sometimes it sucks being a shopaholic

[stanleyann]

sorry if this is a bit long winded but i am feeling very low today......as you all probably know by now i am pregnant so i am clearing out my spare room to make way for baby.........well i have just sat and counted out how much money i have spent on all the nail items that i am now trying to sell and i got the shock of my life........i will be lucky if i get back half of the money i have spent by the time i sell everything :sad:

i will admit to buying some creative items from people that i could not purchase myself and i did pay well over the odds for them....much more than it would have cost to buy direct from creative but at the time they were just another bunch of nail items that i just had to have i am sure there are a lot of geeks out there that have done the same.......dont do it anymore, its cheaper to actually do a conversion course or a foundation course.....you will save yourselves a whole lot of money buying direct from creative plus you will have the training that is needed to create beautiful strong nails by using creative products properly

so now i am sitting here with a whole load of nail items that have never been used or have just been sampled the once and i am entirely out of pocket due to my needless spending :sad:

i originally trained with star nails about 8 or 9 years ago and i used to do nails on a regular basis back then, i had a few regular clients but when i ended up ill with fibromyalgia i lost interest in a lot of things, nails being one of them.......well after the fibro settled down a bit i decided i would like to go on and do some more training as i found a whole new interest in nails but unfortunately the fibro comes and goes and i never got round to doing any more about it untill a few months ago when i found out that i could train with ez flow at one of their training acadamies that is only about 10-15 mins away from my home so i enquired about it and then the day that i decided ok i am going to do this i found out that i was pregnant so that has put things on hold for a while again


so what i am trying to say is if you get a geniune bargain then snap it up but dont go down the same road as myself and end up with a pile of stuff that you are hoping to put to good use because believe me life doesnt always go to plan and you might just end up out of pocket like myself.......if i had been sensible about what i had bought then i would only have had the items that i do use plus some sample kits to try other brands and the money that i spent on all those nail items could have been used for other things.

i know its no use crying over spilt milk but it is very annoying to see everything lying here and knowing how much money i am losing.......it does make me feel a bit better to know that i am selling it to fellow geeks at some really good prices though and that it will all go to good use


stanleyann

 

[stanleyann]

i also meant to add onto my post about all the money i spent on art and craft supplies too, when i became ill i was not able to go out much so i became interested in arty crafty stuff, especially carol smith products from qvc.....well to cut a long story short i built up a huge collection of products, everything from gallery glass to hand made cards and stamping etc but it was all stuff that i fancied trying out and then i wouldnt go back to it again........so earlier this year when i moved from my parents house into my own flat i had to get rid of all that too as i had nowhere to store it all......this is the shocking part now.........when i counted it all up there was more than £2000 worth of items and i ended up selling it all to someone for £200......there was a stamping and embossing kit for making hand made cards in with it all that cost £225 alone and i only ever used it once to try it out....there were lots of kits and other stuff that had not even been opened

i'm beggining to think that the old saying is true...."a fool and their money are soon parted"....it certainly seems to be true where i am concerned

anyway enought of my ranting for today....sorry if i have bored you all silly but i needed to get it off my chest :o ...and i was wondering if anyone else was as bad as me for wasting money on things that were not needed

stanleyann

 

[Jo Jo]

Hey babe, I know how you are feeling, I've made no secret of the fact that I lost alot of money last year by buying the wrong products, too many of them and choosing the wrong location for my salon, after 6 months and £7000 later I was left with nothing, I took voluntary redundancy from Royal Mail after 10 years of working there in computers and there was nothing left to show for it, there were many times I couldn't even face thinking about it and gave the whole idea of a career in nails up for a while. I know it's hard but try not to think of it as losing, try to think of it as an experience you have learnt from, I think a sensible thing for alot of us self employed nail techs would be to do a business course along with the nail courses! But hey you have your wonderful new baby to look forward to, I'd give all the money I have ever had or will ever earn for that. Big hug babe. J xxx

 

[bimbogeri]

