Answering All Of Your Questions About Prices and Increases

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Today, we are going to be answering questions directly from you, and it's gonna be all about increasing your prices. Now, I know that the common theme in the podcast, if you've been listening to the past couple episodes, um, the theme has been pricing.

And the reason why is because we have a very exciting workshop coming up. It's called Raise Your Prices Without Losing Any Clients. Uh, you most likely already heard a little bit of a dynamic insertion ad at the beginning of this episode, giving you all the details, but you can check out the show notes if you'd like to show up there live. Raising your prices is the quick, fast way for you to be able to work less and make more, and at the bare minimum, make the same amount of money since your expenses are inevitably going up.

And on my Instagram story, because I knew that we'd be talking about price increases a lot around this workshop, I asked you guys what your biggest hesitations, fears, questions were around raising prices, and just pricing in general. And Jodi is here with me today to prompt me and ask me some of these questions, and what Jodi found was there were some very common patterns and themes behind some of these questions, and also some really specific and unique, like niche questions that I kind of nerded out about that I'm really excited to address today. And so, we're just gonna be answering all of your questions about price increases today to make sure that we can remove some of the fear that you may have or the uncertainty that you may have around it, because knowledge is power and knowledge destroys fear, right? So, I am really hyped to get into it with Jodi and you today, my friend.

Awesome. Let's do it. I'm really excited about this. And so I want to preface this by saying that most of these points, there were multiple people that said this.

Like, some of those niche questions were like one-offs, but for the majority of these five categories that I noticed they kind of fell into, there was a lot of answers that were kind of on the same wavelength. So, the first category that I noticed when we were going through and sorting through all these like tons of responses that you got in for this question, was fear of backlash from clients or clients leaving. And so a couple of examples of those comments were, "Fear that I'll lose clientele if I increase my prices," which was probably the number one comment in this category. Um, the biggest struggle is being scared of backlash, so like what their clients were gonna say and actually like communicating that, and then guilt, because clients are financially struggling too.

And there was actually one person that said, "I don't want to be another thing that my clients can't afford." And so, that was kind of the theme in this category. Yeah. I mean, this is such a fair concern, right?

Like, we all, number one, like... And I think this is honestly, like I could split this into two things, like we have our personal guilt around this, like we have our personal feelings of maybe like unworthiness or like not wanting to cause burden, and then the other part of this is like the actual client's reaction to those things and being s- nervous about that confrontation. And here's the thing, my friend. Like, this is just inevitably something that you're going to have to face in business, period.

Right? And arguably, it might be the most nerve-wracking thing out of, out of all the other things that we have to deal with on a regular basis, but unfortunately, like you as a business have to handle pricing and confronting your clients with prices. Like, and it sucks, but it is also extremely important and we have to get very used to the discomfort of it happening. And yes, you will maybe get a couple clients who are going to be pissed, question you, say, "Ugh, the prices are already so expensive," or some annoying bullshit like that, right?

My, one of my favorite quotes, and I don't know if Jinkx Monsoon, the drag queen, was the first person who said this, but it's the first person I heard this from is, "Water off a duck's back. Water off a duck's back." Like, anytime anybody's sitting in your chair and you know that you have done the right thing for yourself and your business, and you've done it with data-driven, smart, proven decisions, like the ones that we teach in our programs, then you need to be prepared for the fact that this is going to happen, and you need to say, "Water off a duck's back." Like, this person can say these things, right?

But you don't have to allow that to take over your entire day, your entire mood, your entire feeling around your price increase, because you should be so fucking proud of yourself for doing the difficult thing that you know you needed to do to continue moving forward with building that business and making an impact in your community. And the reality here is, is that you can't even do this person's hair if your prices aren't increased, if they aren't sustainable, because you won't have a business that will be open. You won't have a business that you enjoy showing up to. And I don't know about you, but I don't want any service provider doing services for me if they aren't happy or feeling good about the amount of money that they're making.

