3 Tips for Raising Your Salon Prices for Profit

I made the decision to raise all my colour prices by 8% in January 2021. Covid negatively impacted my business with a 95% loss of income in March 2020 & when COVID hit the world it affected so many different businesses with lockdowns and radical changes to how we could operate due to government restrictions. But also there was this incredible opportunity that some people pivoted with the pandemic to look at ways that their business could change for the better. I've experienced a lot of different emotions and a lot of major changes. 

I have worked throughout my career in many different countries in numerous creative teams, including being a staff member at a commission salon, working at a rent-a-chair salon, becoming a business owner, and now working as a Career Freelancer. Pricing is something that I've seen in various different business structures and I wanted to share my insights in this podcast from these varied salon environments.

My dream scenario is 3 days a week and I need to make enough money in those 3 salon days to allow me the freedom to choose to focus on other areas of my life and business that don’t currently have any income. Listen to episode 65 of the Colour Kristina Talks Podcast to learn how increasing your prices can help your salon business scale towards higher profit margins.

Show notes for podcast episode 65

3 EASY STEPS FOR RAISING YOUR PRICES

When I raised my hair colour service prices by 8%  I did not raise toners and treatments to encourage more people to have them, and I created bundled service packages with new names for my most requested services. Those are the 3 easy steps you need to take to raise your prices for profit! 

These are my exact steps for successfully raising your prices for profit:

• I looked at my sales records and raised my highest sold services by 8%
• I chose not to raise my prices for toners or treatments to encourage more clients to have these services within bundled service packages & to book in-between mid-cycle of highlight bookings
• Stylists that I work with had an introductory offer when I joined their team that was 25-30% lower than their standard pricing for cuts and we raised these at the same time as my colour price rise
• Hairdressing is not my hobby and I needed to stop giving emotional discounts or faltering when service bills looked high. I removed all discount codes from my square terminal to avoid discounting at the POS again.
• I reduced my stock levels for some colours that were dead money sitting on the shelf
• Any special order colours are now exactly that – special orders – so if I have a neon purple request I will need to source this and not have 4 neon purples sitting on the shelf just in case to avoid having money tied up unnecessarily
• I realised we did some of our shopping at the local multi-brand hair supplier, so I reached out to our favourite brand for toners and asked to set up a new account. I was offered a 12-15% discount off the regular price and this was close to 25% less than what we were paying at the hair warehouse. This is a smaller noticeable change at first, but I know that over a year my product costs will be radically reduced. And so will my redos, because I was trying to use a brand that I lacked confidence in just because it was cheaper.