Hey Stanleyann. When I first started selling henna and body jewellery, I did the same thing. With the henna I completely overstocked on colours, to the point where even though I haven't had the business for three years now, I still have stock in a drawer in my parents' house. And with the body jewellery - I went SO over the top with our first order. There was a £100 minimum order, and it was our first supplier, who didn't even do particularly nice, sparkly stuff. For one thing I bought plain banana bars in about 15 colours, and I still have at least 8 of them now! And when we started doing party plan, with nicer, sparklier stuff, and selling at festivals, we always thought it was important to have a nice range of stock and colours. Invariably we ended up replacing the same pieces over and over again, and when we do party plan people end up ordering from the catalogue, so we still have excess stock and we haven't done any sales in about six months.
Overall I managed to cover all costs by sales and still make a profit, but I don't think I have a very good business head at all - I'm too much of a magpie, swayed by pretty things.

I can see it all happening when I start stocking up for nails too - too many different coloured enamels, etc etc. I'd like to offer the temporary airbrushed nails that Nail Order do, but think I may have to do a policy where you book your appointment AND pick your design in advance, so I only buy to order rather then end up with too much stock.

(Oh, and the art and crafts? Been there too! That's the downside of being on an arts course and living near a Hobbycraft - overspending!!!!)
x

 

[Jo Jo]

but think I may have to do a policy where you book your appointment AND pick your design in advance, so I only buy to order rather then end up with too much stock.

Hi there! if you manage to get this to work with clients then please tell me! I've never had a client who would make their mind up about nail art before an appointment, in fact clients usually only make their minds up about nail art when they see either you wearing it or samples near your desk! J xx

 

[Mrs Geek]

sorry if this is a bit long winded but i am feeling very low today......as you all probably know by now i am pregnant so i am clearing out my spare room to make way for baby.........well i have just sat and counted out how much money i have spent on all the nail items that i am now trying to sell and i got the shock of my life........i will be lucky if i get back half of the money i have spent by the time i sell everything :sad: stanleyann

StanleyAnn why do you have to stop doing nails? I would have thought that you could find it a very handy profession for this phase of your life!! Maybe you could make some money back on all those items!! It was just a thought and many congratulations on your future bundle-of-joy!!

 

[Little Angel]

hi

oh god yes my clients! i end up just doing it half the time or stongly suggesting something!

Most of my hair clients just sit there and say go on tee you just do it! :lol:

 

[stanleyann]

StanleyAnn why do you have to stop doing nails? I would have thought that you could find it a very handy profession for this phase of your life!! Maybe you could make some money back on all those items!! It was just a thought and many congratulations on your future bundle-of-joy!!

thanks for all your replies and also your pm's.........i am not going to give up nails completely....i still do my friends nails but thats all.....after all this time away from doing nails i dont have the confidence to do joe publics nails anymore so more training was the way ahead for me..........when i found out i was pregnant i decided that after having a miscarraige at 11 weeks back in march i would take things easy this time so i didnt want the hassle and stress of any nail courses plus of course the money that i was spending on my training is going to come in handy as babies are not cheap....lol

so i have learned the hard way by wasting a lot of money on nail products that i liked the look of and wanted to try but were really of no use to me.....once this lot has gone i will be left with just the bare necessities that i need plus my nail trainer of course and that will do me untill next year when doing some more training will be more appropriate for me.

stanleyann

 

[Teena_B]

Use the time you have now to enjoy your baby, then next year you will have (a little!) more time to concentrate on the nail course. I have been there with the craft purchases, and I now buy everything I see to do with nails! I daren't ley hubby see my receipts, he'd flip! I now MUST stop spending, and start earning!

 

[stanleyann]

i know what you mean teena...if my fiance knew half of what i spent on art and craft items plus all the nail items he would have a hairy fit :o .....i suppose we all learn by our mistakes......i know i certainly have.......i will really dont think there will be any more impulse buying from me now...unless its baby stuff of course.....lol :lol: .


stanleyann