If you are planning to work for yourself now or in the future, this lesson is for you! Learning about running a small business is a whole course in itself, so in this lesson, we will look at some basic factors that you need to consider when setting up your business. The information in the lesson is general in nature and will provide you with some ideas that you may like to incorporate into your own business.
Pricing your services when you are starting out can be a bit tricky. You need to think about all of the costs involved, such as all the materials and your time, but also fixed costs like your rent, electricity, phone bill and website costs. If you undersell your sets, you will more than likely experience financial loss, whereas you want to return a profit.
Profit is the amount of money left once you add up all the money you have received and take away all the money you have paid on expenses. Setting your prices too high may prevent you from building your client base, especially if you do not have lots of experience and you are still refining your craft. Setting your prices too low can also have a similar effect because clients will likely assume that cheap nail appointments equate to inexperience. Never be tempted to lower your prices really low to attract clients because this also makes it harder for all the other nail technicians in the industry as it devalues our work.
When you are training, it can be useful to advertise the full price of services, but then offer a launch discount or a training discount. This way, your clients will see what usual pricing is and will feel like they are getting something cheaper. Then, once you have built your experience, it won’t be such a shock when your prices increase. Another pricing process you might consider could be a staged approach where you do some sets for free. To begin with, you then charge for materials only, offer a discount on the full price and then start charging the full price.
A good place to start when determining your prices is to research prices other nail technicians in your area are charging. This should give you a decent price range to work within, and it is also a great opportunity to see what they are doing well – How does their website look? What is their social media like? What information do they give to clients online? As a general rule, price ranges for common services are as follows:
As you can see, the price ranges above do have quite a variance. The higher end of the scale are more freelance nail technicians, and the cheaper end is pricing you will see in nail salons in shopping centres. How you price your sets is totally up to you – people will pay for top quality.
When pricing your sets, you also need to consider your time. A freelance nail technician who creates an experience with a client by taking their time, offering a coffee and friendly chat will be able to charge more than, say, a high-turnover shopping centre nail salon. When you start out, you will take longer than more experienced nail technicians, and that is to be expected.
Unless you provide outstanding service and nails, charging $150 for a basic manicure will likely deter clients from coming back. The service takes as long as it needs to, but in general, allow the following for each service:
| Goal timeframe | Services |
| 30 to 45 minutes | Basic manicure, Basic pedicure, French manicure and French pedicure |
| 45 minutes to 1 hour | Gel manicure, Gel pedicure, removals, infills and repairs |
| 1 to 2 hours | Full acrylic set, full gel set and detailed nail art |
Knowing how long various tasks actually take you will help you with planning your day, scheduling your clients, designing your service offerings, and calculating costs. So, during your training, a stopwatch will be your best friend. Time yourself to determine how long it takes you to:
Knowing how long various tasks actually take you will help you with planning your day, scheduling your clients, designing your service offerings and calculating costs. Let’s say you can get full sets completed in 1 hour and charge $70; that would be $70 for the hour. Say your material costs were no more than $10 for that service – this leaves you with $60 left to pay yourself and put money towards other bills.
The majority of beauty salons in Australia operate on a 30-50% profit margin. This means that 30% to 50% of their sales equates to profit. When you are starting out, your profit margin will likely be a lot lower as you will have a lot of upfront expenses for tools, equipment, and stock. However, once you have been in business for a while, you will see your profits increase. Salons offering 20-minute services either have really skilled nail technicians, or there are some corners being cut. Of course, if a client just needs a quick and tidy manicure, then concessions can be made. It is much better to allow yourself the time to create gorgeous nails and price accordingly, rather than cutting corners and rushing in super tight timeframes.