Right? Because then they're going to do a half-assed job, they're going to be miserable, and then I as a customer don't feel really great about that myself, right? And so, maybe you have a non-ideal person who's gonna be bitchy and annoying about your increase. Oh, well.

So be it. Go through the discomfort. Go through the awkwardness of them maybe confronting you. Say, "Yeah, I totally know how you feel.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. Like, it may be, it is expensive." Or like, what the fuck ever. Just like validate the person, but don't, like apologize for it, right?

Like, we can validate somebody's feelings, we can validate what somebody's saying, but we don't have to apologize for our decision, and we can just keep it pushing forward and this person gets to decide whether or not they want to continue doing business with you or not. But that is not your decision to make. That is their decision to make. So allow them to make the decision, but you need to make the right decisions for yourself as a business owner and you need to stand strong in them, and there's a lot of specific and tangible ways that we can......

face these things, like scripting and things like that, that I would love to go over with you in our Raising Your Prices workshop. So, go ahead and check out the link in the show notes and sign up if you want more specific information about this. Um, and then the addressing like the guilt, right? Like, I feel like I've addressed this a little bit already in a couple of the past episodes, so I definitely recommend that you check this...

check those out if that's, like, a big concern for you. But you have guilt for raising your prices and being yet another expense for your client, yet what about the expenses that you are incurring as a business owner, as a human being, as somebody who maybe financially supports yourself and your family? Like, whatever it may be, right? Like, what about you?

Like, your expenses change as well too, and so you deserve to be making money just as much as this other person deserves to get a great service in exchange for the amount that you are charging them. And there should be no guilt around this if you truly are delivering an excellent service. Like, what you can promise in exchange for the increase in your prices is a consistent, sustainable, excellent service that is matching up to the value of the amount of money that you're charging. So, if you can sit here and you can tell me, "I have a client experience that nobody else in my fucking area can touch.

Like, I can confidently say other salons do not do it the way that I fucking do it." If these clients are leaving loving the results of their hair, you're getting organic referrals from word of mouth, if you are working your butt off to create an excellent client experience, then you are delivering on the value of the m- amount that you are charging, and y- it is absolutely justified for you to do your price increase. And so, you may feel the guilt, but guess what? You gotta do it anyway, right?

So like ... nonetheless, like all these feelings that we may have, you're gonna do it the fuck anyway. So, we might as well just get un- we might as well get comfortable with being uncomfortable, 'cause you're gonna have to go through it at one point or another. And you can't go, you know, through the mountain or around the mountain.

You gotta climb the mountain and just get it done. So just do the damn thing. Preach. I love that.

That kind of ties in, actually, to the next, the next kind of category that I noticed, and it was, "Not feeling worthy/fear of judgment." And I noticed that this comment, and a couple of these comments, did not say, "Clients judging me." It said, "People judging me for having higher prices." So, some of these kind of comments under this theme were, "Emotion is greater than logic, imposter syndrome."

Um, again, "People judging me for my prices," and, "Seeing 60 happy clients, but only basing my pricing decision on the two clients who complain." Right. And I think you just really spoke to that. Is there anything that you want to add in terms of people, like, judgment from other people?

Yeah. Like, I just relate this to my own experience of being, like, a gay, expressive person. Like, I, as a young kid, like seventh grade, I came out of the closet, okay? And trust me, I'll make, I'll make my point, all right?

I know I sound like I'm going in a different direction, but I promise you I'll bring it back. Like, when I was in, like, seventh grade, I came out of the closet. Eighth grade, I started to color my hair fucking crazy rainbow colors. I started to wear, like, the ugliest, like, girl clothes from Rue 21.

Like, the cheapest, like, nastiest fast fashion that I could afford with my $20 a week allowance. Um, I started to wear makeup to school. Like, whatever it may be, right? And as a kid, like, that already didn't really fit in, that already kind of had to deal with a little bit of bullying, like, it was really scary for me to go out and do those things.

