How do people afford to charge such low prices?

[Dolly6410]

ok so i know there has been alot of threads on here about this but i am sooo confused... I am a mobile beautician and i personally think my prices are very fair for the area i live in, the products i use and i am also around the same price as other beauticians in my area. Someone new has just started up doing mobile beauty (aparently shes been qualified for alot longer and has only just started up on her own) and she is offering DELUXE pedicures and manicures for £7.50, spray tans for £12.50, facials for £10, full leg wax for £10 and it goes on... these are her proper prices, not start up prices. how do these people make a living charging these prices??? she states the products she uses and they are all good well known brands. is there some secret underworld wholesalers that sells products at ridiculously low prices??? or some kind of magic potion we put in our cars to make it free to travel to clients??? I'm really annoyed because i only started up last year and i'm building up my client base still so someone like this dosnt help. surely we should all stick together at fair prices?

 

[Susie H]

Yes we should all stick together with fair prices.
One of two things will happen with this girl,
1, with cheep pricing she won't get clients because clients will assume she's cr*p.
2, she'll wake up one morning and realise that she's forgotten to pay herself and that all of her pre tax profit is going to go in tax.
I've seen so many cheep techs come and go, one things for sure, now she's set her prices, she'll have a very hard job putting them up.
You carry on being the best that you can be and let word of mouth prove it's worth. xx

 

[Emo]

Totally agree with Susie. I'd find it extremely hard to earn anything if I was charging those sorts of prices. Alot of my prices are similar to salon prices and I have a lot of loyal clients purely based on the fact that I'm good at what I do! I've had clients go to other techs and therapists who would have been charging alot less, but they have always come back as the quality wasnt the same :biggrin:.
I really dont know how that lady could be charging those sorts of prices but tbh I wouldnt worry about it. As Susie said, just keep doing your best and let the clients decide for themselves!

 

[jacquelineanna]

ok so i know there has been alot of threads on here about this but i am sooo confused... I am a mobile beautician and i personally think my prices are very fair for the area i live in, the products i use and i am also around the same price as other beauticians in my area. Someone new has just started up doing mobile beauty (aparently shes been qualified for alot longer and has only just started up on her own) and she is offering DELUXE pedicures and manicures for £7.50, spray tans for £12.50, facials for £10, full leg wax for £10 and it goes on... these are her proper prices, not start up prices. how do these people make a living charging these prices??? she states the products she uses and they are all good well known brands. is there some secret underworld wholesalers that sells products at ridiculously low prices??? or some kind of magic potion we put in our cars to make it free to travel to clients??? I'm really annoyed because i only started up last year and i'm building up my client base still so someone like this dosnt help. surely we should all stick together at fair prices?

I'm feeling your pain but the highlighted text above did make me chuckle out loud!

The mind boggles to work out how she can be making any profit at all. So why is she bothering to work at all if she is not making profit? Hmm, apart from maybe having a rich husband at home I really don't understand.

I think Persianista posted a reply to something similar regarding a salon that was massively undercutting everyone and she said that salons some times do this to get rid of weak competition (or something along those lines). That can't be her plan surely?

Jacqui xx

 

[hollywoodnails]

May be she doesnt tell the tax man so no deductions .

Maybe she has a partner on a good wage so what she earns goes in her pocket .
I think sometimes people dont work it out eg after stock.petrol deductions .

