above 70.0% | 8 | 0 | 8 | −$126,054 | −18.9% | $739,697 |
| All 32 | 32 | 22 | 10 | $123,411 | 12.0% | $1,045,412 |
Ours, adding the filed wages and rent percentages for each of the 32 shops and grouping them.
Every shop under 60% made money and every shop above 70% lost money. The group between them is where judgement lives: 5 of those 7 made money, the highest of them at 69.4%. The lowest losing shop in that group sat at 63.9%. So 60% is the line to run at and 70% is the line that ends the argument.
The shop that came closest to crossing back needs 10 more billed hours a week. It turned $717,748 with wages plus rent of $458,641, 63.9%, and finished $514 short of break-even. Hold those two costs exactly where they are and sell $765,678 instead, and the ratio lands at 59.9%. That is $47,930 more revenue, or 529 more billed hours across the year at the system's $90.68 average ticket.
Each point of wages plus rent is worth $10,454 a year at the average shop. Which is why the 2024 group's 73.6% is a six-figure problem. Closing 13.7 points means $100,038 of cost out of average sales of $730,203. That is holding those costs at $537,429 and selling $897,211 instead, 35 more billed hours a week, every week.
quartiles, as the brand reports them.
| quartile | Average sales | Median | Wages | Rent | Marketing | All other | profit | profit % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | $1,577,946 | $1,457,413 | $677,000 | $110,336 | $72,486 | $359,064 | $359,061 | 22.8% |
| 2nd | $1,093,937 | $1,031,923 | $501,473 | $131,055 | $53,440 | $240,072 | $167,897 | 15.3% |
| 3rd | $876,350 | $873,205 | $444,323 | $110,908 | $46,514 | $211,418 | $63,187 | 7.2% |
| 4th | $633,417 | $639,416 | $413,928 | $98,220 | $52,945 | $155,580 | −$94,259 | −15.0% |
| All 32 | $1,045,412 | $941,730 | $509,181 | $112,630 | $56,346 | $241,533 | $123,411 | 12.0% |
As the brand reported it, in dollars per shop.
Rent dollars changes little, ranked by sales while sales move by $944,529. $110,336, $131,055, $110,908 and $98,220 from top to bottom, a rent bill that costs the top quartile 7.0% of sales and the bottom 15.5%. The second quartile pays the most rent in dollars of any group and still clears 15.3%. So the fix is volume through the door.
The bottom quartile spends more on marketing than the third quartile does and bills $242,933 less. $52,945 against $46,514. That spend is the local minimum marketing charge doing its work. At $633,417 of sales the required minimum outruns the 3% formula. So the smallest shops have the heaviest marketing rate in the system at 8.4% of sales.
Wages per dollar of sales is the whole range. The top quartile pays $677,000 on $1,577,946, 42.9%. The bottom pays $413,928 on $633,417, 65.3%. The bottom quartile spends $263,072 less on people and still hands over two-thirds of its revenue, because a grooming shop staffs to chairs.
Age shows which problem you have.
| Opened | Shops | Losing money | Average sales | Wages + rent | Average profit % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 to 2021 | 9 | 0 | $1,325,770 | 54.5% | 19.8% |
| 2022 to 2023 | 13 | 4 | $1,093,787 | 61.8% | 9.9% |
| 2024 | 10 | 6 | $730,203 | 73.6% | −6.7% |
Ours, grouping the filed year-opened column and averaging the filed figures within each group.
Nine shops opened 2017 to 2021 and all nine made money, averaging 19.8%. Their wages plus rent averages 54.5%, comfortably inside the line. The 2022-to-2023 group sits at 61.8% and averages 9.9%, and the 2024 group sits at 73.6% and averages a 6.7% loss. Maturity here is a wages ratio that has come down, and it comes down as the membership base builds.
A 2024 shop averages $730,203 against $1,325,770 for the oldest group. $595,567 of annual sales separates them, which is 126 billed hours a week at the system's average ticket. Staff a new shop for the volume you have, and the 60% line stays reachable in year two.
