Real talk: is Treatwell worth listing your brow studio on?
Stacey Anderson
🏪 VIP Seller
🥇 Gold Seller
Tattoo Studio · Colchester · 1mo ago
Can we talk about the actual cost of running a brow studio 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 £5 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 four 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 brow studio in Birmingham, I was losing the equivalent of £5 a week to inefficiency. The booking system paid for itself in the first fortnight.
I've been using Acuity Scheduling now for 18 months and the ROI is obvious. My diary is fuller, my admin time is down to about four 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 £5 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 four 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 brow studio in Birmingham, I was losing the equivalent of £5 a week to inefficiency. The booking system paid for itself in the first fortnight.
I've been using Acuity Scheduling now for 18 months and the ROI is obvious. My diary is fuller, my admin time is down to about four 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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Really useful breakdown — thank you. I've been sitting on the fence about Acuity Scheduling for months and this has pushed me to just go and do the free trial. Will report back.
#1
The point about analytics is underrated. I had no idea which of my services was actually the most profitable until Jane App showed me the data. It completely changed how I structured my pricing and my service menu.
#2
The point about filtering your client base with deposits is something I wish someone had told me when I started. It sounds harsh but your business actually runs better with fewer, more committed clients than with a packed diary full of flaky ones.
#3
The no-show stats in this post match my experience almost exactly. I was losing roughly £15 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.
#4
Totally agree about Fresha's transaction fee adding up. I did the maths for my price point and the 'free' plan was actually costing me more than a paid subscription to Timely by the time I factored in the percentage on every booking. Read the small print before assuming free is cheaper.
#5