What it costs to open a braiding business in Illinois

What Illinois changes

• Hair braider license: IDFPR, after 300 hours of braiding school (tuition not counted), $30. What Illinois asks of a braider.
• An LLC: $150 to file the Articles of Organization, then $75 a year for an annual report every year.
• A salon suite in Chicago averages $207 a week, about $897 a month.
• A storefront in Chicago asks about $22.29 a square foot a year (Q4 2025), plus taxes and upkeep.
• A salon registers too: $40, then $20 a year, for each braiding salon, at home or in a storefront. Braiding alone at your clients’ places needs none.

With the same $180 bookings, 4 a week (17 a month), each setup in Illinois covers its month at: at home 1, at clients’ places 1, salon suite 7 and storefront 14.

How these numbers are worked out

• Before your first client is the one-time costs plus your first month, so you open with that month paid.
• Hair is 5 packs of 3X pre-stretched hair a booking, what medium knotless to mid-back takes, at a beauty supply’s regular price. Set it to $0 if your clients bring their own.
• Card fees are Stripe’s 2.9% + 30¢ on every booking, as if every client pays by card.
• Insurance is the average general liability policy hair salons buy through Insureon, $35 a month. Professional liability, which covers a client’s claim about the service itself, averages $42 more there.
• Break-even is the month’s fixed costs (rent, insurance, the app) divided by what each booking leaves once its hair, card fee and driving are paid, rounded up.

What isn’t counted

What nobody publishes in a way we could check: a suite’s deposit (operators set it lease by lease), a storefront’s build-out, utilities and taxes on top of a triple-net rent, products, a ring light and the small tools on the supplies checklist, and income tax. Most of these are write-offs. Tap a line to put in your own figure.