There's No Place Like Home

The lengths I will go to for an internet connection. I'm sitting here in the Hotel Lobby. It's wifi and it's free so I honestly can't complain. But man how we can take such a luxury for granted (in America). I have to watch my little wifi computer graphic before I can get or send information. So I hover over the send button on my email as I watch that little computer. Sometimes it takes a few minutes too. So now I'm like this freak willing the connect to stay long enough to hit send.

No business chat today. I've just finished several long days of business in Panama and I just don't have the urge to make another suggestion on how to increase your business. haha. I'll get back into that when I get home.

This is my first time to Panama. It's very beautiful here. My hotel is smack dab in the middle of the rain forest but not far from downtown Panama complete with skyscrapers. While we've gotten a lot of work accomplished, I have to admit it's be a fun trip. Once a year Tony and I get together with our Export customers from Central and South America. We call it our annual Summit. What's amazing is how all our customers from many different countries come together to do business with us, but end up making personal and professional friendships. It's really inspiring to see them helping one another and offering suggestions to grow their business.

For anyone that has never attended anything like this let me give you an idea of one of my days.
Wake up, shower and get all of my beauty regimen done (early)....talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and talk some more. Throw some meals in there with more talk, talk, talk...then off to bed (late). Now multiply that times 3 days. As always, while offering all the knowledge I've learned from Tony for so many years, I've learned some more from each of our Customers here about the things they are facing in each of their countries.

I did get about three hours today to be a tourist. I went on a great walk with Claudia (from our office whom came on this trip with us). I got to see three Monkeys in person for the first time in my life. Claudia and I even reached out and touched the sweetest little female Monkey. Call us nutty but it was a really neat experience.

Ok...now pray for me and my connection. I'm about to send this one off. I'll have more blogs to post from here complete with pictures once I am back to a serious connection.

Elaine
(writing from Panama, Central America today)

Consumer Terrorism

I bet the title of this entry got your attention! About seven years ago I was working back in Maine in the salon I owned with my Dad. At the time he was reading this book and would not stop talking about it. It was called "Consumer Terrorism: How to Get Satisfaction When You're Being Ripped Off" written by Elinor Burkett. Without realizing it I learned a lot as I listened to him tell each hair client about this book. In a nutshell, it teaches you (the consumer) how to stand up for yourself when you are not being treated fairly. My favorite ditty that I have used many times, "Now, what are you going to do for me?" and then zip your lip. It forces them to come up with a fair solution to your problem. It's worked for me numerous times.

Recently, a group of co-workers and I ordered lunch from a delivery service because we were just all too busy to run out. Unfortunately, they got one of the lunches wrong. It became an interesting topic of our lunch conversation. Jill said, "It happens to me all the time. If they screw up I usually just give up going to that place." It got me thinking. How many times could this have happened in your Salon or Spa? Maybe, if Jill had read the book my Dad did, she may have looked at the situation differently. She may very well have ended up with a free lunch next time and the establishment might not have lost a customer.

Are you keeping the lines of communication with your clients open? And I don't mean all the juicy details of their sorted divorce or crazy families. I mean, do you portray yourself to your customer as open to criticism? Or does it peeve you to the point that maybe you give a little attitude back?

The Customer is always right. What a HUGE pill to swallow sometimes! But it could be the difference between keeping a client or losing your business. Keeping a smile and talking calmly to even the most irate customers can win them over. I do it ALL the time at Star Nail. And don't forget, it's not always what you say, but how you listen.

In closing, I have one more little story that happened just last night. I went to my favorite Spa to have my mani / pedi (yes I go get it done now, I'm just way TOO busy to do it myself!!) and I happened to have my attention swayed to the chair next to me. A woman had her pedicure finished and flip flops on. Yet she still required her Nail Tech to tote over his electric nail file to work on her nails at the pedicure chair. Forget ergonomics, this poor guy had to work in the least comfortable condition. She kept blowing under one nail and asking him to keep filing underneath to get some dirt. Five times she blew and handed that nail back. I wanted to smack her for him. To his credit, he remained calm and sweet. I wanted to pat him on the back when it was all over.

Use your judgment wisely. This blog is about giving good customer service. "Not getting taken advantage of" is a whole new blog.

Elaine
(writing from Valencia, CA today)

The Birth of Ideas

Yesterday's topic was just way too heavy. So today I felt like lightening the mood. Two questions I am always asked, "How do you come up with your ideas?" and "How do you create the idea?".

First, you have to consider what you are doing. Is it for an ad, article or cover. If it is a cover shoot, I usually work with a creative director from the magazine and we discuss the theme of the cover and ideas. Then I take those ideas and sketch them out on paper. From there I take it to the nail and do a few practice runs and take digital pictures to seed to the CD. That's when we decide it's great or tweak a few things.

If it is for an article, again you are working with an editor whom is writing the story. For this, I usually have creative freedom. I just take the theme into consideration and dig through my magic folder and box of bits and baubles I've collected through out the years.

Lastly, ads and catalogs. These are the easiest of all. I have just about full creative freedom at Star Nail International. Being a member of the Marketing Team and a tech makes it very easy to suggest ideas and work together to get what we want for the shoot. I do have to say, we've got an amazing group of people. If you have seen any of our marketing work over the last few years, I would hope you'd agree that it's pretty hot.

