How do you deal with friends wanting deals?

[MrsR]

Just wondered as its already started with friends saying things like "will I get a deal", etc and I've not started my training yet! How on earth do you deal with friends once up and running?

 

[Zingara]

For me it depends on who they are. My mum, and my sister in law have modelled for me - are always happy for me to try anything new out on them and have got me so much busines that I refuse to charge them, but gratefully accept the contribution they sometimes offer me to costs.

Most other friends, i smile and say, "Look, its my policy to charge as product is so expensive, but don't worry, I'll look after you!" I make it clear they pay, but they get a little something extra. Then it's to your discretion as to how much extra you give them! It might be a little nail art, or diamontes on one nail as a taster, a small bottle of cuticle oil, but usually something that makes them feel they got a bit extra as my friend, but hopefully persuades them to try it again!

I've had a couple of not so close friends look at me in horror and say if they're paying, then they don't want me to do their nails, like they are doing me a favour by letting me make their nails look nice for a big night out or something....some friends huh? Only after a freebie! Let them go and pay someone else then!

 

[Susie H]

I told them all how much it was costing me to train and that I would need models who I would be willing to do at a student rate but that once I qualified I would be running a business and that it would be a very short lived one if I did deals all over, if they want cheep go to the nss if they want quality, well you pay for that, its why dior cost more then a market copy.
Consider it a test for you becoming professional.
Only one person has ever had a free set from me and she still does and thats Kay, she was my model when I trained, she's always been willing to sit and let me play she's been my best advert, constructive critic and biggest fan.:hug::hug:

 

[hippy-chick]

now that I am in premises my friends pay full price, but when I was mobile it was a nightmare as the lines between a social visit and a professional visit are smudged.

my 2 friends are mobile hairdresser's and beauty therapists, and years ago when they came to me they would ask for a bottle of wine. I told them it stopped me from booking them as I felt that they were doing me a favour, so its one of the reasons why I trained up in massage, as I felt I could repay them properly.

they still didn't book appointments with me, so I insisted that I paid them the going rate.

 

[~Emmsybabes~]

This is a tricky one, !
Because not only do you have friends now..but you will make "friends" along the way .....
Who will all think of themselves as your bestest mate...
In my experience they do act like they are doing you a favour..
The ones who want something for nothing, are also the ones who work their way into your head, crafty horrors they are :lol:,

I met a young lady a few months ago through nails,
She had a partner, was on maternity leave with plenty of money...came regulary,
I told her over the weeks she was one of my best clients blah blah....
then came the desicion not to go back to work...then came the split with the partner...now she is living with her mum on benefits..

During my time with her I asked if she would consider being my hand model for comps, and that I may want to practice on her free of charge,
This was on the term it was when I needed her..
The sob story came...I told her I would continue to do her nails for £15 to ensure she kept maintence up..
Well I texted her and asked could I practice, she was round in a shot..
Did her a free set, this was just over a week ago..
I got a text the other day asking if i could do her nails again and she would pay me monday (today)
But would also buy me a bar of chocolate (she knows how much I like chocolate)

I thought about it but then refused,
I felt guilty, but its not my problem, if i do it for one I have to do it for all (been there done that, and had people owe me money left right and center)

I didnt hear back from her not even to say she wouldnt like the appt,

So all I will say for future reference is make sure you know who your friends REALLY are, and dont get blagged by people who want to be friends with you because of what you do in the future

I do my sisters nails for free....
and my BESTEST friend since we were 7,
But she will hide money before she go's (last time she gave me a hug..and shoved a tenner at me..then litrally RAN up the car park and jumped in the car..so I couldnt give it back lol)

I have another 2 friends who I have known since i was 14 I would do for free but they never ask..
And 1 more life long friend who I hate taking money off, but she always instists,

So please DO think very carefully about it, it can get tricky to keep under control xxxx

 

[soriminah]

You'll always get people saying 'you can practice on me' - even when you're qualified and know what you're doing and don't need practice cause you could do it blindfolded.

I've done a few massages at work free to fix kinked necks. I did it for the boss a few months ago and then a couple of weeks later she bought the corporate massage therapist into the tea room sprouting about how fantastic she is and to go and see her. I felt like saying 'she's not the one who fixed you're neck for free.' I was so ****ted off. She can go to her next time she needs her neck fixed and pay for it.

