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Click here to learn how to go hourly and perfectly calculate your hourly wage!!!
This is the 4th part of a 5-part series with SalonScale. If you missed the SalonScale introduction episode, click here to listen! This series is filled with free coaching on pricing and so much magic!!
SalonScale is an app that will tell you the exact cost of hair color being poured for every bowl mixed so you can start pricing your services more accurately and feel confident knowing that everything leaving your color bar is being paid for.
In today’s episode, Elizabeth Faye sits down with Alicia Soulier, CEO of SalonScale! We met Alicia at our Portland Hair Love Radio Podcast Tour, and immediately clicked!
This episode is all about how to change your pricing structure to hourly pricing, and communicate your prices with your clients.
3:50 HOT SEAT
Elizabeth and Alicia break down WHY current business models for salons are ridiculous and discuss exactly why salons should go hourly with their pricing.
10 years ago, we didn’t have as many options for colors (bonding, colors, etc.), We increased our overall price, but without really looking at how much your color is costing you. You could have an hour of men’s haircut, or an hour of balayage and you have NO idea how much you’re actually making an hour.
A lot of stylists think they can ONLY do balayage and extensions to make any money, but Alicia is here to tell you that you can still do different services and make money.
The game changer? Separating your parts and labor by going HOURLY! It’s not fair that some clients are paying less or more because you’re not sure how much your costs actually are.
10:45 HOW TO GO HOURLY
If you are a solo-preneur or salon owner. You need to take the amount of hours worked divided by amount of money brought in. For example…
If you brought in $8,000 dollars, and worked 160 hours, ($8,000/ 160 hours) Your hourly rate is $50 an hour. So that is just your LABOR COST.
If you are doing double booking, the only thing different in your pricing is to only charge for the time you are working with the client, not the processing time.
If a person is processing for 45 minutes, you would not charge that client for that time. You only charge for when you are applying color, cutting, styling, etc. (IF YOU ARE DOUBLE BOOKING).
As stylists, you need to know your own timing!! If you don’t know it, start keeping track. When you start double booking, it’s important to talk to your clients about the process, and if you can, get an assistant!
18:40 SINGLE BOOKER
If you make $10,000 a month, look at how much you worked. Once you have this hourly rate, it’s time to talk to your customer!
When your client is processing, do the math. Then, go talk to your client. Just be honest, but don’t make it complicated. Remember… If you don’t even know what you were charging, they won’t know either.
We recommend not making an announcement that your price went up. Just find your price, and as long as it is within 10% it shouldn’t be a problem. If it is.. Just give the client a heads up that next time you will be doing the different pricing method.
You don’t even need to tell your client that you’re going to “parts + labor”. Just tell them you used a little more color, so you need to charge more.
The best part?? This makes your taxes SOO EASY!!
We all want to live in a world that is simple, and SalonScale does all the work for you!
26:15 HOW TO SET UP YOUR PRICE MENU
We recommend doing tiers with different levels. (Full, Partial, touch up, etc.) KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Figure out your hourly price, and then charge based on that!
29:00 HOW TO PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES
Once you find your hourly rate, its important to remember that you might be be paying your employees that hourly rate.
Work smarter, not HARDER. Take time in your craft. Charge for your time. Take home a paycheck.
30:00 DOUBLE BOOKING
Some people love it, and others don’t. So it’s important to do what works for you! Think about your business, these are your CUSTOMERS, not your FRIENDS. You need to have some separation, because it’s a lot harder to charge more for your friend, then a customer.
Double booking is also awesome, because you are also growing your assistant!!
Elizabeth’s advice “Anything that doesn’t make me money, bring me joy, etc. I will delegate out to someone else.”
With double booking, you are either making more money by working the same amount of time or less time. So let’s say you make $20,000 a month, and work 160 hours, thats $125 an hour. So now.. instead of your client paying for 3 hours of time, they only pay an 1.5 of time because the other time was spent PROCESSING. Anytime you are not doing something with your client, you are not charging for that.
The SalonScale Advantage- If you lose $10.50 on every color you do… You end up losing out on $6,300 PER YEAR. That’s the difference in JUST paying for product. THIS IS HUGE!
The best part about knowing your hourly rate is knowing you can afford your assistant. If you KNOW you are making $50 an hour, it’s less intimidating to hire an assistant for $10 an hour.
If you guys have any questions, message them on instagram!!
Or you can send us an email at support@theworkshopinabox.com
Get your free scale here! Once you sign up, you can set up a time to get everything set up with a SalonScale genius!
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