Giving my knowledge away for free? Help!

[Nailsbykellie]

Hi everyone! I am self employed working in someone else's salon, the initial agreement was that she pays for everything polishes, lamp absolutely everything and I give her a percentage of my earnings. I wanted to do lots of nail art and she wasn't keen to start with so I started buying things myself and using them on my clients I have a huge amount of stamping plates and polishes now, rhinestones, sharpies for water colouring and glitters. I have been working there for 2 years now and the owner of the salon has just taken on a new girl (self employed again) and she has asked me to come in on for a day and she will pay me to train her in nail art - specifically stamping.

I watched hours of YouTube videos researched all of the products bought hundreds of stamps (I have a pretty big collection now!) and polishes trialled the products to see what works and what doesn't tried different techniques etc and it's so popular clients of the owner (who does mainly acrylic extensions) are paying extra to come to me and have gel polish just for my nail art skills which is fab!

I don't know if I'm just being over protective but I feel like I couldn't put a price on everything I have taught myself and I am there to make myself money not to make her or the salon money..... And if I give that knowledge away so freely I would be silly to do so even if she paid me, once I've trained someone else they know it and I can't change it I'm afraid it will make me unimportant and once I've reheated the knowledge I will be worthless as its my most popular thing....: what do you all think? And

 

[Nailsbykellie]

What else I was going to say is if you agree with me how would you go about telling the owner? Unfortunately it's going to come off that I am being unhelpful and unsupportive which I feel bad about!

 

[6erardmer]

I'm sorry but it's your knowledge what makes you unique why should you train somebody else ? If she wants that girl to be as good as you she should send her on training? And if that girl wanted the knowledge she'd put herself through some training like the text of us? I agree you can give her pointers but training no! Good luck!

 

[Nailsbykellie]

Well I appreciate she's not asking me to do it for free and for the general application and removal etc she's going on courses but I'm not sure if there is a course specifically for stamping? I know why she's asking me and I appreciate the offer but I feel uncomfortable as I learnt everything myself with no help!

 

[Joelle]

You can have all the knowledge in the world, it doesn't make you good at something.

I'd give her a few designs to practice, maybe some of the ones you don't do anymore, show her how to do stamping and print off a list of youtubers or websites that she can look at.

I don't think that by sharing a few tips with her will make your business suffer.

Perhaps you could tell the salon owner that it's taken you 2 years to perfect your skills and that you couldn't possibly share them in one day but would be happy to point her in the right direction.

Jo x

 

[CocoAllure]

But if you were self taught from YouTube then surely she could do the same theoretically??

 

[Miss_Holly]

Essentially she is trying to send the girl for training - she's just offering you the money to train her instead of someone else getting that money, in the end if the owner is hell bent on the new girl learning nail art, she's going to learn it through one source or another and offer it, it's just if you want to cash in on it.

In the end just because someone's been taught something, doesn't mean they will be any good - there's still all sorts that can go wrong in the application, and if she doesn't have the imagination to do nail art she's going to be limited anyway, just advise her that you learnt through tutorials and specifically YouTube, stamping really isn't that hard anyway (or maybe I'm just a freak [emoji23] I never had a issue with it and absolutely love it)

 

[cheekychick]

I look at it like this.
You are self employed, you teach her what you know eventually you could be shooting yourself in the foot as at the moment you are the only one there offering certain things so it makes you stand out as a nail tech.
However once you teach her what you know there's no stopping clients going to her instead.
You need to look after your own business.

I personally wouldn't do it. And you aren't obliged to either.

Maybe Link her to some you tube videos that helped you, but other than that I wouldn't get involved. x

 

[AcidPerm]

What do you want out of this?

If you don't want to do it, just say 'No, thanks for the offer but I'm not interested in tutoring someone else'.

You could however, suggest that you won't do it for cash but you are willing to re-negotiate the percentage split. Assuming it's currently 60/40 to 50/50 because if the new girl is also doing nail art (which previously was your specialism) it could adversely affect your business.

Remember as a self employed person, you're just renting the salon space so you're under no obligation to do the salon owner a favour here.

 

[CFBS]

Have I understood this right - salon owner pays for products but YOU have paid for the nail art items?

Say you don't feel up to training others but pass on a couple of you tube links.

I would be taking my nail art stuff home with me when not in work so the owner will have to buy her own items. This might put her off!

