Dear Abby Says You Don’t Tip a Salon Owner

A lot of people still, to this day, go by Dear Abby’s advicethat you don’t tip a salon owner.  Her reasoning is that the salon owner gets all of the service money brought in as opposed to her staff members, who usually receive an hourly rate or a percentage of the service amounts.  If you are a salon owner, you know how much this is nothing but bullshit.

First, let’s define what a tip is.  It was originally coined to mean “To Insure Prompt Service.”  It is a gratuity.  It is a way for a client to say, that was a job well done!  Where on Earth did someone get the idea that a salon owner, who is providing the same exact service as her staff member, at the station next to her, doesn’t deserve to be tipped?

Let’s think about this.  A staff member will usually get a percentage of the service, customarily 50-60 percent in an employee situation.  Yes, the salon owner, providing the same service gets 100%, but what people forget is that she also gets 100% of all of the bills.  So when the day is done, the staff member actually makes more than the salon owner, even once you factor in the amount the 40-50% that the salon keeps of the staff member’s service.

The salon owner pays things like rent, utilities, advertising, insurance, supplies to do all services, paper towels, toilet paper, coffee, cups, creamer, snacks for the break room, cleaning supplies, office supplies, TAXES, licenses, magazine subscriptions, trade subscriptions, CLASSES, shows, and the list goes on and on and on.  Some think that salon owners get rich off of what they earn off of their staff.  Think again.  When you add staff members, your expenses increase.  Your utilities go up, your supplies go up, and on and on and on.  So, in most cases, it is safe to assume that even though a salon owner adds another staff member, they are NOT earning much more than they were before they hired the new staff member.

Why hire anyone then, you may ask.  Well, salon owners can only do so many clients.  By adding staff members, the salon owner can keep up with the calls for appointments that they can’t take.

Now that I have given you this little history and my opinions on this subject, I would like to tell you a story.  I had a client, who was very wealthy, who would never tip me.  No problem, tips are not an entitlement.  I get it.  So after a break from getting her nails done, she wanted to start again.  I no longer had an opening in my book, so she was booked with a staff member.  Each and every appointment, she would tip this girl $20.  Sometimes this was a $20 tip on a $25 service.  This reinforced to me that she didn’t tip me because I was the salon owner, because my service was just as good as the staff member’s service, if not better.

Fast forward a few years, the staff member decided to go out on her own and become a salon owner.  Wealthy client went with her.  Still, to this day, I wonder what wealthy client does now.  Did she continue to tip the girl $20?  Or, did she stop since she is now a salon owner?  If she did stop, how did she explain it.

Bottom line, don’t rely on tips.  Set your prices so that you don’t need tips.  Tips are then just a bonus.  If you are of the Dear Abby mindset, I hope you rethink that mindset and realize that it is just plain ridiculous.  Tip based on the service you receive, not who owns what or who pays who.