Heather's nail studio

Speed. Is it a luxury to sit for hours or not?

Depends on your target market.
Mine it is not a luxury to sit for hours. They are busy, school pickup/drop-off, sports, work meetings, etc. Their time is their luxury.

I grew up 😆 when we were timed down to the minute. I’m efficient. Time is money. Like it or not, it is.
The repetition is what makes you quicker.

On the other side, I don’t work in 10-11 clients either. I like have a balance of efficiency and not feeling rushed. I can’t get everyone out in an hour, but I also can’t take 2 hours on each either. I’d die. 💀

Want to learn how to be efficient? Dm me, I can help.

It’s more than Nail, Skin or Hair.
The mental exhaustion:
• Troubleshooting issues
• Carrying conversations
• Tracking your timing
• Adjusting mentally constantly
• focusing for hours straight
All while making the experience welcoming and calm. Some days the brain is more tired than the body.

A lot of work happens after the last client.
• inventory
• cleaning
• ordering supplies
• content creation
• bookkeeping
• messages/emails
The work that keeps the business running. Some call this “unpaid time”. Price yourself so that that time is paid.

Emotionally:
• We become our work, it’s very personal to us.
• Bad days are personal, even if it’s not. We loop on bad days.
• We carry emotions.
• We are not trained on how to unload all the feelings and venting we have thrown at us. We work face to face to others, that we develop a relationship with.
• We are not therapists. We don’t know how to process: divorce, cheating, death, child issues, partner issues, financial issues. Yet we hear about all of it. We don’t have the safety net of an overseer like a licensed therapist. It’s just us.

Physically:
Sore wrists, hands, neck and back. It adds up, most important to start early ergonomics, strengthening and stretching.
Arthritis, carpal tunnel, shoulder problems, neck pain, it slowly starts happening.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da21v1gR6Cr/?igsh=MXdqbmxjaHM4aDN2aw==

🚨 THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY IS BURNING PEOPLE OUT. LETS BE BRAVE AND TALK ABOUT IT 🫶🏾 — Clothes & Accessories - @shopmy link in bio Sources for the Debbies: @usbls_gov — nail tech + esthetician median wages, 2024 jamanetwork — personal care workers highest emotional distress rates, 2025 @ca_dir — $1.2M fine, worker misclassification Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2024 — 47-study review on emotional labor in salon workers

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Daoc0ieuCD1/

If your friend still peels her gel off… send her this video. #russianmanicure #gelremover #gelnails #nailhealth

Well I’m happy to say goodbye to this week. 😅 💸💸
* I’m pretty sure (97%) what the problem I was seeing prior is. Got that sorted.
* I’m keeping track of who and what. It’s the left hand more than the right 😉
* my dewalt decided to quit turning on. In the meantime I’m back to my crappy Amazon collector. At least the dust isn’t in my face.
* massive migraine wed into Thur. I thought my head/eyes/ears were going to explode.

👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 to all that and more (I’m not getting into the more: iykyk)
Sageing myself and my space.

I’m going to get a little vulnerable. Maybe it’s the migraine or the migraine meds talking, but here we go.

I’ve been licensed since 2000. I’ve seen everything.
I worked at large salons and small salons. The most I made before going out on my own was $28k (take home).
I’ve only been on my own since 2014ish.
When I was an employee, I did learn a lot from the bigger salons: how to forecast your day/week, how to prebook, how to nuture and take care of clients. I still wasn’t making a great income. My husband worked 2 jobs for a while the kids were young. We struggled. A lot. We’ve been through it all, & we couldn’t always afford life. I depended on the food pantry to help supplement my grocery budget. I worked at a big fancy salon too. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Then I quit nails.

I was burnt out. Because it was turning out as many as I could fit in a day. I started at Boston Scientific. I lasted about 3 months. Not for me. I can’t just be with the same 3 people every damn day.
I started renting a table at a salon where I live. The owner gave me cheap rent because “Nails can’t make as much as a hairstylist”. 😆 I had I think 2 clients, since I hadn’t been doing nails and former salon I couldn’t say anything to my clients.
She took pride in how she would help other salon structure themselves. She did not teach me anything about running a business. I learned the hard way. I had a program from Tina Alberino for my pricing, I seen what it calculated & I under charged. I thought I’ll slowly raise it until it gets there. Just that you’re always trying to get there.
My first year I think I cleared after taxes/expenses about $18k. I built a full clientele within 6 months.

After a few years I moved into a studio salon, that was great I had more space and could actually niche myself down to what I really loved to do. Still not making a great income, but better than when I was an employee.

Soon enough I was making enough to transition into an SCorp. Which helped my tax burden. I started studying business and marketing more. I started working with a business coach Hairstylist & Salon Business Coaching The Thriving Stylist , thats where I become dialed in.

Continued in comments.

Hi I made these.
What you don’t see is that one was broken and a couple other trouble spots.

I also made these. No trouble spots. And yes they are French.

What you don’t see is:
The brain loop of why some clients are having issues with product retention. Is it my gel? Is it my lamps? Is it me? Should I quit. Yes I suck at this. Omg what am I doing. Just stop and go home.

Sometimes I have a bad day.
Sometimes I’m battling against a migraine attack.
Sometimes I’m tired. I’m exhausted by life.
Sometimes I want to quit.
Sometimes I want to lay in bed and cry.
Sometimes I’ve had trauma dumped on and trying to deal with unloading that.

But you still have to show up and smile.