Price your services by the hour, not by the treatment

Most price lists are built by looking at two nearby salons and sitting somewhere between them. It is understandable, and it is a poor foundation, because you know nothing about their costs or how long their treatments actually take.

Count the hour, not the treatment

What matters is what an hour of your time earns, not what one treatment costs. Take the real length, including preparation and cleaning down.

A treatment at 800 Kc that takes an hour and a half with the turnaround earns 533 Kc an hour. In a hair salon this gap is widest. One at 600 Kc that takes forty-five minutes earns 800 Kc an hour. The cheaper one is better for you, and the price list will never tell you that.

Cut the items nobody orders

A long list looks like choice. In practice it is a decision the client has to make and another way to pick wrong.

Look at the last three months and see what people actually book. Items ordered once in that time do not belong on the first screen. They can stay, lower down, or on request.

Raising prices

An increase of twenty koruna that nobody notices does not help you, and you will be doing it again next year. Raise in steps that mean something, and announce them in advance: regulars expect it, and far fewer leave than you fear.

Anyone who leaves over ten per cent was going to leave over something else.

What to check in your system

However you set prices, two things have to be right in the booking system: the real length of the treatment and the time you need between clients. When they are wrong, the day swells by a quarter of an hour per client, and that is an hour a day nobody pays for. Money leaks the same quiet way through no-shows.