Service Pricing – Part 1

I want every lash artist out there to be successful. You can’t be a success if you are undercutting yourself. Yes, this one is long. There is a lot of information here, so please grab a drink and kick back.

So many lash artists today are starting out with no business experience. While this can be great, as there are no bad habits to unlearn, it can also put a new artist at a disadvantage when it comes to making their business successful.

Not knowing how to price services is a hot topic in many groups and forums. The worst advice I see, on a daily basis, is to charge what others in your area charge.

No! No, no, just… NO!

You are not them. You do not have the same expenses that they do, you likely don’t use all of the same products or have the same amount of space or the same advertising costs, or the same service timing. About the only thing you can guarantee about Judy down the street is that you both pay the same amount at Starbucks.

So why would you price your services to cover costs you don’t have or worse Not cover costs that you have and Judy doesn’t?

The first question you should be asking yourself is…

How much does it cost me to perform this service?

What goes into a Service Price?

There is much more invested in a service than your time and the products that touch the client. There is equipment and tool costs, there are cleaning supplies, there are utilities, there is insurance and licensing cost, not to mention the money you spent on training to offer this service and advertising to get that client through the door.

All of those things factor into your service pricing. My basic calculation is:

Product Cost + Overhead Costs + Hourly Wage + Business Profit = Service Price

Each of these must be calculated for each and every service, because it’s not the same for all services.

Product Cost Calculations

Today we’re going to focus on the Products. No matter what service you are performing, you’re using product on your client. Even if it’s nothing more than wiping away oils before tweezing. You just used the liquid and the wipe, right? You also used the disinfectant that cleaned the treatment table and your tweezers and the cleanser for the floors and the trolley or countertop. Did you have linens on the bed? You’ve got to wash those. Paper instead? You’re gonna have to replace that before the next client. All of those things costs you money to perform that one service.

The easiest way to calculate your product cost is to line up every product you use for a service and cost it out. *If you don’t have a protocol sheet for each service, please consider creating them.

You purchase 100 mascara wands for $10 and you use one per service. You’re paying 10 cents per service.

$10÷100 = $0.10 each

Easy, right? Now do this for each disposable item, for each service. I find having my protocol sheet beside me helps. I can refer to it to make sure I’m not forgetting anything.

For liquids (from adhesive to disinfectant), you’d estimate how many uses you can get from one purchase or how many appointments you’d estimate for the lifespan of the bottle. Let’s use adhesive since we all use it and we all use different amounts.

If you average 30 appointments per week and you discard your bottle after 4 weeks (assuming it hasn’t run out by then), It would look more like this:

30×4 = 120 appointments.

Adhesive cost is $35.

$35÷120 = $0.29 per appointment.

This goes for lashes too, as every appointment will require different lengths and amounts. How many sets can you average out of your most used tray? This one tray is your standard for calculating costs for all services. Whether it’s classic, volume or mega volume. Why? Because generally there is always one size that you use more of than any other, no matter what density the set. If your volume lashes are a different price (promades for instance) than your classics, you should adjust the purchase price.

Say I can do 10 full sets or 15 fills from one tray of my most used length.

$25÷10 = $2.50(full set)

or $25÷15= $1.67(fill)

See why you need to calculate for each service? You don’t use the same amount for every service so why would you calculate based on only one? You don’t!

Above, I’ve only priced out 3 products that are essential in a lash service. My total spent so far is $2.89 for a full set or $2.06 for a fill.

Here is a list of everything included in my Product Cost per service: