Raising Your Prices When The Economy Feels Uncertain

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to The Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Uh, we are on the theme of pricing on The Modern Hairstylist Podcast, okay? Me and Jodi have some really cool conversations about pricing coming up here, because it probably is honestly, at the end of the day, the number one thing that the majority of hairstylists end up talking to me about.

And normally it's like, a hairstylist will come to me with a problem of sorts, and then somehow, someway, we always end up talking about pricing. And so, it's something that is so massively and deeply relevant to the majority of the decisions or factors of your business and your business growth. And I think that it's- it's something that I also am a nerd about, and I love talking about, and that a lot of the industry really needs a lot of great education and modern education about. And so today, we are going to be discussing pricing, particular to right now, 2025, time of recording this, in which a lot of people are just fucking scared, okay?

Everybody's scared of the future, every- everybody's nervous about what may happen later, right? And people are nervous to maybe raise their price too much, because then people won't be able to afford things anymore, because things are already expensive, there's already inflation, or in six months from today, inflation could be out of control and we could be in a recession and everything falls to shit, and then you raised your price so much that you priced yourself out of your business, and now you have no sustainability, right? So like, that's like, the catastrophizing, that's like the worst case scenario, and that's the majority of the time when we are talking about this conversation why people will end up not raising their price. And I wanna answer the question like, should I take this inflation, or the possibilities of the future with an unsure economical time, should I take that into consideration when it comes to if I do a price increase or not?

So I'm excited to address that with you today, and I wanna say hello to Jodi Brown pretty quickly. What's going on, Jodi? Hey, hey. Jodi, what are your thoughts about this conversation, before we get into it?

I think it's just really- I think it's hyper-relevant, honestly, because like, I feel like it's not just in the beauty industry, it's like, a lot of the conversations, honestly, that have been happening for the past like, five years now at this point, is, you know, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of- there has been a lot of inflation, there's, you know, the constant recession talk, and the economic f- you know, uncertainty and all of these things, so I do think it's something that is top of mind for so many people right now, and a lot of hairstylists are probably having conversations in their personal lives as well as in their business lives, and it- and it's really leading to a lot of, um, you know, it's just very top of mind, so I think it's an important one to address. Yeah. Uh, I said it in, like, one of the recent episodes that we just recorded, like, we've been fucking having this conversation for how long, right? Like, I remember being asked this question literally four years ago.

Right? For sure. So like, obviously this question is not going away any time soon, and then also, I think the fact that we've been ha- having this conversation for so long also kind of helps to, like, it- it- it lends to my answer, or- Yes. to this entire conversation.

Now, I do wanna preface, before I start ranting and stuff, like, I am not necessarily like, a hard and fast rule person with anything in business, you know? Like, I don't think there's necessarily any right or wrong, and everybody gets to make their own decisions at the end of the day, and maybe there are particular, rare circumstances in which my answer to this may change depending on who you are, right? And your certain circumstance. But that is the whole point, is that doesn't fucking matter what's going on right now or in the future.

What matters is what is going on with you and your business, your needs, your goals, your demand, and the many, many, many different indicators of whether or not you can handle an increase, and then what does that increase even look like, right? Because what kind of increase, what the intention behind it, how much you increase by, what is also going to go along with it, all of this stuff changes the answer to this question, but also doesn't, right? Because at the end of the day, you have your own numbers, and I think that the more that we look at the other people around us, or that we look at the news for the decisions that we're making in our business, the more that we hold ourselves back from reaping the benefits of the hard work that we've put in thus far, and/or sustaining the business that we have. So, let's say that we are in a rough economy, right?

And we're scared that if we raise our prices, then we're gonna price our clients out of our business. But what about you pricing yourself out of your fucking business because you're not raising your prices? Because expenses are going up for you, not just in your business, but also in your life, right? So like, there's no- you- you aren't going to be able to sustain having a business as a human being if it's not paying your bills, and you're not going to be able to sustain the business itself if you cannot pay the business's bills.