Because, of course, the fear of judgment from others, right? What are people gonna think about me, and what are people gonna say about me? And whatever it may be. But I had to decide between my own happiness versus other people and what they thought about me, right?

And the answer to this question or this decision that I had to make, that I've had to make my entire life as a gay individual, the answer always is when I choose myself over other people that don't fucking matter, it is always worth it. It is always worth it. Because, okay, other people may judge you, right? Or you may even believe of yourself, like, you're not worthy of this and what are other people gonna think about you when you do this, right?

Every single time you, you allow that to hold you back, you are sitting in misery instead of fighting through it and actually facing it, right? And it is 100% more miserable than actually doing the damn thing that you know is right for yourself. And the right people will surround you and celebrate you, and sometimes you need to find those people. You need to find peers who are like-minded, who maybe understand those struggles, who can remind you that you are on the right track and that you do deserve this, which I strive to do and create in my community, and I think that we do a really great job of that, of making sure that you all know, like, you're not alone.

And even your closest family members and friends will maybe be the people that you're scared of, and I completely understand where that's coming from. Like, they... But they don't fucking get it, and the people who won't get it aren't the people that you need to be making your decisions based upon. Like, how backwards is that, that we're making decisions about our own lives around what somebody's opinion is about that, that does not fucking matter at the end of the day?

Right? So- True. just fucking do it. Raise the damn prices.

Choose yourself. Like, choose happiness. Like, choose the temporary discomfort over the long-term discomfort of not changing anything out of fear, because nothing's gonna change if nothing changes.A 100%.

I love that, and thank you for sharing that story. I think that is so, so true. I could not agree and co-sign that more. Um, okay, so our next category, Hunter, this is getting a little bit more into the logistics and the strategy and the numbers.

So I'm gonna kind of read some of these out, but I feel like you're gonna wanna weigh in on multiple ones here. So the first comment that I'm gonna read here is, "Is there a ceiling to your prices? Because I feel like I may have reached it." Another similar one here is, "Can it be too soon for another price increase, even if you are hitting all the marks, when your increase wasn't enough and you're still booked out?"

So these are, like, you've increased the prices and you're still not quite there, but you're feeling some type of way about raising it again. All right. Yes, you're right. This is a couple different things.

So, uh, first thing, like, is there a ceiling to your prices? I work very closely with, like, a ton of hairstylists, and we talk about their pricing and we track their pricing and the results all the time. And I have students who have increased significantly, year over year, who are completely priced out of their market, and they have competition that is absolutely lesser priced than them. But they've done such a great job of s- of setting themselves apart and establishing value and being really str- smart with their marketing strategy so that there is no ceiling, because there is a way to break through that.

But it's about doing things differently, right? It's about, it's about now, like, what got you here won't get you there. And that could look a, like, a lot of different things. It could look like I wanna keep the same structure that I have right now, right?

Like, I still just wanna be a stylist. I don't want to open up a salon, I don't wanna hire an assistant, I don't want to scale in those other ways that we would normally maybe look at if you feel like you've hit a ceiling. Maybe it's you just want to stay where you are, but you wanna continuously raise your prices so that way you can raise your income. And that looks like changing other things, doing things in a strategic and different way, such as your marketing, and you need to now position yourself in a much more valuable way.

You need to be doing a little bit more outreach, uh, that is strategic for higher dollar clients. It's just about doing things differently, as I've illustrated. Um, and e- and that's why I created Mastermind, was because, like, I have a lot of people who come into our program and they do really fucking well and get to this point where they're like, "I feel like I'm maxed out. Like, I'm making amazing money.

I have awesome clients, I'm doing the services that I love. What's next? Like, I feel like, like do I even deserve anything more? Can I have anything more?

Should I have anything more?" And Mastermind really answers those questions for you, and, uh, allows you to, when you work with me one on one, we can really talk about and show you the opportunities that are still very much out there for you within the parameters of what you want to do. Like, for example, for me, like, I never wanted to open up my own salon, like, ever. And I knew that that was not on my path to scale what I've created.

