Recently, I attended The Summit Salon Consulting Group Company Retreat. This is a companywide retreat with all of the consultants, the leadership team, seminar trainers, Michael Cole, and Summit's CEOs, etc. I love attending this retreat for many reasons. I get to see all of the consultants instead of passing them at the airport. I get to hear the state of the industry directly from the owners of the company. I attend great education and the fun events that have been planned too. Being at this retreat for a couple of days got me thinking about our own companies and salon.

As a salon are we attending education classes? Are we doing something to better ourselves and our careers? What are we doing to advance our skills, to grow our business, and keep current? Are we doing events, promotions, and activities to make our salon a fun place to work?

This month I am celebrating my 18th year as a nail technician. I cannot believe I'm saying that! I feel like I graduated from nail school yesterday. I was 22 and just starting my career at the salon in 1994. I literally blinked and now its 18 years later. I have a full-time career, a full clientele, and I own the place. I also consult with salons, educate nail technicians, and write for NAILS Magazine. Wow, how time has flown. I know I just turned 40, so I know the math is right. (Believe me, I double checked it!)

All of this got me thinking, what are we doing to continue our education? Are we staying current? What are we doing to educate ourselves? How are we staying on top of the new products and new techniques? Many of us have been "doing nails" for years and what we're doing is working. So we think, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Why should I go to a class? The answer is simple...you could learn something!

Did you know that people learn differently? So maybe you don't want to attend a class. Did you know you can download podcasts, videos and tutorials to get all the latest information? Did you know you can get online, purchase business tools, and get a bunch of information for free?!

Watch: Tutorials are great. They offer step-by-step instructions so you can see the sequential order of how to achieve something. These are great tools to help you "how to." YouTube and Pinterest have tons of great ideas with step-by-step instructions. Some posts are from nail professionals and others are just posted by people who are creative and want to share their ideas.

Listen: Podcasts are great to listen to also. Download and put them on your iPod. You can listen to them on your way to work or while you work out. There are so many topics: business skills, management tools, and so on. You can subscribe or download one at a time.

You can also purchase and listen to my CD, "Building a Nail Department featuring the Nail Associate Program." Learn how to properly build your nail department with intelligent guest offerings and industry best-practices. This two-CD set includes the Nail Associate week-by-week program to grow your own nail department. This step-by-step nail associate program will take a brand new nail tech to top performance in a matter of weeks while creating opportunities for top nail techs to become leaders and educators in your business! It’s available at Summit Salon, (800) 718-5945. Tell them to use promo code "JILL" and that you heard about it from NAILS Magazine.      

Reading: You can read all kinds of interesting articles each month in NAILS. They not only feature all of the latest products, they feature salons, business articles, and advice to help you become an advanced nail technician.

Blogs: Check out all of the blogs at nailsmag.com. You could learn something new every day from an industry professional.

Check back next week for more ideas of how to further your education. Evaluating your education needs and giving you ideas to advance your skills and career — one more way to help you stand out above the rest and become the BEST!

— Jill