Are you struggling to figure out how to price your services?
Have you checked all the local salon's prices and deducted a fiver or a tenner because "you're only just starting out"?
Have you asked in Facebook groups "how much does everyone charge for xyz..."?
Have you thought "I can't charge x amount, because it's not a big city" or "...because Lucy donw the road is charging less and no-one will come to my salon/studio"?
If you can relate to any or all of these questions: I hear you and feel you!
It is definitely not easy to set up our prices. Charging our worth is even more difficult! I've been there too. 3 years in the nail industry full time, and I am still struggling or feeling nervous when I say how much my work is at the end of a service.
Fear of rejection is real.
However, if you know your overheads to the T, and if you know how much you want to make each month can help with feeling a little bit more confident when it comes to charging a client.
After all, you work hard, you have invested a lot of money to your business, and you've made the brave decision to quit your 9-5 to start your own thing!
Have you done all this to earn less than minimum wage? Do you think it would be fair for a boss to pay their employees that amount?
If your answer is no, then it is time to determine your prices according to YOUR OWN expenses and needs.
Let's get to the point: The Excel Spreadsheet
I have created this spreadsheet after I've used and wasted a lot of post it notes to do the math.
I was so surprised when I saw how much I spend each month on supply, PPE, bills, etc., and I didn't even earn minimum wage! And I haven't even considered taxes, insurance, pension, booking system, card machine, coffee, tea...
This is why it bugs me when so many nail techs say "I can't charge that much" or when they are scared to charge a little bit more.
We all deserve to earn money!
Okay, I think you get the point now. I can ramble about this topic on and on, because I know how hard and scary it is, and so many talented people don't even earn minimum wage.
Explaining The Calculation
Make sure to download the Calculating Prices spreadsheet here:
I think it is quite straight forward, but I'll explain it a little bit. Try to fill it out on your own first, then come back to the explanation, so it is not overwhelming to read lol.
1. The first bit is about "Expenses"
I have already filled these in just to give you an example, but monthly supply varies for everybody.
If you know how much you pay for your gel, base coat, top coat, colours, e-file bits, hand files, PPE, sanitiser, or any other products you have to buy, plus the cost of your trainings and the cost of travel there, then write the amount of money under each month. Under that section enter how many months you are calculating (not everyone worked a full year, so that's why the number of months can vary).
Then you will get your average monthly expense.
(If you don't know the cost for each month yet, because you're just starting out, then write an estimate, or divide into 12 months your invested money).
I separated the cost of utilities and rent, so it's easier to calculate.
Again, it is already filled with an example, but you have to type in your own expenses for utility and rent, and then fill in how many months you are counting.
(If you are starting out, just count 12 months.)
After you've filled in these sections, you will get your average monthly expenses altogether.
Now you need to determine, how much you want to work. How many appointments/services do you want to carry out? 5 or 6 a day? How many days a week? 4, 5 or 6?
If you want to do 5 services a day, 5 days a week, and if there is 52 weeks in a year, but you want to have time off, e.g. 4 weeks in a year, that means:
5 service x 5 days = 25 services in a week
25 services x 48 weeks = 1200 services in a year (holiday is deducted already)
1200 services / 11 months = 109 services in a month (on average)
Now you know your expenses per service (in the pink highlighted section).
2. The second part is your "Hourly Rate"
You have to pay yourself each month!
In the previous section you determined how many days, and services you want to carry out, so that is useful for this section too.
- Firstly, how much do you want to earn in a month? £1200? £1500? £1700? £2000?
You choose. :)
- How many days do you work or want to work is straight forward, but the previous example says 5 days a week, and there are average 4 weeks in a month, so that is 20 days in a month on average.
- How many hours do you work or want to work in a day? Now here, you need to know how long does each service take. For example a new set of extensions is 2hrs, infill 1hr 30min, gel polish 45min etc. Are you doing infills more or gel polish? How many do you want to do in a day?
5 gel polish and 2 infills on average? That is 5 hrs and 25 minutes (315 minutes). But you have to calculate the breaks you take between services. E.g. 15 minutes after each client and one 30 minute break. This is how it would look like:
315 minutes on services + 120 minutes on breaks = 435 minutes = 7hrs 25 minutes
If you want to do more hours in a day, it's up to you. You can have a look in your diary, how many services you've done in the past 2 weeks and how long did they take, and calculate an average amount of hours for a working day.
At the end of this section you will get how much your hourly rate should be.
E.g.:
You want to earn £1700 in 20 days with 7hrs 30minutes of work in a day = £11.33 is your hourly rate
3. The third section is Services, aka what services do you offer
- You can type in the name of your services, I've filled this one with examples too.
- Then type in how long does one service take usually, and type it in minutes (you can google "hour to minute calculator" if you need a bit of help with that.
Once the length of the service is there, you'll be able to see how much is the base price without tax and profit. This means, if you charge this much, you will be able to pay your products, rent, bills and pay yourself only.
The row underneath shows the amount that will cover taxes too.
The row below that you can determine the percentage of profit that you wish to aim for. 5% is considered low profit, 10-15% is average, 20% is good and 30% is considered high profit. So this is totally up to you and your future goals.
I've typed 15% and then we've got the Final price and below that it's the same, just rounded up. It is better if we state round numbers, so it's easier for the clients and for us to follow.
Final thoughts
I hope this little spreadsheet is going to be helpful, feel free to email me at labrossenails@gmail.com if you have any questions, and I'm happy to help.
Remember to value yourself, you are worthy to earn money for your work, and base your prices on YOUR overheads and needs. :)
You can do this!
Happy calculating!
Gabi