But I also knew that there were different paths that I could take to break through the glass ceiling, and there absolutely is. So, um, there's no such thing, as long as you understand that what got you here won't get you there, past that ceiling. Um, and then, "Can it be too soon for another price increase, even if you're hitting all the marks?" Yes.

And, uh, of course, this kinda depends, right? Like, in, in, in Modern Stylist Movement, we do a really good job with our entire pricing module of, like, of equipping you with the knowledge and tools that you need to be able to confidently make these decisions for yourself. That's something that I've really enjoyed about my education from the very beginning Like, even with, like, the tech and automation stuff, I loved empowering people with these tools to then be able to learn and implement their own strategies in their own ways, versus just, like, the, like, the, "Here you go. Here's the strategy and do it."

And that is exactly what I teach. I teach both, right? I teach you the fundamentals and the foundation so you are equipped with the knowledge, which is so powerful, but then also the exactly, "This is what you do, step-by-step-by-step." And I think that education that doesn't give you both really lacks and doesn't give you a lot of momentum and also long-term sustainability as far as strengthening your skills and your knowledge as a CEO.

But when we give you this knowledge, we go through all of the different nuances that we have to take in consideration when we are ever making any decisions about our pricing. And if somebody were to come to me and they were gonna ask me, "Hey, I just did a price increase and it didn't really do what I need, what I thought it would do. Like, I didn't really lose clients. I am making more money, but it looks like I could make even more if I wanted to," or, "I really need to lessen my demand because it's completely overwhelming," we would be looking at a whole lot of different factors.

We'd be looking at, exactly when was that last increase? What would happen if you did increase? Did we a- again, like, what could possibly happen? What are you looking to get out of this?

Because maybe the answer to what you're looking for doesn't, has nothing to do with your prices, but it actually has to do with your systems and your structure How we're actually having a new client inquire with you, how strenuous we're making that process to filter out anybody who's unserious. We also have ways that we can test your new prices without you actually having to roll them out, which is really fucking cool. You get to literally test and see, "How is this new price going to affect my business?" without actually digging yourself into that hole yet.

So there's a lot of different things that you can do and that we should consider before we maybe make that quick next step. But again, all these nuances matter so much, and we equip you with the knowledge and tools to recognize what those nuances are, to take them into consideration, so that way you can make the best decision for yourself inside Modern Stylist Movement, and in our workshop, Raising Your Prices Without Losing Clients, which you can check out in the show notes of this episodeOkay, I love that. Now, almost on the flip side here, there was kind of another piece to this conversation, and again, we got a lot of responses, like, in this vein. So, basically the, the whole common theme here was, "I don't actually have enough clientele to lose, but I can't keep charging what I charge.

I need a big raise," or, "What percentage to increase prices when you are underpriced?" So there was a lot of comments surrounding, like, "I'm- I'm not in the phase where I need to, like, cut demand, but I am underpriced and I need to make more money." Okay. So looking ...

I, I would look at a couple of different things in this case scenario. So we're in a space in which we cannot raise our prices because we don't have the demand on our time to justify the increase, because when we increase, we lose clients. Period, right? Now, with my workshop, I'm gonna show you how we don't lose clients.

However, that takes some unique things, right? But if we're just talking straight-up and answering this question, there's a couple of things that we look at. So the first thing is, well, if you don't have enough clients, right, then what do you have? If you're not making money, what do you have?

Jodi, tell me, what do we have? Time. Time. Exactly.

So how are you using that time, right? Because if you don't have enough clients right now, then you have time, and if you're not using that time to get new clients, then obviously you're in a space in which you can't raise your prices because you're not marketing yourself and you're not building your book. Now, let's say that you are using that time. You're like, "Hunter, when I don't have a client, I'm sitting down and I am popping off on Instagram.

