Things I Have Learned as a Salon Owner

Yesterday, was the first day I actually considered throwing in the towel.  Closing the doors to my salon.  This was not because business is bad or we are losing money.  It is quite the opposite.  We are booming.  The reason for my feeling of defeat is due to employee problems.  A lack of good employees problem.

I have since shook it off, but I am not the same salon owner any more.  I have become one of “THOSE” salon owners now.  I am now not willing to want to give a chance to a new nail tech.  I am sick and tired of training them for months, only to have everything go in one ear and out the other.  I am sick and tired of them doing a crappy job, having to redo their work, having to give refunds, having to compensate clients for services they are unhappy with.

I have just experienced having a young tech in my salon for nearly six months.  We tried to mold her into a nail professional like the rest of our awesome staff.  We took her to classes, spent countless hours mentoring her, teaching her.  Still, she wasn’t getting it, applying product and polish with the hand flat on the table.

After six months, numerous complaints and requests from clients to not ever be rebooked with her again, a line was drawn with her.  Shape up or ship out.  The choice is yours.  YOU are in charge of your destiny.

Well, long story short, she decided to ship out.  She saw the writing on the wall.  She gave some lame excuse about school being so demanding this semester.  She is a collage student.  It was okay, I had my out.  I didn’t have to fire her and she could leave with some dignity.  She gave a two week notice.  It was very easy to reschedule the few appointments in her column after those two weeks.  We didn’t really schedule anything new for her.

Week one came and you could tell she was doing an even crappier job than normal.  She just didn’t care.   She works two days a week.   Final week comes and she is on day one of her final two days and announces to me that she can’t work the following day, her last day, due to school.  We have no where to put her few people.  She has left me high and dry.

I will now alter how I do things as a salon owner.  I will no longer employ someone who is going to college.  Period.  You are either in this profession or you are not.  You are not going to work for me while you go to college.  I want committed nail techs that want to make a career out of this.

I will never again honor a two week notice.  I am going to be one of those salon owners,  who tell you to get your things and go when you give two weeks notice.  A lot of people diss salon owners for this, but I NOW understand.  I will not allow you to do a crappy, bang up job for two weeks because you just don’t care any longer and you will never see these clients again.  I will not allow you to leave me high and dry at the last minute.

It is a sad state of affairs when a really good, compassionate salon owner is turned into a cold hearted bitch.  Future techs can thank the sins of irresponsible techs of times past.  As a salon owner, I have lived and I have learned. 

Signed – Live and Learn, Crash and Burn

Marketing Mistakes

As a Marketing Consultant, former salon owner and current, part-time Nail Professional, I cringe at some salons marketing strategies.  One of the biggest things that make me cringe is the misuse of Facebook.

If you are a salon owner and you have a salon profile for your salon, you make me cringe the most.  Profiles are for people, that’s why you add them as a friend.  Businesses are to have pages, and people click Like because they like the business.   If you do have a profile (where people add you as a friend and you approve them) you are in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service.

First of all, if you are doing this, you are coming off as someone who has no clue how to run a business.  Second, your profile, which you have spent time approving people, promoting and marketing, uploading photos, etc., will eventually, be deleted by Facebook.  Sure, it may take awhile since there are so many uneducated business owners out there with profiles instead of pages, but trust me; it will catch up with you.

You will then cry and boo-hoo that Facebook deleted your account and all of your hard work is down the drain.  You were the one that was either too stupid to understand the TOS or you just flat out thumbed your nose at it.

I’ve heard the different reasons why salon owners choose a profile, the most common is that the salon owner wants to control who sees their salon information and photos.  Well I guess you don’t want new business because if you never approve anyone you don’t know, you will never get any new clients.  I mean the number one reason for marketing is to market yourself to your market.  Facebook is the perfect venue for this.

If you do want to keep things private then create a closed group, where you control who is allowed in.  You are then in compliance and will not run the risk of having all your hard work deleted some day.

So, if you have a Facebook profile for your business, get rid of it.  You look like a fool.  Get a page or if you don’t want new customers, form a group.  I would rather see you have NOTHING, than have a profile.

