Just find it annoying!

[Miss Star]

Hi

Sorry, but I just need to vent!

I'm mobile and charge £20 for a spray tan. Well had a lady phone up and book for Saturday, only to have her phone up and cancel because someone else has advertised mobile spray tanning for £10!

I mean I know its a competitive industry and all that but sometimes it just really gets to me!

I don't want to lower my prices because A I think being mobile it wont be worth it and B because quite frankly I think I'm worth it! Lol

No seriously, what would you do? I don't want to lose business....

Sorry for the rant!!

 

[nixnewcastle]

how annoying hun!!!!!
You should have used the opportunity to sell yourself and say why your worth the £20 and this cheap place for £10 isn't. What would you have said if given the chance now?

 

[Jenx]

It's difficult because you don't want to bad mouth other places either.
I have loads of mobile spray tanners very local to me who are cheaper, but some also doing deals so they work out at £10 per tan as well (I am £20). It is very frustrating, but to me it isn't worth doing tans (especially mobile) for £10. Like you, my time is worth so much more lol. You would hardly make any money once you take into account solution, petrol etc.
If it is really getting to you then you could do a november discount, but I personally won't be lowering my prices.
I'm going to start a loyalty card in 2010 to reward my loyal customers, maybe you could do something like that which doesn't actually involve you lowering your prices.

Sorry if it is a bit of a ramble xx

 

[Ruth Mills]

Maybe you could just laugh when your ex-client ends up looking like someone out of those old Tango TV commercials after getting a dodgy tan for a tenner...

 

[weezie]

I would say "well let me know if you change your mind or want another tan as I find my clients like my tans as they give a flawless, very natural realistic look as the solution I use is very good quality and so fades really well." This way you are not saying anything bad about the other tanners but if it goes wrong they will think to have yours next time. :hug:

or you could say "gosh that's cheap what solution are they using? I couldn't afford to do them at that price because of the quality of my tanning solution" again not saying anything bad but making the client realise there are different qualities.

You could also ask for her address to send her info if you have a promotion. Then send her a voucher for £5 off her next tan so then she could compare the quality herself. I know this would be a discount but at least you could get her to try you.

Or you could suggest a discount for a group booking as you would be saving on traveling costs.

It may just be a one off booking though as she may just want the cheapest regardless of quality.

 

[chocolatepickle]

Dont lower!
Personally i dont understand how its financially worth it at that price when mobile? I've seen a few charging ten pounds and all i can think is they must be using a cheap product.
I charge the same as you and most definately wont be lowering my prices, not when peak party seasons on its way! I value my time at more then a tenna...minus petrol, minus product cost. Cheap businesses attract cheap non-loyal customers (quite often lol!), i'd rather the loyal clients that look for quality over price and will look after their tan. :green:

 

[nixnewcastle]

thats exactly what i meant. Sell yourself not slag other places off as tempting as it is to say you get what you pay for and their stuff must be rubbish lol

 

[weezie]

Educating the client is not slagging off someone else :hug:

 

[Jenx]

thats exactly what i meant. Sell yourself not slag other places off as tempting as it is to say you get what you pay for and their stuff must be rubbish lol

Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to suggest you were slagging anyone off (sorry if my comment came accross that way) I just meant that it is difficult to sell yourself, when comparing to someone else iykwim. :hug: xx

 

[cabby]

I have the same problem thought I might do a January special for a tenner when no one has any money after xmas but lets face it there is no point doing it for a tenner if you are mobile as you won,t be making any money I only thought I might do it in jan to keep myself busy!!!!! lol

 

[persianista]

A very upmarket salon near me is offering 4 visits, to include a colour, 2 cut and blow drys and a blow dry for £30. that nets out to £7.50 per visit!! Quite frankly Ithink they are collecting up all the 30 quids and are gonna close down. Nbody can work indefinately without profit. At 10 quid a sray tan, she is earning about 2 quid an hour. at even 5 spray tans a day(pushing it a bit I think) she is making a tenner. Would you work for that? Neither will she, so relax.

 

[kimi1101]

I had a client in the other day, a repeat customer for spray tan. She said all her friends had gone to a salon in town who are offering calgel nails and a fake bake spray tan for £25. WHAT?!? Good on them, they got quite a few customers from that and maybe it was just one weekend, but its crazy. I guess people like that are hoping to hook people in and then up the price when clients are regular, I can't see it working any other way. We occasionally do deals like this weekend we are doing acrylics ffor £25 to see if we can boost our nail sides of things, but it is defo this weekend only and clients know that! say this girl is doing 10 tans a day at £10, she is only taking home £100, minus at least £10 for petrol, £30-40 for solution...she is only left with £50, which she needs to pay tax on and thats accounting for the fact she has no money to make back on her equipment. Good luck to her but I think you'll still be standing in a years time whereas she.....

xxx

 

[Miss Star]

A very upmarket salon near me is offering 4 visits, to include a colour, 2 cut and blow drys and a blow dry for £30. that nets out to £7.50 per visit!! Quite frankly Ithink they are collecting up all the 30 quids and are gonna close down. Nbody can work indefinately without profit. At 10 quid a sray tan, she is earning about 2 quid an hour. at even 5 spray tans a day(pushing it a bit I think) she is making a tenner. Would you work for that? Neither will she, so relax.