And so, if there's a circumstance in which the economy is a little bit shaky, or there's inflation happening, the- your expenses are going up right now too, right? And there has to be some sort of way in which you can sustain that, and- and it's going to be, a lot of the time, raising your prices. Well, yeah, 'cause business owners essentially are hit twice, right? Whenever everything's, like, going up, number one, it's affecting your profit margin, which affects your ta- take home.

Yes. And then number two, it's affecting how your money- how far your money goes. So that's, yeah, I think that's definitely something to consider. I think the first thing to think about is like, when it comes to the economy, right, and the- the conversations out there that affect the way that stylists think about pricing, obviously we know that there's different factors that we should be thinking about.

So, what are those different factors, like what are- what are the things that actually affect how you price outside of what's going on in the, like, more broad economy? So I mean, there are so many different factors, okay? And I'll be sharing with you guys, I'll be giving you guys a sneak peek of where I'll be going over all this in more detail so that way you can fully conceptualize it, but there's so many different factors that a lot of people don't talk about, but the main, biggest factor is always going to be the demand on your time, right? Like...

Do you have clients to even raise prices on , right? Like, do you even have clients in your chair in which a price increase will even affect them? Um, and if the answer is, I have- only have a small amount, then obviously we have to approach things in a much more conservative way, whether the economy is this, that, or the third or not, right? Like- like, your fear of the future, let's say, and what might happen, or your fear of what's going on right now, does not affect your demand, right?

Like, your- no matter what- I've been living by this recently, I don't know if I've shared this on the podcast before, but no matter how much anxiety you have, it will not change the outcome of what happens, right? Mm-hmm. And so, the only thing that you can truly rely on is your numbers and what is happening right now. And again, demand is the number one thing that we'll look at, because the more clients you have, then the less risk that you have of not having- of- the less risk that you have of losing consistent income, because then you will price those clients out and they will not come to see you anymore, right?

And so, supply and demand is always going to be the number one factor, but it can't be the only factor, because then we get to decide how much we actually increase by. And I would argue that you should be shooting as high as you possibly can go sustainably, right? Like, I think that you're doing a- yourself a huge disservice if you're not shooting for the highest increase that you possibly can go for. Like, you deserve that, right?

And it also creates more cushion for you if something does go wrong in the future, right? So you're setting yourself up for success now for something that may happen later, right? If you're charging more now. So if you have the opportunity to charge more now, then freaking do it, right?

Do it. It's- you're losing money by not doing that if you can do it now. So, let's talk about worst case scenario, 'cause I think that's where everyone's mind goes to, right? Like, so I raise my prices all of th- and then the economy crashes.

Like, what then? Sure. So I raise my prices 15, $20, whatever it may be, right? Which is- I would say is like a- a- for lack of a better term, hefty.

I feel like hefty might be too strong of a word, right? Like, I've seen- I- when we talk about hefty increases, right, like I- I've coached through, like, $50, $70 increases. Like some- some- Hefty. increases are crazy, right?

But you know, like, $15 to $20 is above average, right? It's a- above the average of like $5 to $10 that the majority of people will normally do. Um, but let's say that you raise your price 20 bucks, right? And six months from today, we go into the craziest, a- most awful recession ever.

The ground falls out from underneath of you, your business is flopping and flailing, and you're like, "Fuck, I screwed myself over." Guess what? I'm actually gonna pose this question to you. What would you do then?

You have options. You can always lower the price. You can always do discounts. You can always try to market harder.

You can get scrappy. You can sell more retail and add-ons. Like, there are so many things that you can do. And I talked about this in our scarcity mindset episode, I don't even know what it was actually called, but it was not that- not that long ago.

And I talked about how, like, when we catastrophize and when we think about worst case scenario, the best thing, the best question to ask yourself to get yourself out of it is, "What would I do if this did happen?" Right? Mm-hmm. And as a business owner, you have the privilege of decisions and leverage.

You are able to make the decision that you need to make to be able to survive, which is very powerful. It's a very powerful place to be in. And so, God forbid, you raise your price right now, and then in six months from today it kind of bites you in the ass for whatever unexpected reason. Lower your fucking price.

Would I say that that's, like, the very first thing that I would do? Absolutely not, the majority of the time. But, there are so many things that you can do before you get there, and if you have to, you can. And then that way you can sustain your business moving forward.

