Costings help

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hannahK85

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May 16, 2020
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Southampton, UK
Hi
Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I tried searching and couldn't find it.

I'm trying to work out all my treatment costs and am really struggling to work out how much my waxing cost price will be. I'm an experienced waxer so I'd say I don't waste much. I'm also going to swap to a more premium brand like perron or Beridon as I've heard that although they cost more you get more treatments out of them. I know my consumables costs for each wax area. I'm just struggling how to cost the wax amount per area. I know everyone uses a different amount, and it depends on wax used and client size. I just need to work out a rough idea to make sure I'm adding enough profit to my treatments. I use hot wax for face, underarms and bikini, hollywoods (male and female) and warm wax everywhere else.
 
Your supplier should be able to provide a 'cost per service' as it's called
 
Your supplier should be able to provide a 'cost per service' as it's called
Hi
Thanks for your reply. I did ask Beridon but they said there were too many variables so couldn't help. I think Perron is going to give me one though. x
 
It’s not very scientific, but I allow 10% of my treatment charge as my waxing costs. Of course bodies vary, but if I calculate how much wax I’ve used over a month and then add up my waxing earnings I find that the cost of the wax is less than 10% of my earnings.

If I’m doing a Hollywood I can measure out the amount of wax I want to heat up. From time to time I can do the maths and measure out a quantity of wax equal to 10% of my charge for a Hollywood wax, remembering to divide any delivery charge between the number of bags I order a month and to add the VAT on to the cost of the packet. There’s always enough left for me to feel that my 10% allowance covers my costs.

I use wax rollers so it’s easier to measure how much I use for a pair of legs. I was never too sure how many sets of legs I got from a pot of wax, but my overall spend on pots of wax every order was less than 10% of my waxing income since my last order.

I check my costings from time to time by doing an audit and monitoring how much wax I use over a month and then adding up my waxing income. It’s good to have a feel for product costs.
 
It’s not very scientific, but I allow 10% of my treatment charge as my waxing costs. Of course bodies vary, but if I calculate how much wax I’ve used over a month and then add up my waxing earnings I find that the cost of the wax is less than 10% of my earnings.

If I’m doing a Hollywood I can measure out the amount of wax I want to heat up. From time to time I can do the maths and measure out a quantity of wax equal to 10% of my charge for a Hollywood wax, remembering to divide any delivery charge between the number of bags I order a month and to add the VAT on to the cost of the packet. There’s always enough left for me to feel that my 10% allowance covers my costs.

I use wax rollers so it’s easier to measure how much I use for a pair of legs. I was never too sure how many sets of legs I got from a pot of wax, but my overall spend on pots of wax every order was less than 10% of my waxing income since my last order.

I check my costings from time to time by doing an audit and monitoring how much wax I use over a month and then adding up my waxing income. It’s good to have a feel for product costs.

Hi
Thank you! I will try this. x
 
It’s pretty sad but I actually measured how much I use for every single treatment, ml of wax, how many pumps of eg toner, number of sticks and strips. Price of one wash of towels or price of disposable towels.

Once you start it’s addictive and now I know exactly how much to charge + my rate.

It averages out very well eg some people I need a pot and a half of wax for their whole body others I barely need any as they are small. So I just wrote it all down for a while and averaged it out.

Really helps with your operating procedures too as you know to set up that you need so thoroughly you never have to stock up while someone is on the table.
 
You could check when you last bought it and see how treatments you’ve done using it to work a average until you need to buy a new one
 
It’s pretty sad but I actually measured how much I use for every single treatment, ml of wax, how many pumps of eg toner, number of sticks and strips. Price of one wash of towels or price of disposable towels.

Once you start it’s addictive and now I know exactly how much to charge + my rate.

It averages out very well eg some people I need a pot and a half of wax for their whole body others I barely need any as they are small. So I just wrote it all down for a while and averaged it out.

Really helps with your operating procedures too as you know to set up that you need so thoroughly you never have to stock up while someone is on the table.
Thanks! That's what I'm trying to do. How did you work out home many ml of wax you use though? Weigh the pot before and then after treatment?
 
Thanks! That's what I'm trying to do. How did you work out home many ml of wax you use though? Weigh the pot before and then after treatment?

You can weigh it, visually is totally fine too. So if the pot was 500g and it looks exactly half empty you
know you’ve used 250g. It will never be 100% exact as of the wastage on the floor, that you clean off the pot and general techniques but it will be a start to really get thinking about your usage and costs.

