Cleo Vane.Salon Growth
Before and after · a fictional worked example
The menu is busy. The client still cannot tell what to book.
Same studio, same services, same week. One version makes her ask a question she will not ask, and the other one answers it before she has to.
The menu as it arrived
What is wrong with it. Five near-identical services compete on product jargon; “from” prices have no stated reason to move; the signature service is buried; maintenance is invisible; the client must ask what is included.
The same studio, rewritten
[Address] · [Phone] · [Booking link]
The Polished Set is priced by length: short $105 · medium $115 · long $125. Confirmed at consultation, before we begin.
- Every appointment starts with a short consultation. We agree the shape, the finish, any additions and the total before anything is filed.
- Under-12s: The Little Manicure, 30 minutes, $28, with a parent present.
- Deposits and cancellation: [link]. Menu last updated [date].
What changed. Services are grouped by client outcome; the signature service leads; every line names what is included; additions have a rule; maintenance has its own clear route.
Where one of those numbers came from
The layout is not what fixed this menu. The arithmetic is. In this fictional example, Polished. worked out that one booked chair-hour has to carry $52 — fixed costs, owner pay and quiet weeks, at the utilization they actually achieve. Then every line was priced from it.
| The Classic Manicure | Working | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Booked time | 45 min = 0.75 h | The time in the diary, not the time at the desk |
| Time cost | 0.75 × $52 = $39 | What the hour must carry in this fictional salon |
| Product and consumables | $4 | Counted per service, not guessed monthly |
| Working figure | $43 | Before card fees and before any no-show allowance |
| Menu price | $46 | Rounded to a number a client can read and repeat |
The old price was $25. The old price was not a decision. It was a number from an opening week that nobody ever went back to.
Two things this does not tell you. It does not tell you that $52 is your figure — run your own through the chair-hour calculator, because it moves with rent, utilization, team and how you treat owner pay. And it does not tell you the market will pay $46 for forty-five minutes where you are. That is a question about your city and your clients, and no menu template can answer it.
Doing this to your own menu
- Write down which service you most want to be known for. Check whether it appears first.
- Find every “from” and every “ask me.” Give each one a named range or a per-unit price.
- Time three services with a clock, this week. Compare the real minutes with the booked minutes.
- Cost the thing you currently give away. Decide to include it deliberately or to price it.
- Name one maintenance appointment and put a rebooking interval on it.
- Say out loud what each line includes. If it takes more than one sentence, the line is not finished.
The service that should lead
The line that has no stated rule
The thing I give away without costing it