For this blog, I used images from a project I did a few years ago. The owner of the publication, "Nails International" asked me to do the cover of his first issue. I worked with photographer, Brooks Ayola and model Michelle Sandquist. Naturally we wanted an international theme since the submission in the issue came from actual techs all over the world. Flags was the easy idea. However, I felt it was a little too simple and decided to give it my own touch. I have a collection of currency from every country I have visited. What I did was choose ten flags from ten countries I've been to. I then took the currency and used a heart shaped hole puncher to make little nail art bits to insert into the flag designs. The last element was the globe. I didn't want to favor the United States or any particular country so we basically kept spinning the globe like a basketball and shooting it where it landed. We were surprised to discover that Michelle's left pointer nail (containing the Scotland Flag) is actually pointing at Scotland on the Globe.

Elaine
(writing from Valencia, CA today)

Wake Up Call

If you are not already feeling the effects of our weak economy you will soon. Gas prices and interest rates go up while family incomes go down. We're seriously in a financial crisis right now. Here's my prediction, if you're a salon owner or a booth renter, your rent is about to go up...while you're likely losing clients. Or your work space is getting smaller to make room for retail. As our financial situation worsens our clients either put their nails off longer, stop getting them done all together OR they head to a salon with cheaper prices. Either way, it hurts your income.

What's worse is as an American Nail Technician your battling those discount salons on every street corner.

It's sink or swim. So what can you do to keep your business going? First, be a smart shopper. Nail Glue is Cyanoacrylate. If you're paying for fancy, shmancy glue, check the ingredients. There are so many sundries you can be smart about shopping for. I'm not saying to get rid of that reliable acrylic or gel system you have. I'm saying all the bits and bobbles like files, sticks, blocks, glue, dappen dishes, brushes...so on. You can save lots of money by being smart and finding the best price.

Next, retail. If you say, "Ya I retail" I say...BULL. Nail Techs in America fall short on retail. What if I told you that by adding a few really good items, you could pay your rent on retail alone? You could. Take Cuccio Natural for example (one of my companies product lines). We offer retail banners that you put in your waiting area that lay down the sales foundation for you. Not to mention great point of purchase displays that make it easy for your customer to pick out retail items without your help. Things like these examples will boost your sales and help you out.

Make yourself known. Offer to do nails on your supermarket cashiers, bank tellers and anyone that works with customers. Offer to do their nails for substantially less if they agree to give out your card if someone inquires about their nails. That is basically free advertising. And personally we all know word of mouth is great. That potential client wants to know your fantastic before she tries you out.

Times are a changing folks. My prediction is that those discount salons are not going to be so discount for long. Ride out the rough times because the Second Generation is growing up and about to take over the family business. Those kids are now Americanized and won't want to work for so little. What you do now, can determine your future in this industry.

Elaine
(writing from Valencia, CA today)

Nailpro Italy

I was really excited to learn, today, that one of my "off the wall" sets of nails made the cover of Nailpro Italy. Italy always has been and always will be the fashion capital of the world. To see that they liked my work and used it on their cover is REALLY flattering. Anyway here is the link but I am sure it will only work for Aug 08 http://www.nailpro.it/

If you've ever been interested in doing a cover of Nailpro or Nails Magazine, it is actually not as difficult as you may think it is. They are always looking for qualified technicians to grace their covers. I got extremely lucky for my first cover. Nails magazine gave Tony Cuccio a cover to show his new system Acrygel (November 2004) so naturally he asked me to do the nails for the cover shot. So call that #1. Get with a manufacturer as their educator and the opportunity might just fall in your lap.

#2 I highly suggest joining Beauty Tech's Nailtech board or Mailing list. My very first article came from an editor reading a post of mine about my custom manicure table. She emailed me directly and we because fast chat friends. She later left writing for Nails to work with Animal rights. About 8 years later I met her at Nails. Believe it or not, we recognized each others voices and went..."are you??". You just can't make this stuff up.

#3 ASK! No one ever moved forward in their career if they were afraid to ask for what they want. Just do some fabulous sets, take really great quality pictures and send them to the editors. Stephanie (Nailpro) and Hannah (Nails) are great. These women are so warm and inviting.

#4 talk to Cover Techs and ask them how they got into doing the shoots.

#5 be extremely thankful. Those magazines can launch your photoshoot career. I'm not saying you should give everything away, however recognize what you're getting in return. I have never gotten paid for a cover, nor have I expected to. The Publicity is totally worth it. Because, to this day, I am still thankful... I know that I make their job easy. Don't walk on set with the attitude that you're a super star. Be as flexible as possible because things can and will go wrong. You've got to adapt.

My last bit of advice.... get trained for print work. The camera really does add ten pounds. Salon nails are not Print nails. You are only looking to make that set stay on for a day. Not until her next fill. Work super thin (before the point of breaking) and super wet! Working wet creates less air bubbles.

As promised here's the image from the Italy Cover. It was also the Nailpro USA Cover in August of 2007.

Elaine
(writing from Valencia, CA today)

You're going to do what?!?!

Start a Blog.

I'm not usually one to follow trends, so the idea of starting a blog when it really isn't a new concept took a lot of consideration. I've never even been one to have journals or a diary. I've tried. I have bought beautiful journals, written about three days worth, only to set it aside to collect dust.

Why now? And what's different?

I have a lot of really cool things going on in my life that I just don't want to pass by without documenting them. For example, my passport is full and has had pages added. But have I got lots of images in photo albums to show for it? Nope. I do have a baggie full of foreign currency. And I do buy my Niece a new magnet in every new country I visit. But that is basically it.

So I'm going to use this opportunity for two main purposes: As a tool to reflect back on all the amazing places I've gone or will go. And also, to hopefully inspire someone in this industry to aim for something beyond the nail table.

I can get down right goofy at times. So don't expect this to be all poo poo business either.

Elaine
(writing from Valencia, CA today)