As someone who’s brow savvy, you know there’s a lot involved in living your dream job. In addition to being a brow expert, you’re also a buyer, bookkeeper, cleaner, social media manager, receptionist, and a therapist! All of these integral parts of your business can’t always be expressed with a dollar amount, but your expenses like rent, can be. How can you calculate these costs into your pricing? We’ve got you covered with some guidelines.

Maybe you’re just starting out, or you’re well established and want to take a closer look at your prices. How do you go about determining them? Start by listing out all of the costs you have, from the cotton wool you use during treatments to the coffee you serve, and divide any yearly costs, like municipal taxes, by twelve. Next, divide your total by the number of days you work.

Let’s say you have a total of €2000 in costs per month, and you work 5 days a week; this amounts to costs of €100 per day. This means that you must earn at least that amount each day to break even, but let’s not forget that you need to pay yourself! Do you think a revenue of €3000 per month is reasonable (before tax)? That’s €150 per day, but when you factor in costs, you’ll need to earn a turnover of at least €250 per day. Don’t forget to include the VAT you’ll have to pay, and now you’ve arrived at over €300 necessary per day. A final note: these figures don’t include vacation days, on which you’ll earn nothing.

Let's do the math

So, how does this translate to treatments? It can be tricky to calculate back from the costs, but our rule of thumb is to charge about €1 per minute that you’re with a client. Let’s break it down further.

There are 480 minutes in an 8 hour work day, but of course you don’t work every single minute; between breaks, some slack separating appointments, or the occasional no-show, a more accurate assumption would be earning money for 6 hours, or 360 minutes, per day. This means that at €1 per minute, you could earn €360 per day.

Based on your fixed expenses and what you think you should have left over, you can decide if this is enough for you. If you have a salon at your home, charging between €0.75 to €0.80 per minute is reasonable, but if your salon is in a desirable, expensive location, charging up to €1.20 per minute is completely acceptable! Keep in mind that here we are talking about the usual treatments of a beauty specialist; if you’re offering other services like permanent makeup, these amounts would be very different.

Checklist of costs

To determine your costs, let’s go through the following list so you don’t miss anything!

0 Rent or mortgage
0 Municipal taxes
0 Gas, water, electricity
0 Employees
0 Spotify subscription
0 Internet and phone subscriptions
0 Website hosting subscriptions and occasional maintenance
0 Online appointment booking program
0 Insurance
0 Salon upkeep and displays
0 Company clothing
0 Disposables like cotton wool pads and tissues
0 Products to be used in treatments, like paint and wax
0 Magazines in the waiting room
0 Courses
0 Hospitality costs such as coffee, tea, and biscuits
0 Toilet paper and other cleaning products
0 Cleaning services or window cleaners
0 Printed materials, like flyers or cards

Your prices

We asked the Mrs. Highbrow Instagram community what they charge for the following treatments and we found the averages (converted into euros) so you can measure up! Note: our customers are based worldwide and prices vary per location. But we noticed that the prices for waxing and threading are relatively low. 

Brow waxing: €15
Brow threading: €15
Shaping & Henna Brows: €40
Shaping & Regular Tint: €25
Lip waxing or threading: €10
Brow Lamination: €45
Brow Lamination + Tinting: €50
Lash Lift: €45
Lash Lift + Tinting: €50

Help, I don't have enough left over!

You may find that you don’t have much left over each month. But, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re offering your treatments too cheaply, it could just mean that your costs are too high. If this is the case, take a look through your expenses to find places that you can save, as well as looking for other ways to increase your turnover. Could you work an extra day? Do more promotions? Offer more luxurious treatments for which you can charge more? Or additional sales of products? There are so many possibilities!

Dare to ask

Of course you must be realistic with your price list, but know your worth and don’t be afraid to ask for it, especially after you’ve confirmed time and time again that you are good at what you do! Remember: quality comes at a price, and people know this. Your prices should be based on the quality that you deliver, not on other people’s budgets!