I've been chitchatting with a colleague about life and stuff and doing nails and she reports that she's been having some "issues" with the owner of the salon where she works ... doesn't that sound like a familiar story? Even when everyone gets along, there's always an issue.

In this case, I figured it made good blog fodder because it's something I hear all the time. I've even heard it from salon owners I have worked for or under in the past: the accusation that we want to be "famous." Like it's a bad thing.

I suppose the conflict boils down to a salon owner who carefully chose the name of her salon, and that salon is her baby. It not only reflects who that owner is as a person and a professional, but also reflects what she felt was a desirable atmosphere to work in for other booth renters/employees, as well as the type of place where clients would want to come for their services.

When you open a salon, you're all like, "This is the way it should be! I'm going to have the kind of salon that I always wanted to work in."

So when a booth renter comes along and wants to use her own name and/or business name instead of your fabulous salon name that you worked so hard to get just right, I guess it's a little bit of a slap in the face.

But that's just one problem with choosing booth renters over employees — you don't really get to make that call. If your renters want to operate under their own names, they can.

Still, making fun of your renters — aside from being obviously counter-productive to your bottom line — for promoting themselves or accusing them of looking for fame and fortune is silly.

Of course we want to be famous. In fact, fame is absolutely necessary to ensure the survival of our careers. And somebody has to promote us, lord knows it's rarely the salon owner— especially in a booth rental salon.

Thing is, in order to claw your way to the top of your local food chain, you must make sure that everyone in town knows who you are and what you do — and convince them that you are the very best at what you do and that they are total losers if they don't come to you.

That means that you need to be "famous," at least locally.

I guess it's a delicate balance between humility and self-promotion, but self-promotion is the most important part of building a successful business in the salon industry. So don't let anyone make you feel guilty for pursuing fame. It's better to be a slightly cocky — and busy — nail tech, than a modest ex-nail tech!