Due to the need for discretion during the early planning stages, Vicki requested that we wait on posting her first few weeks of blog posts until now. Vicki wrote this one on March 2. Don't worry; we'll be caught up to the present day soon!--NAILS Eds.

With regard to our budget, well, we are working with a slim one. Between the three of us we have the nail supplies needed to start with, but we want to be consistent with the products and services we offer.

I have negotiated with Kupa, Beautiful Nails, Famous Names, and ENP to provide us products. In return we will put their logos on all our marketing materials, plus on the window and on the website, and tell all our clients about the products we use. I hope to carry Lumos and Dadi'Oil for natural nails, Beautiful Nails pedicure system that Kupa is in development on, and ENP files and ENP Gella Gel-Polish that I have been using for six months. We have Shellac and a collection of polish. We are yet to decide on one complete polish line. I have enough glitter to last a lifetime, and we are going to mix it into different combinations for glitter toes and then mix it into acrylic as well. It will be displayed in containers on the wall for the customers to choose.

I am also working on a Look Book of our work that will showcase our creative side with designs, photos of nails we have done, and ideas from photos we have torn out of magazines and found on the Internet. I am also going to have a page of nail shapes such as round, oval, squoval, stiletto, and square for the clients so they can understand the different shapes and communicate that to us.

We plan on shopping the garage sales and Craigslist for three different styles of winged back or oversized comfy chairs that don't match but that we can put white chair covers and colorful pillows on for the pedicure area. Chair covers will allow us to have a clean looking pedicure area that we can wash. We have white chair covers on the clients' chairs (that are part of Kim’s extra dining room set). I have nail products I have collected over the years that I have been hanging onto we are going to use, plus nylon nail brushes, extra electric files, and all kinds of other stuff.

Kim has some ornate mirrors and some furniture we are also going to use, such as a beautiful ornate dresser for a coffee station and a matching hutch where we can store our towels and pedicure supplies. She also has a couple of nightstands that match we will use for the waiting area. Not that we have chairs to sit in yet!

--Vicki Peters, Polish Salon, Brea, Calif.