Why You Shouldn't Hide Your Pricing

A few weeks ago, a client of mine thanked me for being transparent with my pricing. She went on to say the first time we met, she hadn’t been completely honest about her occupation. She had been to other lash artists in the past and she learned that as soon as they found out she was a doctor, she would get charged more than their other clients. And she found this out because she referred a friend to the same artists and they were charged significantly less than her for the same service.

Now I’ll be honest, when she told me this I immediately felt bad for her because could you imagine investing time and money into your career, paying your dues, only to be charged more for the career path you chose?

To me, it’s a shady way to do business and I am completely against it for a few reasons.

The first reason is that it makes it really hard to trust you. Think about it… To build trust with a person, there needs to be consistent, honest and clear communication. If you’re charging different prices for the same product, you’ve got to know that word will spread and when the person you charged more finds out, the trust is damaged. It makes you look like a person who lacks integrity. People like doing business with people that are honest, have integrity and are consistent.

Aside from the client aspect, it’s a management nightmare for you. If you have a bunch of people paying a different price for the same service, how do you remember what you have previously charged each person without digging through your records? And what if a client loved your work and referred a friend? You know the first question most friends ask is, “how much do they charge?” If they come in for an appointment and you’re charging a different price, it just makes you look flaky and inconsistent.

And lastly, if your clients are anything like me and serious about doing business, it’s a huge turn off that will stop a person from booking with you. As an example, I was looking for software for my business and came across this company that looked pretty promising. They had this long drawn out sales page that highlighted all of their great features but as I kept scrolling, I didn’t see their pricing anywhere. I even clicked through the website to find it only to learn, it wasn’t there. I had to Google search to figure out their old pricing and by that point, I just said forget it. It’s not worth the hassle so I went to another company that had clear pricing spelled out on their website. And although they didn’t have all the bells and whistles of the first company, I bought with them instead. They were clear and up front with their pricing.

So now that you know why you shouldn’t hide your pricing, here’s a few reasons why you should show it and make it clear what you charge.

You attract the right people. There are plenty of people out there who will do business with you and happily pay you whatever you charge when you’re open and honest about it. By making it clear what you charge, it builds trust because people see that you’e honest and professional and it makes it easy for people to decide whether or not to work with you.

In saying that, it also helps to repel the wrong people. There are some people that come to us with a budget that has no wiggle room. Many times these people don’t truly see the value in what it is we offer and so they low ball or they’re cheap. And we don’t want cheap clients. or clients that can’t afford a luxury service. There are plenty of services out there for people like that and semi permanent lash extensions are not one of them. So by making your pricing clear up front, you repel those people and save yourself a possible headache.

Now I hope this helped you and if you’re someone that doesn’t list your price, that you get your pricing listed right away so you can start attracting the right people to your business.

If you don’t have a website or online booking, Acuity Scheduling can help you with this. With Acuity, you can give clients the ability to book appointments with you 24/7. You can also outline the services you offer as well as the pricing for clients if you don’t have a website. If you want to join Acuity, they offer a range of plans depending on if you’re a solo lash artist, a lash educator offering classes or a lash bar owner with staff and you can check it out on a free 7 day trial to see how you like it.

If you want to try it out, you can use my affiliate link here.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope this serves you and let’s make this a great week!