Episode #9: Pricing Yourself

It's hard to determine what to charge for your services, and you don't want to price yourself out of the market or seem unprofessional.  

You're not sure what to charge, so you usually just guess. This can lead to you losing money on a job, or worse yet, not making any money at all on a service that took hours to complete. 

In this episode, you'll learn that there are tools available to help you calculate your prices with confidence. 

In this episode, I interview Kimberly from Next Level Hair Stylist and we are talking about how to raise your prices in a "scientific" way. We discuss the importance of value-based pricing and how to determine what your services are worth. We also talk about how to communicate your new prices to your clients, and how to handle resistance. If you are thinking about raising your prices, or if you want to learn more about pricing strategies, this episode is for you. 

Transcript

Cameron 
Welcome to another episode of the Chair-apist. I have Kimberly, a hairstylist with me today. 

You started a company called Next Level Hair Stylist, which caught my eye. Did we all kind of come out of doing the whole Britt Seva thing? Was that 'cause I know I found her and was like Oh my gosh I need to change my life making a change. 

Kimberly 
Yeah, yeah, I was in great in Thrivers pretty early on. And yeah, it's been just so amazing and it's just, you know, exploded and it's being able to connect with hairstylists like yourself and other hairstylists in our community and it's been so amazing. 

Cameron 
And I think in the beginning I said at Kimberly Hair stylist, because that is your, that's your Instagram right? Is it still? 

Kimberly 
Yeah, I can't really, I used my first and middle name, @kimberlymariestylist. 

Cameron 
So, follow you, of course, 'cause I'm OK. I'm gonna start that at the beginning so everybody could click on their Instagram while they're listening. I love that. And start following. 

Kimberly 
I love I love Instagram and I love like connecting with people. You feel like you're friends with them, even if you've never met them and you just... it's a really great platform to connect. 

Cameron 
It's great, I actually was on our mastermind earlier today and I just said “Hey, can everybody put their Instagram in the chat”, because I realized I wasn't following. There's 20 people in the group and I wasn't following half of them, so it's like, hey, everybody, put your Instagram in the chat so I can start following you if I'm not already. It's just a great way to connect, right? 

Kimberly 
Yeah, I love that. I did a post the other day actually posting a bunch of educators that I love following in our industry and tagged a bunch of people and it was so great 'cause I got messages from people that follow me that were like I didn't even know this person or thank you so much for posting this and it's just like you know this web of connection of great education that's out there, right? 

Cameron 
Well, and that's part of the reason why I do this podcast is to get educators out there so they can gain more of a following. 

You have a pretty large following. You've gotten really popular over the last few years, and the pandemic really helped your business take off a lot. 

Kimberly 
Yeah, surprisingly, the timing of it was just pretty wild. But it even allowed me to pivot and shift, you know, what I teach and how I teach it and you know, just really helps hair stylists set themselves up and then it was mostly like hitting the reset button on their business. Starting from scratch, being able to realize what wasn't working in their business, 'cause we kind of, you know, get stuck in the day-to-day hustle and you're just doing the day-to-day stuff and then that pandemic hit and allowed a lot of us to pause and realize like, oh my gosh, I don't really want to work five days a week, 10-hour days anymore. I would really like to have dinner with my family you know and really hit that reset, but and which was really cool to be able to help so many stylists do that. 

Cameron 
What you just said it really did help reset everybody, including myself. It was that moment where we had a few months off that you could come back as a completely different stylist if you wanted to be, you could start over fresh with clients you've had for years there was just so many things you could do, including raise your prices. 

Kimberly 
Yes. 

Which is what we're talking about today is price points and how to execute that. And we were talking earlier before we about the extension calculator and how to price those and I was telling you that that tool was a game changer for me, and you didn't even know that I'd gotten it. 

You have sparked joy in somebody’s life, and you didn't even know it. 

