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Author:
Lash Mastery Online
Hello my name is Leah Lynch, I have been a safety advocate for the lash industry, a national and international award-winning artist, master trainer, speaker, judge and a working lash artist for the past 17 years. I have been the proud owner of a successful lash Lounge of 15 staff members for 7 years and have certified hundreds of students and trainers throughout my career with my curriculums.
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Ask The Expert coulomb
I have never increased my prices but feel it is time, any advice?
Whether you are increasing your prices due to supply and demand, increases in your overhead or the introduction of a new technique such as volume lashes you should have the knowledge and confidence to implement your price increase correctly and professionally.
Clients understand that prices will increase over the years to account for the rising costs of doing business and you must have a firm grip on your overhead expenses and supply expenses to make sure your budget inset going to bust! We are, after all, in business to make money. You will never get anywhere in business if you “feel bad” or shy away from increasing prices, or worse are afraid.Yes, a price increases can come with some fall out of clientele but let’s show you the rules and you will then see why it works.
Price increase due to packed schedule: If you are jam packed, clients on a wait and are working long days to accommodate your going to burn out. It’s a fact. This is not an industry where you can power through 12 hr days and back to back clients with no break for any length of time before you throw your tweezers at the wall!Be kind to your eyes, your hands and your back or this will be a short lived career!
The Rules: If you maintain an 80-90% booking rate consistently you should implement a 10% price increase. Most likely you can expect a 10% fall out in clientele. This will make it so you can service less clients, have more down time and make the same amount of money or more! Usually an email blast or a small sign on the desk one month prior to the increase is plenty to “inform” your clientele. There will of course be complainers at check out so arm your desk staff with a scripted line to give to every client for consistency. “Because of the high client demand and lack of availability as well as the rising cost of business it was necessary to do a small price increase” Don’t spend to much time explaining, you don’t want clients to get the sense that you are doubting your worth!
Price increase due to rising overhead costs: Lets say you have been servicing clients at home and now you are going to make a switch to a store front location, possibly you have moved to a space with a better location and higher rent, or switched to a new luxury brand with a luxury price tag. It’s essential to price yourself accordingly so as not to set yourself up for failure.
The rules: You must find what your cost per service is, calculate all of the things you use in your service, account for laundry if you have washables, costs if you use disposables, costs of pads lashes (fill vs. set) adhesives etc. Tally all of those items up and generally the cost of the supplies should be 10% of the cost of your service. This rule will allow you room to pay a desk staff member, rent, utilities, marketing costs etc. with some left for your pocket! Average cost is between $5-10 per client therefor a price of $50-$100 would be appropriate. It’s also important to consider the time it takes, $50-$100 may be good for your 1hr fills and a set may only cost you a fraction more in extra lashes and adhesive but it may cost you 1-3 more hours of your time! There for obviously you will be charging more for the time involved. Prices for sets and fills can be arbitrary based on demographic and we have found the following to be average:
Low income: $175 set/ $50 fill
Middle Class: $250-$350 set /$80-$100 fill
Upper Class: $450-550 set $100-$150 fill.
You may have a tough demographic and you may choose to have your prices set a bit lower but always go for quality of clients over quantity. Trust me.
Price increase due to higher education or new technique: It only makes sense that if you are planning to invest thousands of dollars and possibly have to travel thousands of miles and practice fanning thousands of lashes you are GOING to do a price increase! New techniques like volume lashes have created a new level of service, luxury and result that needs to fetch a premium. Do not under sell this service. You will be doing the whole industry a disservice by doing so. Know your worth and the worth of what you have learned and raise that bar! Clients can always stay with classic and not be affected by an increase but once they see and feel the difference they will not think twice about paying the extra bucks for so much bang!
Rules: A lot of companies have varying opinions on how much to increase but we can all agree on one thing, this is not your standard 10% increase, this has to be noticeably more pricy and therefore more enticing as to what this fancy new service will be! You can’t make any less for your time than you normally do right? So look at it this way: Say your fill is $80 per hr (average) that means you make $20 per 15 block of time. You will likely need 1.5 hrs for your volume fills so there for you HAVE to charge $120 for your time.
Formulate your response to clients in advance, you want to make your point but also consider their feelings about the increases. Keep it short and simple, don’t over explain! “I’m so excited to show you the technique I just learned! I made an investment in training with a high end trainer and have some great new luxury products I can use to create amazing looks, I need some extra time to complete the fills and all that considered I’ve had to adjust the price of the new volume fill to $$.”
Try not to get caught up in price wars with competitors, or be pushed around by deal hopping clients, clients are always going to come and go, sometimes it can be tough and get you down and doubting yourself but its important to always know your worth, remember, your in business to make money!
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6/1/2020