Episode 7 - Take CONTROL of your PRICING.mp3

[ 00:00:05

]Welcome to the Hair

Hustle Podcast. I' m Heather Podlesny, your salon coach dedicated to helping

stylists master the business side of beauty. Whether you' re starting your

journey behind the chair or you' re a seasoned pro looking to level up, this

podcast is for you. Each week we' ll dive into the tips and tricks you need to

run a successful salon business with topics that will change the way you work

and earn. From budgeting hacks to help you keep more of what you make to time

management tips that will keep your schedule stress- free and the strategies

for boosting your retail sales and nailing that next promotion. Get ready to

build your dream business without burning out. Together we' ll cut through the

noise and get to the root of what makes your salon thrive.

[ 00:00:47

] So grab your shears,

turn up the volume and let' s hustle. Hey, hey, welcome to episode seven of the

Hair Hustle Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. Today we are going to

take control of our prices. This is a request from the request line. Just kidding.

This was actually dropped into my DMs though and I want to say thank you so

much for requesting a subject for me to talk about because this one

specifically is near and dear to my heart. I started independent stylist

coaching specifically when I found out how my stylists were charging and

honestly just the lack of confidence behind their pricing and the services that

they were offering, and I understand that it is an issue amongst several of our

salons and stylists.

[ 00:01:42

] This one is for our

independent stylists. Let' s give them a shout out and we are going to help

them take control of their money and their prices and I' m going to give them a

great formula on how to revamp their prices. So if you want to start a new salon,

revamping your prices, I highly recommend now right before the holiday season

kicks off. Do not wait until January. If you are here, sister, you are doing it

or brother, please. You are starting now and we are getting this done. The best

time to raise your prices is actually right now, not January 1st. Please do not

put a sign up. Prices going up in January.

[ 00:02:21

] We will have a whole

other episode on that because I like to keep these episodes short, and if I get

down that road, it' s not going to be great. For today, we all know that I have

five bullet points on how you can take control of your money and how to charge

appropriately in this episode today. So, we' re going to kick this episode off.

I am also going to say that we are located in the Midwest of the United States.

We have lots of small town USA stylists and salons. I am happy to represent them.

My biggest reason for leaving corporate was because I wanted to make sure to

represent the stylists and salons that were small and I just want you guys to

keep in mind that if you are from the west side of the United States, if you'

re from the east side, if you' re from an urban city, I' m going to start

talking about some prices and you may be like, ' That is ridiculous.'

[ 00:03:21

] If that' s how you

feel, that is okay. This episode may not be for you. However, if you are

sitting there thinking, ' Yeah, I don' I really know why I charge what I charge

or I have no idea about the value of myself behind the chair, all of these

things, this episode is for you and if you' re someone that thinks that this

pricing is too low, simply increase it, okay? But at the end of the day, when

we look up on average how much our stylists are making across the United

States, it' s about $23 to $27 an hour. At the end of the day, I think that we

are hitting so many more people by being able to talk about that and not having

to talk about these big numbers that make someone, especially from the Midwest,

feel like, oh, I' m not charging enough and I can' t relate to them.

[ 00:04:10

] So this is meant to be

a relatable episode for everyone and it' s meant to be an open platform. If you

are ready and you feel like you want to keep moving on, let' s jump into it.

The first thing that I' m going to have you do seems so simple and it is to

calculate. What are your household needs? If you' ve been an independent

stylist for a minute or even if you' re going to be a new independent stylist,

this can be a goal for you on what you need because sometimes I totally

understand if you' re just getting started, you may need to do something else.

When I first started as an independent stylist, I waited tables, I bartended, I

did all the things just until I got my income up there.

[ 00:04:48

] But at the end of the

day, you need to calculate what your household needs from you in order to

figure out exactly where you' re going to be. Also, I have to say, you guys,

this is one of the most beautiful things about this industry. You have the

control to do this. So if you feel like you' re not making enough money or if

you feel like you' re booked and busy, but you' re not making any money, this

is the time to sit down and to revamp this. And this is one of the most

beautiful things that you get to do for you and for your own business and for

your own family. You don' t have to worry about it. You don' t have to worry

about it.

[ 00:05:25

] You don' To have to sit

there and negotiate a price for your salary and go on Indeed and look for all

of these crazy jobs. So I want you to keep that in mind, this is a blessing

that you get to say, this is how much I need. And now we' re going to figure

out how to get you there. Our example today is going to be that your household

needs $5,000 a month. So that is the money that we actually take home. The

money that we take home is different than the money that we bring in. Okay. So

the money that you bring in, behind the chair, is going to be different than

the actual money that is going to hit your personal bank account. Okay.

