I think the issue may not necessarily be the location or even pricing. In Tier-2/3 cities, customer behaviour is just different from what you see in metro cities.
People are often more occasion-driven — weddings, festivals, parties, functions, etc. So if you depend only on walk-ins and new customer acquisition, revenue can become very unpredictable.
If I were running this salon, my biggest focus would be building and managing the customer database.
Every customer who comes in should become a potential repeat customer.
I would maintain data like:
What service they took
How much they spent
When they last visited
How frequently they visit
Hair/skin/nail preferences
Birthday/anniversary
Whether they came for bridal/event purposes
Customers who haven't visited for 30/60/90+ days
Then I'd start doing proper Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) through WhatsApp/SMS/push notifications.
But I wouldn't just keep sending "20% OFF" messages. That's a race to the bottom.
For example, someone who took a haircut 2 months ago can get a different message from someone who came for a facial, and a bridal customer should get a completely different follow-up.
You can also use the database for cross-selling.
Someone coming for hair services → hair spa/treatment/colour maintenance.
Someone coming for facial → skincare/maintenance services.
Someone who came for bridal → post-wedding services and eventually regular salon visits.
And customers who haven't visited for 60–90 days can be put into a win-back campaign.
I'd also track one number very closely:
What % of your customers come back within 30/60/90 days?
Because getting 1,000 new customers doesn't mean much if 900 of them never return.
The salons that have been operating for 6+ years also have a huge advantage that isn't immediately visible — they have years of accumulated customers, referrals, relationships and repeat behaviour.
A new salon can't necessarily replicate that in 10 months just by increasing ad spend.
So personally, I'd stop thinking primarily in terms of:
"How do I get more customers?"
and start thinking:
"How do I make every customer I acquire come back again?"
Build the database → segment customers → maintain the relationship → personalise communication → cross-sell → win back inactive customers → measure repeat rate.
Once you have a large enough database, it becomes much easier to create predictable monthly revenue without depending so heavily on bridal/event bookings.
Also, if customers are constantly asking for discounts, I'd look at whether you're attracting the wrong segment through your marketing. Sometimes the solution isn't a bigger discount — it's changing the offer and positioning so customers understand why they should come back to you.