Salon Series: Shifting to Package Pricing
I started at my first salon job in 2002, as an assistant/front desk girl/baby stylist. I learned that you worked your ass off doing anything and everything anyone wanted you to do, and some day you would finally be super-booked and making enough money to...survive.
Once I opened my salon, I transferred all the lessons I'd learned about the salon business into my new role as salon owner...and I lowered my prices so my clients would want to stay with me. It was ridiculous, and I felt like I was successful seeing anywhere from 7 to 11 guests a day, no lunch break, every possible moment booked with every service. Except perms; I had deliberately chosen to stop offering perms. Ha!
Before I started cutting out services that I no longer wanted to offer (more about that another time), I came up with a beautifully complicated color service menu. I had set prices for all the add-ons I could possibly need to create a beautiful end result for my guests. Glosses, smudges, retouch, paint betweens, highlights, lowlights, Olaplex, conditioning treatments, melts, end refresh...Everything had a purpose and a price.
It was helpful for me to have set prices, and have them logged into my POS. It forced me to stop giving away time and product. I had long undervalued my work, and resented that my clients didn't see how much I was giving them for free. Which, of course, was all my fault. The biggest problem at this point was that my service menu was so complicated, and none of my clients wanted to pay more for their hair color. They didn't see the value in adding a gloss or end refresh because I had never made it clear that in order to create the OUTCOME THEY WANTED, THESE WERE THE PROCESSES I NEEDED TO PERFORM AND CHARGE THEM FOR.
They wanted Pinterest hair without paying for it. Because I had always just thrown in those little freebies to make sure their results were amazing. And they didn't realize I was losing money over and over again by doing this. So I ended up just doing their regrowth touch ups and highlights with a gloss every now and then.
Once I started offering Natural Beaded Rows Extensions, which was an all-inclusive package price in order to create a specific OUTCOME, it dawned on me that I had been giving all the power to my clients. They wanted what they wanted, and didn't want to pay more. And I had allowed that for my entire career. It was MY BUSINESS AND MY JOB to ensure my guests had the beautiful results they wanted AND get paid for it. I created pseudo packages, with a Regrowth and Dimensional Package. These helped eliminate some of the frustrations I had, and helped even out the financial side of things since I did a fairly decent price increase. Some clients grumbled, but it felt like a successful shift.
Finally, this summer I made a huge decision. I was going all in on package pricing for my color appointments. I raised my prices by double to triple what I had been charging, and created my signature Luxury Lived-In Color package. My approach to creating and maintaining a color result had been fully formed by doing NBR for the past three years, and it just made sense to offer my color clients the same luxury experience that my extensions guests enjoyed. I came up with a Transformation and Succession price, based on if it was a first-time guest or a maintenance appointment, with pricing that allowed me all the flexibility I needed to create the color palette I wanted to achieve.
I took into account how much money I wanted to make per hour, and used my NBR appointments as a guide for that. Please keep in mind, my goal was to make more money AND CREATE SPACE in my schedule. This was a carefully calculated decision that went with cutting out all other services and focusing solely on building my extension and luxury color business.
It wasn't easy. It was the hardest decision I have ever made in my business. I had to have some very tough conversations, and had to know I was worth every penny. Many of my color clients have moved on, and I had to try not to take that personally. It was painful, but it was exactly what I needed to do to grow my business. I had the highest grossing year of my career. It felt incredible to know that I could create my own success, even after doing things the same old way for over fifteen years.
It's never too late to create a change. If you are starting to resent you clients, or feel like you're spinning your wheels and making the same amount no matter what, package pricing might help. But you have to take yourself, and your business, seriously. It's worth it.
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