How to price your salon services without underselling

Most salons set their prices once, by looking at the place down the street and landing a little under it. It feels safe. It also means your prices are built on someone else’s rent, someone else’s team and someone else’s idea of what an hour is worth.

Start with what an hour of your chair costs

Add up a normal month: rent, wages, products, software, insurance, electricity, and a salary for yourself. Divide it by the hours your chairs are actually booked, not the hours you are open. That number is your floor. Anything priced below it loses money every time someone books it, however full the calendar looks.

Most owners who do this for the first time find one or two services sitting under the line. They are usually the popular ones.

Price the time, not the name of the service

A cut is not one service. A short cut on a regular takes thirty minutes; a restyle on long, thick hair can take ninety. Charging the same for both means the easy booking subsidises the hard one.

• Split services by length or hair type where the time really differs.
• Price add-ons (a treatment, a blow-dry) separately instead of absorbing them.
• Show a duration next to each price, so clients understand what they are paying for.

Raise prices without losing your regulars

Clients rarely leave over a small, explained increase. They leave over a surprise at the till. Announce it a few weeks ahead, say plainly why, and apply it to everyone on the same date. A modest rise once a year is far easier to accept than a large one every three.

If nobody ever mentions your prices, they are probably too low.

Use off-peak pricing instead of discounts

A blanket discount teaches clients to wait for the next one. A lower price on a quiet Tuesday morning does something more useful: it moves demand to the hours you struggle to fill, and leaves your Saturday prices alone. Vezeli lets you run targeted offers like this from the promotions tools.

Clear prices and durations on your public profile also cut down the messages asking “how much for…”. List your business and publish your menu in a few minutes.