HOW DO I: Make More Money?

Increase your income now by using at least one of these eight great ideas.

To Get Started

One surefire way to boost your income is by increasing your clients’ frequency of visits. Right now, the average client visits a salon 5.2 times a year, which equates to 10-week turns. What if you could get your clients to come in oftener?

If all your clients visit five times a year and spend $30 each time, each client represents $150 a year. If you have 400 clients, multiply $150 x 400, and your ticket total is $60,000. If all those clients visited six times a year, each would represent $180 a year, for a yearly total of $72,000.

Make it happen by prebooking! Tell your clients when they need to see you again; book the appointment before they leave.

7 IDEAS

1. Increase your average ticket or income per hour. Marchelle McKeirnan, a stylist at Bluxom Salon, San Diego, California, says add-on services are easy to suggest. “Educate yourself to offer higher-earning services, such as extensions,” she adds. “Work smarter.”

2. Increase your productivity. Frances DuBose, owner of London Hair in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, does a cut and color in 30 minutes, using her High Gear Cutting System, (now available on DVD). Develop faster techniques. Once you generate max dollars per hour, hire an assistant to turbo-boos productivity.

3. Retail better. Ask owners for a higher percent if you retail over a certain amount. Then, maximize experience by educating clients. Be their total beauty expert. Put products in their hands, demonstrate their use and use “Hair Script” pads. You have a captive client who would love to know all about his or her hair.

4. Retain more clients. It takes at least three visits for a client to be safely “yours.” Never take a client for granted! Create great experiences. Follow-up the first visit with a call to be certain the client was happy. Offer fee re-dos if necessary. Clients are more likely to stay with stylists who cut and color their hair, and suggest something new with each visit.

5. Ask for referrals. Ted Cortese, owner of diVa Colour Studio, Memphis, Tennessee, gives his clients three cards to pass out to friends. Each friend gets 25% off the first visit and the client gets 50% off a service, once three cards come back.

6. Expand your hours, says Marco Pelusi, who owns a namesake studio in West Hollywood, Califnora. “Tell your clients that you're expanding your hours and you'd love referrals.” (Be sure you’re working the hours they want.)

7. Increase your prices. The classic formula: raise prices by 10% if you are 80% booked and have an 80% request rate. At Carter T. Lund salon, Austin, TX, stylists get their first price increase when they are 75% prebooked at their current price, have a 75% request rate and retail at least 20% of service dollars.