And you can also- you can work more. Like, there's so many things that you can do. It's so funny, like, when we think about it and put this in perspective, because I feel like we spend so much time overthinking the pricing piece, right? And, like, really- and I get it.

I get why. But it's so- it's so interesting because at the end of the day, if you did do an increase and it was not the best decision, that's a mistake. I personally have made dozens and dozens and dozens, probably, of mistakes in my business in the past five years. Yes.

And guess what? I'm still here. Like, it's still going. So I think it's, like, one of those things where it's like sometimes, yes, do all the right things, like get the right knowledge, make sure you're basing it on reality.

Like, do all the things to make the best decisions that you can, but at the end of the day, like, the sky will not fall if you make a mistake . Yeah, and you- I love that point so much, and I think that that was- what- that's what I was trying to get across at the beginning of this episode, but I didn't do it well, which is like, you just have to make your best educated guess and decisions with everything that you do in your business for- with the information that you have right now. There's never going to be a guaranteed outcome. Right.

Ever. There's never going- you are never going to have guaranteed safety, and also, like, we shouldn't be relying on our business for guaranteed safety, ever, right? So- Exactly. So, sometimes you just have to be okay with the fact that you're doing what you have to, or what you could do for the- for the betterment of the business with the best information that you have right now.

And to that point, like, is keeping your prices low, like, a guarantee of safety? Absolutely not. And as I even kind of alluded to earlier, like, okay, let's say that you are about to gear up for a huge crash in six months or- from- or a year from now, right? And you decide to keep your price low, right?

Now you're earning less money, setting you up in an even more vulnerable state in six months to a year from now, right? Right. Where you could have taken, uh, advantage of the opportunity that demand shows you you could safely do this right now and be okay, and then you could be making more money right now to set you up better for the future, right? But because of the fear of the future, you're keeping your price low, right?

Yeah. Um, so I think that's a really great point.And then I think there's the other piece that we should talk about too, and that is, like, the reality of the industry. Like, i- are things, like, actually shrinking?

Are people just not getting their hair done anymore? Like, you know, these fears that we have and that we talk about, like, what does that actually look like right now? Yeah, so, um, I've been, uh, leaning on this statistic recently and sharing it with people. Uh, in 2024, it was either 2024 or the beginning of 2025, can't think of it off the top of my head, I don't have it right in front of me, but as far as personal services went, which we are under the umbrella of, it grew by 0.

3%. Again, either in 2024 or in the first quarter of 2025, something like that. And so zero, I'm pretty sure first quarter of 2025, 0.3% is small.

It's nothing crazy, obviously, right? But it's still a net positive. So people are still spending money on themselves i- with services such as ours and taking care of themselves in one way or another, and it's not as much growth as we would like to see, but it's not a downfall, right? So it just shows us that people are still spending money.

They're just doing it a little bit more slower, slowly, and they're doing it a little bit more intentionally. And I'm just gonna say, from a general, you know, uh, bird's eye view perspective, I have so many stylists who, of all sorts of businesses, of all sorts of, I would say, like, like, uh, parts of their journey, I guess you could say, who are all going through the same waves, or different waves, than you are and that are each other, and a lot of them are still booked and busy and it's never, like, a perfect, like, last month everybody was not booked and then this month everybody was booked. It's like everybody has these different ups and downs. But the general consensus is it's absolutely possible for you to be booked out, period.

Like, there are people out there who are willing to spend money, always. Yeah. And that is absolutely the sentiment right now because I'm seeing it, with stylists who I would say were not very booked out even, let's say, a year ago, but now are, like, solidly fucking booked because of some- Mm-hmm. strong marketing strategy and they're raising their prices and they're doing it intentionally with nuances and all the things that I teach and factors taken into consideration, and they're not suffering because of it and they're doing really, really well.

So just from a bird's eye p- view perspective, I mean, here's the tea. Like, if I was, from my, I am a very, I would even go in, as far as I might be, it might be, I don't know, you might not believe me, but I think I'm a pretty conservative consultant. Like, when I have somebody coming to me and we're strategizing a price increase together, I, this is not a good thing, it's something I have to work on always, I take their success and their safety very s- seriously. Like, I put that responsibility almost on myself a lot of the time and I attach a lot of, like, my emotions to it because that's just who I am as a human being, right?

