How does making $90k a year sound? Pretty cool right? What about $90k without a boss, without years of education, without being in a lifetime of debt, and my favorite, while doing something creative that makes others feel better about themselves nearly instantly?
If you’ve been nodding your head at all or many of the questions, a structure gel nail business may be your answer!
When I first started as an independent manicurist working my own business, I was all over the place, and it took me approximately 2 years to solidify my nail business, and really start breaking into a liveable wage that actually contributed to my household in a significant way.
If you’re considering a career in nails as a specialized gel nail artist, today’s topic can help you achieve success in half the time than what it took me.
Whether you’re a serious gel nail hobbyist, are already doing gel nails professionally, or if you’re seriously thinking about a career-change doing something creative and that you truly enjoy, trust me, you’re going to want to pay close attention and stick to the end.
🌿First. How do you become a nail tech? Like, being able to legally service the public.
First and foremost, a nail business in some countries does not require that you go through professional licensing, but in all 50 states here in the US, that is where you will begin. You do have to go through a few months of private schooling to prepare yourself for a board certification and licensing.
But that is nowhere near as long or as expensive as if you were going through college. I would say the average time of a nail program is 3 months. As far as how much it costs, it typically is no more than $10k, and frankly, I personally wouldn’t want you to spend more than that.
And that is because your nail education doesn’t end at your nail program. You will need to invest further to become really good at a thing or two that you want to specialize in within nails so that you can charge premium prices. More on this in a moment.
🌿But why specialize in structure gel?
There are different services within nails, and in the beginning you may feel obligated to offer them all.
Acrylic, regular nail polish services, pedicures, gel nails, etc. But here is why for 10 years now, I have specialized in structure gel, and coach my students to do so also.
Everyone has nails, so everyone could get their nails done. Nails are an evergreen business. People will always get their nails done.
But the majority of women (primarily) who want their nails done, typically want something moderate, not too long, not too bright, not too flashy.
They don’t know how to say this but, trust me, after working with well over 500 different clients, this is what they want…
A client’s biggest desire is to enhance the natural look and feel of their very own natural nails.
And structure gel delivers on that, time and time again.
If you can get a client to brag about her gel enhancement being their own natural nails, you’ll have a client for life.
And when you know how to apply these for long wear, and apply them beautifully, while protecting the integrity of the natural nail… you’ll be in business for life because the client loyalty just explodes.
They don’t want anyone else but you to touch their nails.
If you’re serious about nailing your retention, and creating beautiful structure gel nails then do not miss getting in on early enrollment for my upcoming Master Gel Nails Pro group class event where I will be helping you master structure gel, and help you easily attract high paying clients, even if you have zero or just a handful of clients right now.
Master structure gel and the books book themselves, and a few but mighty strategies help you do so faster.
This is the focus of the MGN PRO program.
Now, do you know what the biggest nail desire from a client is, enhancing the look and feel of their very own natural nails. And you just have to run with this.
Structure gel AKA builder gel is a gel with viscosity that provides strength to natural nail lengths, and it is a universal fit because structure gel offers both flexibility and strength. Two components that are crucial for long wear.
Structure gel offers soft, medium, and hard rigidities that allow you to customize the strength level for the appropriate nail length your client desires.
All within the scope of structure gel, ONE nail system, that’s it.
You don’t have to resort to these really hard systems like acrylic to give a client strength, or weak polish and gel polish products that provide very little strength and wear.
Whatever the length your client desires, there is a structure gel for them to make their natural nail goals a reality.
And if you incorporate nail art, you increase the value of your work even further.
I’m telling you right now, a nail career is one that can exude a lot of wear and tear on your body. You do not want to pretend like you’re a machine and you’re just going to crank out 10 services per day to get to your financial goals. In reality, machines also break down and or need maintenance and repair.
The easiest way to get raving loyal clients to pay for premium services is to do a job like no other, literally. So good that the reality is that there is no one else like you within a 20-mile radius, which is, logistically speaking, what most clients are comfortable driving to obtain even just a good service.
And once you start extracting a handful of this clientele from your geographical vicinity, these clients find you more clients, naturally or when you incentivize them, something else I’ll be teaching you how to do inside the upcoming MGN PRO event.
🌿So how do you make $100k?
Well now you know where the demand lies.
You laser in on this one thing: enhance the look and feel of a client’s nails with structure gel, and you become the absolute best you can be at it.
Now all newbies start at a newbie rate, but we want to break out of that ASAP, within the first 6-12 months of being in business.
Because this is not clickbait, here’s how you can actually make $100k per year as a nail artist. Not easy, but you can.
And to do so, we just have to work backwards
🌿Here’s the equation…
$100,000 K
100,000/12 months = 8,333
8333/4 weeks
2083/week
2083/5 days
$417/day
That’s if you wanted to make those $100k per year off of services only.
But in today’s day and age we have affiliate marketing, and if you love posting on social media you can incorporate those skills to boost your income as a nail tech with commissions.
Just FYI, the Master Gel Nails Pro program I mentioned earlier includes a full course on affiliate marketing as a nail artist.
There’s a reason why I’ve specialized in structure gel for the last 10 years,and have coached others to do so, and that is because it works.
I hope today’s video inspires your nail journey, and if you’re going down the path of structure gel, I would love to be your mentor. Sign up for the waitlist for the next Master Gel Nails pro coaching event HERE: https://paolaponcenails.com/mgnpro-waitlist/
Stick around for the next one and don’t forget to subscribe. See you in the next one.
Bye for now.
Paola Ponce is a licensed nail tech of 10+ years and a certified Japanese gel educator.
Learn more about her journey as a specialized gel nail artist and her gel nail application course inside her free masterclass here.
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