The Mentor Chair · Money & pricing
The situation
The schedule is full, but the money at the end of the month still doesn't match the hours.
From the mentor chair
Being busy and being profitable are not the same thing.
If your schedule is packed but the money still isn't where you need it to be, my first answer is not to put more clients on your books.
First, we need to look at what the time you're already working is producing.
Behind the chair, time is money. There are only so many hours you can physically work. At some point, you cannot fit another haircut, color or highlight into your week without working longer days or burning yourself out.
So before you add hours, look at your prices.
Are your prices appropriate for your experience?
How long are your services taking?
What does each appointment actually bring into the business?
What are you spending to perform that service?
And what are you actually keeping when it's over?
A full schedule can sometimes be the clearest sign that you've outgrown your pricing.
That doesn't automatically mean you need to raise every price tomorrow. It means it's time to stop measuring success by how busy you are and start measuring it by what your time is producing.
Look at your numbers
Average ticket — What does the average client spend?
Revenue per working hour — How much service revenue are your hours behind the chair actually producing?
Service time — Are lower-priced services taking up large portions of your schedule?
Expenses — How much of that revenue actually stays with you?
Take-home goal — Is your current pricing capable of supporting what you're trying to earn?
Try this
Before opening another day on your schedule, ask:
“If I worked the exact same number of hours next month, what would have to change for me to make more money?”
Maybe it's pricing.
Maybe it's your service mix.
Maybe it's rebooking.
Maybe it's expenses.
Maybe it's how much time you're allowing for certain services.
But “work more” shouldn't automatically be the answer.
Mentor principle
A full schedule can be the clearest sign you've outgrown your pricing.
Connected to your numbers
Run this situation through the tools you already have.