When my hairdresser of several years moved to an island off the coast of Florida (yes really!), I needed to find someone new in a pinch. Who I discovered was Crystal*, a delightful woman who ran her own salon just five minutes from my home. She provided a great haircut, and better yet, her prices were extremely reasonable. She wouldn’t even let me pay for bang trims which I needed monthly – not even a tip (I eventually stopped asking).
There was just one problem. It sometimes took me weeks to get in for a bang trim, and I had to schedule my haircuts at least three months out. However, I loved Crystal and her haircuts, so I didn’t pay too much mind.
Until, that is, after my mom began going to Crystal as well and said to me one day: “Did you know Crystal has 500 clients?”
Warning bells started going off in my head along with one single thought: this woman needs to raise her prices! Stat.
When you’re a business owner and your prices are too low, the following problems tend to occur:
- You may have a backlog of clients, forcing your customers to wait longer than they would like to receive services
- You may feel on the verge of burnout, like you’re drowning in work
- You may feel that some of your customers don’t appreciate you or value your work
While everyone loves a good deal, the truth is when a business owner’s prices are too low, it hurts everyone. It hurts the business owner and it hurts the customers.
So what did I do? At my latest bang trim, I explained to Crystal that I’m a marketing consultant of sorts, and outlined why I believed it was time for her to raise her prices. I even gave her specific suggestions for new prices.
Will she listen to me? Who knows – the choices is hers alone. But one thing I knew for sure, it would make for a great issue of Short & Sweet! 😉
*Name has been changed
