Most lashpreneurs will inevitably reach the stage in their business when they need to consider raising their prices. But, how can you raise your prices? And, when do you know it’s the right time to increase them?
A problem that I see time and time again with lash artists and business owners is a deep reluctance or even a fear of increasing their prices. They’re worried that if they raise them, clients will start dropping off like flies.
However, if you’re struggling to pay yourself or even stay open, it’s time for a change.
You’re running a business, not a hobby. On this episode, I reveal how you can dictate your pricing to make sure it covers your expenses while still paying yourself a great wage.
You’ll also discover the questions you should be asking yourself when it comes to deciding when to raise your prices and if your talents or services are worth paying more for.
So, if you’re ready to change your perspective and start getting the right answers for the right questions that work best for you and your goals, stay tuned!
{If you want to listen to the podcast episode on this topic, click on the player at the top of the post. Alternatively you can watch the video below, or read on…}
1. Am I able to pay myself?
The first question you need to ask is whether or not you’re able to pay yourself. Your answer will help you understand whether you’re priced too low. Tightening your belt and struggling to keep to your pre-set budget could be signs that your prices need re-consideration.
One of the main reasons why you might not be able to pay yourself as much as you’d like is because you don’t have enough clients. You need to work on building your clientele and perfecting your artistry.
My advice is to wait until you’ve built up enough clients before going out on your own and launching your lash business.
But, if you already have a pretty decent clientele and you’re still struggling to give yourself enough income, you’re probably priced too low.
You should prioritize owners pay. After all, this is your business and you’ve got to make sure that you’re paying yourself enough. Back in episode 3 of Lessons of a Lashpreneur, I shared how you can discover your breakeven pricing. So, if you want to check that episode out, head over to Episode 3 – Path to Profitability Discover your Breakeven Price
2. Ok, I’m able to break even in my business…now what?
First of all, congratulations! Breaking even in your business is a milestone to be proud of.
Now that you’re here, it’s time to work on marketing yourself and building a large enough clientele to be fully booked.
Marketing can be a little scary if you’re new to it. However, there are lots of different ways you can promote your lash business from traditional tactics to online marketing and more. Creating a referral program tends to work great for lash artists as well as advertising on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook.
If you’re serious about building a loyal clientele, you’ve got to get serious about marketing.
There’s a common misconception about being fully booked. Just because you’re considered fully booked, it doesn’t mean that you’re unavailable for every hour of the day (and if it does, I need to have a serious talk with you!)
If every hour of your day was spent with a client, you’d have zero flexibility and probably struggle to find the time to even use the bathroom. This is definitely not what you want. You’re not running a lash artist puppy mill, right?
Being fully booked is a percentage of time you work spending with a paying client. So, if you spend an average of 80% of your working hours with clients, you’re fully booked.
3. Ok, I’m fully booked…what happens now?
If you’ve reached the stage in your business where you’re fully booked with clients, it’s time to start a waitlist. Yes, being fully booked is a glorious time. But, it’s also very stressful because you don’t have much flexibility to move clients around and it’s so easy to upset clients who want to change their appointment time and they can’t cause you’re fully booked.
The process of getting fully booked doesn’t happen overnight.
You’ll get an entire week fully booked and then a second week will be fully booked too. If you’re lucky, you’ll have multiple weeks booked out in advance.
With so much going on in your business, it’s important that you don’t get overwhelmed. You’ve got to make sure you don’t schedule clients after you’ve already maxed yourself out for the day. Don’t add clients onto the beginning or end of your workday. Let those clients spill over into the other week that aren’t as demanding or full.
You should also think about creating a waitlist and testing it out for around two to three months.
Give your waitlist time to fill up and use it as an experiment to gauge if the business is just a seasonal thing, or if the demand is likely to continue throughout the year.
4. Ok, I’ve reached the 3-month mark of being fully booked, can I raise my prices now?
YES. Now you can raise your prices for sure. Don’t be shy about it either. There’s no point raising prices by a mere $5 or $10 because that won’t make any real change to your income.
I suggest increasing your prices by at least 20% across the board.
Yes, you might lose some clients. But, that’s okay because this is how you’re going to be able to make more money while working fewer hours.
Below, I share a short math calculation to help demonstrate my point…think of it as math class with Tara 101…
Let’s say you have around 80 fill appointments per month. So, that’s around five clients a day, four days a week. Now, let’s say you charge around $50 per fill. If you do the calculations, your revenue for 80 fills that cost $50 each will equate to around $4000 a month.
Are you with me so far? Great, let’s keep going…
Next, let’s say you raise your prices by $15 per service, including fills. And, let’s assume the jump in price causes 10% of your clients to drop off.
Now instead of having 80 fill appointments a month, you’ve got 72 and each fill costs $65. You’ll then make around $4,680 per month – that’s a $680 raise AND you now work eight fewer hours a month.
Not only are you making more money, but you’re doing it by working fewer hours than before.
MIND = BLOWN!
Bonus Tip! The Key Takeaway…
The key here is to avoid jumping the gun or making uninformed decisions without being sure of the outcome.
If you raise your prices before being close to fully booked, you risk being a turn off to potential clients. So, you’ll need to do more work on target marketing to get a higher priced clientele.
You also need to consider where your results and talents are at.
It’s REALLY hard to charge premium pricing if you can’t get your lashes to last more than a week or if you can only do 50% coverage on a full set within a reasonable amount of time.
If you’re fully booked, I want you to download my free guide on how to raise your prices strategically including the email template I used to inform my clients of the price increase and the to do’s and what not to do’s in raising your prices. You can get this guide here.
All of this is just a taste of what I teach inside of The Lashpreneur Society. If this gave you some ideas of how you can be working towards the next phase in your business, you’ll find major success with our training and support inside of the society. To sign up for the waitlist to make sure you’re notified of the next time we open up registration to new members, click here.
Have a good one!
Tara Walsh
The Lashpreneur