I am going out into the community, whether digitally or in person, and I am putting myself out there in the right places, with the right messaging, with the right strategy, speaking to the right ideal client, branding myself the wi- right way I need to. I'm doing the things." I would argue that you're not. I would argue that you actually aren't maybe going about it the right way, and this is something that I've talked about a lot in the past year or so, which is, okay, maybe we do know where we need to focus our time, but are we doing it in a way that's strategic and proven and actually gonna work for you?

And that's where I think that we need to pivot, and if you are in this space right now where, like, "I can't afford to keep the same prices that I have, but I don't have enough clients to be able to increase," then we maybe really need to pivot your marketing strategy, and every single fucking piece of time that you have should be that is, that you're not taking a client, right? You have that time. That's what you're telling me. That's what you're signaling to me.

You should be spending fucking marketing, or else I don't wanna hear it, right? Because other- otherwise, you'd be doing a client, right? But you don't have a- Yeah. client to do.

You'd be working regardless. You should be working on the business instead of in the business, and we need to do that strategically and the right way, and we teach you how to do that in Modern Stylist Movement. The other thing I'm gonna talk about here is, how can we use the existing clients that we have right now to be able to increase our revenue without having any new clients that come in? And that's when we look at raising your average ticket, add-on sale- add-ons, and retail sales, and all of that good stuff, uh, which we should be doing regardless, right?

But if you're in a pinch, if you're in this space and you really feel the pressure, then you should be focusing on raising your average ticket, focusing on raising your average frequency of visit, focusing on- Mm-hmm. raising your retention as well, too. And so there's so many different ways that we can attack this, but the main way we attack it is, how do we get you more clients? Right, right.

I love that. Um, and then d- kind of the third theme here was to do with things like time, or link, or charging for product, those types of things. So I'll read you a couple of the comments here. Um, "Struggle charging by length/thickness.

It's the same price no matter how much product I use," and there's like a cover eyes emoji, and then the other one is, "My biggest struggle is time, like for vivid colors that take a long time. How do I even price that?" So kind of more specific questions on the actual pricing piece. Yeah, so, um, with these ...

Okay, so two different conversations. I would say, like ... I would say, actually, to both of these, I think that whenever I'm looking at somebody's prices, the very first thing that I wanna see is, how profitable is each service in comparison to others based upon the time that is reserved to carry them out? Because it tells us a story.

Even if you're not going to be pricing for your time, like let's say that you're not going to be pricing based upon a base hourly rate, it still gives you a really good understanding of where you're at as far as how much money you will make when you are doing each of these services, and it just gives you so much good data and information to start with when it comes to making these decisions. I say it all the time, that the biggest mistake that hairstylists makes, and the biggest things that hold them back when it comes to making pricing decisions, is not already understanding the prices you have now- Mm-hmm. where they came from, why they are the way that they are, and how they're affecting your business right now. Because when you get that data, that's when things become a lot more clear and you can do really strategic things.

And so what ... to maybe the vivids question, right? When something has to maybe be an hourly rate possibly, right, then I would look at, okay, well, what are, what are you doing with your other services right now? What's your average hourly rate on all of these other services?

Also, what's your demand on these vivid colors? Is the demand on these vivid colors a little bit higher to where we actually need to charge a little bit more? Do we need to have, like, a max product amount allotted to this service per hour, and then if it goes beyond that product per service per hour, right, then we add extra product fees? Like, again, like there's so many different nuances, and that's why I love equipping you with the knowledge and these nuances to actually understand all the factors that you need to understand to be able to make your own decisions around this.

But it is super personalized, and that's why, like, I'm not just throwing a calculator at you in Modern Stylist Movement and saying, like, "Fill this out and this is what your prices need to be," because you as an individual are so fucking unique. Every single business is so unique. The people that you're doing, the way that you're doing it, the demand on those things are so unique that there is not a one-size-fits-all answer, but there is knowledge and education and mentorship and community that can help you figure out that right answer, and to the, uh, extra product, extra time, still charging the same amount of money.Again, going back to, like, a base hourly rate, and then you would want to consider the max amount of product that's allotted for that price of the service.

