Advice required from seasoned nail professionals

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Perfecttennails

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
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Location
Weymouth, Dorset
Hello all,

Before I start, may I just advise that the following post may annoy some seasoned professionals but unfortunately, I am only a newbie and have made some serious mistakes in my training and start of my career and am looking for help to change it not to be told off.

Basically my story is that I trained with salon services in February of this year. I did the three day nail course, which is one day of manicure and pedicure and two days of learning how to apply gel extensions. I know now that their courses are crap, but at the time I didn't :( I passed the course and was told that I had done really well, so immediately began practising every chance I got and trying to get my business name out there. I used ASP T3 gel to do my extensions as advised by my trainer, and for my gel colours, I used ASP signature soak off gel.
Now the signature polish is very long-lasting but unfortunately, is a total nightmare to get off and I really struggled to remove it from a couple of clients. I ended up having to file it off, which has damaged their nails and they have since broken off and become short. With the extensions, I am finding that they are not lasting on my clients, despite following the instructions to a T. This has resulted in hardly any clients contacting me to come back, although none of them have contacted me to say they have had any problems. I do say when I leave them "please call me if you have any problems with your nails at all" to which I would go back and assess their nails and if it is down to me repair for free, if it is down to them picking, charge them for repairs. My trainer also advised me just offer sets of extensions for £10 to just get people into practice on which I did, and these are all the clients I haven't heard back from so maybe they were just taking advantage of a good thing? Part from the clients I have contacted to ask how things are going re: extensions, they are just not lasting on my clients longer than a week?
I have contacted salon services, I have contacted ASP; I have tried many different products, different tips etc and it is just not working out for me :( so I complained to salon services (who were very quick to refund me the entire course which is great) and I am now going to retrain with Gelish. I am doing a Gelish soak off gel colour course on the 26th of this month, and I'm training to do Gelish hard gel on 13th May, so I am making sure to stay quiet and not advertise myself at present. When I start up again, I would like to focus on offering gel colour and design as opposed to going back down the road of extensions, but obviously I would like to have the training under my belt for them, so that I can help some of my friends and clients who are biters and/or can't grow their nails very long.
The thing that I need help with, is that because things have gone so wrong, I don't really know how to restart up and what to say to clients when they do contact me before I am ready? I don't want to say basically that my training is rubbish because it's gonna not make them want to come back to me. I just feel a bit frustrated and kind of wish I could just completely chuck away the last month and start all over again because some people will have associated me with crap nails etc and this has definitely put a dampener on what was supposed to be a great career move for me, moving from a hobby into a career :( I am doing a charity event in June at one of my friends school, so I'm going to offer gel colour or manicures for cheap there with a little goody bag to try and get business through my door, but I guess it just kind of upsets me and I just wanted advice from people who have been there and done that as to what my best move would be and how to start everything up again?
I think the final nail in the coffin is that I did a competition for a free gel colour if people liked and shared my page on Facebook to try and get my name out there. The winner, she had had surgery on her left hand, so I spent absolutely ages taking my time doing her poorly hand. She said they were great and would be coming back to me and I have just looked on her page now and seen that she has gone to the salon in town and had her nails done and spattered it all over Facebook. I suppose it just made me feel a bit pants, I thought I did such a good job she would come back to me :(
Any way I won't bore you with my story any longer but if anybody does have any constructive advice I really would be very glad of it and am all ears :)

Xxx
 
Ah you poor thing, it's a tough one but if I were you I would just start afresh when you have done the gelish training and kind of just put the past behind you. Try not to beat yourself up about the clients who never came back. Gelish is a great product and is well recognised so take it as a new start and go forwards with confidence. Xx
 
Hi , try not to be so hard on yourself . You have done the right thing you have retrained Gelish is a very good product , just move onward and upward and some clients can be very fickle , but loads will be very loyal so just do your very best treatments and you will be fine ,try not to make your treatments cheap .
Hope it works out for you.
 
Thank you to both of you. The thing is I am just not sure how to advertise that I have restarted/reasons why etc :( xx
 
I'm really sorry to hear that you've had such a bad start to your new venture😞 I bet it's knocked your confidence a hell of a lot! I know you prob know this now but salon services are a waste of space and i wouldn't touch their own branded nail products with a barge pole!
Best thing to say to clients is that you are rebranding therefore retraining with the new brand and expanding your skills and techniques. Offer some sort of discount to get people back in the door to try your new product and explain that you are rebranding!
I've been doing nails on my own now for 3 years and have got a good client base it take time and a lot if effort to build it. I have been slated in the past and lost clients here and there for different reasons but you just have to learn to take it as constructive criticism (and it is very hard to do!) I have been in tears before after shouted at by a client and told my work is **** but now I've learnt to stand up for myself and NEVER give anything away for free! There are so many people out there who want something for free!

Hope this is some sort of help! 😊
 
Hi I agree with Emma1071 rebranding and more training that's the way forward, because that's exactly what you are doing.
 
Practice is very, very important. I know you wanna just dive in there and get started right away, but make sure your work is up to paying quality before you start charging full price. Given your bad experience with your previous training, I would suggest writing down all your questions and concerns now so you can ask/discuss them during your retraining and get as much out of it as you can. when it comes down to working on clients, start with models, charge them for your time and products until you are 100% confident your work is up to scratch and ready for full price.

As for your past models/clients, I wouldn't worry too much about them. If they come back, that's cool. If not, it's no big loss. If you were charging just for your time and materials used, they should understand it wasn't going to be perfect seeing as you've just finished training. You don't need to go into detail and explain yourself to anyone. To keep a long story short and remain professional, the best thing to say is you're rebranding/retraining if anyone asks. You know what happened. And if they are returning, they'd know what happened. And if they're being told by you that you've retrained or switched to a new brand, they'd probably be open to give you some constructive criticism with their previous experience with you. It's all a learning experience. No one goes in their first time and perfects their craft right away. It takes practice, perseverance, and patience. :)
 
Time to start afresh and move on from the past. Well done for having the insight and awareness to start again. :hug:

I would just add to the other advice to get yourself a really good grounding and read Marian Newman 'The Complete Nail Technician' and also Doug Schoon's book 'Nail Structure and Product Chemistry'. The latest edition of Marian's book is the one with the white background with the hand in a dark lace wrist band.

These books will enhance your knowledge all round and help you get the best out of your new education.
 

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