Awesome reply as usual Maggie! I am thinking $30 an hour which is what I generally net out at anyway (except for this one which put me $30 in the hole according to that math). I'm glad to see I'm not way out there in my thinking. I did do up some samples on tips prior to her arrival but she wasn't feeling them, so we were back to square one. And yes, absolutely the night owl thing - I am not creative once the sun goes down, it is just the way I am wired I guess. I do my best work between 10 am and 3 pm.
Laura _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Maggie in Visalia Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: NailTech:: Need help with pricing custom nail art, and a vent too :) Especially once the Ed Hardy and Rockstar nail craze hit hard, I noticed I was doing an awful lot of 3 hour sets! And simply adding $5 per color/glitter etc wasn't making me feel like it was worth my time. I love doing custom design work, but when I work 3 hours for a $45 "fill" I get over that love-- and that client-- FAST. I sat down with myself and my books one day when I had the time and figured out what I average per hour. Which, in 2007, came out to around $33 an hour. So I started charging for custom work at the rate of $30/hour. Now I charge $40/hour. For designs like you described, where the client obviously has a vision but YOU aren't seeing it, I insist that they give me some time for practice. So I can work up a couple of sample tips for them to choose from. The only real problem I see is that you aren't a nightowl. I loathe mornings and think they are some sort of karmic punishment for something horrible that I must have done in a past life. When the sun goes down, I come alive. And being able to book this type of service as my last one of the day gives me the added freedom of knowing that I don't have to run on a schedule, so if it takes extra time for my and my client's visions to match up, it's ok. That's where you run into real issues, regardless of how you decide to charge the client-- I have one client who comes in about once every 6 months to get a new set of Xtra fancy nails. Then she just wears them for 3 months till they fall off! But she pays me $120-150 for a set every time and I get to stretch my creative wings. This last time I booked 3 hours for her. I got them done, but I really could have used an extra hour. But being in the middle of the day, I had to run on time so as not to inconvenience the next client. That's really hard with this type of work because you never really know how long it's going to take. But yeah, the short answer is, HECK YEAH! charge by the hour! Maggie Franklin: Attitudes Salon; Visalia, CA "Visionary rebel dreamer; obviously way ahead of my time." Maggie's Website <http://www.artofnailz.com/> Maggie's Personal <http://afishwithabicycle.blogspot.com/> Blog Maggie Rants [and rav...@nails Magazine <http://blogs.nailsmag.com/maggie/> Myspace <http://myspace.com/nailsbymaggie> Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/onykophile> --- On Thu, 12/10/09, Laura Merzetti <[email protected]> wrote: From: Laura Merzetti <[email protected]> Subject: NailTech:: Need help with pricing custom nail art, and a vent too :) To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009, 6:26 AM Hey tech friends, I need help with pricing my custom work. I have only one client who this really applies to but she is becoming increasingly demanding. This week it took me 3 hours to do her nails and I was really annoyed by the time we were done (started at 5:30 pm and evenings are not my most creative or generous time - I am a morning person!!). She wanted black lace embedded over white tips, or so I thought. I hunted for black lace and ended up using black lace seam binding. I did up a sample tip and I didn't really like the look of it so I did up a couple of other ones with the black lace embedded over a red and a gold gel polish background and I thought those looked stunning. She didn't want those, she wanted the white tips because she had it in her head she wanted them to look like lace stockings. She didn't want the lace to cover the white tip she wanted the lace to cover the nail bed but keep the white tip exposed, so that meant cutting parts of the lace off so that nothing touched the white tip. Then she wanted the same mix I'd used on my nails that I had on several weeks ago, on the nail bed. It was a custom coverage blend. I tried to explain that you would never see it under the lace but she insisted. The lace didn't go on right, it was too thick, too bulky, and by this time I was ready to toss her out the door. I did the best I could but I wasn't happy with them - they were thick and bulky looking and I couldn't even get a decent picture of them to go in my book. She loved them but I absolutely hated the end result. And you couldn't notice the custom blend on the nail bed under the lace at all. My dilemma is this; I didn't charge her nearly enough for the work involved. I charged her the cost of a new set and that's it. I am toying with the idea of starting to charge by the hour for this kind of thing - that way they will soon realize that the longer it takes me the more it's going to cost them, and she may have a whole new attitude about it then. Like I said it is just this one client who is this way. I have let her do this to me for the past year and now I need to change this because I am starting to resent her appointments. Yet - I get to do something fun and different with her, so I need her for that. But I also need her to listen to me when I tell her something will not work the way she thinks it will. I think if she knew she was being charged by the minute for these nails she might think twice about that. I've told her several times 'you need to make a decision' as she sits there staring at her nails, then looking at me.then we just sort of play this game where nobody says anything and eventually I say 'OK, let's try it.' and usually it does not look like the way she pictured it so we end up taking it off and starting over. Those of you who do this kind of customized work - when THEY come to you with an idea that they want to do..how do you end up charging for it? Laura Merzetti Scratch My Back Nail Studio Ajax Ontario Canada Scratch My Back Nail Studio Laura Merzetti 5 Turriff Crescent Ajax, Ontario L1T 3N4 <http://www.scratchmyback.ca/> www.scratchmyback.ca 905-443-6482 Contessa 2010 Finalist T.E.N. Tuff Enuff Nails Certified Educator <http://www.tuffenuffnails.com/> www.tuffenuffnails.com Minx Manicurist <http://www.minxnails.com/> www.minxnails.com Minx extends fashion to your fingertips -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en.
