We’re growing our clientele slowly but surely. We hosted a reader party for InStyle magazine earlier this month. It turned out really well with more than 120 people showing up. We hope to do many more events like that.

I’m finding that mid-week, Tuesday through Thursday, is really slow for us. We’re combating that by running a special — if you get a mani/pedi, you’ll get a free paraffin treatment. I think this will be a good way to get clients familiar with paraffin, so they’ll think about buying it as part of their services (especially since winter is the perfect season for it).

I’m excited to host the Nail Manufacturers Council and OSHA at the salon next month. This is part of the ROB|B Salon mission to raise the standards in the nail salon industry. The two groups will be going over safe standard salons in our salon next month. OSHA especially will be watching and learning as we do a pedicure and acrylic set. They’ll be learning what the proper environment should be for nail services and will be telling us if we’re doing anything wrong (without writing us up for it).

For the upcoming holidays, we’re planning on sticking with the product lines we have, but since retail is hurting so badly in this economy, I think that most of any salon’s holiday retail business will come from gift cards.