 

[Nailsbykellie]

But if you were self taught from YouTube then surely she could do the same theoretically??

Absolutely, however the owner of the salon is super cheeky, she will want all the info on what products i use, polish stampers and plates (which i took the time to trial and error to see what was best and researched all the brands etc) which to me is valuable information as she doesn't have to do any research at all! part of me feels like I'm being difficult, but its something that no one else in our town really does and i put a lot of effort in to it and i just don't know how to tell her no I'm not doing it!

 

[Nailsbykellie]

Have I understood this right - salon owner pays for products but YOU have paid for the nail art items?

Say you don't feel up to training others but pass on a couple of you tube links.

I would be taking my nail art stuff home with me when not in work so the owner will have to buy her own items. This might put her off!

Yes, the initial agreement was that she would pay for everything but nail art wasn't something she did in the salon just a little bit of hand painting basic things and when i wanted to try stamping and sharpie art etc she wasn't keen to invest in the stuff so i bought it all because i really wanted to try it, now its my most popular thing she wants me to share it with others, which is annoying. I would take all my stuff home but i have so much, that i have purchased over the past year my clients know what i have if i took it all home they would suffer as the owner would never buy everything i have

 

[Nailsbykellie]

What do you want out of this?

If you don't want to do it, just say 'No, thanks for the offer but I'm not interested in tutoring someone else'.

You could however, suggest that you won't do it for cash but you are willing to re-negotiate the percentage split. Assuming it's currently 60/40 to 50/50 because if the new girl is also doing nail art (which previously was your specialism) it could adversely affect your business.

Remember as a self employed person, you're just renting the salon space so you're under no obligation to do the salon owner a favour here.

Thanks! I never thought of this! Up until february this year it was 50/50 but now its 60/40 the owner kind of cornered me about it and i kind of agreed to do it, i didn't really have time to think about wether i wanted to do it, or what it would mean for my business so now I've had time i should say something, the owner is a funny creature, very stuck in her own ways and she is always right i need to do it without causing an atmosphere at work and without seeming difficult or unhelpful!

 

[Miss_Holly]

I'm in a niche market where I make showing attire for horses, I get people almost weekly asking where I get my supplies, I just reply with "oh there's a few different places I use" [emoji23][emoji23] you could use that if people start asking about brands lol!!!!

Absolutely, however the owner of the salon is super cheeky, she will want all the info on what products i use, polish stampers and plates (which i took the time to trial and error to see what was best and researched all the brands etc) which to me is valuable information as she doesn't have to do any research at all! part of me feels like I'm being difficult, but its something that no one else in our town really does and i put a lot of effort in to it and i just don't know how to tell her no I'm not doing it!

 

[NancySyd]

I think you need to change your thinking a bit on this and come up with some different solutions. Remember, your knowledge and skills are yours, no one can take them away from you and you can pick up and take them elsewhere (that's probably what the salon owner already recognizes). The fact that she's asked you to train this new girl shows that she understands the value of what you bring to the table. That said, it's inappropriate for her to ask you to train someone else without some negotiation. Trainers make more money than practitioners in every field. and this is unlikely to be a one-time thing, but a period of training, supervision, troubleshooting, etc. And btw, what does your insurance say about you training someone else? You need to re-negotiate your agreement with the salon owner so that you get a bigger share and that your supplies are paid for. You're in a good position to do it now.

 

[CocoAllure]

It's one of them scenarios where your damned if you do and your damned if you don't!

 

[hazelb]

You are self employed, you don't have to do anything.

What about the line " I have no teaching qualifications and I'm not insured to teach" ?
Any way if the new girl is 'self employed', why is the owner training her?

 

[iamaleximus]

I personally wouldn't do it... I don't get if she is self employed why the salon owner is asking you to teach her? Also as for taking your stuff home I would buy something that is easily portable and just take it home and bring it back on a daily basis that way clients don't lose out and the other techs can't use your stuff that you paid for! I have been in a situation where the owner would stand over me on every set of nails and ask questions and pick my brain and I would always answer and thought nothing of it, the next think I knew she was booking my clients in with herself and doing nails using everything she had learned from watching me and I had spent a lot of money on training courses from various brands and lots of my free time practicing and learning new things and I was making peanuts per week and still having to pay her £65 a week rent! That's why I am so dubious about helping the other self employed tech...