How to Price a Service Menu Without Racing to the Bottom
Start from your time, not their price
Copying a competitor's menu feels safe and usually underpays you. Their rent, their speed, and their drive time are not yours. Price from the hour you can actually sell.
You need three inputs for each service:
- Minutes on the client, including setup and cleanup
- Supplies you throw away or use up on that service
- Minutes you cannot sell to someone else, including travel and a buffer
If you skip the third number, mobile work looks profitable and is not.
A simple floor price
Use this as a floor, then round to a number you can say out loud.
1. Decide the hourly rate that makes the week worth it after supplies and drive time. Be honest. If you need $60 an hour before tax to cover the week, do not price a 45-minute cut as if you earn $30.
2. Multiply that hourly rate by the hours the service blocks. A 45-minute cut plus 15 minutes of cleanup is one hour. A mobile cut plus 40 minutes of driving is closer to two.
3. Add the supplies for that visit. If you do not know the number, buy the supplies for ten visits and divide.
4. That total is the floor. Your published price should be at or above it.
Example, not a recommendation: a $60 floor hourly rate, one blocked hour, and $4 in supplies means you should not publish $40. The example is arithmetic. Your hourly rate is your decision.
Keep the menu short
Three services you can explain are better than twelve you have to discount. A workable first menu:
- A core service you can finish on time
- One add-on with a clear time cost
- One longer service for clients who want more, priced for the extra block
Put the time next to the price. "Cut — 45 minutes — $X" sets the expectation a caption cannot.
Deposits and packages
A deposit is not a discount. It is how you protect the hour. Take it on first visits and on any visit that includes travel. Apply it to the service price so the client is not paying twice.
Packages and memberships should be priced from the same floor. If a monthly plan includes two visits, the plan price should cover two blocked hours plus the cost of holding that time. Unused visits that roll forever turn a membership into a debt. Most solo operators should say unused visits do not roll.
How to raise prices without a speech
Raise the published price for new bookings first. Honor already-booked times at the old price. Tell regulars in the confirmation for their next visit, not in a story that disappears.
"Starting [date], [service] is [new price]. Your visit on [already booked date] stays at the current price. After that, new bookings use the new rate."
You do not need to apologize for the floor math. You do need to give notice.
Signs the price is wrong
- You are fully booked and exhausted, and still short on the week. The price or the service length is wrong.
- You discount more than one in five visits. The menu has a service people do not value at the printed price. Remove it or retime it.
- Mobile days pay less per hour than shop days. Charge for the blocked drive time or shrink the radius.
See also a weekly operating rhythm and the mobile barber guide.