I finally listened to my mentor about pricing my services

I had coffee with my old mentor, Lisa, last week. She said I was charging way too little for my balayage work. She told me most stylists in our area charge $180 to $220 for a full balayage, and I was only asking $120. It hit me hard because I thought I was being fair to clients. But she pointed out I was burning out doing twice the clients for half the pay. Has anyone else realized they were undercharging and actually raised their prices?

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the_jordan3mo ago

@jade_hunt48 hit the nail on the head about the burnout part... but here's something I don't see anyone mentioning yet. When you undersell yourself, it doesn't just mess with your time and energy, it hurts your reputation too. I see it all the time in different fields, people assume cheaper means less skilled, so you might actually be scaring off the clients who would pay more and appreciate your work more. Lisa was right to call you out, but don't just raise prices overnight, maybe bump them up slow so your regulars don't get whiplash. The real trick is to stay confident about your pricing even when somebody huffs about it, because that confidence actually sells the service as much as the color does.

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jade_hunt483mo ago

Oh man, that's rough but also so relatable. I mean, raising prices is basically admitting you're worth more than you thought, which is terrifying. I remember I was charging fifty bucks for full weaves and wondering why I was dead tired all the time, like duh. Lisa sounds like a real one for giving you that wake up call though. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather do half the clients for the same money and actually enjoy life.

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