I know I would rather be working with clients than folding towels all day. What nail tech wouldn’t want a book filled to bursting with happy guests who rebook, buy retail, and refer their friends. I know that I strive for that every day. I have heard all of those excuses before and am sure that I have even used them once or twice early in my career. Thank goodness I realized that I can’t rest on my laurels and wait to have clients handed to me on a silver platter. I have tried several different things in the past, some worked and some didn’t. I can’t wait to get started on the self-promotion tips and techniques next week.

So, on another note, while I wait for the knowledge and techniques that Jill is going to provide, I gave myself a little gift this week. I have already told you all that I take a lot of nail education to continue to improve my skill set and learn new ways to bring out my creativity. Well right now I am taking a class on design nail technique to help get me out of my winter doldrums. I have just finished day one of the Be Inspired with Sam Biddle class in Long Beach, Calif. This class is helping me break out of the box for nails.

This morning I learned some amazing fantasy nail techniques that helped to show me how to better control my product and just start to let the creativity flow. While this would most likely never be used in a salon setting, it does help to get my imagination started and give me a different way to work on my product ratios. That skill will translate to any enhancement I do.

In the afternoon we worked on design nails using the skills we learned in the morning to create designs that are more salon wearable. While still fairly elaborate, I learned time saving techniques to make it more profitable to do in the salon. The tips that I learned will be very useful to help a client who wants something for a special occasion how to decide on what style of nail she would like. Also, these tips will help me to introduce clients to a different style or shape of nail than they originally thought of. The side benefit (hopefully) of having a few of these design nails displayed is when a guest sits in your chair and sees that you are capable of that kind of work, they will tell someone what the girl who does their nails can do.

-- Sandy