Who wants to fold towels for hours in the back room? Who wants to sit around and wait for a possible walk-in? Who wants to count down the minutes until it’s time to end our clientless day? Do we find ourselves watching everyone else who’s busy in the salon and wishing we had some clients in our own chair? We all want to be busy and make money, but where do we start?

We have come to the conclusion that unless we are incredibly lucky, our nail business isn’t going to build itself. When I’m consulting in salons, this is one of the statements I hear most often: ”The owner didn’t promote me or GIVE me any business.” The tech complains that the owner didn’t do this or didn’t do that and then proclaims, “That’s why I’m not busy and don’t make any money. For some reason the owner hates me.”  For some, it’s the blame game.

There comes a time, when we have to quit blaming others for our shortcomings and insecurities. We have to ask ourselves, are we going to take responsibility and make it happen? Are we going to wait around for someone else to make us successful? It becomes clear that if we want something done, we have to take action and do it ourselves.  

Last week Sandy mentioned two things in her blog that really got me thinking. She made two key points that actually made me change the direction I had intended for this week’s blog. First, she said “Little did I realize that it takes time for clients to see your talent and skill. You have to get them back in your chair a few times for them to recognize that. It requires more than just being able to do a pretty polish job.” Secondly, she mentioned “I know what it is like to struggle with building a clientele, especially when I moved to a new state and didn’t know a single soul in the area. I had to start over.” Sandy was talking about self-promotion; she had to encourage herself.

I got to thinking, it doesn’t matter what your situation is. We all need to promote ourselves. You could be new to the area like Sandy or starting out as a new technician fresh out of school. Maybe you left another job to start a career in nails. So, you don’t have time to slowly build your client count — you’ve got bills to pay. Even seasoned nail techs still need to promote themselves. Some of your clients will move, vacation for extended periods of time, change their schedules or sometimes because of financial reasons, take a break. We all want to fill those empty spaces on our schedule. We all need a constant stream of new clients and new business.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be giving you some proven, get-new-clients-in-your-chair promotions that work. We’ll have to step out of our comfort zone, by stepping out of the salon. Stay tuned for next week’s exercise in self-promotion, one more way to make you stand out above the rest and become the best!

— Jill