Is it a disadvantage, or your magic?

As someone who specialises in pricing, I wish I had a quid for every time someone said to me, ‘Maddi, I’d love to charge more but…’ and then they add some perceived reason that they need to stay cheap. 

Have you ever thought of any of these? Or maybe you have your own ending for that sentence. If you have, I’d love for you to read on and see why believing these things, just boxes you in and limits your growth.

With the greatest of respect, your clients don’t care. For example, I’m an avid nail client (big up Hilda of Hex Nails, the real MVP). I couldn’t care less how long my nail artist has done this for, I care about the nails I have to look at for the next month.

I care about her skills, her creativity, her ability to turn my 14 completely different inspo pics into one, brilliant set of nails. I certainly wouldn’t go elsewhere just because someone’s worked a decade longer than her. 

And in my experience, I’ve met hairdressers who’ve proudly declared that they’ve been in the biz for 3 decades, but they haven’t had any training or education in the last 28 years. So they couldn’t do any modern techniques, weren’t using any tools that came out in the last decade, and had lost their creative spark.

So let your new-ness be your competitive advantage. Dive into as much education as you can, join industry groups, learn from your fellow industry community, and get super creative. You’ll soon see why time served isn’t necessarily needed to bring clients through the door. 

Firstly, let’s swiftly remove a few words from your vocab when you’re referring to your business. No more ‘just’, ‘only’, or ‘little old me’. You have a business, whether you work from your dining table or a swanky salon.

Secondly, there’s of course nothing wrong with having a salon. But no business model or setup is inherently better than another. If you work from home, think about why your Rockstar Client would LOVE to come to your house to get glammed up.

You offer a 1:1 service, it’s cosy, you can stick the latest true crime doc on Netflix, they can park on your drive for free, and they can rock up in their joggers and messy bun, judgement-free. 

So let’s just start by throwing anyone who actually says this, back into the cheap-ass local buy and sell group they came from. These people are not your people. 

Think about Kimmy K’s hair stylist, Chris Appleton. Do you think that Kim is going to him to get her hair Met Gala ready? Hell no. Chris comes to her, whether that’s in her 7* hotel suite, or flying across the country or even world, to keep her signature locks looking gorgeous.

Chris is technically a ‘mobile hairdresser’, but lemme tell ya, he’s not charging £40 for a colour because he’s worried that people will think he’s ‘not allowed’ to charge salon prices. 

So again, think of why it’s a blimmin’ luxury that you visit your clients. You save them precious time travelling to their appointment, they can fit their service into their busy day, and just like in the example above, it’s 1:1 and private. 

If anything, I believe that mobile techs, stylists and artists should charge more than anyone! 

It’s time you started reframing what you do and how you do it. Because for the right Rockstar Client, your way is their absolute fave. 

Maddi x