 

[Top Tottie]

This always riles me and i want to rant and rave like a monkey!!

When i was a student, i charged everything at a very reduced price. Like a eyebrow wax i charged £2. Luxury Manicure and Pedicure £10, half leg wax £5. Luxury Facial £8. I know it sounds really pathetic but i saved all the money from the treatments when i was a student so i could pay Level three training/new courses. Its your time and you are learning and products are so expensive to purchase to start off.
They are doing you a favour as well you are doing them a favour! Just make them extra hot chocolate or a glass of wine or chocolates,it always make them feel special. I tend to give them a voucher so they have have it % off next treatment visit.:Grope:

For my mum and dad i do it for free no question. Even now i am still fully qualified, my parents still insists to pay me "they say, oh this money could go towards a new lightweight massage bed, or car, or more products, petrol, new business cards, new courses and so on and on and on and on" Why should they pay as they have looked after me, brought me up, supported me whilst i was doing social work diploma as well as beauty therapy diploma?!!:lol:

If i do it for friends for free then i might as well offer it for free (hello,, no thank you!)

Oh i take it back.. there are two friends who i would do it for free becuase they would do anything for me from being my model, volunteer, my closest confidante to my sister, just everything. (i really know who my friends are!!)
emmybabes you sounds just lovely i wish i live nearer to you!!

Just say at the moment as i am learning a new course, i am going to this as a special offer for friends and family - ie. when i learnt spray tanning last September - i asked 10 friends to volunteer but i only can do five to practise. First come, first served.It works every time!! Then afterwards from October to Xmas, i offered a full body spray tan, Christmas promotion for £20 making it very clear its a special Christmas promotion and now i charge £25 for a spray tan with more clients than ever.

Friends i take 20% off treatments and Family (depending who they are (either from 20% to 40% off) which i think its fair.

My sister i should give it free as she works in a nail business with affluent clients and she has brought me soooo many clients!! I have never been particulary closed to her when i was younger but over the last few months she has been so incredibly supportive, encouraging me to try out brazilian waxing (ouch!!) and eyelash extensions so...

Rant over.. it wasnt much of a rant but at least i got it off my big black busty chest lol!:lol:

Tolly xxx

 

[champagne]

Heres my training prices/costs to close friends & family, i am offering them:

1 x free set of nails, then they may pay for a re-balance or I will soak off for free.

This gives me the training and them a free set of nails.

I have 2 really close friends who will get it free for ever, just because they would do anything for me.

For other friends I am charging 15.00 to include a solar oil pinkie.

It seems to be working so far.....

Start as you mean to go on & stick to it.

Champagne

 

[MrsR]

Will definately after I finish training for the first month offer friends and work people £15 nails to get the experience and practise on the understanding it is only for 1 month. Then after that full price, but may do a 10-15%% discount to close friends maybe. My mother will always get whatever free cause its my mum

Have promised one friend for her wedding as our wedding pressy to her in Sept that I'll do her nails free which thats fair enough isn't it.

 

['chelle]

I disagree completely with the popular opinion on this one.

It is NOT tricky, and you CAN set hard and fast rules.

This is your profession, your bread and butter, this is how you will pay your mortgage. You CANT afford to do favours just because they are friends, and true friends will understand this.

Set your rules out clearly from the start. As an example:

Mum gets free nails provided they are outside your salon opening hours.

Everyone else pays at the following rates:
£10 per set whilst training
£15 per set after training but before you start your business (for further practice)
Full salon rates apply once you start in business.

This is how I work, the only person who gets freebies except my mum is my good friend who is my "victim". She is my model for any courses I want to do, so she gets 1 free set/rebalance in return for her coming as a model. Being that she does temping work and loses money when she takes the time off I think this is a fair swap, because even she agrees its only what she would pay anyway.

Other than that, EVERYONE pays, they pay the full price for retail products aswell, oh yes and my mum has to pay for her products even though she falls under the "free nails for mum" rule!

It may seem harsh, but true friends WILL understand, how would they react if you asked them for a few quid a month, not to borrow, to keep. This is money from their salary and they wouldnt take kindly to it - the same applies to you! If you set firm rules and dont have any grey areas you can avoid difficult situations in the future where people expect freebies but you cant afford to do them. You also have to consider that some people are inconsiderate, and if you give them cheap/free nails, they will tell all their friends and they expect them aswell - this has happened to people!