Kimberly 
Yeah. And you know, like we were talking earlier, it's like it's a tool that I knew I needed behind the chair and everything I teach and share. It's all from just experiences and lessons learned and things that worked in my own business behind the chair and they're working for other stylists. And so, it's really cool to be able to share them and share a tool like that. 

I didn't have confidence in charging for my services or hair extensions, like you're saying for hair sessions I would call around and talk to all the reps and the brands and salons and how am I supposed to charge and what you know try to find the magic formula and eventually just found one that worked for me that gave me the confidence. Made me look professional behind the chair on top of it giving a quote. 

Cameron 
Oh, it's so helpful, 'cause then I just put in all the prices and then it just spits out the number that I need to take what I need my deposit for and then what I'm going to be charging my client in the end. Which is huge because like you said in the beginning, you kind of stumble out you're like, well, it could be this, and it could be this because we don't know until we know. But when you really get a good consultation. Then you really do know you can just plug it into the calculator, and you can give them an automatic answer. You don't have to say I'll get back to you and let you know it's just like you're very... It makes you look more confident to behind the chair because it means you've been doing this for a long time. Not like, well, I just started this, so let's see - I'll charge you half price, you know? You're just very this is. 

Kimberly 
Right? Right? 

Cameron 
This is what my price is... 

Kimberly 
Yeah, so and then. So, I also have the perfect pricing calculator that is for services. So, being able to charge for, you know whatever services that you do. That one for me, that was the first tool that I ever created and again it was just out of this need that I didn't know what to charge. I was stumbling over my words. I was, I had inconsistent pricing so I you know a partial foil would come in and I would charge it so much less than a partial balayage where I was using less color and the same amount of time. 

Things were inconsistent and wasn't making sense and so I just laid out this calculator to be able to say like this is the product I'm using; this is my hourly rate, and it would like automatically tells you what you should be charging. And then the cool thing is that I always love it for is that you can always plan out your next price increase, so you know you're working for that raise that you give yourself. 

You know so many industries, they work for promotions, and you get raises and you kind of know what that next level is going to look like for your income in a corporate setting. But for hair stylists, we don't necessarily plan for that, so I think it's really cool to be able to plan to know your next bump, a bump, is going to look like this, and then this is what it's going to do for your pricing. 

Cameron 
That's awesome because it's so true. We don't give ourselves raises as much as we should. And then you become resentful, and the burnout happens. And I've actually had more stylists talk to me about either moving away from a current situation or raising their prices. 

Which brings me to like, oh, maybe I should be doing more consulting, but that's OK 'cause I have the podcasts, and this feels enough. 

It is so important that we know our worth my product line just raised prices. They told me two months ahead of time. But if when, you know, when like $1.15, which that's a pretty big jump. It's and mostly it's because of the pandemic we don't blink an eye We don't bat an eye' cause we're going to buy that product no matter what. And I think a lot of people are worried that their guests are going to leave if they say OK, your prices are going to be going up $10 across the board or $5 across the board, even a small raise for yourself. How would you recommend people? We'll approach that, or, you know, breach that subject. 

Kimberly 
First off, just something that you said, like triggered a thought in my mind is that so many hair stylists are almost apologetic for raising our prices, and that's really something that should be celebrated when someone gets a promotion or a raise, you know, you go out to a nice dinner, or you pop a bottle of champagne, and you really celebrate.  

And I think that we sometimes can do the reverse and start to like worry and like you were saying the fears come in and the reason we have these fears is because we've done a lot of work to build up our clientele.  

You know, attract these clients. Things like that and we're scared of losing them. We're scared of upsetting them. We're scared of rejection and saying no. And somehow, we've linked that to our own worth, and not just a service, but we've really linked it to like our own personal worth when it has nothing to do with that. 

It's important to be attracting new clients, so then when you do raise your prices you know that there's going to be that influx of new clients coming in, willing to pay the higher prices. 

They see your value. Value is what people pay for. The more you can share your value with clients and future clients, the more they're going to see it. And I always give the example of two stylists. So, we'll say Stylist A and Stylist B and let's just say both of them take the same classes, they're listening to the podcast. 

