Pricing questions, answered.
How Nail Price Studio calculates your cost floor and scenario price - and what to do with the results.
What this tool does
- Estimates a cost floor for each service
- Calculates a scenario price at the target margin you set
- Allocates business costs and card fees across appointments
- Shows an effective hourly rate at your current price and scenario price
- Supports home studio, booth rent, suite rent, and mobile setups
- Flags if your income goal may exceed your appointment capacity
What this tool does not do
- Does not provide tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice
- Does not calculate taxes owed or required tax set-asides
- Does not replace a qualified accountant or bookkeeper
- Does not guarantee any specific income or profit outcome
- Does not manage bookings, clients, or inventory
- Does not give personalized pricing advice from the seller
Understanding your results
What do current price, cost floor, and scenario price mean?
Current price is what you charge now. Cost floor is the estimated lowest price that covers your costs and target owner pay. Scenario price adds a margin on top based on the target you set, so you have a cushion above break-even.
How do I calculate my effective hourly rate?
Divide your service price by the total appointment time - client time plus cleanup plus any processing time when you cannot take another client. This tells you what your current price actually pays you per hour, and whether you are on track to hit your monthly income goal.
Why is my scenario price higher than I expected?
Many quick pricing rules undercount time, overhead, card fees, or owner pay. Nail Price Studio uses your inputs to allocate those costs into the service price. The scenario price uses the margin formula (price = costs ÷ (1 − margin)) rather than a simple markup, which produces a higher result for the same margin goal.
Workspace setup
Can I use this if I work from home or as a mobile nail tech?
Yes. The tool supports home studio, booth rent, suite rent, and mobile setups. Your space cost can be zero if that reflects your setup. Mobile techs should consider whether travel time limits their appointment capacity.
How does booth rent affect my service prices?
Booth rent is a fixed monthly cost that gets divided across your appointments based on how many billable hours you work. Higher rent or fewer appointments means more overhead per service, which raises your price floor. The tool allocates it correctly based on your working hours and utilization rate.
What is the $1-per-minute rule?
A commonly repeated folk rule of thumb is to charge about $1 per minute of total service time - for example, $60 for a 60-minute service. This is not a verified market benchmark or a substitute for a cost-based calculation. Your actual price floor depends on your real overhead, supplies, and income goal. Use it as a rough reference only, not a target.
How do card processing fees affect my prices?
Card fees (typically 2.6-3.5%) are deducted from every card payment. On a $60 service where 80% of clients pay by card, that is roughly $1.25-$1.70 per appointment in lost revenue. The tool factors this in automatically based on the card payment percentage you enter.
Account and access
Is my first check really free?
Yes. After sign-in, you can run one diagnostic service check for free. Full menu checks, capacity planning, export, and message templates require full access.
Is this financial, tax, or accounting advice?
No. This is an educational planning tool. It provides estimates based on your inputs and is not financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice.
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