Signed – The Marketing Maven

Having Kids Means You Should PARENT Them

I am seeing more and more, people complaining about how children act in public.  You are hearing stories about how restaurants are not allowing children or are now enforcing removal of disruptive children.  If you work in a salon, you know how bad these hellions can act.

The minute you say anything or try to take matters into your own hands, you become the bad guy and you get jumped all over by the parents.  Hey, your kid is acting like an asshole and guess what?  They learned it from you.  You are not doing your job as a parent.  Why should others have to suffer because you are too lazy to parent your kids?

In the day and age that I grew up in, if I acted like these kids today do, I would have had my ass beat.  Period.  I would have only talked back to my parents once or twice before I learned that this is not appropriate behavior.  My children were raised the exact same way.  I NEVER would have permitted them to act in public the way some do today.

Just today, I witnessed at least five occasions in my hour long shopping excurstion to Wal-Mart.  My ears were assaulted by SHRIEKING children.  Ear piercing screams that the parents are obviously so used to that they didn’t notice.  I witnessed kids talking disrespectfully to their parents, demanding items be bought for them.  I witnessed children running up and down the aisles, knocking things off of the shelves and laughing about it.

Listen, I know you love your kids, but why do I have to suffer just because you love them too much to beat their ass when they act like assholes?  It’s time for the parents of America to step up and start rearing your children.  Otherwise, you are raising the future drug addicts, thieves, crack whores, strippers and porn stars of America.  You will have NO ONE to blame but yourselves.

So, the next time “I” get offended by your children, don’t you dare get all bent out of shape with me.  It’s time for you to look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Am I raising children to become responsible adults or am I raising the future white trash of America?”

Signed – There Needs To Be More Ass Beatings

Follower Friday – Reader Submissions 1

We asked you to email us at nailtechtalk@yahoo.com with anything you would like to say anonymously.  Well you sure did!  Keep them coming!!

Co-worker-If I wanted to work around children I would have opened a damn daycare! Don't bring your kids to work!!!  - KW

Dear Employee – Please return your phone messages the day that you get them.  If you get one on Saturday morning that you do not return until Tuesday evening, don’t be surprised if you have lost that client.  – Fed up Boss

You want an appointment tomorrow at 5:00?  Well I want my ass to be small by then too and you see how that’s working out for me!  - WTF in Ohio

What part of WE ARE FULLY BOOKED do you not understand?  Would you like for me to kick someone out of my chair to accommodate you?  Better yet, let me go stand in the corner and magically crap out an appointment for you. – UNREAL in VA

Are you bleeding to death and this is the only number you can call for help, because that is the only reason we can come up with as to why you have called and hung up on voice mail ELEVEN times! – The PP

Hey you, yes you, all that glitter you are just throwing around……every little speck of it………….”I” have to clean up.  Stop it!!!  - The Janitor

I am so sorry that my vacation is an inconvenience to you, I guess you forgot about how YOUR vacation was not an inconvenience to me when I came in on MY DAY OFF to do your nails so that you could look great on your cruise!  - SHOCKED in CT

New Salon Policy – If you are going to bitch, moan and complain about something, you are no longer allowed to do so UNLESS you provide a solution to what you are bitching, moaning and complaining about.  – Sick of hearing it!

Yes, random man who is in the salon, we know it smells in here.  It is a nail salon, it smells like nail polish, just like a flower shop smells like flowers and a gas station smells like gas.  So, what’s your point? – Men are Stupid

Dear Client:  Please stop bringing me the awful pictures of nail art that you find on the internet.  Please allow me to be creative and create something amazing on your nails. – Sick of you wanting the Asian “whispies” design.

Hey rival copycat salon, “You’re Welcome” for all of the new business you are getting since we are booked solid and can’t take any more clients.  How’s it feel knowing you are second choice?  - The Divas

How much does it suck when you are brought a photo of our salon’s work for you to recreate.  I guess your clients have no faith in your work and I wonder what they think of the end result when you try to recreate it. – Ticked in TN

Dear Abby Says You Don’t Tip a Salon Owner

A lot of people still, to this day, go by Dear Abby’s advicethat you don’t tip a salon owner.  Her reasoning is that the salon owner gets all of the service money brought in as opposed to her staff members, who usually receive an hourly rate or a percentage of the service amounts.  If you are a salon owner, you know how much this is nothing but bullshit.