Every shop
All 32 shops, line by line.
| Shop | Net gross sales | Wages | Rent | Wages + rent | Marketing | All other | profit | profit % | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,057,264 | 41.1% | 2.9% | 44.0% | 3.5% | 20.3% | $663,631 | 32.3% | 2020 |
| 2 | $1,790,950 | 42.5% | 6.2% | 48.7% | 5.6% | 21.3% | $437,914 | 24.5% | 2022 |
| 3 | $1,408,149 | 42.2% | 7.0% | 49.2% | 7.4% | 23.2% | $282,963 | 20.1% | 2020 |
| 4 | $1,725,388 | 42.1% | 7.0% | 49.1% | 3.9% | 22.6% | $420,557 | 24.4% | 2021 |
| 5 | $1,506,677 | 51.0% | 9.7% | 60.7% | 5.2% | 24.6% | $143,550 | 9.5% | 2022 |
| 6 | $1,383,889 | 33.3% | 7.3% | 40.6% | 5.6% | 23.4% | $421,221 | 30.4% | 2023 |
| 7 | $1,381,509 | 50.5% | 8.8% | 59.3% | 2.7% | 24.4% | $189,117 | 13.7% | 2019 |
| 8 | $1,369,741 | 41.1% | 9.0% | 50.1% | 3.2% | 23.8% | $313,532 | 22.9% | 2023 |
| 9 | $1,305,105 | 44.2% | 7.9% | 52.1% | 3.5% | 20.8% | $308,091 | 23.6% | 2021 |
| 10 | $1,301,461 | 46.5% | 10.6% | 57.1% | 3.8% | 21.5% | $229,692 | 17.6% | 2018 |
| 11 | $1,208,780 | 47.0% | 10.8% | 57.8% | 5.5% | 22.3% | $183,653 | 15.2% | 2023 |
| 12 | $1,052,953 | 22.7% | 12.7% | 35.4% | 1.7% | 24.0% | $427,196 | 40.6% | 2022 |
| 13 | $1,010,893 | 48.4% | 9.1% | 57.5% | 4.0% | 22.0% | $146,883 | 14.5% | 2022 |
| 14 | $994,416 | 60.1% | 10.8% | 70.9% | 7.5% | 22.2% | −$4,057 | −0.4% | 2023 |
| 15 | $944,459 | 51.9% | 23.6% | 75.5% | 5.9% | 23.1% | −$43,314 | −4.6% | 2023 |
| 16 | $933,427 | 47.8% | 12.9% | 60.7% | 8.3% | 20.8% | $95,033 | 10.2% | 2024 |
| 17 | $951,014 | 46.7% | 7.7% | 54.4% | 5.7% | 22.1% | $170,416 | 17.9% | 2019 |
| 18 | $939,002 | 51.6% | 14.9% | 66.5% | 2.8% | 20.6% | $94,267 | 10.0% | 2018 |
| 19 | $883,370 | 51.9% | 7.5% | 59.4% | 6.2% | 23.7% | $94,807 | 10.7% | 2024 |
| 20 | $886,155 | 42.2% | 12.6% | 54.8% | 7.4% | 29.1% | $76,997 | 8.7% | 2024 |
| 21 | $863,041 | 47.9% | 10.8% | 58.7% | 6.0% | 21.4% | $118,822 | 18.5% | 2017 |
| 22 | $844,840 | 47.9% | 12.0% | 59.9% | 3.7% | 25.0% | $96,800 | 11.5% | 2023 |
| 23 | $831,652 | 67.0% | 25.7% | 92.7% | 5.6% | 28.0% | −$219,043 | −26.3% | 2024 |
| 24 | $811,726 | 51.5% | 10.8% | 62.3% | 5.1% | 23.6% | $72,432 | 8.9% | 2023 |
| 25 | $703,179 | 56.1% | 17.6% | 73.7% | 8.6% | 24.1% | −$44,650 | −6.3% | 2024 |
| 26 | $718,131 | 67.5% | 12.6% | 80.1% | 10.1% | 30.1% | −$145,586 | −20.3% | 2023 |
| 27 | $717,748 | 49.1% | 14.8% | 63.9% | 12.2% | 24.0% | −$514 | −0.1% | 2024 |
| 28 | $681,387 | 57.6% | 11.8% | 69.4% | 2.5% | 18.9% | $62,665 | 9.2% | 2024 |
| 29 | $581,781 | 86.7% | 16.8% | 103.5% | 2.2% | 18.9% | −$143,306 | −24.6% | 2023 |
| 30 | $546,452 | 62.6% | 18.4% | 81.0% | 3.5% | 24.6% | −$49,941 | −9.1% | 2024 |
| 31 | $597,506 | 90.6% | 20.8% | 111.4% | 20.5% | 28.2% | −$358,531 | −60.0% | 2024 |
| 32 | $521,150 | 57.4% | 12.0% | 69.4% | 6.3% | 27.8% | −$18,288 | −3.5% | 2024 |
As the brand reported it, except the wages-plus-rent column, which is marked *.
