Studio profit calculator
A back-of-the-envelope monthly P&L for your studio.
The biggest mistake studios make on profit is conflating revenue and margin. A studio doing $25K/month in revenue can be cash-flow positive or losing $3K, depending on payroll percentage, rent, and how much the processor is taking off the top.
This calculator pulls the lines apart: members times ARPM gives you the top line, then payroll and processing eat percentages of that, then rent and software hit as fixed costs. What's left is what you actually keep.
Run it for your current month, then again for a hypothetical where you raise prices 10% or move to a smaller space. The math is usually clearer than the gut feel.
Avg revenue per member per month.
Boutique studios typically run 4–8% monthly.
Includes instructors + front desk. 30–45% is typical.
Studio platform + payroll + marketing tools.
Whatever your processor charges. Stripe and Square publish 2.9% + 30¢; locked-platform processors often run 3.0–3.5%.
35.1% margin
- Payroll$5985
- Processing$496
- Rent + utilities$4500
- Software$120
- Total costs$11101
Estimate at 9 members churned per month at the rate above. Replace them or the revenue line drops.
How we calculate this
Gross revenue = active members × ARPM
Costs = (revenue × payroll %) + (revenue × processing %) + rent + software
Net profit = gross revenue − costs
Churn is shown as a separate signal — it doesn't reduce this month's revenue (you already counted active members), but it tells you how many you'll need to replace next month just to stand still.
FAQ
What profit margin should a studio target?
Boutique studios that own their building or have favorable leases can hit 20–30% net margin. Most studios with market-rate rent and a full instructor roster land at 8–15%. Anything under 5% usually means you're under-priced or over-staffed for the size of the room.
Why include churn in a profit calculator?
Profit looks fine until you realize you're losing 5–8% of your members every month. Replacing them costs marketing and onboarding time. A studio with 200 members at 8% monthly churn loses 16 members every month before any new sign-ups even count.
How should I estimate payroll percentage?
Add up all your instructor pay and front-desk wages for a typical month, then divide by gross revenue. Most boutique studios end up at 30–45%. If you're below 25%, you're probably underpaying instructors. If you're above 50%, you're probably running too many under-attended classes.
What processing rate should I use?
If you use Stripe, Square, or a bank merchant account on a published rate, use 2.6–2.9% + a fixed fee. If your software platform requires you to use their payments processor (Mindbody Payments, Vagaro Pay, Glofox Pay), use 2.9–3.5% — those rates are typically higher than published Stripe rates. Chronix Hub does not process payments, so the rate you pay is whatever your own processor charges.
Does this account for taxes?
No. This calculator gives you gross net profit before income tax and any local business taxes (VAT, GST, sales tax on retail). The actual cash you keep will be lower after taxes. Sanity-check the result with your accountant.
Same math, live from your bookings
Chronix Hub gives you revenue, payroll, and member-count lines on the reports page without exporting anything. Read more on the cost side in Free vs Paid Studio Software.