First, let’s define what a tip is.  It was originally coined to mean “To Insure Prompt Service.”  It is a gratuity.  It is a way for a client to say, that was a job well done!  Where on Earth did someone get the idea that a salon owner, who is providing the same exact service as her staff member, at the station next to her, doesn’t deserve to be tipped?

Let’s think about this.  A staff member will usually get a percentage of the service, customarily 50-60 percent in an employee situation.  Yes, the salon owner, providing the same service gets 100%, but what people forget is that she also gets 100% of all of the bills.  So when the day is done, the staff member actually makes more than the salon owner, even once you factor in the amount the 40-50% that the salon keeps of the staff member’s service.

The salon owner pays things like rent, utilities, advertising, insurance, supplies to do all services, paper towels, toilet paper, coffee, cups, creamer, snacks for the break room, cleaning supplies, office supplies, TAXES, licenses, magazine subscriptions, trade subscriptions, CLASSES, shows, and the list goes on and on and on.  Some think that salon owners get rich off of what they earn off of their staff.  Think again.  When you add staff members, your expenses increase.  Your utilities go up, your supplies go up, and on and on and on.  So, in most cases, it is safe to assume that even though a salon owner adds another staff member, they are NOT earning much more than they were before they hired the new staff member.

Why hire anyone then, you may ask.  Well, salon owners can only do so many clients.  By adding staff members, the salon owner can keep up with the calls for appointments that they can’t take.

Now that I have given you this little history and my opinions on this subject, I would like to tell you a story.  I had a client, who was very wealthy, who would never tip me.  No problem, tips are not an entitlement.  I get it.  So after a break from getting her nails done, she wanted to start again.  I no longer had an opening in my book, so she was booked with a staff member.  Each and every appointment, she would tip this girl $20.  Sometimes this was a $20 tip on a $25 service.  This reinforced to me that she didn’t tip me because I was the salon owner, because my service was just as good as the staff member’s service, if not better.

Fast forward a few years, the staff member decided to go out on her own and become a salon owner.  Wealthy client went with her.  Still, to this day, I wonder what wealthy client does now.  Did she continue to tip the girl $20?  Or, did she stop since she is now a salon owner?  If she did stop, how did she explain it.

Bottom line, don’t rely on tips.  Set your prices so that you don’t need tips.  Tips are then just a bonus.  If you are of the Dear Abby mindset, I hope you rethink that mindset and realize that it is just plain ridiculous.  Tip based on the service you receive, not who owns what or who pays who.

So You Went to NailSchool – How’d That Work Out For You?

You went to school with dreams of a fabulous education.  You are paying out the behind for it, so it is supposed to be fabulous, right?  Most of us know, this is not the case.  Not even close.  Admit it, each and every one of you throught about one to two weeks in, “OMG, what did I do?  This is a HUGE mistake”.

Now, there are a very small percentage of you, who actually had the privilege of having a good school at your disposal with good teachers.  The rest of us did not.  Most of us didn’t really even have a teacher.  We had a STUDENT teacher, you know, someone, who has just graduated from the Cosmetology program and decided, “Hey, I want to be a teacher”.

These “Teachers” have NO salon experience at all, what so ever, yet they are going to teach you how to do nails.  Most of them can’t do nails themselves.  You are then left to read the Milady book, which we all know how archaic that thing is and what a joke the majority of it is.  Yes, they did an update recently, but it’s still out of date.  So, you read the book, take the test, then the “Teacher” goes over the test with you, then you take it officially.  A rock could pass these tests after the teacher just gave you all of the answers.

I personally feel, that if you are going to be a teacher in a beauty school, no matter which faction you teach, you should have at least two years of salon experience.  How can you teach and guide students in something that you know absolutely nothing about?

