Salon owner Nancy Jensen-Mueller knows how to attract attention. It’s hard to ignore a fire-red 1974 Corvette bearing the license plate “GTNAILD.” This advertisement on wheels was just one way Jensen-Mueller attracted interest in her Seattle nail salon, GET NAILED.

Nancy Jensen (before she gained a hyphen and a husband) used her considerable energy and savvy to turn a two-story Victorian house into the biggest nail salon in Seattle. First there was the name, which Jensen-Mueller believes played no small part in her success. “I get some funny reactions, but on the whole no one ever forgets it. It just sticks in your mind.” Then I here were the promotions — constant and imaginative. For five years, Jensen-Mueller engaged in volunteer matchmaking for her clients. She personally interviewed every prospective beau and threw an annual singles party around the holidays. The result: seven marriages and one divorce. She held “psychic faires,” and even arranged group travel tours for clients. But since she’s made a successful match for herself, Jensen-Mueller has moved her salon to a Seattle; suburb and scaled down operations considerably. “I was too damned successful, doing nails eight to 10 hours a day and running a huge business.” She may have said goodbye to life in the fast lane, but she kept the salon name and, of course, the Corvette.

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