Runner-up: Salon With 1-3 Nail Technicians

Location: Rockport, Mass

Owner: Leslyn Zak

Years in business: I

Staff size: I

Rustic (not Rusty) Nails

Leslyn Zak holds a bachelor’s degree in marine and earth sciences and performing arts, and worked in that field as a marine research scientist. Her job was seasonal, as it depended on the migration of whales, and she was unfulfilled. She found herself thinking one day about a new career as she waited for her polish to dry after a manicure and it came to her “I went from whales to nails,” says Zak, now happier than a clam with her own business in the nail industry. Nails On Broadway is located in a rustic office building erected sometime around the Civil War in the seaport village of Rockport, Mass.

Nails on Broadway owner Leslyn Zak gleefully accepts her runner-up award for Nail Salon of the Year with 1-3 Nail Technicians.

Nails on Broadway owner Leslyn Zak gleefully accepts her runner-up award for Nail Salon of the Year with 1-3 Nail Technicians. 

The salon scored high points from the judges for its decor and use of a small space. Cream-colored walls and hardwood floors are accented with tastefully placed plants, including strands of ivy, rose garlands, and ferns. In keeping with the history of the building, Zak has decorated with beautiful antiques. The pedicure chair is an antique oak recliner with a pull-out foot rest that stores supplies.

Being that she is the salon’s only employee, Zak is in constant pursuit of new educational sources, attending product classes at tradeshows and business classes through her local chamber of commerce. She puts equal determination into pleasing her customers. “I begin with an approach to the client that earns her loyalty. I offer clients an opportunity to participate in their nail care at a deeper level than any of them have ever experienced,” she wrote in her easy. It’s obviously working; a customer wrote in her letter of recommendation that she hoped judges could someday experience the “wonder” of Nails On Broadway firsthand.

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