How to set your prices as a self-employed nail or lash tech

Short answer: work backward from what you need to earn. Add up your yearly costs, decide what you want to make before taxes, plan for self-employment tax and slow weeks, then divide by the hours you can realistically sell. That gives you an hourly number. Multiply it by the time each service takes, add the product it uses, and you have a price that pays you properly. Then check it against your local market, not the other way around.

Why copying local prices goes wrong

Most new techs look at three salons nearby and price a little below them. It feels safe, but it ignores everything that makes your business different: your booth rent, your products, how many hours you work, whether you rent a suite or work from home.

A salon with six employees can charge $40 for a gel manicure because the space, the front desk and the marketing are shared across six people. A booth renter paying for all of that alone, at the same price, can easily end up earning less per hour than they think once everything is counted.

So start with your own numbers.

Step 1: add up a year of costs

Write down everything the business costs in a year. Typical lines for a nail or lash tech:

• Booth rent, suite rent or a share of home costs if you work from home
• Products and supplies (gel, tips, lash trays, adhesive, pads, disinfectant)
• Equipment you replace (lamps, e-files, tweezers, lash beds), spread over their lifetime
• Liability insurance
• License renewals and continuing education
• Booking software, card processing and your phone
• Laundry, towels and cleaning
• Marketing: business cards, social media ads

Here is an example for a tech renting a suite. Your numbers will differ.

Step 2: decide what you want to earn

Pick a yearly number you would be happy to earn before taxes. Be realistic, but don't apologize for it. In this example, the tech wants $45,000 a year before taxes.

Step 3: plan for taxes

When you are self-employed, no employer withholds tax for you. Two federal pieces apply to most nail and lash techs:

• Self-employment tax of 15.3% on net earnings from self-employment: 12.4% for Social Security (up to the annual wage base) and 2.9% for Medicare. It is calculated on 92.35% of your net profit and applies once your net self-employment earnings reach $400 for the year. Half of it is deductible when you calculate your income tax.
• Federal income tax on your profit, plus state income tax in most states.

Because nothing is withheld, the IRS generally expects quarterly estimated payments (Form 1040-ES) if you will owe $1,000 or more for the year. Set aside a fixed share of every week's takings in a separate account so the quarterly payment is never a shock. A CPA or enrolled agent can tell you the right share for your income and state.

Sales tax is a state question. Many states don't tax personal services such as manicures or lash extensions, but some tax certain services, and retail products you sell are usually taxable. Check with your state's department of revenue.

Tax rules change every year and depend on your whole situation, so confirm the numbers with the IRS website or a tax professional before you rely on them.

Step 4: count the hours you can actually sell

This is where most pricing goes wrong. You might be at work 40 hours a week, but you can't sell all 40.

Take out:

• Vacation, holidays and sick days (say six weeks a year in total)
• Cleaning and setting up between clients
• Admin, ordering, social media and replying to messages
• Gaps in your schedule, especially early in the week

In this example the tech works 46 weeks a year and, after admin and gaps, sells about 25 hours a week. That is 1,150 bookable hours a year.

Step 5: find your hourly number

Add costs and target earnings, then divide by bookable hours:

($18,000 costs + $45,000 earnings) ÷ 1,150 hours = about $54.80 an hour

Everything you charge needs to work out to at least that per hour of your time. Supplies used on a specific service are already in the costs above, but if one service uses something expensive (premium lash fans, chrome powders, hand-painted art), add that on top.

Step 6: turn it into service prices

Now price each service by the time it actually takes, including consultation and cleanup:

Then compare with your area. If your number is far above what clients nearby pay, look at the inputs before cutting the price: can you sell more hours, lower a cost, or speed up a service without losing quality? If your number is below local prices, you have room to charge more.

Tips are a bonus, not part of the price. Build your prices so the business works even on a week with low tips.

Step 7: present prices so clients understand them

How you show prices changes how they land:

• List the time with the price. "Classic full set, 2 hours, $123" explains itself.
• Skip the long list of small add-ons. Bundle common extras into a few clear options.
• Give a month's notice before increases, and put the new prices on your booking page from the day they apply.
• Protect the time you priced. A no-show on a two-hour set wipes out a big part of your day; a deposit on long services protects it. Our guide to deposits for nails, lashes and brows shows how to set one.

Fees that quietly lower your real price

If you get clients through a marketplace app, a share of each new client's first booking goes to the platform. On a $123 full set, a 30% fee is $36.90 that never reaches you. That doesn't make marketplaces wrong, but it does mean your real price on those bookings is lower than the one on your menu. We ran the numbers in what marketplace fees really cost you.

How Avana helps you keep the price you set

Avana doesn't set your prices, but it makes sure the price you worked out is the price you receive.

• Your services with time and price, exactly as you set them, on your own booking page.
• Services with variants, such as short, medium and long, each with its own time and price, so clients pick the right one themselves.
• A deposit or full payment per service, paid by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay when the client books.
• No commission on bookings from your own page, so $123 on your menu is $123 for you, apart from normal card processing costs.
• A clear overview of what you earned, so you can check every few months whether your hourly number still holds.

You can set up your services and prices during the free trial and see your booking page before anyone else does. The features overview has the details, and the pricing page shows what the software itself costs.