Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

089: How New Estheticians Should Price Their Services to Get Booked Fast

• Kari Jo

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We share a practical pricing playbook for estheticians, from calculating a base price to launching a “no duh” offer that builds demand fast. We also talk about confidence, rebooking, and when to raise rates without losing momentum.

• base price as the non‑negotiable floor per minute
• why copying “going rates” stalls new estheticians
• the “no duh” pricing strategy for fast demand
• belief and rebooking as growth drivers
• time‑bound intro offers and FOMO framing
• stepwise price increases tied to utilization
• packaging, add‑ons, and margin protection
• invitation for on‑air business audits


Link to - Mastering your base price in this episode - https://stan.store/EstheLaunchAcademy/p/profitdriven-pricing-master-your-pricing-

Apply to be featured on the Esthetician Podcast for a free business audit. Click the link in the show notes or visit www.karijopatterson.com to apply.


To learn more about Kari Jo visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

Want to do a live Business Breakthrough Audit on the podcast with me?

Apply here - https://forms.gle/hMF2MYTUsUMyAW477

Ready to Invest in yourself and your business?

Book a Free Discovery Call - https://stan.store/EstheLaunchAcademy/p/free-20-minute-consultation-

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Links You May Want to Check out:

Join the Client Building for Estheticians group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/clientbuildingforestheticians
Check out Kari Jo’s courses here https://esthelaunchacademy.com

Jana:

Hi, Jana Antell, owner and licensed esthetician of Unalom Aesthetics in Wisconsin. I have a solo practice that was really struggling when I first started out. And I reached out to Kari Jo and did some coaching with her. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for everything that she taught me. I have a 98% rebook right now and am incredibly busy. I am so grateful for her coaching and her tips.

Kari Jo:

