Busy all week and not much left at the end of it
The salon is full most days. Lash lifts are popular, gel manicures are constant and hot wax is a big seller. Yet at the end of the month there is less left than there should be. The owner suspects some treatments barely cover their costs, but cannot say which.
Lash lift solutions come in sachets that are used per client. Lash glue has a short life once opened. Hot wax pots are topped up constantly. Gel removal uses foils, wraps and acetone. Facials use expensive professional products by the pump. None of this is linked to what each treatment earns.
Prices set by the salon down the road
- Treatment prices were set against competitors, not against costs.
- Back-bar product is bought in bulk and never allocated to treatments.
- Disposables such as spatulas, wax strips, lash pads and foils are treated as overheads.
- Therapist time per treatment is booked, but real time is not measured.
- Room and equipment time, such as a facial room with steamer, is not part of the calculation.
Busy on the wrong treatments
Beauty treatments are especially prone to this because the costs are small, frequent and scattered. A single lash lift sachet or a few pumps of a professional serum do not feel like much, and nobody thinks about them at the till. Multiplied across a month of bookings they are a real part of what a treatment costs, and they vary a great deal between treatments that are priced similarly.
Time is the other hidden cost. A treatment that is booked for a set time but routinely runs over uses therapist and room time that the price never accounted for.
If a popular treatment is underpriced for what it costs, the salon gets busier and poorer at the same time. Price rises are applied across the board rather than where they are needed. Promotions sometimes discount treatments that already barely break even.
A cost for every treatment on the menu
- We list the back-bar products and disposables each treatment uses, with your therapists, and put an estimated amount against each. Product costs come from your supplier invoices, through your accounting software such as Xero where possible.
- Actual therapist time per treatment comes from your salon software's booking and checkout times, which we check against booked times.
- Room and equipment time is added where a treatment ties up a specific room or machine.
- Staff costs are included as a cost per hour, using figures you provide.
- For each treatment we show price, direct costs and what is left, and how much of the salon's time it takes up in a typical month.
- Stock purchases are compared with what the treatments should have used, which shows where usage estimates or wastage need a look.
| Treatment | Main costs to count |
|---|---|
| Lash lift | Single-use solutions, pads, therapist time |
| Hot wax | Wax use, spatulas, room time |
| Gel manicure | Gel, removal materials, lamp time |
| Facial | Professional product per pump, room and steamer time |
| Brow lamination | Solutions, tint, therapist time |
Pricing decisions are yours. We show you the numbers behind each treatment; we do not tell you what to charge.
Pricing with your eyes open
On a normal review, the owner sees that gel manicures with removal take far longer than their price reflects, while brow shapes earn well for the time they take. She raises the removal charge, keeps brows where they are and stops discounting the treatment that was barely covering its costs. The next time a supplier puts prices up, she can see exactly which treatments it affects.
Does this apply to your salon?
- Your prices were set by looking at competitors.
- You do not know what back-bar product each treatment uses.
- You are busy but margins feel thin.
- Price rises are applied across the whole menu.
- Promotions are chosen without knowing treatment costs.