i had a prospective client the other day who needed an infill. she showed me her acrylic nails. they had been done 5 weeks, they looked ridiculous as they had obviously grown out so far and were dangerously top heavy, however, they were as tight as the day they had been put on. she had been charged £22 for a full set - cash only - i suspect they were MMA, how else can they be so cheap?

my problem is, no matter how much you tell people that these nails will damage your own because they are so well bonded (they are a pain to soak off ) why would people want to come to someone who charges more for nails that have to be seen to ,in 2/3 weeks and pay more for them?

clients are so fickle nowadays. they dont care if i`ve been doing nails since 1989 and i have used dental products in the past. but mine wont damage their nails now. at the moment i charge £26 i use alida products but am hoping to go on a course in maidenhead for creative. creative will be more expensive still. I had a flourishing business once but word of mouth just isnt good enough now. also, i notice that some of the primers use mma star nails i think, how do i answer a client that says its been banned.feel like giving up!
keran

This is why I don't push nail extensions anymore. I have loyal clients but getting newbies is like pulling teeth! They want to and expect to pay no more than £15-£20 in some places then wonder why I won't touch them afterwards even at twice the price they originaly paid.

Didnt know star nails had MMA in the primer, although its not banned in the UK yet.

Creative is excellent but far dearer than the brands found in some wholesalers team that with the hour it takes to do a set and you have to charge £45-£65 to make any decent profit.

You charge that you get hardly any clients in some areas.

I feel that the issue with those particular nail bars will disappear eventually and hopefully clients will realise we are not ripping them off charging what we do.

If anything I have found the price of nails etc go down over the years not up which is strange. Has wine, clothes (even primarks) and shoes etc have all gone up with the economy. The hair and beauty industry seem to just keep slashing prices.

The daft part is, most people think spending £70-£100 on a haircut is going to give them the best hair cut yet, we know this and if we want a good cut we go to the expensive looking salons. Then they trawl around looking for cheap nails, tans, waxing at there peril!

Tell them the horror storys, such as "nails done with mma may look good without maitence, and be really strong but do you also know that if you were to catch it in a car door etc the nail wont snap it will most likely rip your nail clean off, or if you are very unlucky your finger"... lol
They may think twice as no fingers no nails
My town has been lucky so far, we dont have any cheap places using mma as far as I know
hth xx

I'm sorry but that's ridiculous and people wont believe you. I agree that a grown out MMA nail risks your natural nail being ripped off but your finger? Be honest with clients and they know they can trust you.

We have discount nail bars where I live but I just carry on doing my thing and the clients come. I do a good job, I'm reasonably priced without being cheap and my customers are very loyal.

Firstly Keran, MMA has not been banned.

Second, MMA is only a problem when it is in the monomer liquid you use to make your enhancements NOT in primer . MMA monomer is the thing you need to worry about. so there is your answer.

Third, not all clients with MMA nails have nails that last for 5 weeks and they need regular maintenance just the same as any other type of nail enhancement.

Forth ... nails made with MMA monomer do not damage nails by just sitting on top of them. The biggest problem with nails made with MMA monomer is that when they break they can seriously damage the natural nail. Also the other thing associated with nails made of MMA Monomer is the fact that they are made so quickly and with the use of drills which also can result in heavy damage to the nails. Bad sanitation or no sanitation in discount salons is another worry.

All of the above facts point to why so many discerning clients want to come to a technician who does great work with beautiful products that last and in sanitary and congenial conditions. And they still are.

The nail business has GROWN in this last financial crisis year ... so some are getting it right. There are more factors than just how long you have been doing nails to making a good business I'm sure I don't have to tell someone of your experience that.

[quote=Vetty;970974]I'm sorry but that's ridiculous and people wont believe you. I agree that a grown out MMA nail risks your natural nail being ripped off but your finger? Be honest with clients and they know they can trust you.


I don't think its ridiculous at all, imagine if the nail is bonded so tight and it is pulled at a strange angle, I'm pretty sure this could happen, more likely to be a nail but it may happen to an extremely unlucky person.
I am being honest I truely beleive it could happen perhaps a tad extreme but a possability no?? xx

Anything in the world is possible ... but is it probable? I think the answer would be no.

It is important for your own credibility as a professional to be REALISTIC when talking to clients. Let's not be sensational.

Yes you are right, of course lol but I'm just saying it could, could'nt it?
fyi I am sensational (been watching to much ugly betty ) xx

Love your bubbly personality but let's not push it OK?

You know...it does not take MMA to make nails last without lifting for 5 weeks!

You can buy ranges that are really bad for a tenth of what Creative costs and I shall not say names here. When I did my nail training I was told a set of nails only costs £1-£2 to do. That was 10 years ago and I still hear the same thing being mentioned off newbie techs charging £15 a set because they think its all profit.

Anyone using a decent range such as Creative knows that the cost of doing a decent set of nails, as well as all the money some of us spent on our education (not a day course found in the back of a paper) bumps the cost per set up dramatically. As people say - you get what you pay for.

I was charging what you were charging for a set of nails 7 years ago! Why havn't these prices gone up? I am sure the products we use have gone up in value. If I charge what I charged 7 years ago to do a set of nails by the time I factored in the very very expensive kit I needed to buy, my education (which is always, and should be ongoing) and my petrol, time travelling to clients and advertising, insurance etc I would make diddly squat profit. I went self employed for two reasons - Love my job, good money and that means happy me. I am not after ripping people off, but if a set of nails takes an hour, and my travel to and fro and set up adds on another hour and I deduct what I spend on products I earn very very little. Basically I can earn more per hour doing other things.

I think now we should be charging £45+ for a set of nails minimum. Especially if we have years of experience and good products. These blinkin nail bars that charge £15 -£20 have belittled the industry. Especially when they do more harm than good. Even at that price I fail to see how they make a profit after they have paid for products (even cheap ones) and paid all the overheads of the shop and the staff!

This is why I only do nails on an ad hoc service. If people really ask then I do it, for £50 and no less! I don't advertise the fact I do nails as I know its pointless - few people will pay that when they can get 3 sets of nails at the MMA bars!

I really pray for the day the industry becomes regulated so that we can actually charge what we are worth. Everyone else puts up there prices like your garage, petrol, food, dentists, opticians - why the heck don't we??

Not all clients go on price.....and if price is their number one priority then sorry but they can go elsewhere. Makes me laugh when clients ring and the first thing they ask is "how much..?".....i can think of many questions far more important that the price when going for any treatment.

Alot of clients think customer service, atmosphere, quality and as funny as it sounds, YOU are far more important and are happy to pay that little bit more for all those things that the NSS don't have.

You have so much more to offer than the other places do....use that to your advantage....make the whole experience of coming to you amazing....they'll be back ...

I totally agree. People buy you first most of the time, but everyone at the minute is obsessed with price. Its contagious cause even I have started doing it lol! If you can't afford a good set then you shouldnt be paying for a bad set in my opinion. Makes me crazy where i live - they pay for nails, tan and hair extensions then spend the entire blinking day walking the streets in there flaming PJ's!

Point is - if all the good and well trained techs made a pact and charged no less than a certain amount wouldn't that also help all of us. I would far prefer to do less work for more money than more work for no money! x