I have a lady on my face book she advertises on there for nails and she puts it in text talk I think it looks so bad . I dont want to call a fellow tech but her nails arent that good either .yet she is booked up constantly all the time

she also does tattoos from home

the mind boggles

 

[Dolly6410]

it does confuse me, i suppose some clients do just look for a bargin and then complain when its bad, i've had clients say to me that my prices are either cheap or expensive, i wouldnt say they were either, i get quite touchy when people comment on it. When people are pricing they def dont think of petrol or cleaning afterwards, i would never put my spray tanning prices down just due to the fact i use sienna x and it is an expensive and good tan, and it takes me AGES to clean my tent afterwards which i hate doing. clients don't think of me having to clean and steralise my kit either, because i'll finish someone at 9pm and they'll say 'oh going home to a nice bath and bed?' and i'm like umm no i've got to go home and clean out my van and all my kit. I know a nail tech by me who as soon as someone cheaper comes on the scene she'll put her prices down, she also does alot of her client booking on facebook so therefore has majority of her clients on her friends list, which i would never do because you never know whats going to pop up on your wall or tagged pictures, and some of her status's are a little inapropriate

 

[weezie]

Poor products, rushed treatments, incorrect procedure, desperation and no business sense...need I go on.:wink2:

 

[Dolly6410]

Poor products, rushed treatments, incorrect procedure and no business sense...need I go on.:wink2:

haha love this, i suppose she claims to use all these well known products but dosn't mean she has a good selection, could be cutting corners in treatments and using cheaper products where clients wouldnt know?

 

[nicolao4]

i had a flyer through my door the other day, it was obviously home printed, which i am not against by the way as long as it looks good, it was on very cheap paper, the type wasn't in a straight a line either. Prices were very cheap. I know as a therapist i nit pick at these things but i did think cheap and crappy flyer, cheap and crappy service!! No way i would book. x

 

[salonsarah]

I think our prices determine how clients will see us, if we value ourselves we will not charge peanuts. It wont be long before she has to put her prices up, or goes out of business. Its a shame, someone should have given her some good advice before she started.

 

[Matthew Taylor]

I think our prices determine how clients will see us, if we value ourselves we will not charge peanuts.

You said just what I was thinking!
I think the therapist in question is seriously undervaluing herself!

She must be under the impression of 'small but often' which in some instances can work, however she must look at the maximum workable hours are in the day and times that by the maximum treatment cost! Unfortunately is doesnt add up to very much esp for the hours she will be putting in!
Or she is doing this with the mentality that she will raise prices once she has built up her name! Unfortunately like said above its very shortsighted as people will be hard pressed to pay more!

It is important to set your prices right from the start; youre never going to please everyone and you will get the ones that say its too expensive - toodle-pip to them (they can have the therapist in question and her low prices then); build up a reputation of giving great service and that bit extra!! Statistics are showing a clear message at the moment that people even though may not have as much money as they did, are still willing to pay money for treatments, but want more for it - so going that extra mile really makes a difference.
I like to think that I give my clients an experience rather than a treatment and this mentality has so far built up a solid customer base!

 

[Susie H]

You said just what I was thinking!
I think the therapist in question is seriously undervaluing herself!

She must be under the impression of 'small but often' which in some instances can work, however she must look at the maximum workable hours are in the day and times that by the maximum treatment cost! Unfortunately is doesnt add up to very much esp for the hours she will be putting in!
Or she is doing this with the mentality that she will raise prices once she has built up her name! Unfortunately like said above its very shortsighted as people will be hard pressed to pay more!

It is important to set your prices right from the start; youre never going to please everyone and you will get the ones that say its too expensive - toodle-pip to them (they can have the therapist in question and her low prices then); build up a reputation of giving great service and that bit extra!! Statistics are showing a clear message at the moment that people even though may not have as much money as they did, are still willing to pay money for treatments, but want more for it - so going that extra mile really makes a difference.
I like to think that I give my clients an experience rather than a treatment and this mentality has so far built up a solid customer base!

I think you're spot on Mathew, I've never liked 'small but often' I'm a big fan of 'smarter not harder'.

 

[smooth]

Cheap could mean either not experienced, cheap products, no service or aftercare and generally a poor treatment. Or it could be someone starting out thinking I'll offer it cheap and that way I'll build up clients, thing is when they then try to up their prices they'll lose their cheap clients and will be known forever as the cheap therapist. This then also drives a pricing war which you don't want to get into.

