Today I want to write about something that grinds my gears. 

I see it a lot on Instagram, and I just can’t believe it. 

Every time I see it, I literally can’t believe it. 

I just shake my head and it takes everything in me; every ounce of my will, to hold back from saying something about it. 

And I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but you got to hear it. 

There’s better ways to run your business.

I cannot stand it when I see that businesses are not accepting any new clients. Either in their bio or in a post, “I’m not accepting any new clients”. I just really don’t understand why anyone would do this.

Why put a cap on your earning potential? Your business growth potential? And look, I know that not everyone wants to grow their business; they are happy when they get to a certain level and they don’t want to work any more than that. They’re happy with the amount of money that they are earning. But I feel like if you reading this or you follow me on socials, you want to grow your business. You can continue to grow, even if you don’t want to physically work any more than you already do. You do not have to stop accepting new clients.

The main reasons people will do this is:

1. They they cannot physically fit any more clients into their schedule, or they might already have too many to handle. They might already be saying yes to too many stupid things, like staying after closing or working through lunch, coming in early, coming in on days that you wouldn’t normally work, etc.

1. They’re cutting down their clients to close their business down. Inevitably, whatever it is, they’re doing nails, tattooing, brows, hair, tanning. It might have been a side hustle while they were studying and now they’ve finished their study and they have a full time gig and now they’re cutting down; not accepting anyone new. And I get that, if they knew it was their side gig all along and they weren’t planning to grow it.

What I don’t understand is when people say that they’re not accepting new clients, and then they continue to market themselves on social media. It’s in their bio, but they’re still posting photos and reels and posting on stories.

Why?

If they’re not accepting new clients, why are they still advertising?

Maybe they have a team of staff and they are wanting to cut down their own hours working on clients to focus on business growth activities. Fair enough, but I would NEVER advertise this. A few years ago in my business, I made the call that my time was better spent on business growth activities like marketing, some administration that I don’t already outsource, future planning, team development, keeping the team motivated, day to day running of the business, coming up with new ideas for the future of the business, because this was spending my time better than doing 40-50 hours of sticking lashes on people every week, because I knew that I was always going to stay at the same level if I continued to do that. I knew that I had to dedicate a portion of my time each week into business growth activities, but I never once advertised that I was not accepting new clients.

The first step was taking myself off the online booking system. So clients had to call and if they were a new client to the business or a client that I actually hadn’t seen before (because a lot of people automatically want to go to the owner of the business because they seem to think that the owner is the best, which is certainly not true in my case anymore because I am so out of practice), my receptionist would just explain that I have no availability. If they kept asking, even after she’d offered several appointments with any of my team members, she would then divulge that Lauren actually doesn’t see any new clients anymore. And that, I believe, is a legitimate reason. 

But if you’re a solo operator, and you’re very, very good at what you do, and you are completely booked out; you cannot physically fit anyone else into your schedule, you are not wanting to work any more hours than you currently are. You really need to just put your prices up. And I know that you’re probably sitting there going “oh yeah I know I should”. 

But no, you really should. 

Because if you put your prices up, your business can continue to grow. Yeah, you might lose a couple of clients, but you aren’t actually going to be taking a pay cut when you lose those clients. Because let me tell you now, most of your clients will stay. If you are excellent at what you do, you have a warm and welcoming environment, you’re a good person, you’re easy to get along with, you make them feel like they’re the most important person in the world, then there’s no reason that they would stop coming to you. And if they’re going to leave over a price rise, they’ve probably been looking for some reason to leave anyway. Just put your prices up. And if no one leaves, you wait a couple of months and then you put them up again.

I only say this is a win-win because you’re actually earning more money without working more. Originally you thought the solution was “I have to stop taking on clients”. So that’s fine, you can stop taking on clients, but you’re putting a cap on your income; your earning potential. So instead of stopping accepting new clients and any new business, you put your prices up. Like I said, if you lose a few, who cares? You’ll be earning the same, if not more than what you were earning previously AND working less, which is great. Yay!

If you do have a couple of appointments that open up because of people leaving, you’ve just made room for new clients to come along that are happy to pay your new price because they never knew any different. So that’s the long and the short of it. It is a very simple answer, but it’s also quite complex because a lot of us are way too scared to put our prices up. And a prime example would be one of my coaching clients. When she came to me for 1:1 coaching she was so burnt out by her business. Her prices were fine, her service menu looked good. She was flat out doing lashes 40-50 hours a week and she wasn’t really making much money at all and I couldn’t work it out and after a couple of coaching sessions she finally divulged me that she had allowed her OG clients to keep paying the original pricing! Which was $60 for an hour long refill! This was $30 less than what her service menu price was. I asked her how many of her clients were paying $60 for an hour of her time. The 60 minute refill was her most popular service. She had over half of her clients on $60 an hour. And I told her that she simply can’t continue to run her business this way. She was burnt out, tired, she wanted to throw in the towel because she wasn’t earning enough money! She would’ve been earning more working in someone else’s salon!

So we worked on a new price. We brought the OG’s up to the new regular service menu price and we wrote an email together to send to them. 

This coaching client of mine was shitting herself.

She thought all these people were going to leave.

And I told her to be strong, don’t worry. I was sure they wouldn’t leave. We had written a really great email explaining why the prices need to go up. If they’re good people, they will understand. And I’m sure they are, because they’ve been long term clients of yours and I’m sure there’s more than the money aspect that keeps them coming back. I’m sure that they’re not only coming because her prices were so low.

Anyway, she sent the email.

And nobody canceled their appointments. She was in disbelief.

She actually didn’t lose any of those clients that she’d been charging $60.

She put their pricing up by $30 in one hit.

It just goes to show that if you are great at what you do and you build really great, meaningful relationships with your clients, and you have a beautiful place of business that people feel really welcomed into and comfortable in, then they are not going to leave over a price rise. And a lot of people are happy to support you. They see that you’re a small business owner and they are happy to continue supporting you. So do not be scared to raise your prices. So many of our limitations are really just in our own heads. We convince ourselves that all of our clients are going to leave us and that nobody else is responsible for that except for you. Yes, people can make little off-handed comments about prices and things like that. It’s us that decides what people can and can’t afford, which we shouldn’t do. We have no idea how much money people have or what they make or how much they’re willing to spend on something that makes them feel amazing and that they really value in their life. 

So don’t make the decision for your clients on how much they can afford. 

And if you’re on the brink of closing your books and not accepting any new clients, I really urge you to rethink your pricing and put it up! Put it up so that you’re working smarter and not harder. 

If I’ve convinced you to put your prices up today, please read Putting Your Prices Up Is Essential To Maintaining a Thriving Salon Business, where I tell you HOW to put them up, because there is a process to working that out. 

And if you really feel like you need support in this area; if you don’t know if your prices are right or you need help setting your prices or you just need to be surrounded by other like minded people that are going to cheer you on when you do make big changes and you go for big growth in your business then please reach out to me on Instagram – my handle is LaurenLappin_ or book a free Discovery Call with me.

Lauren x