[ 00:06:02

] We' re going to sit

down. You' re going to do all of your expenses and you' re going to calculate

your household needs. If you have a partner, great. Maybe sit down with them

and figure out exactly what your plan is. If you have to get some debt paid off,

if honestly, if the number is way too high or way too low, whatever that' s

going to look like, I want you to set a goal for yourself on how much you' re

going to make. So if you' re going to make $5,000 a month, you' re going to set

a goal for yourself on how much that you may need to make behind the chair.

Because after you do this exercise, we' ll be able to adjust it from there and

I can get it into another episode.

[ 00:06:33

] Okay. Step one, we' re

going to calculate what our household needs. For our example today, we need

$5,000. Step number two, for the sake of this exercise, and this is a 10,000

foot view. This is not me sitting down specifically with your numbers and going

over that. I do that as well. And you will see some fun things come out of

this. So if you' re going to make $5,000 a month, in the future for you, if you

need more one-on-one help, please let me know because I also do one-on-one

coaching. So this 10,000 foot view, because we' re speaking to several people,

is step two. We' re just going to double that number. Okay. We need $5,000 in

our personal household income.

[ 00:07:16

] So I am simply going to

double that number and it' s $10,000. So 5,000 times two, $10,000. That' s step

two. That tells us the actual number goal that we need to be bringing in when

we are working behind the chair. Our goal behind the chair is to be bringing in

$10,000 every single month. Step three, we need to look at what our billable

hours are. What are billable hours? Billable hours are the hours that we are

technically working behind the chair and getting paid. That may not be the

needle moving things like working on our social media, like writing down our

finances, like doing this exercise. Those are things that we have to do and

they definitely help move the needle to get us new guests, to help bring up our

service ticket, to come up with new fun things, to make more money.

[ 00:08:15

] However, they are not

necessarily billable hours. For the sake of this example, we are going to say

that you work 35 hours. Five hours are spent on your things like your social

media, your cleaning, your ordering, your finance, your paying yourself, all of

that kind of stuff, keeping our money organized as well. And 30 hours are spent

specifically behind the chair, working, charging, making the money. That means

that we have 30 billable hours. So now that we understand what our billable

hours are, so we understand that we need to bring in $10,000 every single

month, and we understand that that is going to happen by working 30 hours a

week. Because I don' t want you to go and be like, ' I need this much money,

but yet I need to work 80 hours now behind the chair.' That' s not what this is

about.

[ 00:09:09

] This is simply about

giving you a guide, okay? No one has a meltdown on me. And if you feel like

you' re in a turmoil, good gravy, please reach out to me on social media or

some kind of a platform. I will help talk you off the ledge, okay? We.' re

going to keep it going here. So now we know we' ve got 30 billable hours and we

need to make $10,000 per month. We' re going to divide $10,000 by four because

there' s four weeks in a month. That means that we need to be bringing in on

average around $2,500 every single week. When I work 30 hours a week and I need

to make $2,500 every single week, I' m going to take $2,500 and I' m going to

divide that by my billable hours, which is 30 hours.

[ 00:09:55

] So the hours I' m

working behind the chair and that number is $83. 33. $83 an hour is what I need

to be making behind the chair. Now we' re going to figure out what you need to

make per minute. And the reason that we figure out what you need to make per

minute is because on average for profitability, you need to be around $1 to $1.

50 a minute. For this example, we' re going to take that $83. 33. We' re going

to divide it by the amount of minutes in an hour, which is 60. And now you know

that you need to be making $1. 39 per minute. Why is this important?

[ 00:10:37

] The reason that you

want to come up with your per- minute price is not just because you want to

make sure that you' re making that dollar amount, but it' s also going to be a

gauge for you to look at your menu right now and make sure that you' re even charging

properly. So now you know that you need to be making $1. 39 per minute. $1. 39

a minute to be bringing in that $5,000 a month to your household. We' ve got

your billable hours and your billable minutes down. You guys figured out that

formula. Great job. And now we' re at $1. 39 a minute. We know that we have to

bring in. Now for step four, we are going to set and test our service prices.

[ 00:11:15

] We need to figure out

exactly how much we' re charging and if we' re even charging properly. Let' s

look at our rates right now. We need it to be charging $1. 39 a minute like we

used in our example. I now need to look at my 90- minute service. So let' Say

that is a basic color retouch and haircut that takes 90 minutes. So I know some

of you; it only takes 75. Some of you, it' s 90 minutes. I want to look at that

number. A 90- minute service times $1. 39 because we need $1. 39 a minute, and

we' ve got 90 minutes. That should be about $125. Now you' re going to go to

your menu and I want you to look at how much is a base color application plus a

haircut because that' s about 90 minutes.

