Nail Tech, beautician, wife or husband and super mum (or dad). The challenge of work life balance, how do you cope?

Happy 2014 people!!!

This industry can be extremley child friendly and flexible but it can also be one of the most challenging jobs to fit around your family as well and after taking part in a lovely discussion on this topic on Facebook yesterday in Gemma Lambert's group, "The Nail Team" (great resource for nail techs by the way) it got me thinking, how do we do it?

I am a mother of two, my youngest being only 1 and the oldest being 7 and I struggle with this alot of the time. Changing careers to becoming a nail tech is a hard one, once you train you need to put in hours to get experience, to speed up your application time, learn from others and to gain confidence.

But working in salons and spa's isn't exactly known to be family friendly job..it usually means working for minimum wage or just above, long fairly anti- social hours,  and often requires we work evenings amd weekends. So, when do you get the time to see the children and partner?  Do you have good childcare and support and can you even afford to take the wage cut?

Or do you get a job as a self employed nail tech? Rent a space maybe or work on commision only! What happens if you don't make your rent this week?  Can you realistically afford to wait for your business to grow and have very little or no income in that time when you have kids who gotta eat?

It's the struggle many of us go through, me included. My main desire is to be fully self employed and leave my boring day job altogether but fear is stopping me taking the plunge! Maybe if I didn't have the family to consider I would be doing it already!!

Dividing up the time between your private and work life is always a hard one, but once your established and experienced, this industry does allow for flexibility. Especially if you are self employed or are lucky enough to have a space at home you can work from.You can book clients around your other commitments, spend time with the kids and partner AND do what you love all under one roof! Perfect!

But for those of us who dont have this luxury, I have no magic fix to the dilemma. All I can say is we are not alone. I've come across lots of great mums who are doing this, many of us are the same boat, and we all feel, think and worry about similar things! There are loads of us who are working full time jobs, raising children (sometimes on their own) AND taking nail or beauty clients in what little spare time they have! They are busy, tired but above all they are happy!

If you are one of those nail technician super wives mums or dads struggling with your conscience or wondering how you are going to do this, please know that any struggles you go through now are for your future. Any times you feel guilty that you may be negelcting your children and husband by working so damn hard and any times you have to cut back or go without... it is a very definite means to an end! Think of the time in the not too distant future, when you will be charging top dollar for your work, you will have a reliable and loyal client base who will work around you and your family commitments, follow you everywhere you go and love your work!

That's all from me.....

Do post comments and let me kow what you think or what you would like to see!

xxx

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Quick blog post to say Happy New Year to everybody!!!!!

It's always a good time for reflecting on your forthcoming dreams and aspirations.... I haven't set new years resolutions as such but I have joined the gym if that counts?

Thinking about it now though one thing you could say I resolve to do this year is advance my nail career. I want to do this full time, so far i've been ticking along nicely, fitting clients in around my day job etc etc... but this year I intend to draft that notice letter and ensure it finds itself on my bosses desk.

What are al you nail nail techs, and nail enthusiasts going to do with your career? What do you want to learn? What do you want to develop on?

May 2014 bring you whatever it is that you want it to bring you... but remember its not all down to luck, its mostly down to hard work and the only thing from stopping us make those changes... is ourselves!



xxxxxxx