This is the main reason that we have so many newbies out there that haven’t a clue what they are doing.  This is sad.  They pay thousands of dollars for an education that they are not getting.  They are only being taught what is necessary to pass the state board exams and let’s just admit it; those are an even bigger joke.  A deaf and blind poodle could pass that test.  It really isn’t testing you for today’s world either.  Think of the last time you did a silk wrap.  Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm my last time was at my STATE BOARD EXAM, eons ago.

Most of these schools rely heavily on Manufacturer Educators or seasoned professionals that will come in and demo for the students.  This is especially true for the Nail Technology course.  Most of these students receive the majority of valuable education from these people.  Guess what????  These are the people that are VOLUNTEERING their time!  Sure, if you are a Manufacturer Educator, you may be compensated, minimally, for your time, however, when you take the time to pack all of your crap up, drive to the school, unload, set up, demo, pack back up, drive home and unpack, CONGRATULATIONS – you just made a dollar an hour!  So, most do it for the love of educating and to pay it forward in the industry.

Isn’t it a shame that the people who are teaching these students the most are compensated the least?  The schools and instructors are making money hand over fist, yet people who are volunteering their time are doing the actual educating.  This is sad.

This industry needs to change and it needs to change from the start and that starts with the schools.  State boards need to be more actively involved in the day to day operations of schools; they need to hold them accountable.  They need to go to standardized testing so that everyone, no matter what state you live in, takes the same test.  They need to update the test so that students are tested on trends and product types, which are being used TODAY, not ones that haven’t been used since Madge laid down her nail file and we all stopped “Soakingin it”.

Until this happens, we will continue to churn out uneducated nail techs who can’t polish a nail or don’t know how to file the free edge.  Until this happens we will never be taken seriously in the beauty industry.

New Clients – Someone Else’s PITA

Don’t you just love some of these new clients that you get from other salons?  The best are the ones that come from the Discount Salons.  You know, the dirty salons, using MMA, cheap, fast, no appointment, churning out ugly, fugly nails all day long.

They arrive at your table with yellowed product.  Their nails look like a Chiclet.  The smile line is almost to the cuticle.  It’s a white tip with clear product over it.  It is, on that day, the worst set of nails you have ever seen in your career.  You think, this is going to be easy!  I am going to WOW her!  Think again.

These are by far, the pickiest clients.  They will tell you to take off a millimeter of length to make them even (even though they are already even).  They will fuss over the placement of one spec of glitter.  They fuss and muss about EVERY. SINGLE. THING. 

Really?  Seriously??  Did you take a look at your nails when you walked in the door?  Were you that picky when you got that set put on????  Oh, right, you couldn’t express yourself because your technician DIDN’T SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE.  I really doubt that you would have said anything anyway, so why be so picky now?  Your nails already look one million times better and I am not even half way finished!

Sometimes you get new clients from a neighboring salon that is not a Discount Salon.  You get bombarded with things like “That’s not how my other tech did it”.  Well, if you were so happy with that other tech, why are you not sitting in her chair?  Why are you in mine?  Seems to me you are looking for something new.  Something better.  Why not allow me to do that?  Why not allow me to do my job?  I promise you I will do the best job that you will allow me to do.

Sometimes you get rid of a Pain In The Ass (aka PITA)  Sometimes, you end up with someone else’s PITA.  The only PITAs I like have cheese in them.

Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say to Clients

Through the years, I have just wanted to scream at some clients.  Most clients are awesome, but you always have those few that really push your buttons and until you finally can’t take any more and fire them, you are screaming at them in your head.  Here are just a few things I would LOVE to say to some clients both current and past.   

Come at your appointment time.  Don’t come 10 minutes late because you put me behind the rest of the day.  For goodness sakes do not come 30 minutes early either!  Some of you come so early, then sit in the waiting chair and stare at me like I am late.  Um, you are early.  Also, if I don’t have a client when you arrive, do not expect me to start you early unless you have called and made arrangements before to start earlier.  We schedule time to eat, return phone calls and run errands.  Oh sure, I could eat after I am finished with you, but what usually ends up happening is the next person is early and so on and so on and I never get my break.  So just show up on time, it’s not too much to ask.

