How To Stop Undercharging Your Long-Time Clients

Hello, my friend. You're in for a treat today, because we are gonna be addressing one of the biggest difficult topics when it comes to being a hairstylist. Particularly being an experienced one that has been in it for a minute, and has really personal and beautiful relationships with clients. But unfortunately, being a smart business owner, you know that you need to raise your prices, and you know that you may lose some of the clients that you love and that you have a deep relationship with because of these necessary things that you need to do in the business.

So recently, I had MSM member, Angela, get on a coaching call with me, talking about how to handle this circumstance, and I thought that the advice that I gave her in the pep talk could be really valuable for everybody to hear. So if you are ready to start charging evenly across the board, but you're concerned about the relationships and losing them that you've created with your clients, and you're nervous about maybe having to take somebody up from a lower price to a really larger price, then this is the episode for you, my friend. You get to get a backdoor into one of the coaching calls that my students get as included in their programs with me, and Angela's gonna go kick some ass after this, and I hope that you do too. So without further ado, let's get into it.

Let's go. Most of my clients are at the base of, like, you know, a s- like, a $150 for a haircut is, like, my minim- that's, like, what I'm charging for my hourly. There's some people that kind of came along my business that... There was a girl that went on maternity leave, and then I started charging, you know, not...

This is not great. Like, I was basically emotionally charging, like, charging what she was, uh, her rate, and then people stayed with me. So I still have some people are, uh, like for example, I have a woman that gets a highlight for $225. Okay.

And, you know, she's there at least two hours. That's, like, a two-hour appointment, but... And normally, I'd be charging my people $300. Mm-hmm.

So there's a gap there. Before I give my advice, what do you think I'm gonna say? I don't know. I mean- I mean, why don't you do increments of, you know, so much so often, right?

I mean, it kinda s- spread it out, or do I tell them... I mean, would you recommend just telling them, like, "This is my current rate for what I charge people, and at the time, I was honoring rates, but..." Like, is that what you would say? I don't wanna lo- there's, there's some people I really enjoy doing.

I know that's why they stayed with me. Yeah. So I feel damn torn. I know it's not great to, like, be in that emotional side of things, and, like, I've really worked hard at trying not to do that.

Th- i- that struggle is so real. Yes. I'm sure you see it a lot. So- But I wanna get out of that.

So- ... advice. Yeah. What do you think?

Um- My first question is, are you... Are you getting new client requests? I get about 10 a month. Perfect.

Okay, great. So- So I've been growing. I've been growing. I've been taking on more time, and that's probably not the best thing, because I'm stepping into becoming an educator too.

Okay. So here's the tea. Okay? Y- yeah.

The tea is, how long have you been doing hair? Almost 20 years. So you've been doing, you've been busting your ass for 20 years. Okay?

Yeah. And when we've been doing hair that long, we also create relationships that have lasted a really long time, and it's really hard, particularly for our industry. When we are physically touching people, we are exchanging that type of energy. We know what's, what their kids names are, what their dog name is.

Like, they know a lot about you. Like, that, those relationships run so deep and is very not aligned with what we have to do with our business, right? Mm-hmm. And it just makes things really hard.

So just know, like, super valid, everyone goes through it. I've gone through it, and it sucks. But at the end of the day, that person probably has... You know, w- the way that they get paid, right?

They need to make hard decisions with their job, with their family, with their friends. They need to set boundaries. And if they were told, "You need to stop working with this one client to be able to make 10K more," right, then they probably go ahead and do it. Also, if they're not...

If they truly, like, care about you, if they're truly, like, in a great relationship with you, then they would probably pay the higher price, right? But regardless of all that, you just have to do what you have to do to be able to run your business the way that you need to to support you and your life. Like, you deserve that at the end of the day. Like, all the hard work that you put in thus far, the fact that you've served them so well up until this point, you have done your job.

And so now, it's time for you to reap the benefits of that, and it's time for you to recognize, like, you are not your business. Your business is something that is separate from you, that is designed and created and that you work so hard for to give you wealth so you can aspire for, to your dreams in your life, to be the educator, to be the person that you want to be for your loved ones. And that's what the real main purpose at the end of the day is of that business, is to make you money. So we have to make these really hard, uncomfortable decisions sometimes, even if we know that we're gonna sever some relationships, because at the end of the day, it is a transactional relationship, because I don't pay my friends to be friends with me.

If you truly want to keep, continue a relationship with this person after raising their price to what they should be, then you should go out to dinner with them. Mm-hmm. You should text them. You should hang out with them.

That is a real relationship, but it's... A r- a real relationship is not one in which we only see each other when we're paying each other or giving something to each other. You know what I mean? Yeah.