Oh my gosh, if you are listening to this podcast, you are not the average hair stylist. 

As you're saying, all those things, whatnot you're doing all the classes. Stylist A doesn't talk to their clients about it, doesn't share on social media, doesn't share that value. You know, with the world with their clients that they're investing in themselves. But Stylist B does, Stylist B snapshotted this podcast and said, this is my takeaway. Oh, my gosh. Your clients are going to see that and when it comes time to choosing a stylist, they're gonna choose the stylist that's investing in themselves for their clients, if that makes sense. 

That's where they see the value. They see the value when you talk to them about I listened to this great podcast this morning or I had a coaching call, or I took a great class. Versus not sharing that at all. Still doing the same action, you can both be really great hair stylist, but when you're not sharing your value, that's when the second guessing comes into play. You're doubting yourself. 

Cameron 
That happens all the time. Still, I'm like, “Oh shoot, is this OK?” I mean, even people say, “oh Cameron, you have no problem raising your prices or doing this or that”. And I say,” no, I still have that inner self-doubt”. I still have that inner, “what if I lose this client that I've had since beauty school?” 

Well, honestly, you're still going to have a connection with them. You might be able to refer them to somebody like, say, they're retired You refer them to somebody that's you know more in their budget or something that's closer to where they lived. It is hard for people on an emotional level. 

You're so right when you say that. It's just a no brainer. We should be doing this for ourselves and same with you know extensions are going up, color is going up, everything is going up. Why not meet yourself where you need to be, so you don't get burned out? 

Kimberly 
There is this emotional thing that happens and for me I'm a cancer sign and so I'm extremely emotional and sensitive. And I'm super empathetic and like if I had now my students do it as a visually visualization exercise where my transition time would happen when I was in the styling when I was blow drying, 'cause like there was no talking really happening and I would trigger my head - I would take my hair stylist hat off, then I would put my business hat on, and I literally would think this in my head because I knew that that was my sign to stop kind of talking about you know personal things. I needed to talk about product, I need to talk about styling. And I was headed to the checkout and if I didn't separate those two and I let the emotions seep in, listening to stories - things like that I would end up emotionally discounting. And in you know I think something else that we're so. guilty of is spending our clients' money for them like. 

Cameron 
Oh, for sure balancing their checkbooks. 

Kimberly 
Totally, so rude of us to do like if I found out somebody was looking at me or listening to a story of mine and mentally spending thinking I can't afford something or spending my money not offering me a product like retail. You know hair stuff because they think that that I can't afford it or I'm already spending too much on the hair service. But oh, she's not going to spend $70.00 on shampoo and conditioner. I'm just not even asked, you know, it's just so much about offering our clients the best, whether that is a referral to another great stylist that you know and you say, hey, I'm always going to be here for you if you have any hair problems or needs or anything like that. You know or offering them the best solution for their hair problems. It it's so full circle, it's just. always about the client and offering them the best and you being the best stylist for them. 

If you want to be the best stylist, then you have to do the job. And the job is offering them the best service is maintenance and hair care and all of that stuff. And having that conversation and knowing that you're gonna offer them the best. 

Cameron 
Yeah, and you know emotionally discounting. I'm going to speak on that because when we do emotionally discount, we are actually depleting ourselves to emotionally discount.  And so, if you have clients or guests who are not willing to pay your prices, it's ok. 

That's a space for somebody new to come in and to really value your services and I'm not saying that in a bad way about guests at all, but there are certain guests that they have a certain budget and maybe they just can't do it. And that's totally ok. 

So, I promise you though, a lot of those people will end up back in your chair. 

Kimberly 
It's true. 

Cameron 
Yeah, I've had it happen. 

Kimberly 
I've had it happen too. Emotionally discounting. I get I was very guilty of that when it really hit me. I did this exercise where I wrote down all of the services for the month and then I wrote down what I charged them and then I wrote in the next column what I should have charged them and it was such an eye opener for me because it was over $1000 just in like $10, $15, $20 here and there not charging for a haircut when I should have or. 

