THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT A GIRL WITH LONG ACRYLICS…..

Welcome to our first blog post, I am so excited to share my love for nail artistry with anyone who cares to listen. So much that I have started Magique Supplies so yay to me but also yay to everyone in the nail industry because I hope to really make an impact!

I will begin this post by talking about how I got in the nail industry. According to my mother I use to harass her and her friends by giving them pedicures, matter of fact I remember this myself. Every Saturday I would beg to cut their cuticles, dig in that dirt, scrub their feet and paint their toes. I collected so many nail polishes and changed my nail color weekly, this was done religiously and I enjoyed it. After high school I started doing acrylics, then I started doing longer and finally I wanted to be part of the culture. I took a gap year during my three year internal auditing diploma and took a short course at Planet Nails, after my course an amazing lady by the name of Lethabo took a chance on me and hired me as a nail technician in her nail salon. After my first job I couldn’t go back to school and it had nothing to do with the R4500 I got, I was hooked! I wanted to do more, perfect my skill and I just couldn’t see how finances aligned with me anymore. I moved on to the next spa and then the next and then later on started my own salon. I combined all I have learnt in the nail salons I have worked and applied it to mine, I went on for months until I eventually gave up and closed down. At that time, I did not see it but I learnt some of the greatest lessons there that any salon can apply to their own salons.

Here’s what I have learnt:

• Target Market

• Location

• Pricing

• Patience

• Money Management

• Niche

• Marketing

• Collaboration is KEY

I will touch on specifically collaboration, my biggest downfall in business was wanting to be a boss and instead of allowing the hair stylists and lash technician to share the space and own their businesses I wanted to own them. That is how my failure began, the location was perfect because LOCATION CAN NEVER BE WRONG but the pricing must go hand in hand with the target market and mine did not. So, I ran to my safety net again which was a nail spa but I couldn’t stay too long because my heart was simply not there and that’s how I ended in the CBD of Nelspruit where I learned more lessons that can apply to every nail business. I have concluded today that a lot of business owners refuse to see how two businesses in the same industry can co-exist at once and instead decide to compete and not collaborate and what I learned at Kamkholo building is that this very part is important along side with so much patience. Every business has a specific target market and this is based on BRANDING. How can two businesses in one place produce different results in terms of profit and that is what I hope to discover with you all.

Hope you stay tune and I will see you next time!!!