Sure. Yeah. Same to you as far as how you care about how your client's hair turns out, right? And how I felt about that as well as a hairstylist.

I give a fuck, right? And so if I was seeing that, like, right now, or predicting in the future, everything's going to shit, nobody's booking appointments, people are generally really struggling acros- across the board, I would not be coming on here and saying, "You should raise your prices the majority of the time," right? Right. The majority of people listening to this podcast should raise their prices most likely within the next six months.

Okay? The majority. It's not everybody. If you just raised your price, probably not you.

If you don't have a crazy amount of demand, then maybe we need to wait a year, whatever it may be, uh, and it'll change the, the price that you, that, how much you actually increase by, whatever it may be. But I promise you, I would not be telling you to just make this fucking decision for yourself and nothing else and not the fear of the future if I was nervous or if I saw evidence that you should hold back. Right. Where do I go from there, Jodi?

That's a big thing. That's a big thing though. I think that that's, like, where, you know, uh, uh, so often, like, you work with hundreds and hundreds of stylists and there's always so much fear. And I've worked with a lot of stylists, like, in the, in the past too, and it's like, when there is fear, there's always a fear about a price increase, whether it's $5, whether it's $50, like, there's always that fear.

And how often does that actually lead to a negative consequence? I was saying to you, Jodi, before we started recording, I think I can think about one person, one person- Right. who has had an increase that was, like, definitely an overshoot and, like, didn't take- Right. into consideration the very important factors that I am gonna be teaching y'all in something special very soon.

So, like, think about it, hear about it, remember it. Um, uh, they didn't take into consideration the very, uh, important factors that they need to take in t- into consideration to decide are you ready for a price increase, when can you do your price increase, and then how much can you increase by, right? Right. How much can you afford?

And- Yeah. there's also, like, so many different cool things that you can do with pricing. Like, I would challenge you to not just think about price as a way that you can increase your revenue, um, and I would also challenge you to not think about it as just always this big, scary, awful, evil thing, because I, like, again, nerd out when I am having these conversations, particularly with my mastermind students, like, about how we can, like, really strategically increase their revenue and change the way that they're working and their schedule and then get more services that they love doing and make them happier, how we can encourage more types of this retail because it's really profitable. Like, there's so many cool things that you get to do with it, and it's a very rare circumstance, as long as you've taken the theory into consideration, right?

You work with somebody like me who does this day in, day out, right? As long as you've taken the theory into consideration, then you will 99.99% chance be okay, because it's almost unheard of that somebody digs themself into such a hole that they completely screw themselves over. And even that one person that I'm, uh, referencing that kind of overshot and it put them in a not desirable situation, that person is doing just fine right now.

They're able to pull through that. So you will be okay. I love that you said that you've made plenty of mistakes in your five years, right? Yeah.

We've made the best educated decisions and guesses that we could for our business right th- at the time, right? Yeah. 100%. And, and those things have put us in maybe not the best circumstances, but guess what?

Didn't ruin me. I only learned from it, and now I'm here where I am today and I had plenty of decisions that I could make that could get me out of that hole, and I'm doing better than ever, I feel like. I mean- Absolutely. That's the thing.

I see you, Jodi, and you're doing better than ever, so we're a slay. Look at us, thriving. I love it. Um, I think that's, yeah, I lo- I loved this whole conversation.

I think that we really covered a lot of the, the questions and the the- and the thoughts that are happening for stylists right now. We're also gonna answer some questions in an episode that's upcoming. Ooh. So I feel like if you have one s- related to this conversation, you should definitely DM Hunter on Instagram.

Yes. Um, and then we're gonna be talking about some more, like, specifics of the pricing conversation coming up. But I think you should tell, you know, your listeners what, what they can expect in the beginning of, uh, of next month as well. Yeah.

So at the time of recording this, we're in August, and the very beginning of September, I'm going to be releasing a very brand new class situation, and I'll be sharing with you more about it soon. And it's all about pricing, and it's going to change your life. Guaranteed.

End of transcript. © 2025 Hunter Donia LLC.