Evening geeks!
I'm sat here, going back to work next week after being off unwell. And I am already dreading stepping foot back in my workplace ( non beauty related) we are treated so poorly and I just feel my mood take a nose dive before I've even stepped food inside the building! Not good for my anxiety :-(
I have been trained in beauty for the past few years and currently do nails and am trying to slowly build up a business from home. I'd love to hear your experiences as to how you managed to change your life, from being in a job you hated to turning it all around and now having a job you adore! I need some inspiration and a kick up the bum! I fee like I'm forever going to be hating Monday mornings :-(
I remember back in the day we had blogs on the old platform of SG. And I'll never forget the day I wrote my first blog post after being too scared for a year, because I was very new to the industry and just starting as a Shellac tech around a full time job. The day I wrote that blog was the most liberating and exciting day ever, because I changed my life. I so wish I could still access it to share with you.
Here is my story- it's very long!!
I gave birth at 18 the week before my A Levels at college, to much consternation from my parents, especially as my then partner walked out on us just before the birth and wasn't heard from again for a year. Still did my exams but couldn't provide for my son as a single parent if I went into beauty, I felt, so allowed myself to be pushed into my mother's career and went straight to Uni and did a degree in Youth Work.
I worked in training and education for 8 years with Young Offenders, and did very much like and enjoy it, but my heart was never there.
At 25, I did a few courses with CND for my own purposes really, as I'd never lost my love of nails. I never intended to work in beauty professionally, as I had too much to lose stability wise. But I was hooked and couldn't stop thinking about beauty again.
At 26, after growing disheartened with the education industry and working with young people, and hating my job every day for a year, the government cut funding for youth service across the country and my entire department was made redundant.
I took the biggest risk I could ever imagine and booked my L3 Nail Services at college that same week. Full time for a year. I gave up my home and packed up my things to put in storage, which my mum thankfully paid for. My son and I moved in to my Dad's with one box of clothes between us and lived on his couch. I worked Saturday jobs just to cover the train fair to college each day. For a whole year.
There was no doubt in my mind that I had no choice but to be successful at this point. I worked my backside off as a mature student in a class of six 17 year old girls
2 months before finishing the course, a job came up in a new nail bar in my town and I was lucky enough that the manager offered me to start before I got my certificate.
I stayed in that God Forsaken place, which I thought was gonna be all sunshine and rainbows, for 3 long years despite the awful conditions and terrible practises. I was depressed every day. I'd managed to move from Dad's couch to his dining room that we stuck a bed in.
But I stuck at it, because I always had a plan in mind, and we needed to eat.
Last year I opened a small salon and my son and I no longer live in Dad's dining room! Every client I had serviced in my previous job came with me. I go to work every day with a smile and love spending time in my second home. It's everything I wanted it to be, and I can finally see the benefits of the sacrifices I made. My 12 year old will be proudly holding balloons on our salon's 1st Anniversary next month, and our lives are 10x better (despite the long hours I work!)
Not every one can, or needs, to take the drastic steps I did, but anything is possible if you work at it! x