Putting your prices up. 

It is one of the things that most business owners dread. 

They’ll put it off. They’ll make every excuse in the book to not do it; to justify it by saying “oh no, I can’t, I did it last year”.

Well, you know what? Prices have gone up since last year. They always go up.

So this is one of the things that we do need to do as salon owners. We need to be increasing our prices. We need to look over our costings one to two times a year and price our own services accordingly. Over the last 12 months, we’ve had prices of product go up because the cost of freight has gone up exponentially. And now we’re seeing it trickle through into everyday things as well, like fuel, electricity etc.

This is my advice…. You don’t need to tell them anything at all.

You do not need to put anything on socials.

You don’t need to put a sign up on your counter.

You don’t need to put a notice on your website.

Your prices can be subject to change anytime. In fact, I actually have that little disclaimer on my printed price menu and I also have it on my website at the bottom of my service menu. Prices are subject to change without notice, and you are well within your rights to do that because the cost of product and wages does change quite often. 

You might be thinking that you have to tell people because I don’t want to annoy or offend them. They’re gonna get angry with me. But honestly, people don’t care if you are doing a $1 or $2 price increase. People don’t care. It’s less than half a cup of coffee. Do big name brands advertise and tell their customers about an impending price rise? They do not. No one does. You don’t see David Jones putting out there that the cost of a certain brand television is going up by $50. And if I’m wrong, reach out and tell me but I can never recall seeing any news of a price rise from any large brand, a large company so why do we feel the need to let people know in our industry?

I believe it comes from a deep fear of rejection and feelings of unworthiness. I was having a conversation with one of my coaching clients a couple of weeks ago and I  was thinking about how awkward I use to be when checking clients out after their treatment. I felt awkward asking for payment. This is something that a lot of us service providers have in common. When we get to the part of the appointment where we’re asking for our clients money. And because I love my job and making people feel good about themselves I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for it! And I think that is where a bit of my uneasiness came from. I had a good chat with this person and I got to make them look pretty and I admired my handiwork afterwards and they’re really happy and everyone’s happy and now I’ve got to ask them for $150 bucks! But it also stems like I said from fear of rejection, where we’re worried that people are going to think that we charge too much and they’re not going to come back and also a little bit of being fearful around awkward conversations about the price as well. Like, I know that I don’t want to have an awkward conversation with a client, justifying myself or justifying why my business charges what it does. I don’t want to stand there and have to tell them that the price of this has gone up and the price of that’s gone up and it cost me this to open my doors every day. We shouldn’t have to do that. And most people understand that the cost of everything goes up every year. So it is normal to have a couple of price rises every year in your business. 

I want to ask you another question.

Would you care if your hairdresser charged you $5 more than last time you visited?

I know I wouldn’t. Again, it’s a cup of coffee. I drop $5 on a cup of coffee multiple times a day. So, it’s really not going to break the bank and I love my hairdresser! She is amazing at what she does and the products that I buy from her are all amazing. And I will happily pay her whatever she wants to charge me, I do not question it. I don’t know what the individual costs of different services are. Normally I will get a haircut and a colour, sometimes some foils or balayage, occasionally I will have a treatment. I don’t know what all those things individually cost so I have no idea, I’m happy to pay. I had a great time in the salon, good conversation, nice music, beautiful setting, she made me a beautiful cup of coffee and a snack or glass of champagne, and it’s all in all a fantastic experience. So I think people are happy to pay for that, they’re not going to question you.

Would you be upset with your hairdresser if she didn’t tell you about her price rise before your appointment? Because you missed the chance to go find another salon that’s cheaper? No. I know that so many of you would answer no to that question. Because you don’t want to find another salon that is $2 cheaper. What’s the point? And I think that your clients feel exactly the same way. If you offer a great service, they get great results, they have an enjoyable conversation with you, they’re treated like the most important person in your world while they’re in the salon, it smells nice in there, the music’s good, vibes are good. They’re happy to pay you and they’re not going to leave over a couple of dollars difference in their price.

So have I got my point across yet?

