Hesitant about raising your beauty treatment prices? A pricing expert explains why you shouldn’t be

Maddi Cook, the powerhouse behind hair and beauty marketing and mindset coaching company, Boss Your Salon, shares why you shouldn’t be scared to raise your treatment prices…

I like maths because it’s an exact science. There’s no room for interpretation, there are no grey areas and it’s not subjective: 2 + 2 = 4, and that’s that. But it wasn’t until I was long out of my teacher, Mr McDonagh’s maths class that I realised that in reality, numbers aren’t completely logical.

Back in 2010, I did what everyone else did when they first went self-employed: I sent my sister to local salons to grab price lists, I looked up prices online, and I made a very professional-feeling (but ultimately, pointless) spreadsheet which listed all of my local competitors’ prices, from most to least expensive.

I knew I didn’t want to be the cheapest, but I definitely didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere near the most expensive. So, I put myself roughly third or fourth from the bottom, and congratulated myself on being a proper businesswoman.

Soon after, I realised that the maths was definitely not mathing. I was still working full-time in my call centre job and had inexplicably picked up three shifts a week in a local pub, all while building my business. I’d just clocked 100 days without a day off and didn’t feel much like the female Alan Sugar anymore – I doubt he cried in his shower as much as I did.

I knew I had to increase my prices. It made perfect logical sense, as I was working so hard and was still skint. I knew it was the key to leaving my employed jobs and finally having the time and money freedom that drew me to self-employment. And I actually like maths; I’m good at it. But why the hell was it so hard? Because it’s not just maths, is it?

Raising your prices is about 10% the numbers, and 90% all the other tricky, sticky, sneaky feelings and beliefs. Like feelings of comparison and wondering if you’re experienced enough to charge more. Or beliefs that no one in your area will pay more.

It’s a low-income area and super competitive, so surely they’ll all leave? Or deep down, not believing in your own worth, and doubting that you deserve to earn more. You may see many other people coming together to raise their prices, but wonder why it feels so hard for you. Or maybe you’re brave enough to do the price increase, yet swiftly undo your hard work by dishing out deals and discounts immediately after.

But what happens when you do increase your prices? Not a lot, actually.

Where we imagine the ‘angry mob’: a barrage of frustrated texts, upset emails and business-ruining reviews, what we actually tend to get are a handful of thumbs up, heart reactions or the very underwhelming, ‘sounds good. When am I in again?’

And I know this because since 2010, I’ve done a dozen price increases myself, and since 2020, I’ve helped over 20,000 people to raise theirs, too. But let me let you in on a secret: even I still have these feelings when I come to raise my prices.

Why? Because these feelings are actually hundreds of thousands of years old. No, we weren’t doing chrome extensions from our caves, but not getting kicked out of our group was indeed a matter of life or death. And although we’re living in 2024, the part of our brain that detects threats (the amygdala) hasn’t really changed since prehistoric times. Thanks, brain.

As frustrating as this is, I try to keep two things in mind:

1. The same part of your brain that makes you worry about a price increase, is the same part that makes you jump back onto the path when a car whizzes past. So I don’t know about you, but I think I’d prefer it was there, keeping me alive, even if it does serve some quirky thoughts about making a fair living.
2. By knowing this, it helps me to take a minute, detach and observe what’s happening. Rather than feeling hijacked by these beliefs, I say to my brain, ‘Hey, thanks for keeping me alive, but FYI this isn’t a threat to life: I won’t die if I raise my prices. We’re in 2024 and I’m a grown adult, so I’ll take the wheel from here’.

Remember when you first went self-employed? You probably dreamed of taking control of your time and income, maybe you wanted to get away from a bad boss – and now you are your own bad boss, making you work all of the hours for less than a fair wage. This is in your control, and you deserve to get paid for the hard work you do.

Need five more gentle nudges to charge what you deserve? Check out my free masterclass, How To Overcome The 5 Most Common Pricing Mistakes, at www.bossyoursalon.com/masterclass