If you are one of these people who like to be really, really early, for the love of God, when you sit in my chair, you better have made a decision of what color you want, what design you are going with.  You just sat there for how long, you had plenty of time to make those decisions.

When you do arrive early, DO NOT try to monopolize my time.  My attention is given to the paying client sitting in my chair.  Your time starts at your scheduled time.  Do not ask me to help you pick out colors or answer questions.  I am with another client.  Would you like it if someone came in and barges in on your appointment?  Well don’t do it to someone else.

Put your flipping cell phone in your purse and turn it OFF.  You are not Donald Trump or the President of the United States.  You are not so important that you have to be reached every second of the day.  Instruct family members to call the salon if there is an emergency.  It is nearly impossible to do your nails while you are yakking on the phone, making your other hand stiff as a board, never mind that one of those hands has to go into the UV light (Hair prints in the gel and all).  It’s even worse when you are trying to text.  Your appointment is 60 minutes.  You can put your sucky woo woo blankie down for 60 seconds.  From now on, I am going to stop working until I have both of your hands in my possession.  At the end of your allotted time, if I am not finished, tough shit.  Turn your phone off and put it away next time.

Leave the brats at home.  Seriously this is a nail salon, not a day care.  We have never had one child that behaved in the salon.  Do you really think I can do intricate artwork while you have a baby on your lap and you are BOUNCING it to pacify it?  Really?  Also, do you really want file dust and chemicals blowing in YOUR BABY’S FACE?   That is exactly where it is going.  Do you think it is easy to work on you while you are squirming in your chair trying to keep an eye on your kid, who is doing cartwheels in the salon?  Do you think we enjoy hearing you scream at your child?  Do you think we enjoy watching your child out of the corner of our eye because you aren’t?  How good do you think your nails will look after all that?  Leave them at home.  Get a sitter.  This should be YOU time.

These are just a few things, I am sure more will be added by our readers soon.  Coming up next, we have a message for all of you clients who are coming from the Discount Nail Salons………..

So You Want To Be a Manufacturer Educator?

You want the fame, the glory, the lavish lifestyle of a manufacturer educator.  You want to travel to all of the shows and be the one tech that everyone comes to, to learn from and get demo nails from.  Well, that life just isn’t that glamorous.  Actually, it’s downright exhausting.

Most think that you get paid very well being a ME.  If you compare what you make sitting behind your table in the salon to what you make as a ME you end up asking “Why am I doing this?”  The pay is MINIMAL.  You don’t even make minimum wage at times.

Sure, you get perks like free education and product discounts, but you have a lot of bullshit you put up with too.  There’s lack of communication.  People in other states not understanding the states and area where you live and think it’s perfectly okay to have to teach a class that is a six hour drive from home and they expect you to drive said six hours, set up, teach an all day class and then drive six hours home.

When you finally make them realize that it is not humanly possible to do all of that, they will put you up in a hotel.  Now, you don’t get paid for that 12 hours that you are driving.  Yes you get paid mileage, but that is for wear and tear on your car and to put gas in the tank. 

Now then there will be times that they will book you a class where you have to fly to the location.  You usually have to fly the day before and come home either the day of the class or the next day.  Again, those travel days, you don’t get paid.  All of these days and hours add up.

A lot of ME work full time in the salon.  They are salon owners.  The days that classes are scheduled (Sundays and Mondays) are usually their only days off.  So, you have to teach classes on your day off and you barely make minimum wage.

Then, you will get to the class and you always have at least one know-it-all that thinks that they are better than you are.  That they know more than you do and eventually, they try to take over your class.  They will even go as far as complain to the company about your performance as a ME.

The cattiness and the outright hatefulness you will experience from your fellow Nail Tech Sisters is a real eye opener.  Some of these gals are the most vindictive bunch ever encountered.  They will talk behind your back, belittle you and your work all the while trying to make them look and feel better.

