I lost £50 to no-shows in one month — then I did this
Caitlin Ellis
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Freelancer · Northampton · 4mo ago
Can we talk about the actual cost of running a beauty salon without a proper booking system? Because I think a lot of people are making the calculation wrong.
They see the monthly fee — let's say £15 per month — and think that's an expense. But they don't add up what they're already spending:
- Time doing manual admin (at least two hours a week for most people I speak to)
- Money lost to no-shows with no deposit protection
- Clients you miss because they couldn't get through on the phone
- Late-night WhatsApp messages you answer because you feel you have to
When I sat down and actually counted this up for my beauty salon in Glasgow, I was losing the equivalent of £15 a week to inefficiency. The booking system paid for itself in the first fortnight.
I've been using Fresha now for two years and the ROI is obvious. My diary is fuller, my admin time is down to about two hours a week from what used to be a lot more, and I haven't had a no-show in over a month because the deposit system filters out the chancers before they waste my time.
They see the monthly fee — let's say £15 per month — and think that's an expense. But they don't add up what they're already spending:
- Time doing manual admin (at least two hours a week for most people I speak to)
- Money lost to no-shows with no deposit protection
- Clients you miss because they couldn't get through on the phone
- Late-night WhatsApp messages you answer because you feel you have to
When I sat down and actually counted this up for my beauty salon in Glasgow, I was losing the equivalent of £15 a week to inefficiency. The booking system paid for itself in the first fortnight.
I've been using Fresha now for two years and the ROI is obvious. My diary is fuller, my admin time is down to about two hours a week from what used to be a lot more, and I haven't had a no-show in over a month because the deposit system filters out the chancers before they waste my time.
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I made the same switch and I'd add one thing: tell your clients it's for their benefit, not yours. Frame it as 'you can now book at any time of day without having to wait for me to respond'. That framing works really well and it's also genuinely true.
#1
I had the same fear about telling clients I was switching to online booking only. Turns out most people actually prefer it — they can book at midnight if they want to without feeling like they're bothering you. The ones who complained were the ones I could afford to lose.
#2
The no-show stats in this post match my experience almost exactly. I was losing roughly £20 a month to no-shows and cancellations before I introduced deposits. That money was just gone. Now it's protected. The maths on deposits is completely obvious once you see it.
#3