[ 00:12:04

] If I look at that and

I' m charging, maybe I' m charging $75 for a color retouch and I' m just

throwing in the haircut, and your haircut price is typically $45. If you are

throwing in that haircut and bundling, you are literally shorting yourself on a

service that you' I' m not charging. So I' m going to go to my menu and I' m

going to open that Bug Classic and let' s go check at our bundle. I' m going to

go to my tool list. In my bundle, you can see as far as individual products,

everything else is here but you can see on here that you can only buy a color.

[ 00:12:38

] So if I go to a call

and I click one of the aspects is for the physical person and then I prefer to

go to this message menu which comes to When it' s Schrita. So you can see just

a little bit in here by cutting out the bundling and doing à

la carte pricing. So same thing, I want you to look at a two-hour service. If

you need $1. 39 a minute, a two-hour service needs to be at least about $167.

So somewhere between $165 to $170, that total should be. If it' s nowhere near

there, let' s get you on a plan to get you there. If you are there, but maybe

you are bundling a little bit too much and it' s like your cousin came in and

your sister-in-law came in and your mom and everybody wants a discount,

[ 00:13:35

] I want you to go

through all of your customers and all of your guests and I want you to see

where your money is going and what it is that you' re charging. Now that you

know what you need per minute, we' re going to talk a little bit more about à

la carte pricing versus hourly pricing. When I talk about à

la carte pricing, I just gave you an example on how you' re shorting yourself

where you need $1. 39 a minute, but you' re throwing in $45 haircuts. That' s

number one reason why I love à la carte pricing. It' s clear and

concise. It' s easy to say like these are the things that you had done and this

is how much it' s going to be and you can see based on my menu.

[ 00:14:18

] As a coach, for quite a

long time now and a business partner to salons, you would not believe how many

consumers, so people who frequent salons, your guests, things like that, talk

about the fact that they don' t even know how much they' re charged from salons

or stylists. They don' t understand why their hair costs what it does and it

creates this really big gap between the stylist and the guest that doesn' t

even need to be there, and it' s simply because we don' t have the confidence.

We don' t have the confidence as stylists behind the chair to share these are

all the services that you had done today and this is how much it' s going to be

and it should be simply laid out.

[ 00:14:58

] And the other thing too

about why I love a la carte versus hourly, I have helped coach many stylists do

both. I want to make that clear. The reason that I' m recommending à

la carte right now today for this example is because you are, and if you' ve

listened this long, you' re probably a stylist that' s not charging enough and

you' re probably a stylist that' s not charging enough. And you' re probably a

stylist that doesn' t really know what' s happening with their money. The

reason that I say to charge à la carte pricing is because you can

say to your guest, ' so you may not even need to raise your prices.' In my

coaching business, there are so many stylists who didn' t even need to raise

their prices.

[ 00:15:39

] They gave themselves a

raise by charging what a guest received. It is insane how much you can give

yourself a raise simply by saying, ' Okay, Susie, thank you so much for coming

to me.' I wanted to let you know that I' ve done a pricing upgrade and I have

started charging à la carte. So what that means is you

have the ability to customize every single appointment with me. Today, you had

a color touch-up and a haircut. So you can see here, these two numbers added

up. It' s going to be $120 today. See where that went? It was super simple,

super easy, and it' s going to be $120 today. It' s something that you can

share with your guests and you can use that verbiage.

[ 00:16:25

] If you don' t know what

to say, totally steal mine. Also, something that I would highly recommend if

you are going to start doing this, but you have been mumbling a lot of prices,

something that I' m going to recommend is that you print out the menus. I know

we' re all trying to save the environment and do all of these crazy things.

There' s actually a trick in sales and it' s that when you' re nervous, that

you hold something. Okay? And when you hold on to that, it takes your energy. I

know that all of you have someone in your mind right now that you' re like, ' I

can' t tell that person.' I want you to tell them, get yourself a menu that' s

printed and you simply sit there or stand there with them and you say, ' Here'

s all the things that we typically do on you today.' The price is going to be,

and say it, no question mark.

[ 00:17:15

] I don' t want you

feeling not confident. I want you to spit those words out with a period at the

end. Okay? You got this. I know you do. That helps to create a clear, no

questions asked pricing guide, not just for you, but for your guests to

understand what they' re being charged. And it also helps to build the trust

because the guest is now going to feel confident in the fact that, yep, today

is my work' s appointment. I' m going to be here for three hours and I get it

done twice a year and it' s $250. Done. See how that easy? That is, or there' s

also a second option. Guess what? Today is simply a gloss and a haircut, and I'

m so excited to see my hairstylist.

[ 00:17:58

] This is simply my

maintenance appointment, and I know that it' s going to cost me $99. I want you

to get rid of the stigma of talking about prices with your guests and I want

you to feel confident in what you' re charging. Those are the reasons why I prefer

à

la carte when you' re in this state over hourly. Okay? I have helped coach

people into an hourly and a bundle rate to add in different treatments, and

things like that. And I' m okay with that. I don' t hate it, but if you'