How to Increase Your Salon Service Prices (A Step-by-Step Process)

Putting your prices up is one of those tasks that sits on the to-do list way longer than it should. It feels big and scary, so it gets pushed back week after week. But the actual process of doing it? Way simpler than most salon owners realise. Here is a straightforward step-by-step breakdown so you can stop overthinking it and just get it done.

Start with your costs

Before you touch a single price, open up your numbers. A profit calculator spreadsheet is the best tool for this - one that lets you plug in all your overheads (rent, insurance, utilities, subscriptions, wages) alongside your product and consumable costs per service, then spits out your profit margin for each service.

When costs go up (and they do, every year) you can update them in the spreadsheet and immediately see which services are no longer hitting your target profit margin. From there, you adjust the price to get it back where it needs to be. It takes the guesswork out completely.

Factor in your time properly

This is the step that gets skipped the most, especially if you work alone. When you are pricing a service, you need to account for the full time it takes you - including any padding time between appointments.

If you allow 10 minutes between clients for cleaning, rebooking, and setting up, a 60-minute service actually costs you 70 minutes of your time. Price it accordingly. The moment a service runs longer than what you have calculated, your profit drops. Consistent timing equals consistent profitability.

Check your competitors (occasionally)

This one is optional and does not need to happen every single time. Every year or two, it is worth glancing at what comparable businesses in your area are charging - not everyone, but salons with a similar setup/offering to yours.

The goal here is not to undercut anyone or match the cheapest price in town. It is just a sanity check to make sure you are not leaving money on the table. If you are positioned as a premium salon, make sure it looks that way.

Update your booking system and website

Once you have landed on your new prices, update them in your booking system first, then your website. Clients do check your website before booking, and if the price there does not match what they are charged, it creates an awkward situation you do not need.

One thing to be aware of: some booking systems do not automatically update existing calendar appointments when you change your service prices. You will need to either go through them manually or contact your booking system's support team and ask them to push the update across. Many will do this for you quickly if you just submit a help ticket.

Brief your team

A quick message to your team is all you need. Let them know service prices have been updated, confirm that existing bookings now reflect the correct pricing, and give them a simple line to use if a client questions it at checkout.

A good one to have in your back pocket: if someone is genuinely upset, offer to honour the old price that one time and let them know the new price for next time. It diffuses the moment without making a big deal of it. In practice, most clients will not bat an eyelid.

You do not need to announce it

No email blast, no Instagram story, no apology required. You are a business owner running a profitable business - adjusting your prices is a normal part of that. The more matter-of-fact you are about it, the more your team and clients will treat it the same way.

Pick a date, work through the checklist, and get it done. You do not need to wait for the first of the month or the start of a new financial year. Any day works!

If you want my comprehensive profit calculator tool that makes reviewing your service pricing so much easier, it is one of the resources inside the Salon Goals Academy - along with everything else you need to build a salon business that is actually sustainable.