So, like, you want to decide, right, like, how much product will I allow as my max to be used in this service at the price that it is at its base, right? And what I would suggest is trying to max it out a little bit. So like, what's, like, the highest amount of product that I will use for this p- for this service that I'm comfortable with charging, right, for and building into my price? And then if there's anything that is a circumstance where it's significantly more than that, right, as far as time or the product that's used, that's when we would decide to charge a little bit more possibly.

But I want you to build a little bit of flex room into your base prices, so that way if there is a circumstance where you're having to use more product, you don't have to stress out about charging extra or having a bigger service ch- uh, fee. I'd rather your base price have a lot of flexibility in it as far as time and product goes, so that you are getting paid no matter what, and maybe the average amount of product that you use is a little bit less than that. Great, you're just really profitable on every one of your services, and you have that flexibility built in. And in the case scenario in which you don't have that or there are things in which you're using more product more time, there's a lot of other things that you have to consider.

Do I wanna, quote-unquote, "penalize" this person just because they have more hair? Right. Do you need to consider the privilege that you may have versus the privilege that this person may not have just because of their physical attributes, right? Uh, there's a lot of different ethical and moral questions that come into play that I believe every single individual has to make for themselves, and I don't think there's a right or wrong here.

I will say in my own business, I always built enough flexibility into my price that I felt so profitable that I oftentimes did not feel obligated to have to push this person into an extra charge. Did it d- am I saying that I never did? Absolutely not. There were absolutely case scenarios where I had to, but I made it so w- how I priced, made it so I didn't have to deal with that discomfort.

I love how really, like, the theme when it comes to logistics here, which is so important, is the nuance in your individual business, 'cause sometimes I think, well, no, not sometimes. Uh, pretty much all the time, any cookie-cutter business advice can be so helpful at one phase in business and can be catastrophic in other phases in business. And so, I think that that common theme of, like, taking into account what is happening in your business is so, so, so important. Um...

I completely agree. I will preach that till I die. And there's one question on here, Jodi, that I don't think that we covered yet or that you wanted to cover, but I'm gonna steal it, and I'm gonna take it and run with it, if that's okay with you. Yes.

Of course. How do you, quote-unquote, "justify" a price increase when the quality and value do not increase? This question kind of fucking drives me nuts. It depends on the price increase you're doing, okay?

There's two types of price increase. There's a cost of goods increase, and then there's an actual revenue-changing increase, right? Or, I'm sorry, profit-changing increase. Uh, cost of goods increase, your profit is not gonna change.

It's not enough to make it so your profit actually increases. It's just enough to equal out y- how your expenses has raised, and you should be doing one of those at least once a year. But then, we have profit-changing increases, which go beyond the small little $5 increase, right? And that is gonna shake up some things in your business.

That's actually gonna make it so you lo- definitely m- maybe will lose some clients. It's going to also increase your profitability, which is really awesome. So, with things such as that, right, where we are, we're increasing, uh, a lot, right, there does have to be, quote-unquote, "justification." Mm-hmm.

Right. But if there are already signals that you c- deserve that, then guess what? The value and quality is already there, right? The value and quality is already there, but you need to know what the factors are and the indicators are that you do deserve that type of increase and that you'll be able to survive that type of increase in a sustainable and profitable way.

And so, there's nothing more that you need to do if you're already in a place where you're delivering great value and great quality. But as long as you stay consistent in delivering those things and things don't change, then you can do that without having to do anything special. Like, people will feel like, "Oh, well, I need to create a better client experience before I raise my prices this much." I'm like, "I wouldn't be telling you to raise your prices this much if I didn't think you already deserved it."

