Recapping the Afternoon Presentations and Advanced Seminars at the Foot Forward Summit

After lunch, Linda Herber, RPN, who is certified in Advanced Nursing Foot Care Education and Denise Baich, ANT, MNT, FNT, of Pedicure Plus demonstrated how to do a waterless pedicure. The duo also discussed other ways to tailor your pedicure offerings to different groups for increased profitability.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of panels for such topics as:

• The Business of Foot Care: How to market yourself. The panel discussed topics such as what is the primary purpose of a business? Is it to fill a need or solve a problem? The three stages of T.O.E. marketing, Trends, Opportunities, Execution. Setting the stage of brand absence, brand awareness, brand preference, and brand advocacy. One of the best pieces of advice from this panel was: The first person you want to market to is yourself!
• Expanding Your Business With Additional Revenue Streams. There was a discussion a new product to be released in the fall of 2018 called Onyfix, a system designed to help alleviate some nail deformities.
• Moving Forward: What are the next steps for your pedicuring business? Deciding who is your target group: the bargain hunter, the value seeker, or the outcome driven client. Sell solutions, not products — when you do this, you enhance your professional image, you attract the type of client you want, you define your model leaving no doubt about your services, and you protect yourself from liabilities and risks. “When all things are equal, people buy on price. When all things are not equal, people buy on value” – Peter Ramsden

Beth Livesay closed out our day with thanks to all the attendees, the sponsors, and the vendors. Beth, along with the rest of the NAILS Magazine staff, looks forward to seeing everyone next year!

On Tuesday, there were advanced education classes with Footnanny, Footlogix, and LCN, and certification from NASP. Unfortunately, Holly and I were not able to attend these classes, but I have been assured that those who did attend were excited to get back to their own salons and put all their newly acquired knowledge to use!

The inaugural Foot Forward Summit was quite an experience! It was the first time I had traveled to a nail event that was not a CND training. I had great experiences and met awesome people! Please look for a future blog on my adventures with my BFF! I’m sooo glad I was able to attend this event! I feel I would be remiss in my duties if I did not express my sincere Thanks to Beth and the NAILS Magazine staff for asking Holly and me to attend this event and allow us to share it with you!

 — Mel