The supplies that you are give to work with are sometimes old.  You have brushes that are totally unusable.  You will be missing important things like topcoat and you will be given odd colors to work with that just don’t go together.  Class attendees will look at you like you are crazy, but it’s not your fault, this is what you were provided with.

Now comes time to work some shows.  Expect to have a flight with no less than five layovers.  You will zigzag across the United States and spend an entire day in multiple airports before you get to your final destination.  You then have to physically open boxes, put together furniture and set up the show booth.  You will now have to work for one, two or three days at the show, for sometimes eight or more hours with very few breaks.  You will be talking and demoing constantly.  Again, you are being judged by your peers, most of the time unfairly.

By the time the show is over, and you have zigzagged back across the United States to get home, you usually get home before midnight, plop into bed only to be up in the morning to head back into the salon.  NO DAYS OFF and you are EXHAUSTED.  Again, that pay check is really, really small.

Sometimes, you don’t get that paycheck.  Sometimes they try to change the rules on you and pay you less.  Oh and don’t forget, you still have to pay taxes on that little paycheck that you are getting if you get more than $600 in a year.

So, think long and hard before you take the plunge.  Ask other ME from that company for their confidential opinion.  Figure out if it is worth it to you to work and slave for peanuts in exchange for some free education and a product discount.  For me, it just wasn’t worth it any longer.  I like money and being paid for my time and talents.  I make more money and get more personal satisfaction in the salon and I no longer have bullshit in my life.

So You Want to Own a Nail Salon?

So now that you are a superstar Nail Tech, or at least you think you are, you want to open your own salon.  It's amazing how many people with absolutely no business sense think that they can open and run a business.  First thing is first.  Do you have a business plan?  It's amazing how many Nail Techs open a salon without a plan.

Owning a salon is hard work and no one is going to do it for you.  The clean up fairy doesn't visit, you are the janitor.  You pay all of the bills, do all of the advertising and marketing, supply ordering.  You are the receptionist, the complaint department, the bookkeeper, you name it.  As a small business owner, you do it all.

Now, when you add staff it gets even better.  They will use the last of supplies and not tell anyone and when you go to get something, you are out.  They will break things and just bring it to you and tell you it's broke, or worse yet, they won't tell you at all, they will let you find out on your own.  They will make messes and leave it for you to clean up.  They will abuse the furniture and leave it for you to repair.  They will sometimes do a really shitty job and YOU are the one that gets the complaint from the client and they expect YOU to fix their messes.

Staff members flying in the door, sitting down and starting their client, who is waiting for them.  They will take a lot of time off, working very minimal times, then complain that they aren't making any money. 

So, if you are going to own your own Nail Salon, are you willing to work your business each and every day?  To be successful, you have to do this.  You can't just show up a couple of hours a week. 

So You Want to be a Nail Tech?

You are bright eyed and bushy tail, right out of beauty school.  You think you are going to take the world by storm and be successful right away.  Think. Again.

You have dues to pay and a clientele to build.  Do you have what it takes to make it?  Most do not.

Most new techs are arrogant and think that they will be successful right out of the gate.  They think this is EASY.  They quickly find out that it is not.

They are lazy.  They are sloppy.  They don’t pay attention to detail.  Guess what?  No one wants to come back to them.

They don’t want to put in the extra effort.  They don’t practice.  Hell, most of them don’t even shape the nail.  So many of then CAN’T POLISH A NAIL.  I mean really????  Polishing a nail is the basic staple of manicuring.  If you can’t polish a freaking nail – YOU FAIL!

These newbies show up to work ten minutes before they are to start.  They run out of the door ten minutes after they finish their last client.  During down times, they don’t line up warm bodies to practice on.

They ignore the fact that people, who rebooked at their last appointment are now cancelling.  They ignore the fact that when these people do return, they are booked with other technicians.  They ignore the fact that they did a piss poor job the first time and the client obviously asked to be booked with someone else.

So many new Nail Techs fail because they don’t want to put the effort into being successful.  If success was that easy, we would ALL be successful.  Since this is not the case, those who are willing to pay their dues and put in their time are successes.  The lazy ones are not and leave the industry.  Which one are you?