Right? Right. But we have to get to that point where you do deserve it, and that is by delivering great value and great quality of service, and we will talk about that a lot in the Raising Your Prices workshop, because it's a big factor w- with being able to do all of this stuff sustainably. When it comes to a cost of goods increase, unless you're in a very sensitive place and maybe you have a very high average frequency of visit...

A cost of goods increase will never harm you. It won't hurt you the majority of the time. But let's say that the majority of your clientele is maybe a weekly retired styling client, right? Right.

So, if you do a st- like, like say that's the m- the majority of your clients, like, they are retired, and they come in weekly to get a sty- a shampoo and style with you, that is a clientele in which maybe a small little $5 increase, that's gonna be $20 extra a month on top- Right. of what they're already paying. And they already have a limited budget, and they're coming in very often, so they see that increase a lot more than somebody who's coming in every three months, right? The person who's coming in every three months, the $5 is nothing to them.

It's not going to make any waves. And in that case, you do not have to fucking give them any more quality or value to justify a $5 increase. That's stupid. Right.

But if you're listening to this right now, a $5 increase is a lot of the time where we will max ourselves out at a, as far as a price increase goes, and it's so scary for the majority of hairstylists out there. And they're like, "I just did a price increase. I feel like I'm not making any more money." No wonder you're not making any more money.

Your expenses have gone up- Ooh. $5 on average per service equally, right? And so if we actually want to increase our profit at the end of the day, then we need to be doing things that actually justify that at the, uh, that in the beginning. And if we do those things, then you already deserve that big of an increase.

Right. I love that. So yes, this is the justification piece, is a part of, like, this bigger theme, which is our next one, which is communicating that price increase to clients. So, the justification piece, and then there was some other themes within this category as well.

So number one was just having the conversation. So, communication as far as how you're actually sharing with your clients about this increase absolutely is a crucial piece of this puzzle, and there is 100% a right and wrong way to do it. There's way more wrong ways to do it than there is the right way to do it, in my opinion and my experience. And things that absolutely drive me nuts, honestly, and I'll just give you the sneak peek right now.

The biggest thing that is the biggest mistake is not telling your clients about it. I think that- Mm-hmm. that is absolutely what we should not be doing. We have to tell our clients about this, because we have a personal relationship with them, and even a $5 increase may feel offensive to a client if you don't tell them, because they may feel as if you've broken trust with them, even if it's such a small amount, right?

So, we have to be telling our clients about this. And there's a right or wrong way to do it, and I'm gonna be talking a lot about the right way and a lot about the wrong ways at our Raise Your Prices Without Losing Clients workshop. So, check out hunterdonahue.com/prices, or go to the link in the show notes and then sign up for that if you want to know the exact right way to roll out your increase without pushback from clients, with the smoothest way possible, and a way that will feel right and good to you as well too.

I love that. All right, as promised, we're gonna answer a couple of those really niche questions. We'll do this kind of rapid fire style. So, the first one is, is it wrong to give discounts when you are trying to fill a gap?

So honestly, I have a whole episode about, like, discounting, and, um, I don't think that there's necessarily, like, I don't have a strong opinion about... I don't have a strong, like, yes or no to discounts. Like, I'm not like, "Never give a discount," and I'm not like, "Hell yeah, discounts," right? I'm kind of somewhere in between, like agnostic almost, where you look at other businesses, and you see them use discounts extremely strategically all the time, even high ticket businesses as well too.

And a lot of people will say, "Well, if you discount, then it kind of tarnishes your brand. Um, and maybe it could also make people expect a discount from you all the time. So therefore, you are not gonna train your customers to purchase from you at a regular price." Which I think those things are absolutely valid points and things that we should take in consideration.

On the flip side of things, um, do I think that there's circumstances in which you would rather lose money and risk those things in order to have a client in your chair? Sure. Are there ways, in order for you to be able to, uh, build a strong, sustainable clientele, especially in the beginning, using discounts as a strategy? Absolutely.

