CUSTOMER STORIES

In early 2020, Christa Stephens of Inviktus Salon knew she needed to “redesign” her business. Although her chairs were mostly full, she knew the salon was hemorrhaging money from somewhere. She suspected that it was due to the costs associated with color services.

At the time, Christa’s 40/60 commission salon paid 40% to the stylist after deducting a $10 charge to cover hard costs for any color services. A deep dive into her business’s financials confirmed her suspicions: with so many different hair lengths, thicknesses, conditions, and color service needs, a one-size-fits-all amount kicked back to the salon simply did not cover costs. Even the “extra bowl of color” option at checkout had inconsistent participation, so the salon covered the additional costs on those and many other color services.

Thanks to her color management system, Christa soon realized that a “parts + labor” approach to pricing was the only sustainable way to support her color-focused salon and provide fair pricing to clients. SalonScale + Rosy Salon Software helped her reach this conclusion and change her structure to ensure the salon could not only stay in business but thrive.

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BACKGROUND

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Christa quickly discovered that holding back a flat fee from commissions for any chemical service in her salon was not enough, at least not if she wanted her salon to grow and prosper. For every bowl of color used, Christa and Inviktus Salon needed accountability, and SalonScale + Rosy helped achieve that.

It all started with adding the color formula and weighing the bowl on a scale before the color application, then reweighing afterward to document any waste. SalonScale also suggested a “parts + labor” approach to pricing and marking up the color to add a stream of income to the business. For the first two weeks with the color management system, Christa wasn’t marking color up because she was nervous to do so. However, with SalonScale’s reassurance to do what’s comfortable for her, and understanding that her salon could realize more income by marking up color, she soon changed her mind.

Today, Inviktus marks color up 210% to account for the direct job costs. This income also covers everything for color services like foils and foiling combs and part of the assistant pay. It also ensures reserves for new blow dryers or tools when needed and, more recently, a 401K program for the team.

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THE CLIENT CONVERSATION ABOUT PRICING

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The new parts + labor structure also helped ensure clients understood fair pricing at Inviktus. Christa told every guest that she had done them, herself, and the business wrong by cutting herself short when charging for color in the past. She told them that she could not continue to do business if she didn’t change how it charged for color. Christa explained that she was switching to a parts + labor approach, where the costs involved in every color service would be charged on top of a service fee for any member of the salon team’s time. Christa’s clients were great about it, and although she was nervous about marking up the color at first, she reported that everyone understood and was on board with the new pricing structure.

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GETTING THE TEAM INVOLVED

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When SalonScale was introduced to the team at Inviktus, existing stylists followed the same practices as Christa did in those first weeks. The difference was that the $10 fee that was taken out of their commissions for color costs, was now allocated to cover vacation and sick pay. The color costs were instead passed along to salon clients and marked up for the benefit of the salon as a whole.

The salon practices a deskless model, so each provider does the checkout process chairside. They add the cost of color provided by SalonScale to the ticket fee in Rosy.

Employees onboarding with Inviktus are assigned a scale and iPad and educated about tracking, reporting, and charging for their color use through SalonScale and Rosy. They are responsible for the tools and following the procedure for every client.

Christa monitors the process very carefully for the team across both salon locations, running reports to cross-check that color fees are appropriately charged alongside any color service.

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RESULTS

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After a month of using SalonScale, Christa saw improvement with more concise color measurements and a return on her investment with noticeable operating capital in her account within three months. Every year since, she has seen $30,000-$50,000 in additional revenue for the salon, which wasn’t there before.