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SEARCHSell one more bottle of polish each day. If you sell one $10 bottle of polish you should make $5 net profit on it, adding up to an extra $1,800 a year.
If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly struggling to figure out ways to increase your income (but you don’t want to take a second job to do it). Wouldn’t an extra $10,000 a year make things so much easier? In the spirit of this HOW-TO issue, I’m going to tell you a few, mostly simple, ways to pad your wallet without doing time.
Buy in bulk. Stop purchasing that small size of pedicure soak when you know you’re just going to have to reorder it in a month. You know pedicures make up a large portion of your business, go ahead and invest in the gallon size and save. If you know what your profitability is, you know that a dollar saved equates to several dollars earned (if your profit is 10%, for example, just saving $1 is equivalent to earning $10).
Sell one more bottle of polish each day. If you sell one $10 bottle of polish you should make $5 net profit on it, adding up to an extra $1,800 a year.
Use an assistant. An assistant can remove polish, get beverages, and prep the nails, helping you maximize your schedule — and earning ability. You can be finishing one client while your assistant is getting your next client prepped for her service, potentially saving you 15 minutes per client and allowing you to fit in more clients each day. If you can fit in one more backfill each day you could supplement your annual earnings by $8,000.
Raise your prices. Nail tech Heather Goodwin raised each of her service prices by $3 and increased her income by $25,000 while working on 40% fewer clients. Couldn’t you raise prices by at least $1 and earn another $8,500?
Listen to your clients. Customers usually have a way of telling you exactly what you need to do to increase business with them. Are they talking about a cool new service they got somewhere else? Add ear candling or eyelash extensions to your menu. This can help you increase the average ticket price of your existing client case as well as attract new clients.
Add unique nail services. Be the only salon in your town to offer the Margarita Pedicure or the Herbal-Infused Zen Manicure. With unique services, not only will your clients talk up your salon (offering free “word-of-mouth” advertising) but you could also get noticed by the press (more free advertising), both of which could add new clients to your roster.
So, if you’re like me and you want to earn more money without burning the midnight oil, you’ve got to be crafty in coming up with ways to save money, increase you average service ticket, or fit in additional clients. You are guaranteed to see more money at the end of the year.
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