 

[lucyboo]

Got a nail tech near me doing the same but also messaging my clients on Facebook & saying to them to go to her she is the cheapest around!! The pics of her nails are terrible!! I only lower my price when doing a party, lots of hard work but still a good profit!

 

[Beanhead]

Pay peanuts, expect monkeys!

 

[persianista]

I did indeed once talk about undercutting strategies. In this case the therapist is simply unaware of her huge pricing mistake.

We are a salon group, so have more resources than smaller rivals. We identify competition and assault them in two ways;
First we outclass them in terms of branded products. They offer gel type nails, we go for shellac, they use tigi, we use pureology etc. Our staff are that "bit" better trained.
Then we MASSIVELY undercut them. We ONLY do it for the treatments we are in competition with. We do NOT do it across the board, we are not a cheap and cheerful salon type. We advertise heavily through our database, local paper and usually a leaflet drop of about 5000 locally. We do all this within a time frame ofabout 2 weeks. We get about a 3% response rate from the leaflets.

If you are gonna do an offer, pick just one or two targets, and do it as a loss leader. I never bother with 10 or 20% off, at least 50% will get them through the door. Once in, we data mine them, and get them on board with receiving salon news and offers etc.

What this lady is doing is thinking cheap is best. She is earning slumdog pay if anything at all at those prices and won't be around for long.

Offers should be targetted, monitored and data mined in order to be of value. Plus they DO blow competition out of the water when done properly.

I really never claimed I was nice xx

 

[Blue Rose]

I can't understand the mentality myself either! The last few months has seen quite a few therapists start up around me & they ALL have the cheap as chips mentality.

So, what is a girl to do when she has a salon, with overheads, uses quality products and has decent therapists?

What if that is now not good enough for the clients as all they're bothered about is getting their treatment done at the cheapest possible price? And previous clients then recommend the cheaps as chips opposition

It's all very well doing the best you can & going above & beyond and doing everything you should, but what happens when pretty much ALL the competitors AND the clientelle have the same cheap as chips mentality?

I'd say we have 2 'properly priced' salons and over 10 silly priced places/therapists.

 

[Emily S]

Cheap doesn't necessarily mean poor work though.

I'm do low priced spray tans, £10 per tan and I make plenty back from it. I dunno if I can say this or not, but - less than £200 for 8 bottles which is roughly 112 tans, incoming £1120 means I get £920 with hardly any electric costs as I'm mobile & partly home based. So, even knock off £200 for other costs that's £700 profit!!!

I think people charging £20-25 are a bit crazy (lol), I'd much rather have 10 people out there 'advertising' my tan for me rather than the 4 that another salon would be getting.

 

[weezie]

Cheap doesn't necessarily mean poor work though.

I'm do low priced spray tans, £10 per tan and I make plenty back from it. I dunno if I can say this or not, but - less than £200 for 8 bottles which is roughly 112 tans, incoming £1120 means I get £920 with hardly any electric costs as I'm mobile & partly home based. So, even knock off £200 for other costs that's £700 profit!!!

I think people charging £20-25 are a bit crazy (lol), I'd much rather have 10 people out there 'advertising' my tan for me rather than the 4 that another salon would be getting.

But the person with 4 customers for £20 tans has made nearly the same money (or the same at £25) as you with half the work. You make £100 for ten tans they make £80 for four! So you've had to find 112 people to make your money and they've needed 56! Not so crazy. Also you could have made £1400 or more, if your tans are that good people will pay.

 

[Emily S]

But the person with 4 customers for £20 tans has made nearly the same money (or the same at £25) as you with half the work. You make £100 for ten tans they make £80 for four! So you've had to find 112 people to make your money and they've needed 56! Not so crazy. Also you could have made £1400 or more, if your tans are that good people will pay.

Maybe so but I honestly don't feel the need - people would pay more but not as regularly having their weekly fix, they'd only have them for special occasions.

The question was how do people afford it, there was my answer.. quite easily.