The First Six Months
A long-winded answer to “So, how is nails going?”
I started doing nails professionally about four and a half years ago. Until May of this year, I did nails two or three nights a week after my day job. I’d usually do four sets a week, sometimes five or six. I never intended on doing nails full time—I knew it would be stressful financially and hard on my body, but I think more than that, the idea of betting on myself was incredibly daunting.
That said, the beginning of this month marked six months of doing this full time. So far, it’s going well. There are things that I’m working on and things I want to change and improve, but generally, I’m having a pretty good time doing this. I really like doing nails, and I’m so thankful for both the clients who have been coming to me for years as well as the ones I’ve met since May.
In May, I (naively?) thought that because I had already been doing nails for a few years that shifting to full-time would be fairly straightforward and easy. ALAS, I’ve been a bit humbled on that front, and with that in mind I’ve put together a little “reflections on the first six months” sort of thing, if only so future-me can look back on this someday and remember what it was like.
So, without further ado: Things I’ve learned/musings on the first six months of doing nails (mostly) full-time.
I’ve lost all sense of time (kind of, anyways).
When I worked a 9-5, Friday was the end of the week, after which I’d have two days completely off of work. Now, my schedule is a little all over the place. Is today Thursday or Friday? Do I have both weekend days off? Do I have time somewhere in my day for a quick lunch if I have a basic art manicure at 10:00 a.m., an intermediate art appointment at 12:15 p.m. and a solid color manicure at 3:00 p.m.? If I don’t have work until 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, what do I have time to get done beforehand? If I have a two-and-a-half hour gap between appointments, do I have enough time to go to the gym, shower, dry my hair and look presentable for the next one? If I get done working at 9 p.m., does it make sense to make a ‘real’ dinner before bedtime? I spend a lot of time thinking about what to do with random chunks of time throughout my week.
All this to say: I feel like I never know what day it is, or what time it is anymore, and my old routine is absolutely toast. Case in point: I meant to write this “first six months” post the first week of November. It is currently November 27. Whoops!
2. Managing a varying, daily budget requires A LOT of self-discipline.
Getting paid every day is kind of nice! But after so many years of getting paid weekly or biweekly, it’s hard to let go of the concept that every other Friday, a paycheck will hit my account and I’ll be able to go down a checklist of bills that need to be paid and tasks that need to be taken care of. Now, I have to plan ahead and monitor what will be coming in and what’s going out in a way that I haven’t had to do in a long time, and my expenses are a little different than they used to be (if you’ve been in lately, you’ve absolutely heard me complain about what insurance companies think is an appropriate amount to charge for their coverage).
While it’s convenient to have money coming in every day, not having that fixed amount to anticipate has taken some getting used to. In the future, I hope to manage this a little differently so it feels a little more like a ‘regular’ job where I “get paid” at set intervals. Is it gauche to talk about money and my finances like this so candidly and publicly? Maybe. But it’s important to talk about the realities of stuff like this, I think! Moving on, though…
3. There are days when I feel like I’m really bad at art and I have no business doing this, and I’ll probably always have those days.
Some days, it seems like my brain simply will not connect with my paint brushes. On these days, I still have to do the best work I can, but I’m sweating the whole time and hoping my clients don’t notice my internal panic. I want everyone who comes to me to love their nails, but the reality of being a human is that some days are just better than others. I do always try my hardest, even when I’m struggling (you’ll notice me wiping off the design a dozen times or more), and there have been a few occasions where I’ve had to pivot to do something a little different if the art isn’t art’ing. It’s really hard not to let these days get under my skin. On these days, creeping thoughts—that I shouldn’t be doing this for a living, that I’m not any good, that my clients hated their nails—are loud. I try not to let these trains of thought take over and remind myself that we all have off days and that it’s fine (but then I try to pathologize it and figure out if there’s a way that I can just…not have off days, haha).
4. Setting boundaries is soooo uncomfortable (but sooo necessary).
I haven’t always been the best at standing up for myself—and I know I’m not alone in that. Running a business made it increasingly apparent, though, that I needed to get better at setting boundaries lest the business run me (do little turns of phrase like this ever not sound like LinkedIn-speak?). The first time I actually processed a cancellation fee felt like rubbing sandpaper on my skin, and having to communicate that showing up late consistently was not acceptable was something that I hated having to do. Letting myself say no to squeezing in appointments when I really need some time off is new to me. I don’t know that I’ll ever become a ruthless ~Girl Boss~ but I’m getting better at telling myself “this is business, it’s not personal” like I’m in a 1980s movie about the stock market or something.
5. Not having coworkers can feel really lonely sometimes.
I miss having people around me to go about the workday with. It’s always nice to have someone to riff with or problem solve with, or commiserate about something challenging or laugh about something bewildering that happened. I’m vaguely considering putting something together next year, a sort of Chicago Independent Nail Techs meetup (so if you’re reading this and you’re in Chicago and you agree that working solo can be really isolating, maybe shoot me a message and we can ~collab~ or something). (Also, if this already exists, I’m sorry, I straight up have not even looked for anything like it yet).
6. Marketing myself is HARD.
I don’t mean on a base level. Making ads is pretty straightforward. But I’m not the kind of person who will announce that I did my nails myself if someone tells me they like my nails. Luckily, my friends and clients are the kind of people who do that and often chime in—usually with the phrase “she also did mine,” while handing one of my cards out. I am forever thankful for everyone hyping me up, both in front of me and when I’m not around. There’s nothing that compares to the feeling of getting an appointment request and the “How’d you hear about me?” line has an answer with a name. I am so, so, so grateful for everyone who name-drops me every chance they get—because if you know me at all, you know how hard it is for me to do it for myself.
7. Days off???????
I technically take two days off every week. But if I’m being honest, I don’t know when the last time was that I took a day *completely* off from doing nails or this business. If I’m not editing photos or planning social posts or writing this blog that no one reads, I’m reordering things I’m out of, making sure I wrote down income and expenses in my spreadsheets, thinking ahead about what I might need to order for certain appointments (am I out of any Gel-X sizes??), washing my desk towels, organizing my nail desk, practicing something I wanted to try out….the list could go on for a few more paragraphs. I’ve never been the sort of person who worked all hours of the day (I was more of a “laptop slammed shut at 5 p.m. every day” kind of person), but running this business has made me care about my work in a way I never did before. I always worked hard at my jobs and took pride in my work, but I think it’s fairly obvious to point out that working for oneself requires you to do that on another level. I’m trying to get better at really taking days off, though—maybe I’ll get there someday.
8. Doing this has made me happier than I’ve ever been.
Like I said, I’ve never been a “live to work” kinda gal. Deciding to do nails full-time has forced me to have a confidence in myself that I never had before. I’ve learned more about what I’m capable of doing in the last six months than I thought possible. More than once since May, I’ve cried ~happy tears~ multiple times over the last six months—anytime I think too hard for a few seconds too long about how lucky I am to be able to do this, how incredible it is to have loyal clients (who are people I not only enjoy working with but who are also really, really cool people), how fun it is to get to do art every day. I went into this thinking it would be hard and scary—and it has been, don’t get me wrong. But it’s also been so rewarding and so fun and so challenging, and while I would be lying if I said I loved *every* minute of the first six months, I’ve loved most of them. Thanks for being here with me for ‘em.
Ok, til next time!
xoxo, Gossip Girl*
*(I’ve been rewatching it and I can’t help myself).