I always overestimate usage, to account for like eg I have to do a whole load of towels per client as I used a lot for a pedicure or whatever, or for tumble drying cost instead of the airer or a pot of disinfection liquid per client rather than per day (30p for small jar) but you could have that as a daily cost if you wanted.

As an example, (Mods I am aware we cannot share product prices here and am being careful to not put any actual prices but instead just list items that would need to be considered) please comment and I will change anything that is TMI)

Massage: price of one disposable couch cover, price of 25ml of oil for a back, or 50ml for full (college monitored use but use a measuring cup for each service so you can see how much you’ve used), a wash in the machine inclusive of water, electric, washing powder is £2, price of any disposable towels per towel, couch roll (approx 17-25p in Jan of 2018). Of course gloves, face shields, masks now per service, alcohol wipes, cleaning sprays.

Then you have your treatment price, eg £7, add your hourly rate eg £40 then you know a back massage rate would be £47. Then you only tweak your earnings if you think the price is too high or too low in the area and you can see exactly how much you are actually making and don’t underpay yourself.

Another example:

Generic wax, thong each in pence, couch roll, couch cover, have your price ready for 1/2 a pot (remember include VAT), 1/4 of a pot. Then if you did like just an underarm or brows you could call it an 1/8 or 1/16 or whatever you use to make it easier to work out the price by division rather than measuring it constantly by ml or gram. Pre spray pumps say 1ml per pump for say 1p each (split the price of spray by how many mls) and you use 10 pumps then it’s 10p per service. Sticks again, price box by whole box, 1/2, 1/4, 3/4 so you can guesstimate and have them written down. A cotton pad is usually 1p, but they can easily add up to like 15p for a full body wax if you do each area at a time instead of as a whole. Which is fine for one person but if you did it for a week of say 5 clients per day that’s £3 more cost to you.

I know it’s really anal but each day I sit and look at what treatments I did and how much income I had and I know exactly how much I pay myself, I even check my card machine for card expenses. I like to use an account for my pay and another to put the cost amount in so I can use it to buy products.
 
You can weigh it, visually is totally fine too. So if the pot was 500g and it looks exactly half empty you
know you’ve used 250g. It will never be 100% exact as of the wastage on the floor, that you clean off the pot and general techniques but it will be a start to really get thinking about your usage and costs.

I always overestimate usage, to account for like eg I have to do a whole load of towels per client as I used a lot for a pedicure or whatever, or for tumble drying cost instead of the airer or a pot of disinfection liquid per client rather than per day (30p for small jar) but you could have that as a daily cost if you wanted.

As an example, (Mods I am aware we cannot share product prices here and am being careful to not put any actual prices but instead just list items that would need to be considered) please comment and I will change anything that is TMI)

Massage: price of one disposable couch cover, price of 25ml of oil for a back, or 50ml for full (college monitored use but use a measuring cup for each service so you can see how much you’ve used), a wash in the machine inclusive of water, electric, washing powder is £2, price of any disposable towels per towel, couch roll (approx 17-25p in Jan of 2018). Of course gloves, face shields, masks now per service, alcohol wipes, cleaning sprays.

Then you have your treatment price, eg £7, add your hourly rate eg £40 then you know a back massage rate would be £47. Then you only tweak your earnings if you think the price is too high or too low in the area and you can see exactly how much you are actually making and don’t underpay yourself.

Another example:

Generic wax, thong each in pence, couch roll, couch cover, have your price ready for 1/2 a pot (remember include VAT), 1/4 of a pot. Then if you did like just an underarm or brows you could call it an 1/8 or 1/16 or whatever you use to make it easier to work out the price by division rather than measuring it constantly by ml or gram. Pre spray pumps say 1ml per pump for say 1p each (split the price of spray by how many mls) and you use 10 pumps then it’s 10p per service. Sticks again, price box by whole box, 1/2, 1/4, 3/4 so you can guesstimate and have them written down. A cotton pad is usually 1p, but they can easily add up to like 15p for a full body wax if you do each area at a time instead of as a whole. Which is fine for one person but if you did it for a week of say 5 clients per day that’s £3 more cost to you.

I know it’s really anal but each day I sit and look at what treatments I did and how much income I had and I know exactly how much I pay myself, I even check my card machine for card expenses. I like to use an account for my pay and another to put the cost amount in so I can use it to buy products.
That's very helpful. Thank you x
 

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