Welcome back to the Esthetician Podcast. How are you doing? I am so busy and so crazy right now. I did something, I'm about to do something. I haven't done it yet. But by the time this episode comes out, I will have already done it. I'm gonna pull my son out and I am going to homeschool my son. And I am like super pumped about it. And I actually, it's so funny when I am building businesses. It took me a long time to learn how to raise a kid. I don't think I did it so well. My well, no, I did do a good job my first time. Like you don't know what you don't know, but I'm a little bit more intentional the second time because I've learned really cool things from building businesses. And one of the things that I've learned in building businesses is like you gotta have like your core pillars, and then you build everything around that, your niche. Like if you have your niche, and let's say it's waxing, you build everything around waxing. If you help women 50 and above, then like all your marketing and everything is built around 50-year-old. This year I decided to get really intentional, and I was like, what kind of a little boy? Like if I and I actually asked Chat GPT, and I was like, what kind of a man do I want to build my son to be? Like when he's older, and I had chat ask me a bunch of questions and about the vision of a kid that I want to raise. I kind of got like these pillars, and I was like, if I was to build a school around building my son into that young man, what would it look like? From there, like my brain just went into like entrepreneurship mode, but for my son. And so I was like, oh yeah, yeah. And so then I started getting all creative, and so I'm super excited, guys. I'm about to homeschool my little boy. I did homeschool my daughter in middle school, and it was such a great experience because I feel like that's when kids get so into peer pressure. I feel like I was able to kind of remove her from that a little bit and then put her back in high school. And she, I feel like she had more confidence than maybe what she would have if I wouldn't have done that. And so, anyways, that's what I've been working on. But I want to jump into today's episode. And today's episode is going to be about pricing your services because it is one thing that I hear over and over again. People are like, when I start working with them, it doesn't matter what stage of journey. Like I wrote the book Fearless Prosperity, and it talks about like the six stages of growing your aesthetics business and what you need to learn in each one. And sometimes I have people come in to coach with me and they're at different phases. Like I have one client who is ready to exit, like she's done, she's like ready to exit, she's getting ready for retirement. I have another girl that's in like the she's built a team, and I have another client who is trying to build her clientele, and she's at the very, very, very beginning. So it doesn't matter what phase you are along the way. The number one thing that you have to get down and learn is your finances from the very beginning. So today I am going to jump in and I'm going to give you simple, no fluff answers so that you can stop second guessing yourself and start actually making money and knowing what to charge instead of second guessing it. I know when I started way back when, I know it was a long time ago, but way back when, when I started, I didn't know what I was doing. I mean, you never know until you don't know. And I think I called, I actually did, I have the piece of paper. Like I called all the places by me and found out about what the price is going in my town for of facial. And I think they priced it the exact same. Actually, I think I might have priced it like five dollars more because I was like, oh yeah, I like am a little bit better. Like I had my reasons. Well, and I had been in the industry for a long time, so I was pretty confident in myself and my skills, and so I think I priced it like five dollars above, but I didn't really know what I should be pricing my services as. And that is where I want to start. So there is something, and it is called a base price. This is something that you should know. So, what is a base price? Well, basically, a base price is the lowest amount that you have to charge your client to cover everything that you need. And I know when I went into this, I actually thought that what it meant was like I just like totaled up my bills, and I was like, okay, so how much do I don't even remember what I did actually, but it didn't, however, I did it, it what did not make sense. But there is actually a way to figure out what your base price is and understanding it. I didn't understand it before. I actually have a course, you guys can go and look that up. It's on Instagram. You can click a link, and it's called the Mastering Your Price. It's $27. Guys, I highly suggest you go in, learn what your base price is, how much you have to charge for any service that's like 15 minutes. Find out how much you need to charge for any service that is a dollar in order for you to profit and make money. Because the truth is, profit is not going to happen by accidents. It's literally going to be built into your pricing. The first thing that I want you guys to do before you can figure out what you're gonna set your facial at, because I thought like a base price meant what my facial should be charged. That's not what a base price is. A base price is like the bare minimum. It doesn't mean what you should actually set your prices to be, but like bare minimum what they have to be per minute. So what you do after you get your base price is then you can actually set your price whatever you want it to be. And it just, and then you always know like if you're going to run a promotion, how much you can discount that service and still make a profit. What I want to talk to you today is about what to charge and what to set that actual facial for after you know what your base price is. And the truth is, guys, I probably have a take on this that is going to be a little bit controversial. I might just get a little bit of hate for it, but to be honest, I really don't care because I believe that you have to price your services at what you have to in order to get whatever it is that you want. And I believe that when you are starting out as a new esthetician, right at the very beginning, you're new, you're opening your own place, and you don't have any clients, then you have to price your services at a price that is going to allow other people to want to come in and get a facial from you. So let me tell you what I see other people doing wrong in this industry. They get out of school and they decide, oh, I'm going to charge, they do what I did, and they look and they're like, oh, maybe the going rate for a facial in your town is $130. And they're like, I'm going to charge $130. No, sweetheart. That's not what you're going to do. And that's not going to build your clientele. And let me tell you why it's not going to build your clientele. That company, that storefront that has been open for five, 10, 15, 20 years, they are able to charge that amount because they built up equity. They built up a name. They've been in the industry for a long time. They can charge that amount. So one of the things that I teach people that are bringing on and hiring employees, if you're looking to go work firms somewhere, you might not like hearing this, but I'm just going to tell you because I'm going to help all the other business owners. Let me ask you this should a new esthetician charge the exact same price for a facial as an esthetician who has been in the industry for 20 years? Do you think that your price should be the exact same as someone in the industry for 20 years? I'm going to tell you my perspective, and that is no. And I am so sorry if that offends you. I am telling you right now, if I go sit down, like I speak, I have a podcast, like I built a company and sold it within eight years. And you know why I did that? It's because I have so much knowledge. I'm telling you right now, if I was to sit down and give a consultation to some other right next to another esthetician giving a consultation, my consultation would whoop the crap out of the new girl. And it's not to say that the new girl isn't good. It's just I have more experience. I should be able to charge more than this new girl that is coming out. So, like these companies that are out there and they've built a business and you're looking at their prices and they're charging $130. Well, they can do that because they have been in the industry. They have proven that they know what they're doing, that they have made it past the five-year mark. And so they can