Station Rent, a Six-Day Chip, and a Price Increase
You rent a station for $250 a week. You charge $35 for a manicure, average 45 minutes per client, and see about 30 clients in a week. Supplies and product run about $6 per client, and your card processor takes 3% of each ticket. A regular client calls six days after her manicure with a chip on her index finger and wants a free redo; she is also the client who organized the other regulars against your plan to raise the price to $45. Meanwhile, a new client wants to book four 30-minute appointments this Saturday, and you have eight service hours available that day.
1. Work out what you actually clear in a week, your break-even client count, and whether the $45 price is justified.
Read the worked answer
Current week
- Revenue: 30 × $35 = $1,050
- Card fees: 3% of $1,050 ≈ $32
- Supplies: 30 × $6 = $180
- Rent: $250
- Net before tax: 1,050 − 32 − 180 − 250 = $588
Break-even: each client contributes about $35 − $6 − $1.05 ≈ $27.95, so 250 ÷ 27.95 ≈ 9 clients a week just covers the rent. That is the number that tells you how thin the cushion is below 30 clients.
At $45: contribution rises to about $37.65, so 30 clients nets roughly $880 - about $290 more per week for the same booked hours.
Judgment: service time is 30 × 0.75 = 22.5 hours, so $588 is roughly $26 per service hour before any admin, booking, or cleanup time. That is the real argument for the increase: not greed, but the gap between what the chair costs and what an hour of your licensed labor returns. Present the math to the regulars; it is harder to argue with than a new menu.
2. How do you handle the six-day chip and the free-redo request?
Read the worked answer
Inspect before deciding, because the cause determines who pays.
- Lifting or chipping at the sidewall with product residue on the skin, or the same failure on multiple nails: application error. Repair free, and change your prep, dehydration, or sealing step.
- One chip at the free edge of a single nail with an otherwise intact set: trauma, catching it on something. Repair is chargeable, and it is a five-minute fix, not a full redo.
- Failure on nails that look waterlogged or have been picked: client care, not the product.
Say the policy out loud when you make the appointment: "Bring it in and I'll look at it - if it's my application, the repair is on me." That removes the confrontation from the chair.
On the group pressure: do not trade the price increase for free redos or vice versa. Fixing the chip generously costs you ten minutes and buys goodwill; giving away full services to keep the peace costs you the raise you just calculated you need.
3. The new client wants four 30-minute appointments on Saturday. What do you need to check before you book them, and what will you change if anything?
Read the worked answer
Eight service hours against four 30-minute slots is 2 hours - technically fine, so the constraint is not the clock, it is the mismatch between the requested time and the service.
Check three things:
- What service is she asking for? A 30-minute appointment fits a basic manicure or a polish change. A full set, a soak-off plus new set, or nail art does not; booking it as 30 minutes pushes you into rushing prep and creates a client who expects that speed every time.
- First-time client? A new client needs a few extra minutes for intake, a look at her nails, and a conversation about aftercare and allergies. That is not billable but it is not optional either.
- Is Saturday your highest-demand day? If so, the 30-minute slots should be priced and sequenced so they do not fragment a block you could sell as two full sets.
Practical answer: book her for a manicure if that is what she wants, tell her the honest duration for anything else, and quote the corrected time rather than the requested one. Under-booking time is how techs end up working through lunch and resenting the client.