When looking to cut costs at your spa or massage practice, you’ll want to consider product usage. It is one area that is often overlooked, but it can make a significant difference in your profitability. Profitable product usage begins by monitoring usage over a one- or two-week period to determine how much product you use for each type of bodywork or skin treatment. The next steps include:
- Pre-measure products to avoid waste
- Compare the cost-effectiveness of products
- Evaluate how much product is needed for each client relative to a treatment
Pre-measure products
Once you know how much product you need for a week, pre-measure the required amounts for each of your various treatments and store them. You can store pre-measured products for up to a week. (Snack cups, which you get at a restaurant supply outlet, provide convenient containers to store pre-measured product and avoid contamination). Pre-measuring reduces waste and saves time since you don’t need to interrupt a treatment to measure the product. Furthermore, when you have products pre-measured and ready for you, you can add other services to a massage or skin treatment more quickly.
Compare product cost-effectiveness
Reapplying products can cut into your profits. You even may find that reapplying small amounts of a product several times for a particular application may be more costly than applying a larger amount. Determine a product’s cost-effectiveness by dividing its bulk cost by the recommended measurement for a treatment. You’ll want to compare several products against a specific treatment.
Consider each client’s needs
It would help determine what works best for a client’s particular skin type or condition. Take notes on client charts after each service to remind you of each one’s special need. A client’s size or skin condition – for example, extremely dry – are some of the things that affect how much product you‘ll need for a treatment, which may be more than the usual amount.
Finally, don’t overlook skin absorption. When evaluating products, consider how much slip the product gives in relation to the type of service you provide and how completely the skin absorbs it. If the product is still sitting on the client’s skin when you are finished, you’ve used too much.
Don’t let product overuse eat into your profitability. Get ahead of your product usage by monitoring, pre-measuring, and considering each client’s particular needs.