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BEAUTY
OFFERING PROFITABLE NAIL SERVICES IN YOUR SALON By Lauren Burton
With so many nail salons in Australia, some of which are offering nails at such a low price, how do you compete? The answer, you don’t! When you get a job, it’s to earn a living, right? If you start a business, the intention is to again, make a living, and a comfortable profit, right? But if your focus is on undercutting other salons in your area, you are not only hurting yourself financially and mentally with not charging your worth. But this also leads to cheapening of the industry as a whole, harming us all in the long run. Which has happened to a degree, with the rise of “cheaper” shopping centre nail bars, we refer to the vast majority of these types of salons as non-standard salons (NSS), as they do not practice correct salon policies and practices which can include not using products that are adequately designed for the nails due to them being inexpensive and even in some cases the “technicians” not being qualified in nails at all. This is not race-related, as there are plenty of NSS around that are not in shopping centres. A lot of people will use these salons for convenience of being able to walk in (but can end up waiting an hour) or for the price, thinking they are getting a better deal, when in fact, the added the little extras, i.e. shape, length, gel colour, gel top coat, works out not that much cheaper. I am yet to meet a client who has had a good and consistent experience at these places. It is essential, to look at what salons in your area are charging as a guideline because depending on your demographic prices will differ. But don’t try to compete with them, your circumstances and theirs will be different. If you focus on undercutting and competing with other salons, I can guarantee that this will cause you unnecessary stress, if not immediately, definitely over time and lead to a loss of passion for your work, as you are continually working to not make much by charging $60 or less for a set of nails but then taking 2 hours or more to do them. A nail bar down the road might be charging anything between $10-$30 cheaper than you, and seem really busy, but bear in mind that the salon must work twice as hard to earn the same figures as someone who is charging the going rate. As the old saying goes, work smarter, not harder. 50
Beauty Biz Year 14 Issue 1
When setting your pricing, you must keep several things in mind, including your business running costs, rent, insurances, utility bills (electricity, water, phone, website, marketing). Then you have stock upkeep, cleaning products, general expenses. You also have to ensure you are paying yourself at least the minimum an hourly rate, and your staff too if you have them. You also have to ensure you have money aside to bringing in new products, continue with upskilling, education, and training, It is vital that you keep yourself and staff up to date with training, it keeps you and your business, more proficient and keeps your salon standing out as the must-go-to place. If you wish to expand the business and grow, you need to have the money to aid you in growing your business. These are all things to factor in when creating your treatment pricing. Next step is to figure out treatment costs for the salon/technician; we need to figure out how many applications can be expected from each product we use; any reputable brand should be able to provide you with a cost and application breakdown of their products, this is how you find out how much it costs you per treatment. As an
example, a 15ml bottle of gel polish costs $25.00 per bottle we can get anything between 25-30 applications, we take the $25.00 and divide that by 25, giving us $1.00 peruse. Every time we use a layer of that gel polish colour we know it costs us $1.00. We then do this sum with every product we use in a treatment process. It can take a little time, but it is something worth knowing when it comes to your business. Nails can be a profitable service if priced correctly with Australian beauty standards. The minimum hourly rate for a nail technician in Australia, as per Fair Work is $21.92 per hour, going up to $34.62 per hour or more, depending upon experience. Factor in how long treatments take for the technician to complete if you are doing nail art charge more, it is more time, and it is a bespoke service. In an ideal world, a nail salon or nail technician should be charging a minimum $1 a minute for their time alone, then adding other costs into those prices. Lauren is the Gelish Master Educator & Head of Education at Hand and Nail Harmony Australia, distributors of Gelish Gel Polish. Visit www.gelish.com.au to learn more.
