We’ve seen some quiet days this month. The economy has affected everyone in a major way; it’s across the board. Unfortunately, we’ve had to cut hours and days for our employees (they’re salaried), which is something I never wanted to do. The salon’s overall hours are dependent on the schedule each day. If we have no one on the books after 5 p.m. and no one walking in then, we’ll close for the day. I think the next three months will be difficult for everybody. The street we’re located on, Ventura Boulevard, has so many “for lease” and “going out of business” signs; I’m wondering who our new neighbors will be. In the short term, it’s a lot of stress, but we’re in this for the long term, and we have a lot of back-up. Things can only get better, I hope.

We’re still dealing with the building; we want to add two more pedicure chairs (we’ll make the room by taking out two manicure stations), take out a partition, and open the area up more. We want the extra pedicure chairs because we’ve noticed that’s the service the majority of our clients want.

Vu Nguyen (an excellent nail artist on OPI’s A-Team) came in to teach a nail art class for our techs. Two of our techs are getting really good with 3-D nail art. We’ve seen a lot of nail enhancement requests. I think a lot of people are looking for these services, since so many salons don’t offer enhancements. I think we’ll see a rise in gel nail services in the near future.