Editor’s Note: Bussey, Iowa-based nail tech and educator Holly “Fingernailfixer” Schippers has started a project call the Nail Notebook. Over the course of the next few months, she’s going to walk you through the creation of a useful (and inexpensive) marketing tool you can use in the new year. “I love the industry and the people in the industry,” Holly told me when I asked her why she was doing this out of the goodness of her heart. “And the more we work together to better the industry, the better the industry will be.”

Right on Holly! You inspire us all! So here’s your first assignment. We’ll be posting the coming assignments exclusively right here on this blog. We’ve created a Nail Notebook tag as well in case you want to come back and look at all of the assignments at once. We can’t wait to see what everyone creates! — Hannah

Welcome to the global craft project for any and all nail professionals! We are going to undertake creating marketing material in the form of a “Nail Notebook”! This notebook can be put on display in your reception area, left by the hair dryers, set on your retail shelves, or you can make multiples to drop off at strategic places in town like doctor or dentist offices. It is completely customizable and everything we do should be interpreted to reflect you and your talents.

My schedule is crazy; how about yours? Let’s take this project nice and slow so that all of us in every time zone have plenty of time to do each “homework assignment”. If you ever have questions about the assignment just post it as a comment in case someone else has the same question. New assignments will be posted at least every other week, this gives those that do not have computer access at home, or have kids, work more than one job, or are just plain busy, time to complete each step before we move on.

The first assignment is to gather materials and make a cover for your notebook. The materials needed at this stage are a 3-ring binder in the size and color of your choice, page protectors, and cardstock. My personal choices are a 1-inch white binder, white cardstock, and a mix of regular and heavy sheet protectors. The cardstock has an advantage over regular paper in durability as well as print quality. You may want to have photo paper on hand, or if budget is an issue the cardstock will work great! Another way to cut costs would be a lighter weight page protector and/or regular paper.

Using a piece of paper or cardstock, create your cover page that will slide into the front of your notebook and act as a cover page. It can be your salon name, your logo, your tag line, or a collage of nails, anything you want it to be. My plan is to print off my logo with my tag line and maybe “bling” it up a bit!

Have fun with this first assignment, let your “nail eyes” begin to take things in and start jotting down notes of what you think of that you may want to include in your notebook someday!

— Holly L. Schippers

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