charge the $130. But if you are new, you cannot price your services at the same price as someone more experienced, a company that's more experienced. What I think you need to do is you need to have a price that is what I like to call the no duh, no duh price. What is a no duh price? A no duh price to me is let's say I want to ask you something. If you have no clients and your goal is to build a clientele, you need to get clients coming through the door. So, what is a price that is going to bring in somebody that they're going to look at it and be like, well, no duh, that's like so, of course I do that. That's like a crazy good deal. So I'm going to go back to this like random number. So let's say in your community, there's a company, it's been open for five years, they're charging $130. You're a new esthetician, and you are just starting out, and you have to think of your pricing. Let's say you figured out what your base price is, and for that hour facial, your base price has to be at minimum $30. That's like the lowest that you could ever go on the facial for your base price. Again, go take the course so you can learn out what your base price should be. Now, what you should set your price as is what you feel like would be a no-duh. That means that you believe that that price is so killer, so worth it, that anybody would take it because they would be stupid not to. The reason why you need to do that is because you have to believe in the price that you're selling. So if you get out of school and you're charging 160 and then you're like asking for a rebook and you're not feeling good about it and stuff like that, well, duh, you can't build a business if you don't believe in the prices that you have set. But if you have belief in the prices you set, it's really easy to get them to rebook. So if I ask you, would you get an hour facial for $20? Would you say yes? Yeah. Well, we know we can't go to $20 because I just said that our base prices in this circumstance, $30. So, okay, would you get an hour facial if if that price was $40? I'd be like, yeah, no duh, that's like super cheap. And when I say no duh, I'm not talking about like your knowledge, your experience, or anything like that. I'm talking just like that is ridiculous. Of course, that's a good deal. If I were to say, like, would you get an hour facial for $60? Well, no duh. Like everyone else in my town is charging like $160. That is what a no duh price is. When you are new and you are trying to build a business, you need to have a price that is literally no duh. You'd be stupid not to take it because it's at such a good value. And it's not because you want to bring down the cost of the services of the facials, which is what I'm sure the haters are going to say to this podcast is like, oh my gosh, like you're going to bring down the value of a facial. No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying I am new, I am a newbie, I don't know what I'm doing yet, but I want to get my hands on as many people so I can get as much experience as I can, and I'm going to do whatever it takes. So if my no-dah price is $60, and I will tell you, the massage therapist that I started with, she's actually the one that taught me this like no duh. She didn't call it the no duh, I called it the no dah. But she charged a dollar for every minute, which ended up like a 60-minute massage was $60. And it was no duh. That was like now, do you want to know what she charges for a freaking massage now? Like $170. But when she started out with me, what was she charging? $60. You don't have to stay at that price forever. You can raise your prices as you start to build. If you are getting a lot of people coming back at $50 or $60 or whatever your no-dub price is, well, girl, it's time to raise your price. And you raise it. There is small businesses, like there's a study that shows that small businesses that increase their prices versus the ones that cut their prices, like have 25 to 50% higher growth than other companies. So basically, what this study is basically saying is if you increase your prices versus decrease your prices, you are going to grow faster doing it that way. So guys, we don't need to rewrite history. We just need to like follow what's working. And if what works is raising the prices, not decreasing the prices, then let's go that way. When people ask me, what should I price my facial as? My advice is this find out your base price, the price that you can't ever go below. And then from there, I would find what is your no duh? Like, of course I would pay for that. That's ridiculous. In this town, like, who wouldn't pay for that? And then that is what I would start my prices as. As my clientele started building, and guys, have it be for a limit, but FOMO, fear of missing out. You can even be like, for the next six months, my prices for the facials are this amount of money. Make it clear, make it known. For six months, people are gonna they're gonna come because they don't want to miss out. You're gonna get your hands on more people, you're gonna have more chances to rebook them, and you want the rebooks because it's gonna make it easier for you to build your clientele. But the one thing that I want you to take from this is that what is really going to sell and build your clientele base is your confidence in order to charge the price that you want to charge. I can't put enough emphasis on that one statement. You have to believe in what you are selling and that it is the best value to be able to get people to rebook. And when I'm talking to new aestheticians that are struggling to build their clientele and everything like that, one of the things that I get, and sometimes people are really good about admitting it. Sometimes people don't want to admit it, but you can tell when you're like talking to them, is there's this like confidence gap in their pricing and their confidence. So, like many times they're like, Well, I just don't know if I have enough knowledge. I just don't know if I know enough about this. If you don't know enough about that and you feel that, like that confidence, then you need to charge a price that reflects that confidence and that value so that you can sell it because that's what's going to get you ultimately the rebooks. So if I was coaching you today, here is exactly the steps that I would tell you to take in order to find out your prices. One, sit down. You got to calculate your base price. That's the number that you never did below. And if you need help, I got a DIY course and it will walk you through it step by step to find that number. After you find your base price, then you need to set your no duh price. No duh. This is the financial truth check is as long as your no duh price is above your base price, you are going to be safe. If it's below, you are going to be losing money every time that you walk through your doors. Make sure it is above your base price. Now, once you have got your clients coming in, you've got reviews, you can raise your prices in steps. Ultimately, clients are going to pay for confidence. So when you actually believe that your service is worth $130, they too will believe it as well. But you can't skip the reps and just automatically charge the $130. Guys, as we're wrapping up, I want to give a call out to all of my estheticians. If you are in need of advice, but you cannot afford a coach, I want you to apply to be featured on the Esthetician podcast. Basically, I am going to give you a free business audit on air to help you overcome your biggest struggle. So, how do you apply? Is in my show notes. You are going to see a link. You can click on the link for the business audit. You can go to my website, carryjopatterson.com, and you should be able to click the link, read about the podcast. You're going to come on. We're not getting, we don't have to use your name. We can use a fake name if you want. We can record it. We don't have to record it live. It's totally up to you. But we will have you on the show and we will help give you real live answers from me who has been in your shoe shoes. I've been in the industry 20 years. I started my company and sold it within eight years. I'm not just giving advice as some random esthetician. No, I'm giving advice as someone who has done what it is that you most likely want to do too. So make sure, fill out that application. I can't wait to have you on my show, and we'll see you next time on the Esthetician Podcast. Thanks, guys.

Announcer:

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari's Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities, and more. Visit www.karijopatterson.com. That's www.kar i jopatterson.com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.