People don’t leave over a couple of dollars, they leave for other reasons. They have a certain expectation of your work or what the service entails and then they don’t receive that when they actually come in then yeah, they might leave and find somewhere else to get that service in the future. If their needs aren’t met, they might leave, if you are talking on your phone for half of the appointment they might leave, if you get up 10 times to go answer inquiries of people walking into your salon they might leave, if you cut their appointments short or if they’re paying for 60 minutes of your time, but they only get 52 minutes. THAT is what people notice. They are not going to leave for a couple of dollars, and if they do, you are nearly going to lose that person for any other reason. They’re just looking for a reason to bail. 

I did a $2 price rise a few years ago and I did have one client cancel her appointment and future refills because we were getting too expensive. We went from $94 to $96. This client was looking for an out. She wanted to pay you $60 for the experience she was getting and the level of experience and knowledge and cleanliness etc. that we offer at my salon. She wasn’t going to get that at a $60 refill salon. So I was happy to say goodbye to her and at the end of the day losing one client over a $2 price rise is not the end of the world.

So I say again, you don’t need to justify why you have increased your price. It is totally normal to have one to two price rises a year if you’ve got a healthy growing business, and you do not need to justify yourself. Nearly everyone that’s living in our current age knows that the cost of rent, insurance, overheads, wages go up every year. I’ve actually had two wage increases in the last year. Wages always go up every year. It’s usually only by 30 or 50 cents an hour, but they actually had a second one in November. So it’s to be expected that you would have a price rise after that. Your service price needs to go up, it needs to rise accordingly. It’s not really fair that you as the business owner needs to wear that cost. So people do expect that prices will eventually go up. They don’t expect your prices to stay the same forever. And I know lots of people that I speak to within the lash and beauty industry will honour their OG clients that have been with them for 2, 5, 10 years. One of my clients my coaching clients was guilty of this. She was charging multiple OG clients $30 less for their volume lash refills, her most popular service, an hour long volume lash refill. She was charging them $30 less because she was too scared to raise their price to the normal salon price; she thought that they were going to leave. And what ended up happening was she ended up dreading doing these clients appointments because she knew she wasn’t making any money doing them. So about half of her clientele were paying $30 less than her advertised salon price. And she was becoming very, very burnt out; she was on the hamster wheel of lashing, she wasn’t enjoying her job and business was not fun for her anymore because she wasn’t charging enough. She knew she wasn’t making any money. And yet she was starting to resent those clients. And with my encouragement, ended up bringing their price to the level that everybody else was being charged. She did send an email that we drafted together, which just explained why and you should never need to be in a position to justify yourself but because she had neglected to raise their prices in small increments for so long she had to do this big jump, so she felt she needed to explain, which is totally fine! She expected at least half of these clients to drop off after that $30 price increase.

And not one of them left.

Not one.

Because they saw her work as high value and they were prepared to pay whatever it cost. So just remember that if you’re feeling uneasy about raising your prices, or you have in your head that it’s been a tough time, it’s been a tough two years with COVID and all the hardship that a lot of people have experienced just remember this – It’s not our business. How much money people choose to spend is not on us and it’s not on us to assume how much someone can or cannot afford. And I think that that gets forgotten a lot.

Sometimes if we’re struggling financially, we automatically think that everybody else is as well. And perhaps we don’t offer our best service or we don’t offer that extra product or that longer refill appointment because we think that that client can’t afford it. But let me tell you that you’re actually doing that person disservice if you don’t offer it to them. Because when you decide for somebody, you assume it and if you assume anything about anyone, it makes an ASS out of U and ME. And I love that because it does! Whenever you assume anything about anyone, usually you’re going to end up looking like a dick. Because you’re probably going to be wrong. When you assume something about someone, especially their financial situation, you’re probably going to end up looking like a dick. So never assume always offer anything you’re you’re trying to help that client if you come from a place of help. Nothing ever needs to be salesy or icky.

If you need help with raising your prices get in touch with me on Instagram – LaurenLappin_ or email me – hello@laurenlappin.com.au

Lauren x