What to do when I qualify ?

[karenb]

Hi All

I am at college doing a 36 week course in vtct nail technology (level 2) what do you think is the best thing to do.

I will be carrying on at college again in a 36 week course in beauty therapy in september but would like to pack in my current job and start on the nails but because i won't have any experience i am not sure i will get a salon to take me on, or do I set up mobile and can you realisticly make a living wage as a mobile tech.

So was wondering what you guys did when you first qualified did you go to a salon or went it alone and what worked best for you. My ambition is to one day have my own salon.

Any advice would be great

Thanks

Karen

 

[karenb]

Hi All

I am at college doing a 36 week course in vtct nail technology (level 2) what do you think is the best thing to do.

I will be carrying on at college again in a 36 week course in beauty therapy in september but would like to pack in my current job and start on the nails but because i won't have any experience i am not sure i will get a salon to take me on, or do I set up mobile and can you realisticly make a living wage as a mobile tech.

So was wondering what you guys did when you first qualified did you go to a salon or went it alone and what worked best for you. My ambition is to one day have my own salon.

Any advice would be great

Thanks

Karen

(College will only be one day a week come September)

 

[angel fingers]

i was lucky enough to get a job in a salon straight away.
even then it took me a few months to be producing good reliable nails in a decent salon time. i actually found working in a salon very stressfull. but it was the best introduction to the industry i could have had.

id be concerned about ditching your job to go straight to nails as soon as you leave college. you may have been lucky and had an excelent tutor but a lot of people come out of courses and still need a good bit more pactice before they can actually earn a living wage from nails.

maybe the way forward is to try to get some part time salon work on saturdays or evenings and work on your timing and skills until you know for sure you can afford to quit your job and move on to the next stage of your plan.

good luck with it all :hug:

 

[geeg]

Time after time over the years, I have seen women who wanted to be nail technicians stay in one job when they want to start up their own business in nails. They prevaricate for so long that usually they end up doing nothing or just dabble for years making nothing and going nowhere.

If you want to do it then do it ... you can learn to become better and faster along with your clients (just as susan did and just as I did and many thousands of others) ............ very few if any nail techs start out doing the best or the fastest nails.

You can do one of a few things: You can blag that you have experience when you don't and end up with unhappy clients who tell others that you're no good. OR You can do what I did which was tell the truth which was, I would make a nice end result for every client but that I was new at the job and not Speedy Gonzales and ask for a little patience on that score until I had more experience. Technician and client should be a partnership.

The biggest hindrance to most people starting up is that they do not have the money to start up their own business and/or the business know how. It takes allot more than the desire to do nails or even the ability to do nails to make a decent go of it. You cannot start out underfunded. You really should get the funding you need and open your own little salon or beauty room or set up a really professional room from home. Be your own boss if you can be but do things right and in a business like and serious way if you want to have a business and make a serious living from it..

 

[katieblythe]

It would prob work out better to go mobile for a while- do friends and family then by reccommendation... take photos of every set of nails you do and build a folio, then eventually you can go for salon jobs with evidence of your work.