See this as a business, you aren't playing at shops, materials and time are expensive!!

 

[Rosey]

I charge full price to everyone except my lovely Mum - who looks after the kids 2 days a week - she can come in and have what she wants when she wants! She is usually in a couple of times a week for hair and beauty stuff but always puts some cash in my handbag or gets me or the kids something which is sweet.

My friends who let me practice on them at the beginning get 20% off everything. This is about 6 friends that would regularly sit for 4 hours while i painstakingly created a lumpy bulbous set of extensions and then praise them and give me wine etc at the end! Total saints! I needed them so much at the start so I feel totally happy about returning the favour.

Apart from that everyone pays full price - even close friends as I have to charge full price as i am running a business at the end of the day and have wages, bills and rent to pay. Luckily my mates are a good bunch and dont expect to pay anything less (and they tip!!).xx

 

[Zingara]

Only problem with having a 'training' price, well certainly for me anyway, is that I actually don't ever plan to stop training.

I now run a small but successful business, and don't feel that i will ever reach the point where i feel I am so good that I won' t need to update my skills from time to time. As we all know from here, new products and techniques come out all the time.

And, if it weren't for some of those friends supporting me in the early days, I wouldn't have a business. So I personally feel that they deserve a bit of thanks. No I don't believe in cutting prices hugely for them, but chrissake they aren't the enemy that you have to pin to a wall and extricate the correct amount of money out of...lol!

Sorry...this isn't aimed at any one post, it just feels like we're turning our friends into the worst thing that could happen to our profession...and mine certainly are one of the biggest supporters I've got!:hug:

 

[MrsR]

Hmmmmmmm a lot to think about here

 

[~Emmsybabes~]

It is NOT tricky, and you CAN set hard and fast rules.

I do agree with a lot of what you have said,
And I really wish I could be more like that, I am learning though :lol:
But I think it can be tricky depending on your personality, strengths and weaknesses,

My strengths are my skills, my weakness's are that I have been a young single mum skint with no time or money for anything nice for myself,

So when I know someone else is like that...I want to give them everything I can to make them feel nice....
Now yes this is very lovely, but a heck of a lot of people here are like that..so If I do it for one, I feel like I have to do it for others,
And as I said there are people out there who will try to get something for nothing if they think they can..

Like the bar of chocolate client I mentioned earlier...She wanted another set of nails as she was going out that night, so could afford that..but not to pay me !!!!
It just takes the p!ss..
I ALMOST agreed..but business head and little geeky voices in my head, stopped me from doing so.

I think I did go a little of topic with my reply...
going into people who arent my "friends" but clients I get on well with..

Another example where I have been stung with this is ..
A client turned friend had a birthday coming up..she invited me out with her and her friends for a night out,
I was looking forward to it, I hadnt been out for AGES,
I did her nails for her as a birthday present, thinking it was a lovely thing to do,
Then I got a text saying the night out was cancelled,
few days later, she slipped up and said they had gone after all...just never invited me...
I felt awful I had tried to do something nice, and felt like I had been stabbed in the back !

We are still friends..but she now pays, I do give a percentage off for her,
she let me practice in the begining but never a freebie anymore.


I suppose my only point (im in waffle mode today lmao)
Was yes its fine to give your friends and family treatments for free...
But keep it only to those special people in your life...
I wouldnt extend it any further than that..

This is only My oppinion, from my experiences so far
A lot of geeks know how much I struggled to get a "business head" thankfully though I am learning and sometimes I have learned only by my mistakes not to do the same next time
xxxxxx

 

[Beautyandme]

Hi, I think that people think, that when we buy from a Beauty Wholesaler, it costs us very little to buy the products in the first place. Which is not true, I bet there are many geeks on here who have spent thousands on products, and you dont make that money back over night.

I had a friend ask about lash tinting, told her I would just cover my costs this first time, and then after that if she liked the effect, would charge her full price. Did the patch test, and she has never booked. Not only did I waste the tint, but my time as well, as I went to her house to do the patch test in the first place.

If she ever does book, I will charge her the full rate from the onset.

I have done pedicures on friends, and charged them, but then have done a bit extra, spent longer on them, so have been out of pocket/time.

I now know, charge full, unless its your nearest and dearest, the ones that will always treat you back in other ways.

