Q. I love going to the salon, but the prices sometimes seem very high just for a simple manicure or pedicure.

A. Hopefully I can answer your question about why we charge what we charge. We are in no ways trying to gouge anyone of money. I hope these numbers make sense to you an perhaps you can appreciate the cost and enjoy the service.

The main reason is we have to earn a wage just like you do at your job. The easiest way to understand this it might cost you $3 to do your own manicure at home. I am going to assume you have a job, are you willing to work 10-12 hours everyday for $3 an hour?

Now lets switch it up a little an say your self employed like the majority of nail technicians. We work 12 hour days 6 days a week, don't take a lunch and your weekly rent is $100. You do a client on the hour every hour. That's 72 clients a week at $3 a client = a whopping $216 a week. Subtract your rent and you average $1.61 an hour or $116 a week or $464 a month for a standard 4 week month. Now subtract at least 20% for taxes as we have to pay our own taxes an you get $371.20. $371 a month to live on, to pay rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, fuel, car payments, cell phone, insurance, an normal day to day living expenses as well as pay for day to day business expenses that run almost as much as living expenses.

To even get that $371 a month we have to have a full book minimum 144 clients who come every two weeks no exception, with no cancellations, no "no-show" clients, or late arrivals, our work better be spot on perfection as we will have no room for repairs or adjustments. Don't plan on having much of a social life, marriage, or children, and our health better be perfect cause there is no time for being sick or doctors visits. We can't count tips as any generated income because there is no rule stating all your clients will or have to tip us, it's something we earn, not expect.
Colleen, C.R. Nails, Safford, AZ

We absolutely love what we do, day in & day out. Generally we love the interaction with our clients, making them feel better about themselves after their service - we all have that one client who makes us wince when we see them on our books today!. In addition to the math lesson (above) Colleen gave a consumer that wandered into the professional area, she did not even touch on the cost of school ($2-8,000 depending on if their license was for full cosmetology or specializing in nails only) or the additional expense of trade magazines, trade shows, and classes to keep current on products, techniques, health concerns and more. So with that in mind, using Colleen's math lesson, at those rates it would actually be costing us money to work every day.