Up for the Challenge

I just said good bye to my last client and, as I was cleaning up my station and dusting off my pants to settle in for the short break I'd been looking forward to, heard myself say out loud, "I sure do love $60 fills."

And then I heard my alter ego reply, "Well duh. Of course you like doing $60 fills!" And that's where today's inner debate started:

Naturally, I like doing $60 fills. (From a base price of $27, just for some perspective.) My average rockstar backfill price is $40-$45. That'll get you a couple of colors, or a new color and some nail art — pretty average daily wear stuff. But a $60 fill means that we did something fancy.

It's the high-dollar fills (and yes, I realize "high dollar" is a subjective term. I know some of you charge more than that for a basic fill but this is not a post about pricing. Although, rest assured I can rant the heck out of that subject too!) that turn out nails that I want to take photos of. The nails that I'm not just proud of, but leave me downright impressed with myself. They're the ones that I got to do something new, something daring, something outrageous — something to brag about — on.

But it is business. I can't just give away my time and work just for the sake of playing. If I'm going to spend two hours on a fill, I have to make sure I'm compensated appropriately. Between the scheduling issues involved and the money issues, these nails don't represent the norm for my clientele.

That little alter ego voice in my head started off arguing that anybody in the business would prefer the $60 fills — or whatever price represents double-time for you — because who doesn't want to turn out challenging design work at a premium price?

Ahhhh! That's where I found myself arguing with myself (yes, this really is what it's like to be me), countering with the assertion that I'd bet there are tons of techs out there who would really prefer to just do pink-and-whites all day. People who would rather spend their days making their money off of the services that are more routine for them, even if it means seeing more clients in order to make the same amount of money.

Not everyone enjoys the challenging requests; some people prefer not to honor special requests.

Did I mention that, in 18-1/2 years of doing nails professionally, no one has ever requested a chocolate Easter bunny? Let alone a 3-D one?

I love my job.