Hammer & Nails franchise unit economics
Hammer & Nails franchisees run men’s grooming shops that sell haircuts, straight-razor shaves and hand and foot care on Classic, VIP and Luxe memberships, with alcohol service where the license allows it.
Hammer & Nails franchise at a glance
Hammer & Nails’ Item 19 reports 2025 gross sales for 43 shops open all year, and a line-by-line expense breakdown and EBITDA for 32 of them.
Hammer & Nails franchisees averaged $929,020 of sales in 2025, with a median of $862,104, according to Item 19 of Hammer & Nails’ 2026 FDD, issued 30 March 2026. The 43 in that group are 73%* of Hammer & Nails’ 59 locations. Fees paid to Hammer & Nails come to about 8%* of sales.
- A Hammer & Nails franchise costs $694,300 to $944,045 to open, including a $60,000 initial franchise fee, according to the brand's 2026 FDD.
- Hammer & Nails charges a royalty of 6% of sales and a 2% brand fund contribution.
- The 32 Hammer & Nails shops that supplied financials averaged EBITDA of 12% of net gross sales in 2025. Hammer & Nails’ FDD defines EBITDA as net gross sales less all operating expenses, including payroll, rent and marketing, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
- Work out Hammer & Nails's fees at your own sales with the minimum fee calculator.
These figures come from Hammer & Nails's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, as the brand reported them, and were read by Averan Advisors.
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Talk to Averan → Move your books and accounting to Averan →- 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 run 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 member losses are 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. That is 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 EBITDA for 32 reporting shops at 12% of revenue. Fees come off the top first, at about 8% 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. That shop has been open three years and still bills 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.
Spend per service hour and billed hours, 2025
| 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.
Membership tiers and sales by buyer
| 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. The brand and the tiers are the same, yet a member is 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 means a quarter fewer new members needed to stand still. That 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 top group averaged $1,577,946 a year. The lowest 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
- Site and trade area.The top band sells 2.5× the bottom band. Catchment, daytime population and neighboring businesses affect where a location falls.
- Capacity.Locations run 1,700 to 2,200 square feet. The build sets how much you can sell.
- Opening cost range.Opening costs $694,300 to $944,045, a 1.4× range inside one brand.
- Cash needed in the first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up: the month sales cover costs, and how much cash you fund before then.
Live operating levers
- Membership drives the model.Track how many members join, how many cancel, and what each member spends beyond the plan.
- Gift cards.Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered, and sales peak around the holidays. A gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix.Retail sales and the share of customers on higher service tiers raise revenue per hour without adding hours or rooms.
- Fees.Hammer & Nails’ fees run about 8.0% of sales, and Hammer & Nails sets no minimum royalty.
Context you underwrite around
- Locations included.Sales figures cover the 43 Hammer & Nails shops open all of 2025, and cost figures cover the 32 of them that supplied financials, out of 59 open shops.
- What the filing does not include.Item 19 publishes no expense figures for the 11 shops open all of 2025 that did not supply financials. Ask the franchisor or current owners how those shops compare.
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% |
We applied the filed 6% royalty, the brand development fund at its current 2% with 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.
With local marketing and fixed fees included, 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. That is $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. Those are marked *. We combined site plans with signage. We combined lease deposits for three months with utility deposits, and grand opening marketing with pre-sales member acquisition. We also combined 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.
Discounts available
- Hammer & Nails prices multi-unit deals at $135,000 for three shops (about $45,000 each), $225,000 for five ($45,000 each) and $350,000 for ten ($35,000 each), against $60,000 for one.
From Item 5 of the Hammer & Nails 2026 FDD. The costs on this page use the full initial franchise fee for one unit, before any discount.
$456,000 to $578,545 of the investment is construction and equipment. That is two-thirds of the whole budget, spent before the first haircut. The shop with the top margin in the system pays 12.7% of sales in rent. The one with the lowest 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. That compares with the 2024 group's average loss of $36,146 across a full year. The 2024 Hammer & Nails shops carried wages plus rent at 73.6% of sales in their first full year. 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. That is 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 open 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. That group averaged $730,203 of sales, 73.6% wages plus rent, and a 6.7% loss.
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
Wages plus rent as a share of sales
| 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 |
We added the filed wages and rent percentages for each of the 32 shops and grouped 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. So 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.
Expenses by sales quartile, 2025
| 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 runs $98,220 to $131,055 across the quartiles 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. That is $52,945 against $46,514. That spend is the local minimum marketing charge doing its work. At $633,417 of sales, the required minimum costs more than the 3% formula. So the smallest shops have the heaviest marketing rate in the system at 8.4% of sales.
Wages take 42.9% of sales at the top quartile and 65.3% at the bottom. 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.
Results by year opened
| 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% |
We grouped the filed year-opened column and averaged the filed figures within each group.
Nine shops opened 2017 to 2021 and all nine made money, averaging 19.8%. Their wages plus rent average 54.5%, below the 60% 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
Expenses and profit for each shop, 2025
| 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 top shop in the system pays 22.7% of sales in wages and clears 40.6%. That is Shop 12, open since 2022, on $1,052,953, below the system average and with 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. Shop 12 gets its margin from low wages, and another shop can copy a wage ratio more easily than a lease.
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. That is 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
How much does a Hammer & Nails franchise make?
Hammer & Nails franchisees averaged $929,020 of sales in 2025, with a median of $862,104, according to Item 19 of Hammer & Nails’ 2026 FDD, issued 30 March 2026. The 43 in that group are 73%* of Hammer & Nails’ 59 locations. Fees paid to Hammer & Nails come to about 8%* of sales.
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 at Hammer & Nails?
The number is 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 do Hammer & Nails's fees add up to?
The franchisee pays 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 at Hammer & Nails?
Monthly members leaving averages 4.0% and the median is 3.9%. That 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. Report 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. The local marketing requirement is the greater of $2,500 a month or 3%. That 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.
- The filing gives 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?
- Which factors does Hammer & Nails see in its highest-selling locations, such as trade area, years open and size?
- 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 Numbers Check 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. It 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 at Hammer & Nails?
We review your unit economics, cash forecast and reporting. So you know which side of the line you are on and what closes the gap.
Talk to AveranWhere these figures come from.
Every figure here comes from The Hammer & Nails Salon Group, LLC's disclosure document issued 30 March 2026, covering the 2025 calendar year. The document is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brand. The figures describe past performance at other shops. Calculations of our own are labeled where they appear, 32 of the 43 shops open the full year supplied the expense data behind the shop-level tables. This page is an educational summary and is not legal or tax advice. Hammer & Nails® is a registered trademark of its owner. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.
These figures come from the brand's disclosure. They are not a forecast, an offer to sell a franchise or advice. Source: The Hammer & Nails Salon Group, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, issued 30 March 2026.
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Hammer & Nails reads against the rest of the salon, lash, wax and tan group: Amazing Lash Studio · Blo Blow Dry Bar · Drybar · European Wax Center · The Lash Lounge · Waxing the City. The salon, lash, wax and tan guide compares all of them on the same figures.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- Money arrives before the service does. How should that be booked?It explains deferred revenue and why the bank balance and the profit line disagree.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?It works out the sales level where a minimum fee stops applying.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?It builds a 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?It explains what an Item 19 financial performance representation tells you and what it leaves out.
- What should I be looking at every week?It lists the handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.