Salon, spa & fitness
Salon Service Pricing Calculator
Prices an individual service, where the menu's internal consistency matters.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Cost for that service, including chair time, product and overhead, divided by one minus overhead and margin. Across a menu the prices also have to be consistent with each other, since clients compare within the menu rather than against a cost calculation and an inconsistent menu invites the question you least want.
What moves the number
- Chair time and product for that specific service.
- How the price relates to adjacent services on the menu.
- Stylist level, where pricing is tiered.
- Local market expectations.
Where this one goes wrong
A menu where one service is priced correctly and the neighbouring ones are not reads as arbitrary to a client, which is a sales problem as well as a margin one, so repricing usually means reviewing the whole menu rather than one line. Tiered pricing by stylist level is the other device worth using properly, since it lets a senior stylist's time be priced at what it is worth without raising the entry price that brings new clients in.
Before you quote
- Review the whole menu for consistency when repricing one service.
- Use stylist-level tiers rather than a single price for all.
- Confirm each service's price covers its own chair time.
Questions
About this calculator
Can I reprice one service on its own?
Usually not well, because clients compare within the menu and an inconsistent line reads as arbitrary. Repricing one service generally means reviewing the whole menu so the relationships between prices still make sense.
Should prices differ by stylist?
Tiered pricing lets a senior stylist's time be priced at what it is worth while keeping an entry price that brings new clients in. It also gives junior staff a progression, which helps retention in a trade where staff leave for exactly that reason.
What makes a service unprofitable?
Chair time the price does not cover. The long chemical services are the usual culprits, especially where the price was set against a competitor's menu rather than the salon's own cost per chair hour.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $11.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour cost | $34 |
| Materials cost | $11 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $71.43 |
| Direct cost | $45 |
| Overhead recovered | $15.71 |
| Net profit | $10.71 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $71.43 to cover $45 of direct cost, recover $15.71 of overhead and leave $10.71 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $17 | $44.44 |
| $26 | $58.73 |
| $34 example above | $71.43 |
| $51 | $98.41 |
| $68 | $125.40 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $11.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.