Uh, can we use discounts in a way in which it's really niched down, and it's not in a general, um, s- uh, uh, traditional way that could, uh, grow your clientele in different ways, like having a brand ambassador program and giving those people discounts, like a small group of people discounts in exchange for certain a- activities and incentives that will help you in your business? So, like, there's just so many different, like, things that you get to, to consider when it comes to discounting. And it's yet just, like, another tool or option that you can look at and decide whether or not it's the right fit for you, and then implement it in a way that makes sense for you. Um, regardless, is it wrong to give discounts when you're trying to fill a gap?

Depends on what point of business you're at, I guess- Mm-hmm. and all those nuances that I just considered. So, like, if you're in the very beginning and you're just trying to fill a gap, then fuck yeah. Like, I, I, if you're, if you have, like, no clientele and you're just trying to fill a gap, yeah, why not?

You have nothing to lose really. Mm-hmm. You know? So that's my opinion, I guess.

Okay, awesome. This next one is super interesting, so I can't wait to hear your opinion on it. I went gratuity free, and now I want to backtrack. Yeah.

So I saw this question come through, and I actually DM'd the person, and I was like, "Why?" Uh, and they were like, because of the big beautiful bill, um, because of the tip...... tax credit or whatever that I may get. Um, and I think it's a super fascinating question and something that's interesting to address.

And, um, I've been wanting to bring the education about the Big Beautiful Bill because there's a lot of miseducation about it out there, misinformation about it out there. Mm-hmm. I've been wanting to bring it to the podcast, so I'm having my CPA and the hairstylist's CPA, Michelle Cook, uh, come on the podcast this week actually. So, you guys can look forward to that release right after this one, uh, talking about the, uh, the tax credit and the Big Beautiful Bill and all of the things that you may be able to gain from what has happened in the government in the United States, uh, with this bill.

And so, you can look forward to that. And I may address this question more in detail from, like, the stylist's perspective versus- Oh. the CPA's perspective during that episode as well too. So, you can check that one out as far as, maybe I'm gratuity free or should I look at, uh, how I'm, how I'm accepting tips in a different way now, what does this mean for me and my entity?

So, like, this is gonna look maybe a little bit different for you if you're a sole prop, LLC, S corp, it may be different. So, we want to talk to Michelle, get the real details from an expert, and then I'll give you my opinion as far as the business strategy around it in that episode that we will be re- releasing very soon. All right. Amazing.

This has been... We've gotten through all of the variations of comments that were brought up when it comes to pricing, and I know that you've got even more education coming on that. Here's the thing. Every single time I get on a coaching call with a, with a hairstylist, the majority of the time, like 90% of the time, we talk about price.

And so, that makes- that, that means, right, that illuminates to us that pricing is obviously massively important, and it is normally at the root of a lot of the things that are actually happening for you and your business, and- Right. how it affects the future of your business as well too. And we're in a unique time where we really should not be cookie-cuttering this stuff, right? Like, we should not be fitting ourselves or squeezing ourselves into a box, and we need to be empowered with the knowledge and tools to make our own decisions about our business, taking into consider-ation our own unique nuances as a business when it comes to how we price.

And so, I wanna empower you with those things, my friend. I wanna empower you with the confidence to be able to roll out your price increase unapologetically. I want to empower you with exactly what you need to do to make it so you don't have a huge fallout of clients and you can have a lot of sustainability while raising your profitability at the same time. And I wanna teach you how to do it mathematically, formulaically, that will guarantee that it will be a safe decision for you when you are deciding on what that number looks like for your increase, but it'll be enough that it actually makes a difference for you and your life so you can afford more in your life and your business.

So, I'll be doing all that stuff for you in our workshop, Raise Your Prices Without Losing Clients, hunterdonio.com/prices, or check out the link in the show notes. And so much love to you, my friend. Sorry if the workshop's already over and you're listening to this on the replay.

Hopefully this was still valuable for you. I'm sure that it absolutely was. Peace out, girl scout. Thank you so much, Jodi Brown.

Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2025 Hunter Donia LLC.