New nail tech in need of advice

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Cassandra86

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
52
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8
Location
Bristol
Hi everyone. I am a newly qualified nail technician. I am just wondering what prices do I charge my clients. I do have a price list but am not sure if my pricing is ridiculously cheap or fine. I offer gel nails at £13 manicure at £10 pedicure at £12 am I going on the right track or shud I be putting the pricing up. I also offer clients loyalty cards where the 6th treatment is free. Please can anyone tell me if am heading down the right track. Your support and advise would b very appreciated.
 
That sounds very cheap to me, by the time you've taken all your costs off will you even earn minimum wage? Don't forget to include

Rent/petrol
Electricity/traveling time
Product
Insurance
Your time
Professional development training
Uniform
Washing

In your product bit make sure you are accounting for cotton pads etc not just actual product, also tea/coffee.
I very much doubt you are covering these things, especially with giving 6th treatment free!

Look at the market around where you live-what are others charging? (Not the £5 offers of blue sky on fb, reputable salons)

It's no good building up a clientele of people that only want to pay minimal amounts, they are very unlikely will be loyal and as soon as someone is doing it cheaper they will follow them. You won't be able to increase your prices to match your professional competitors as your clients will go elsewhere.

Remember you are a professional, you've spent time and money on professional training, always be the best you can be and offer a great service and people will happily pay you well for your expertise!

Good luck!
 
:):) Thank you so much for replying. With what you have said I will change the pricing before I start doing more clientele. As i do want to build the right loyal clientele and not the ones who come because the price is cheap. The other salons in my area dont charge that much for uv gel nails so I wasn't sure if mobile nail technicians charge a little bit less or the same. But I,ll b doing plenty research today. Thank u once again. Your advice is well appreciated.
 
Your prices are far too cheap to sustain a decent income over the long term. Bristol is not a cheap city to live in!

For sake of argument, assuming you work a 40 hour week doing nails, so that's 8 hours a day over 5 days. If you were to pay yourself the minimum wage for adults rate of £6.70 an hour, that works out at £53.60 a day or £268 a week.

Assuming also that out of the £13 charge for gel nails, £4 covers product costs, professional indemnity insurance, room costs (heating/electricity), advertising, tax and national insurance costs etc, so you actually make £9 per set.

You will need to have a bare minimum of 6 gel nails clients every day for five days every week just to earn minimum wage.

Are you mobile and running a car? If so, you will need to take the car running costs plus petrol into account so you would only be earning about £6 per set and therefore would need to have 10 clients a day....

None of this includes building in a cushion for when you are not working such as if you get sick and can't work for a few days or want to take a weeks holiday.

These are very rough figures but you seriously need to think about setting your prices according to how much money you want to earn.

Do you really want the hassle of running your own business if you end up earning less than a NMW job?

Offering cheap nail services isn't sustainable in the long term and will leave your seriously out of pocket.
 
Your prices are far too cheap to sustain a decent income over the long term. Bristol is not a cheap city to live in!

For sake of argument, assuming you work a 40 hour week doing nails, so that's 8 hours a day over 5 days. If you were to pay yourself the minimum wage for adults rate of £6.70 an hour, that works out at £53.60 a day or £268 a week.

Assuming also that out of the £13 charge for gel nails, £4 covers product costs, professional indemnity insurance, room costs (heating/electricity), advertising, tax and national insurance costs etc, so you actually make £9 per set.

You will need to have a bare minimum of 6 gel nails clients every day for five days every week just to earn minimum wage.

Are you mobile and running a car? If so, you will need to take the car running costs plus petrol into account so you would only be earning about £6 per set and therefore would need to have 10 clients a day....

None of this includes building in a cushion for when you are not working such as if you get sick and can't work for a few days or want to take a weeks holiday.

These are very rough figures but you seriously need to think about setting your prices according to how much money you want to earn.

Do you really want the hassle of running your own business if you end up earning less than a NMW job?

Offering cheap nail services isn't sustainable in the long term and will leave your seriously out of pocket.

Thank you so much for the useful advise. much appreciated.
 
Prices are way too low, even more so with you offering a free set on the 6th visit.

So really, if they have 5 pedicures that's £60 then one free it's actually £10 a pedicure. I charged £25 for a Shellac pedicure when I used to do them, so that's well under.

Don't undersell yourself, forget other people's prices and make yourself a decent wage. :)
 

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