Cameron 
Not charging for a toner. 

Kimberly 
Yes, not charging for additional bowl of color, whatever it was. I mean that is just small sums of money, but over time it adds up very quickly and it was $1000 I was discounting, and I was like Oh my gosh. Like I can't do this I it was like this ends here I need to and that's actually. So that's where the calculator came into play. Because it allowed me to have a standard certain product amount for each service, so then I knew exactly how much to mix and then if I needed more this is how much I need to charge more for that service, and it made it very black and white for me and gave me the confidence to actually stop discounting.  

I saw the prices of what I needed to charge my clients and I'm talking my family and my friends too. I stopped giving them discounts. There was no more discounting involved. 

Cameron 
I had a cousin actually tell me don't give us a discount because if we're not coming to you, we're going to go somewhere else and pay just as much, maybe more. Who knows? Those and so don't give us a discount, and I mean I'll give him, I'll do like a little conditioning treatment, or I'll send him home with a little something, 'cause I want to show them that I appreciate them and love them, but it does. 

It makes a big difference, right? Yeah, and like send me people. Send me people who are like you and that's what I say to a lot of clients. I love you, you're an amazing client. I want more people like you so if you hear people talking about needing hair that are like you and have your attitude, I want you in my chair again and again and again. 

Kimberly 
Yeah, and those are like the great clients too that you can spend a little extra time and do more social media things with them and you know post uh, a different style and be like hey, can we spend an extra 15 minutes and like take some photos, you know fun photos this and that. 

And I'm like, yeah, let's do it 'cause there's new for me, and that's kind of social media. 

You know, little can be awkward and you're not really sure, exactly trying to take a real or video those are great to do with those fun clients. 

Cameron 
Sure, so at the end of all of my podcasts, I asked the craziest thing that's ever happened to you. 

And while you're thinking about that, and I wanted to talk about my sponsor, Style Sharp Shears, who is an amazing shear sharpener he will come to your salon and he will sharpen your shears - Trey - just saw him on Thursday, he made my shears sharp and fantastic. 

Kimberly 
I so I was at one point my career was a bridal specialist and I did a lot of weddings, and I never really had a bridezilla.  I never really experienced that, but I did have one client that I think she found me only for her bridal hair. About a week before the wedding, she ended up changing her dress, she bought a whole new dress. There was a bunch of things that changed at her wedding, like the week before and I was like Oh my gosh, I've already done that. I'll and I thought she was going to change her hair and like I was like prepared for just this whole thing and I do bridal hair according to you know the style and the dress and the look you're going for and I thought for sure after doing this long trial that we're going to have to have another one and we didn't. 

It was so great it was really everything, but I was like we're stressing over it. I'm like, yeah, on site hair is definitely another ball game, Another world. You gotta be on the fly and up for whatever. 

Cameron 
The other thing that I ask is. What's a little-known fact about you? 

Kimberly 
I so I'm licensed in the state of Washington. That's where I live. I live in Seattle, but I lived in Hawaii for about a year right out of beauty school and I actually got my license down there. I had to retest and take my license down there. Technically on my license in Washington and in Hawaii. 

Cameron 
That's great. 

Well thank you so much for coming on the Chair-apist.  We love having people who give lots of knowledge in in you for sure have lots of knowledge to give. 

So again, this is not the last time I'll be having you on here for sure. 

Kimberly 
Well, I'm excited. I love being on here you I love what you're doing, and I love having these conversations. I think they're so important and I'm a huge podcast listener and so I always love listening to just real conversations like this and kind of getting like a sneak peek. You know, just in a conversation you and I would have in the break room. 

Cameron  
I should have hit record in the very beginning when we started talking 'cause there was a lot of goods. 

Kimberly 
Hopefully next time. 

Cameron 
What are you up to what? Have you been doing how'd the Pandemic treat, you know? It's awesome, so yeah, thank you so much for being on here I really appreciate it. 

Kimberly 
Of course.