Saturday 2pm. No-show.Make it a €15 deposit.
Saturday is the day you earn, and it is the day people don't turn up: a 2pm that books itself on Tuesday and disappears without a word, forty minutes and €45 gone. This is the booking link for your bio with a €15 deposit on every slot and a 24-hour policy printed above the pay button; a cancellation list that emails “slot opened, Saturday 2pm” to the people who asked; a €20 written consultation for the colour and restyle questions that eat your DMs; and a monthly letter with the openings.
Free to start. You keep 80%. No monthly plan, no fee on the clients you bring yourself.
Free cancel or move until Fri 14:00 · inside 24 h the deposit is kept · balance €30 in the chair
The booking link
with a deposit on it.
One session type per service: skin fade, scissor cut, beard, colour. Forty-minute slots, your working days, Google Calendar synced, a fifteen-minute hold while they pay. The €15 comes off the price in the chair. The 24-hour rule sits right above the pay button, which is where the research says clients want to see it, and it is enforced by the calendar, not by an awkward conversation.
How bookings work →A written plan
for the colour question.
“Can I go from box-dye black to ash blonde?” is not a DM question. It is a consultation: what is realistic from where their hair is, how many sessions, what it costs, and when. The €20 form asks for three photos in daylight and the hair's history; you answer in writing within three days and the €20 comes off the first appointment. If it can't be done safely, you say so, and the fee still counts as answered.
€16 to your balance · 16 Sep
Four products,
switched on in this order.
The booking with a deposit first, because it is where Saturday's money goes missing. Then the cancellation list that fills the gaps the deposit doesn't prevent, the paid consultation for the questions that don't fit a DM, and the monthly letter with the openings.
- 1Day one · Bookings
Cut with a €15 deposit, 24-h policy €15 deposit
A session type per service, 40-minute slots, your working days, Google Calendar synced. €15 deposit at booking, balance in the chair. Free move or cancel until 24 h before; inside that the deposit is kept. Reminders at 24 h and 2 h.
- 2Day one · Leads & CRM
Cancellation list — “slot opened, Saturday 2pm” free
A one-field form in your bio and pinned in your stories. Contacts tagged by preferred day and service. When a slot opens you email the Saturday segment; first to book takes it, with the same €15 deposit.
- 3Week two · Forms & Requests
Colour / restyle consultation €20 · 3 days
Three daylight photos, the hair's history, what they want. Your written plan with sessions, price and booking links is the answer; the €20 is credited to the first appointment. No reply in three days, automatic refund. Patch test stays in the salon.
- 4Week four · Newsletter
Monthly openings free
First of the month. The open slots by week, one before-and-after, one product you actually use, the cancellation-list link. The agent drafts it from your calendar; you swap the photo and send.
October openings — Saturdays are gone, Thursdays aren't
Week 1: Thu 16:40, Fri 11:20. Week 2: Wed 14:00, Thu 09:20. Week 3: Tue all afternoon. Week 4: Fri 16:40. All Saturdays booked. €15 deposit holds any of them.
Dana, box-dye black to beige blonde, session one of two. Bond builder, lifted to a level 8, toned warm. Ash in November. Two photos.
The sea-salt spray I've used all summer is being discontinued. The replacement is lighter; use twice as much. Both on the shelf until it runs out.
Saturdays open up about twice a month. Join the list at applyform.app/c/marco-cuts/list and you get the email before I post it.
If you're thinking about a big change, send three daylight photos through the €20 consultation. You get a written plan in three days and the €20 comes off your first session.
What the monthly letter
actually contains.
The open slots by week, one before-and-after, one product note, the cancellation list, the consultation link. Five blocks on the first of the month, all free. Salons that push more of their bookings online earn about a third more per guest; the letter is the cheapest way to move regulars from “text me” to the link.
The agent reads the openings straight from your calendar and drafts the rest. You pick the photo and send.
Ten minutes of admin
on a phone.
A barber's admin happens between clients, on a phone, in the two minutes before the next one sits down. The setup below is built for that: the calendar and the deposit run themselves, the cancellation email is one tap, the consultations are answered on a slow Tuesday, and the letter is drafted before you open it.
- DailyCheck the chair
Reminders went out at 24 h and 2 h. Anyone who cancels inside 24 h forfeits €15 and the slot goes to the list in one tap.
- TuesdayConsultation replies
Slow afternoon: three or four €20 colour plans answered in writing with booking links. Anything unsafe gets a straight no and still counts as answered.
- SaturdayFull book, deposits paid
Every 2pm has €15 on it. A cancellation at 11:00 is emailed to the Saturday segment and usually gone by noon.
- 1st of the monthThe openings letter
Drafted from the calendar; you swap the before-and-after and send. Regulars book from the link instead of texting.
Numbers from
the market.
One Atlanta shop's numbers; its overall rate fell from 17% to 4%. Barbers average 10–15% without a policy and 3–5% is achievable with one.
Or a card on file, a 24-hour cancellation window, and 50% for a late cancel, 100% for a no-show. €15 with a 24-h rule is the middle of that.
A missed 40-minute slot is the cut you didn't do plus the walk-in you turned away. Three a week is a day's takings a month.
Reminders alone cut no-shows 38–50%; a deposit alone about 55%. The booking does both without you touching your phone.
Fresha $19.95 a month plus 20% (min $6) per marketplace client; Booksy $29.99 plus a 30% Boost; StyleSeat 30% of the first appointment plus a $2.35 client fee. ApplyForm: 20% of what you sell, no plan.
The median salon books under 30% of appointments online; the top performers book over 60% and earn about a third more per guest.
Market figures from published industry and platform data, September 2026, rounded. Your prices, volume and retention will differ.
“My regulars will hate
paying a deposit.”
Some will grumble the first month. Around 39% of service businesses see pushback when they start taking deposits, and for nine in ten of them it fades within three months, because the deposit comes off the bill and the regulars were never the ones not turning up. 72% of consumers accept a deposit applied to the final price. Put the 24-hour rule above the pay button and let the calendar enforce it; you never have to.
When the rule is stated before payment and tied to the loss you actually suffer, yes. “Free until 24 h before, deposit kept inside that” is a schedule, not a flat forfeit, and that is what holds up if a bank asks. EU buyers have a 14-day withdrawal right on distance contracts unless the appointment falls inside the window; the checkout wording covers it.
No. Allergy and scalp-condition answers are health data under GDPR and need their own consent at the salon. The €20 form asks for photos and the hair's history; the patch test and the questionnaire happen in the chair, at least 48 hours before the colour.
Stay on it if the marketplace sends you people worth the 20%. Send your own Instagram and your regulars here: same deposit, no monthly plan, no fee on clients you brought yourself, and the cancellation list and the letter come with it.
Put €15 on
every Saturday slot.
Tell the agent your Instagram handle. It reads your grid and your price list, proposes the deposit booking, the cancellation list and the colour consultation with your prices, and sets them up when you create the account.