Services like full sets, detailed artwork and nails that require a lot of shaping are generally more expensive as they take more time and the product costs are higher. Let’s imagine that these are your prices:
| Service | Cost | Service | Cost |
| Full set of gel/acrylic | $60 | Pedicure (basic) | $40 |
| Infills | $40 | Manicure (gel) | $60 |
| Manicure (basic) | $30 | Pedicure (gel) | $60 |
Based on the prices provided, you can gauge that standard pricing is around $30/half hour, so $60/hour. As an example, let’s look at what you could earn if you work for 8 hours. Let’s say that is made up of 6 hours of nail services and 2 hours for cleaning, setup, breaks and chatting to clients before and after the service. If you did this 5 days per week for 12 months straight, that would equal:
| Price | # of hours billable | Day total | Week total | Over 12 months |
| $60 | 6 | $360 | $1,800 | $93,600 |
| $65 | 6 | $390 | $1,950 | $101,400 |
| $70 | 6 | $420 | $2,100 | $109,200 |
| $80 | 6 | $480 | $2,400 | $124,800 |
| $90 | 6 | $540 | $2,700 | $140,400 |
| $125 | 6 | $750 | $3,750 | $195,000 |
| $150 | 6 | $900 | $4,500 | $234,000 |
| $200 | 6 | $1,200 | $6,000 | $312,000 |
A nail technician can be a super lucrative beauty area to be involved with, and it is a lot of fun! When you are creating your service list – less is more. If you have too many options, this will just confuse clients, so it is best to have some core services that you are really skilled at. You can always have a separate ‘add ons’ list for things like gel polish, nail art and other extras.
On the topic of too many options, be mindful that too many colour options and nail finish options will waste a lot of time as well. As we start out, we can be so excited to try out loads of colours and products, but unless you are servicing 10+ clients each day, you don’t really need 10 shades of green on your polish shelf!
If you find that most of your services are for gel sets, then consider targeting your marketing efforts there or if you would prefer doing nail air, then focus on trying to specialise and attract those clients. In addition to targeting your marketing efforts, having strategies in place to encourage repeat business will help you to increase your revenue (sales) and will also help you to build a strong client base. Of course, the example revenue breakdown table shows the gross revenue, meaning no expenses have been deducted. The example also doesn’t take into account the fluctuation of clients over the year and if different months. However, crunching the numbers using different scenarios and pricing in a similar way can really help you to accurately determine how you want to price your services.
To manage your inventory (disposables and consumables) and your equipment, accurate record keeping is a must! You don’t need a formal inventory control system in place, but you do need to know at any given time the inventory you have on hand and the inventory you need. If there is a variance between these two numbers, then you need to order some more inventory. You also need to ensure you keep track of inventory you have on the way so that you do not over order. When you receive your products, it might also be useful to create a list of their expiry dates. This will help to ensure you are using the oldest products first and will prevent you from accidentally using expired inventory.
Of course, your clients are coming to you because they want their nail goals slayed, but they are also coming for an experience. Have you ever had a massage treatment that was just so wonderful you left feeling beautiful and like you were walking on air? As a nail technician, you want to try and create the best experience possible. Of course, you don’t have as much time with each client, but you can definitely do a range of things to make them feel special.
Especially when you are working for yourself, you are your brand. Everything you do and say is a representation of your business. Nail technicians who are bubbly, confident, and passionate about their craft will always be more successful. This doesn’t mean you have to have a smile on your face for the entire service; it more means that you need to create a warm and welcoming environment for your clients.
To create an experience your clients will remember, think of ways that you can set yourself apart from the competition while still being true to yourself. There are loads of things you can do; maybe you have a range of yummy treats at your check-in desk, or perhaps you have really soothing music playing during all of your appointments. Giving your clients an unforgettable massage and ensuring they leave with soft skin are definitely going to get them coming back. When thinking about how to keep clients coming back, objectively evaluate the service from the following perspectives:
In addition to the criteria above, when evaluating your services, you need to consider your own fulfilment in the work you do – are you doing work that you are passionate about and excited about? Many beauty therapists start their careers thinking they will be doing a whole heap of services, but in reality, they might be waxing backs and cracks all day long! As a nail technician, if you do the same old nail shape, using the exact same nail polish colour in and day out for years on end, you will soon lose your passion. When we are not excited about what we do, it is really obvious to clients, even if you have good acting skills.
As you progress through your career, ensure that you have a lot of variety in the sorts of clients and appointments you book, as this will keep the momentum going. Equally important is to continue your education and always be on the lookout for new skills to practice or new products to try.
Before the final module of this course, let’s revisit the very first activity you completed. Now that you have developed your skills and knowledge, go through the list of key terms and concepts again and see how many you now understand: