My old boss told me to never charge less than $30 for a basic cut

This was back in 2012 when I was just starting out in a small shop in Tacoma. I thought he was crazy because the shop down the street charged $18. I kept my prices low for a year, but I was always busy and broke. After I finally raised my price to $32, I lost a few regulars but made the same money in half the time. Has anyone else had to learn the hard way about setting their rates?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_hernandez3mo ago

My first shop in Spokane had me doing $20 cuts in 2015 and I was drowning in work. I bumped it to $35 and honestly lost the worst clients, the ones who nitpicked every single hair. My chair filled back up with people who actually valued my time, and I started saving real money for the first time. It's scary to make that jump but you can't run a business on just being busy.

kim_hart73mo ago

Cheap cuts keep the chairs full and the lights on.

janac5119d ago

Olivia, that part about losing the nitpicky clients really hit home for me. It's like when you raise your rates you're not just charging more, you're setting a boundary. @kim_hart7 mentioned cheap cuts keeping chairs full, and that's true if you want to be busy all the time. But I've noticed this same pattern everywhere, not just in haircuts. My neighbor runs a small bakery and she used to sell cookies for a dollar each thinking volume was the answer. People would complain about the size, ask for discounts, and she'd barely break even. She finally raised them to two dollars and suddenly the same people saw her cookies as a real treat, not just a cheap snack. Sometimes you have to charge what you're worth to get people to actually respect what you do.