Consultation Deliberation: To Charge Or Not To Charge?

By Alanna Douglas, Skin Freak Academy

This conversation has been around since I started in the industry (a long time ago) and it’s still a point on contention. To charge or not to charge? Profitability, worthiness and backing yourself need to come into the equation. Your offerings also need to match your mission and values if they don’t align you will end up beating your head up against a brick wall wondering why everything is so hard!

Let’s begin with profitability, you know that time in our industry is precious and investing it wisely is always a good idea. There are two ways to think about this the first being that giving of your time will result in a reciprocation of the gesture in the client then deciding to invest in you.

The second being that time is a valuable resource along with knowledge and much alike other specialists charging for your time and energy is vital.

What are the pros and cons of not charging for your time? To begin not charging for your time is possibly more on the risky side, you are not guaranteed a return on your time. This can leave you feeling burnt out and falling out of love with what you do.

Being rejected repeatedly from a free consult is soul crushing over time. It doesn’t mean that this will be the case always, but in my experience often these are clients who want the information and will jump online when they get home and find something similar. This system is not something that I personally do but I know that for some business models it can work well if they have a solid client attraction program and

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of charging for your time. The only downside is that it may feel a little icky for you to begin with (side note this is a sign that you need to work on receiving from others) but once you get past this and see the amazingness that comes from charging for your time you will be kicking yourself that you didn’t do it sooner!

The greatest advantage that comes from charging for you time is that you get clients who are serious about their skin and want your knowledge and help. Yes, you read that right you will be able to help them, have conversations about their skin health and wellness and take them on a skin journey.

Here is what I do and the way I have implemented this strategy effectively and why it works so well! When a client books their first appointment with me, I have a service that they book called a “Skin Wellness Facial” this includes a 40-minute skin health check-up and consultation.

I then prescribe an hour facial treatment based on their skin needs on the day. Creating the space to have conversations and taking back control of the treatment room is incredibly empowering! You the clinician who has trained and is an expert in their field creates the treatment; not the client choosing from a pricelist based on what they think they need.

Now I know this is different to the usual book xyz facial come in have the treatment and voila! If you want to get serious about skin then you need to get serious about your time, and what you offer for prospective clients to book in for. This, in my experience has led to very happy engaged clients and allows me to fulfill my mission of changing skin and changing lives.

@skinfreakacademy