So you could al- you have free rein to ask this person to hang out, like, outside of work. But what you are doing is making the, um, uh, the serious and important decision to even things out across the board, because that's only fair to all of your clients who are paying more, and to yourself. This is how I would go about it.I would say, "Susie, it has been such a pleasure to serve you over the past couple years.

I'm gonna be quite honest with you, it's a little bit uncomfortable for me to share this with you today, and it's been a hard thing for me to get out of my, get out of my mouth, and so I appreciate you bearing with me, but this is the tea. I have been charging you X amount of money for a long time. Right now, all of my clients are paying X, and I, unfortunately, in order to keep things fair for them, and to be able to keep up with the costs of my business, have to even things out across the board for everybody. And so I want to make sure that you know that I do appreciate your loyalty, our relationship, getting to see you in here, but moving forward, this is just what I have to do, I have to charge you X amount of money."

And this is if it's a super big jump. If you're c- if this is like a $20 increase or something like that- Mm-hmm. then you're not 100% pissed. This is like, this is right in the middle.

Yeah. But if this is like somebody they just told you that they're broke, they're retired, something like that, and then you're about to raise their price $65, that's when this kind of like emotional, a little bit more raw conversation I think is important. Right? And you can say, "So, because of that, today you are not gonna pay that price, you're gonna pay the price that you booked at, and what I would love to do is over the next three appointments, we will bump you up $20 each time, and then I can also share with you, if this pri- this new price doesn't work for you, then I can share with you what other services we can look at to take care of you.

If that still doesn't work in your budget, then I'm happy to set you up with another provider that I trust, talk to the provider for you, make sure that they know everything about you, and that they will take good care of, and make sure that they take good care of you moving forward." Okay. And you have this all on recording. Awesome.

Aw, so what are your thoughts? Yes. I feel like I've had hard conversations with clients, you know, as I've, even when I went gratuity free and I, at that time too, I had bumped up my rates at least 20%, and then I had to go and I sent out an email, and then I had to talk to everyone one-on-one as they came in. Yeah.

And say, "You know, I'll honor your rate for today, but moving forward," like, it was sudden. So, and I lost some people through that. So I've done hard things before where I know, and I don't know, I think it's, yeah, I just haven't ... is yet another hard thing that you have to do, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Just another uncomfortable thing that you have to force yourself through that you know when you get to the other side, you'll know you made the right decision. Right.

And I think it's pretty c- in my opinion, it's m- it's pretty comforting to me to know that like, I appreciate this person so much and I do feel bad, and if I really wanted to, I could go out to dinner with them. And also- Mm-hmm. a little bit selfish to assume that like, you're the only person who can, like, do their hair well or take care of them well too. Or, and I think- Mm-hmm.

that that sometimes is what pops up for other people, is like, is like, they feel so bad that like, they're not the ones doing the hair anymore, when there's so many amazing, capable people out there who will take amazing care of them at a budget that works for them. Right. And so, like, if you truly care about them, like, allow them to go experience that, so that way you can allow yourself to experience the wealth and the benefits of all the hard work that you've put in up until this point. Yeah.

I know I've been asking for reviews too, more of like, you know, being more consistent with asking clients after I've seen them for- Oh, yeah. And I'm, you know, I've had so many more reviews written since last fall, and I'm, you know, you're kinda like surprised but not surprised. You know? Yeah.

People really, like, speak up about how they feel about you, and you're like, "I never knew." You know? Yeah. And you realize that those people aren't gonna go anywhere.

No. No. I mean, they're there to support you, and they've been there through the raises. Some people, they just don't even bat an eye, and I think I get in the...

it's more in my head than it might be with you, but- That's always the case. And it's a testament to the fact that you serve them well and you're gonna continue to serve them well. It's not like you're not, it's not like you're not delivering on that new, on the price that they will be paying. Right.

You've just been doing it at a discount, you know? Like- Right. you've been literally paying this person your time, energy, and money disproportionately every single time that you do that service, for this, for a high quality result. So it's not like- Mm-hmm.

they're not getting what they paid for. They're paying for Angela, who's been doing this shit for 20 years and knows their hair better than anybody else, and they're probably going to be willing to stick with you and pay for it. It just, and y- again, my conversation normally goes like, goes like, "It's a little bit difficult for me to have this conversation with you because I'm a little bit nervous because I really love getting to do your hair, and I wanna honor the fact that you've been so loyal with me, but this is the circumstance, and so moving forward, this is the situation. What are your thoughts?

How can I support you through this? If there is anything n- that needs to be supported, you know?" Yeah. Love it.

Okay. Thanks for the pep talk. Hell yeah. You got this, Angela.

I do. Yes.

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