I do things for my mum, and wouldnt dream of charging her, its a pleasure to make her look beautiful.

 

[Top Tottie]

Another example where I have been stung with this is ..
A client turned friend had a birthday coming up..she invited me out with her and her friends for a night out,
I was looking forward to it, I hadnt been out for AGES,
I did her nails for her as a birthday present, thinking it was a lovely thing to do,
Then I got a text saying the night out was cancelled,
few days later, she slipped up and said they had gone after all...just never invited me...
I felt awful I had tried to do something nice, and felt like I had been stabbed in the back !

We are still friends..but she now pays, I do give a percentage off for her,
she let me practice in the begining but never a freebie anymore.


WHAT????? I cant believe she has done this to you. Didnt she have an ounce of shame??? and you still give her a percentage??? Yes you have been well stabbed, clients or friends, you just dont do that to people. She knew she invited you and hoping to get a freebie and when she got it she cancelled your invitation and had the bloody cheek to mention in passing that she went out afterall... GGRRRRR this makes me so mad!!

I can understand it is very hard to turn away clients, for me it would affect me so much i wouldnt be able to continue working on them.. you're getting stronger now so chin up and remember not to offer freebies unless they're your true friends.:hug:

xxx

 

[Beautyandme]

Thats awful, you were just being nice to her.

 

[skymark]

Basically I have one rule with regards to that.

Family and very old friends I do for free or for next to nothing (theres maybe 4 people in total), but I do it at home, at their home or in shop out of hours.

My main reason for this is I wouldn't dream of letting anybody in the salon see that somebody else is leaving without paying, plus the appointments take longer as you are chit chatting with people close to you, therefore I don't really think it's professional to do that on your working time.

I also find that although I enjoy doing it for those close to me, because I only do it out of hours for them, they see i'm putting myself out and so don't take the P. It's more like I just do it while we're having our weekly chats.

Saying that, my list of people stays the same and doesn't get any bigger no matter how many 'friends' I make.

 

[sj1973]

I disagree completely with the popular opinion on this one.

It is NOT tricky, and you CAN set hard and fast rules.

This is your profession, your bread and butter, this is how you will pay your mortgage. You CANT afford to do favours just because they are friends, and true friends will understand this.

Set your rules out clearly from the start. As an example:

Mum gets free nails provided they are outside your salon opening hours.

Everyone else pays at the following rates:
£10 per set whilst training
£15 per set after training but before you start your business (for further practice)
Full salon rates apply once you start in business.

This is how I work, the only person who gets freebies except my mum is my good friend who is my "victim". She is my model for any courses I want to do, so she gets 1 free set/rebalance in return for her coming as a model. Being that she does temping work and loses money when she takes the time off I think this is a fair swap, because even she agrees its only what she would pay anyway.

Other than that, EVERYONE pays, they pay the full price for retail products aswell, oh yes and my mum has to pay for her products even though she falls under the "free nails for mum" rule!

It may seem harsh, but true friends WILL understand, how would they react if you asked them for a few quid a month, not to borrow, to keep. This is money from their salary and they wouldnt take kindly to it - the same applies to you! If you set firm rules and dont have any grey areas you can avoid difficult situations in the future where people expect freebies but you cant afford to do them. You also have to consider that some people are inconsiderate, and if you give them cheap/free nails, they will tell all their friends and they expect them aswell - this has happened to people!

See this as a business, you aren't playing at shops, materials and time are expensive!!

I have to agree with chelle.....this IS a business ....YOURS.....and if they were friends....they wont mind paying ....they know how hard everyday living is so for them to ask for "mates rates"....i think is cheeky....

I done my sis in laws nails for nothing and she did not look after them ....she said "they SLID of my fingers " ....i have never done her nails since nor will i.....

Chelle is right ...a business is your job ...you have to pay for products...rent...taxes like any other business......and friend wont mind paying.....they know they will get a good job at the end xx

 

[THERAPY]

My friends would go mad if I told them I would do treatments for nothing, I have said before after I've done a treatment "oh I don't want paying" they give me a dirty look and say don't be stupid Donna!
However last week a friend was feeling down and I was quiet so I rang her and said come down to the salon and I'll put you some false lashes on and paint your nails for you
obviously a freebie,to cheer her up a bit, which I would do for any of my friends.