Say your current situation is that
you want to generate more profit,
yet your calendar is full-full for the rest of the year, and
you are not even taking new clients.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first.
When you are fully booked for a year,
it is a solid confirmation that there is safe room to grow your business.
With the “not taking new clients method” you’re actively leaving serious money on the table. It’s like saying “No.” to your boss when she walks up to you and tells you that she wants to give you a pay raise. Why would you, right?
With a full-full calendar, you are likely wondering how could you get out of it to be in a better place, work less/the same, and earn more.
Tiered Pricing
Tired price raising can get you there in a safe and confident way. It will open spots without causing too much upset (even while the client not leaving you -I’ll explain it a a second), so you can add a new client tier to the equation and raise prices differently for different client groups (tiers).
Tier 1. - moderate price raise (current clients)
Tier 2. - steep price raise (new clients)
Creating Room In Your Schedule For New Clients
Raising your prices moderately to your current clients (Tier 1.) can result in 3 reactions:
They accept it.
They negotiate it.*
They find a new groomer.
Either way, you'll have a pay raise and/or open spaces for Tier 2 (new clients) to raise prices with confidence at a more steep rate to grow faster.
If you want to grow your business substantially, you need to open up spots and get comfortable that some of your clients will drop out.
Tiered pricing can orchestrate this leap for you without causing too much upset or bad reviews.
Getting dogs groomed is like having a gardener.
The job needs to get done, but it’ll cost money if they want a professional, high-quality job.
DIY or low-quality jobs are also options, just like with cutting the grass yourself or hiring a teenager from the neighborhood to do it.
*What Do I Mean By They “Negotiate”?
If some of your current clients find your new prices high but like your care, attention to detail for their dog, and style of the trim, they'll try to keep you within their budget by offering to chip into the grooming workload.
If clients try to negotiate your grooming labor fees,
nip that in the bud and stick to your pricing.
They can chip into the workload, or go elsewhere.
The Beauty Of Negotiating
At my salon, implementing steep price raises looked like clients offered to do the brush out, comb out, deshedding, bath, and blow-dry the day of or the day before the spa day with me.
It takes me half the time to groom a prepped dog (half the bill for them, freeing up space for me), and with a bit of guidance (1-page workflow explained on a paper) clients are doing a great job on the prep work for me. (I specialize in doodles, so it's not a simple nor an easy task for them but something they'd need to know anyway, and is proven that can work for more people than we'd think.)
You can offer this to your clients, like if this new price is too much for you but you'd like to get the same style by me, chip in the workload and cut the bill in half. (This is B2B phrasing, I'd detail it more to clients in a newsletter i na B2C, more sugarcoated manner.)
If you aim high enough, you'll be able to keep 2/3 of your clients and open up spaces for the rest of the year in those spots who chose to find a new groomer, and you can get an additional pay raise with a steeper new client Tier pricing.
Remember, that the fact that you have clients on your calendar for the rest of the year doesn't mean that you are stuck charging that price for the rest of the year.
You are free to raise your prices mid-year, anytime you wish to.
At one year I did a price tag change 2 times in the year without issues using tiers.
It only takes a newsletter of "Dear Client, from May 1st these are my new prices. Please let me know if you are OK with the new pricing, you'd like to modify the services into a "dry cut" (they prep the dog for you) or you'd like to explore other options. (Again, this is B2B phrasing, you'll need to translate it to B2C super kind and compassionate and more details.)
An eye-opening strategy of some of my clients to cut on the grooming bill
I even have client take their doodles to other salons for a bath and dry and they still bring them to me for hairstyling.
Outside-of-the-box solution for freeing up your time without hiring people.
It Takes Time And Hard Work To Find A New Groomer
It’s a groomer’s market. Know that when you raise prices, most people won't get off your books right away. Those clients who wish to explore other groomers/do research/leave will likely have 1-2 more sessions with you since it takes time to find a new (great that is) groomer.
I'm happy to help you more how to go about it if you want to explore it in more depth.
With the right CRM (Pet Groomer App), you can implement Tiered pricing, hourly rates by grooming services, etc., and take your business and your comfort and confidence to the next level.
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