made
simple
What I learnt
nearly going
under twice
I'm dyslexic. Didn't try at school. Opened my own salon and honestly just winged it. Nearly lost it. Twice. I was busy but povo.
My book was full. My bank account wasn't. The problem wasn't my work. It was my prices. I'd set them by looking at the salon down the road and guessing.
Here's how I price now. No spreadsheets, no accountant-speak. It works whether you own a salon or rent a chair.
5 steps to pricing it right
Work out what one hour of your chair has to earn
This is your hour rate. It's the most important number in your business, and most of us have never worked it out.
Add up everything it costs you to work for a week: rent, products, insurance, software, your phone, and what you need to pay yourself. Then divide it by the hours you're actually booked, not the hours you're at the salon.
Time every service honestly
Count the whole thing: the consult, processing time, the blow-dry, and cleaning up after. A "one-hour" colour is often closer to two hours of your chair.
Add your product cost
Foils, colour and toner aren't free. Add what each service uses on top of your time.
Floor price = hours in the chair × hour rate + product
Anything below that is losing you money, even if you're flat out.
Check your area, but don't copy it
Look at about 10 salons near you. Not to copy them, just to know where you sit. If you're well under the area and under your floor price, that's your sign to move.
Tell your clients simply
Give a few weeks' notice. Keep it short and honest. Most good clients stay. The ones who leave over a small increase were often the ones costing you the most.
The mistakes I made
- Copying the salon down the road without knowing their costs
- Pricing by time and forgetting product
- Not putting prices up for years because it felt awkward
- If you're GST registered, forgetting your menu prices need to include it
What changed for me
What turned it round wasn't working harder. It was finally knowing my numbers. I built a KPI system with Claude (an AI assistant) that does the bits my brain fights with, and it tells me every month exactly where I'm at.
The salon keeps two full-time stylists and me, and it's still growing.
That's my story, not a promise. Every salon's different.
Want a shortcut?
I turned the steps above into simple workbooks. If you can copy and paste, you can do them.
— Andy