Hi

Thank you everyone that has replied. I do feel better today, not so stressed!! Lol

I would never bad mouth someone, that's just not my nature. Goodluck to anyone who is trying to earn a living - I may not be happy about it, but still!

I have to tend to agree with what Persianista has said

At 10 quid a sray tan, she is earning about 2 quid an hour. at even 5 spray tans a day(pushing it a bit I think) she is making a tenner. Would you work for that? Neither will she, so relax.
So I'm not going to fret about it - If people want the best they will come to me - Is that being really obnoxious??!!!

 

[kimi1101]

Not obnoxious at all...if you believe in yourself, so will other people. Positive Mental Attitude!!

 

[persianista]

There will always be clients who want cheap. there will always be clients who want the best. Know who your clients are, and never try and be all things to all people. I will never be a cheap hairdresser, but am always fully booked with clients. x

 

[kezza*]

Hi ya
The pervious salon I worked in we used to do st tropez airbrush spray tan at £30.00 a full body,,,,,,we used to get no end of people ring and say that we were to expensive,,,, but no1 else in our area did st tropez tanning,,,,,,,I was forever explaining to people about st tropez,,,, what we found is 9 out of 10 people ended up coming in for a spray tan after they had been somewhere cheaper, because they wasn't happy with it,,,,we just have to sell yourself and explain about the products you use,,, I found that people wanted a natural, sun kissed colour, nothing too dark or orange and st tropez is a lovely tan,,, I always finished the conversation if you have any problems or what to rebook at a later date they your more than welcome to get in touch,,,,, at £10 a tan you'll find she's not making much on it and you could just explain about the products you use are a good quality and that you couldn't do it any cheaper that way your not bad monthing anyone.
I recently started working from home and I did some really cheap offer to get noticed and to get people in I made nothing but I got some regular clients and people noticed me,,,,,,well, This month someone that has a home based salon has done the offer's I had been doing and she is in the same area,,, well it made me laugh because if she is going to follow me and use my last offer's she'll always be a step behind me lol

Good luck and try not to let it get to u,, if your worth it charge it and don't let something or some1 get to you....

Kerry
xx

 

[dawn@nouvatan]

Hiya, we all have this problem with competition. But, I dont know if you were able to ask her what the tan was and if the lady was an accredited tanner? You dont have to knock the competition just purely put out your unique selling points, because in my experience you can sometimes overcome the price issue if you are accredited and using a good solution rather than someone who is just a price in an ad who maybe just starting off trying their luck bought an old kit off ebay and thinks she can go out and tan the general public.
I agree with the others dont drop ur price as its hard to go back up again. I would offer her a discount if she had a friend. HTH:hug:

 

[spraytangeek]

I offer mobile spray tans @ £20 each too and there are a few places near me who offer for £10. but iev actually tryed them... orange up ankles, no sticky feet, no barrier cream, only offering 1 colour. basically you get what you pay for :s im happy im offering a good service with a quailty tan

 

[lisa82]

A very upmarket salon near me is offering 4 visits, to include a colour, 2 cut and blow drys and a blow dry for £30. that nets out to £7.50 per visit!! Quite frankly Ithink they are collecting up all the 30 quids and are gonna close down. Nbody can work indefinately without profit. At 10 quid a sray tan, she is earning about 2 quid an hour. at even 5 spray tans a day(pushing it a bit I think) she is making a tenner. Would you work for that? Neither will she, so relax.

Holy Cow!!!!
I'd be thinking why is it so cheap and wouldn't even think of trying them!

On the tan, a girl local to me advertised for £10 so I thought I'd get her round to try her and see what way she works, as I'm new to the spray-tanning myself and want to look tanned (my BF won't spray me-prob a godblessing really lol).
She was so unprofessional, she canceled about 2 hrs before the appointment making up some excuse, by text, which was shortened like a 15 year old would write, and when I didn't reply to the msg she didn't give me a call to see if I'd got the text or another msg to re-schedule (sp?) or dang all. I was really looking forward to my tan, but now I know why she's worth a tenner!! x

 

[katiebbaby]

I am ery sorry but I will tend to disagree with most of these posts, at the risk of being hated ,,,I use La tan sttroprez and sun labs. I do certain offers and one of them being two for £20,,, so therefore £10 a tan. I can gaurntee non of my clients are 'tangoed' I have been trained, and I am GOOD at what I do.

We all know how much it costs to spray a person....... and how long it takes..... so ,,,yes I make a profit, in my own home I would never travel when doing offer,,,,just because something is cheap, or on offer, does not make it BAD xxxx