The best shop in the system pays 22.7% of sales in wages and clears 40.6%. Shop 12, open since 2022, on $1,052,953, under the system average and the highest margin on the list. It pays 12.7% in rent, above the median, and spends 1.7% on marketing against a 5.55% median, the lowest in the table. Labor productivity has it, and the shape is repeatable in a way that a cheap lease is.
Two shops pay more in wages and rent than they collect in sales. Shop 29 at 103.5% and shop 31 at 111.4%, losing $143,306 and $358,531. Shop 31 also spends 20.5% of sales on marketing against a 5.55% median, $122,489 of advertising on $597,506 of revenue. When the ratio reads like that, the answer is fewer hours on the schedule.
Rent above 17% of sales appears at five shops and all five lost money. 17.6%, 18.4%, 20.8%, 23.6% and 25.7%. The cheapest lease in the table is 2.9% of sales at the highest-volume shop. Three months of lease deposits are budgeted at $24,000 to $36,000. So $8,000 to $12,000 a month is the assumption. $12,000 a month needs $1,107,692 of sales to land at 13%.
The all-other line lands between 18.9% and 30.1% at every one of the 32 shops. The brand's 6% royalty and 2% development fund sit inside it, which leaves 10.9% to 22.1% for insurance, supplies, utilities, card fees, repairs and professional costs. That is the tightest line in the table and the one that rewards a monthly close: an 11-point range on $1,000,000 of sales is $110,000.
Questions we get asked
What should a Hammer & Nails shop be billing?
Across 43 shops open the whole of 2025 the average was $929,020 with a median of $862,104, ranging from $307,044 to $2,138,099. The 20 shops open three or more full years averaged $1,089,157 with a median of $989,156. On the 32 shops that filed a full expense breakdown, quartile averages ran $1,577,946, $1,093,937, $876,350 and $633,417 of net gross sales.
What is the single number that separates a profitable shop from a losing one?
Wages plus rent as a share of sales. All 17 shops holding it under 60% made money, averaging 20.4% profit. All 8 shops above 70% lost money, averaging an 18.9% loss. The 7 in between split 5 profitable to 2 losing; the highest ratio that still made money was 69.4% and the lowest that lost money was 63.9%. Wages alone runs from 22.7% to 90.6% of sales and rent runs from 2.9% to 25.7%.
What does the brand cost in total?
A 6% royalty and a 2% brand development fund, both debited twice a month. Franchisee-directed local marketing at the greater of $2,500 a month or 3% of gross sales, a $270 monthly point-of-sale fee and a $750 monthly technology fee that may reach $2,000. That works out at 11.8% of sales at the top quartile average and 14.7% at the bottom. Because the $30,000 minimum marketing charge and $12,240 of fixed fees land hardest on the smallest shops. The 3% formula overtakes the minimum at $1,000,000 of sales. Opening costs $694,300 to $944,045, including a $60,000 initial franchise fee.
How long does a member stay, and what is the mix?
Monthly members leaving averages 4.0% and the median is 3.9%. Is 25.0 and 25.6 months of member life. The range runs from 1.8% to 9.3%, or 55.6 months down to 10.8. Membership sales are 65% Classic, 31% VIP and 4% Luxe. Of all service sales, members account for 68.5% (53.4% Classic, 15.1% VIP and under 1% Luxe) with walk-ins at 31.2%. The average ticket is $90.68 an hour, with a median of $89.35 and a range of $49.06 to $121.44.
Who does bookkeeping for a Hammer & Nails franchise?
This brand hands you the exact test to close against. Wages and rent as a share of net gross sales, read monthly, with 60% as the target and 70% as the alarm. Three things make that harder than it sounds. Net gross sales moves with cross-shop membership redemptions, where you keep 15% of credits your member spends elsewhere and 85% of credits another shop's member spends with you. So the top line needs reconciling to the redemption report before any ratio means anything. The royalty and the development fund sit inside the all-other expense line, so an 18.9% to 30.1% benchmark needs unpicking to be useful. And the local marketing requirement is the greater of $2,500 a month or 3%. Makes it a fixed cost below $1,000,000 of sales and a variable one above, with proof of spend owed to the franchisor. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
- No attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
Questions worth putting to Hammer & Nails
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- Is the profit figure in Item 19 before or after owner pay, and how many locations sit below it?
- What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many Hammer & Nails locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →Where does your shop sit against the 60% line?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting. So you know which side of the line you are on and what closes the gap.
Request the review