Happy Tuesday!

One of the things I hear from students all the time is, “People in my area wouldn’t pay that much for nails,” or “No one around here wants stiletto nails.” And my response is always the same: How do you know? Just because you wouldn’t drive an hour for nails or you wouldn’t pay $150 for a set doesn’t mean that someone else wouldn’t.

I get it – it’s natural to assume that what we want (or don’t want) applies to everyone else too. But here’s the thing: You don’t know what someone else’s priorities are! Just because you don’t see people with stiletto nails in your area doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there who want them. Maybe they just don’t know where to get them done because no one in your area is promoting them!

Let me give you some real-life examples. I’ve had a client drive 3+ hours every four weeks just to get their nails done with me after they moved away. I even had one amazing client who would drive 1.5 hours every fortnight at 6am for her appointment. Why? Because she knew I was awake at that time, and for her, it meant getting home by 9am and still having a full day ahead. If she’d come at 11am, it would have thrown her whole schedule off. She was happy to make that drive because she trusted no one else with her nails.

Another time, when I was just starting full-time, I had a client ask for some wild nail art. Nervous, I asked about her budget, thinking I was about to scare her off with a $125 quote. Her response? “Mmm, just don’t go over $250?” Mind. Blown. 🤯

The point is, you don’t know what other people want, so don’t project your own limits onto your potential clients. Don’t discount what you can offer because you assume it’s not in demand.

Now, here’s where I have to come clean – I haven’t been taking my own advice lately. Not with nails, BUT – we have these two sleepouts in our backyard. For years, I thought about offering them as short-term accommodation, but I assumed no one would want to stay in them because they’re not self-contained or fancy. They’re small and, let’s say, full of character.

Well, a month ago, I decided to give it a go anyway. I put them up on a booking site, thinking even $50 is better than nothing. Within 36 hours, I had my first booking. Since then, I’ve increased the price five different times and I’m still getting bookings – are you FREAKIN kidding me, I could have been doing this all along!

Turns out, there are plenty of people out there who don’t care about fancy. They just need a place to crash and would rather drive through to another town to get to an affordable spot than pay double for somewhere they won’t fully use.

So, learn from my experience! Don’t limit yourself based on your own assumptions. Offer whatever services you want to offer because you never know what other people are looking for. You might be sitting on an untapped income source that you didn’t even know existed and I hate that for us haha

What would you do if you KNEW there was a market for it?!

This is what else we loved last week – 

1. Cheat sheet responses for putting the right product on the right client every time.
2. Making money even when clients no show.
3. Not getting glitter stuck in our top coat brushes.
4. Magic tricks disguised as ‘Being a Nail Tech‘.
5. Super humans with rainbow hair.

PS Join Summit 2025 for only $26/week – everyone is welcome! 

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