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

So, I now know I want to do nails but what do I actually need to do it,and why are there so many damn courses?

So there I was, in front of my computer with the results of the search "nail courses in London"  A least a thousand courses came up. From home learning, to this institute, to that college.....

"Er.... so what exactly are the regulations for nails in the UK and what qualification do I even need???" Is it an ITEC, a VRQ,  an NVQ,  or even Home learning? There are so many, so many acronyms, so many academies, so much vast difference in prices! The reality is just about anybody can set up and teach a course these days, even if they aren't endorsed or accredited by anything! Your certificates will mean diddly squat when you finish of course, but you can in theory do the course!

Where and how you train really depends on you and your future plans. If you want to set up mobile or from home, then you really can train with any provider and it doesn't need to be a formally recognised qualification, as long as your insurable, your good to go. However after researching further, I knew I personally wanted to get an NVQ or VRQ. This is mainly because in London and (probably most other areas) one needs and NVQ or VRQ to work in a salon, and certainly if you want your own salon you would need this to get a Special Treatments Licence which you obtain from the council for your premises!

Home learning courses and distance learning courses have their place of course, but personally I don't think its possible to learn something like nails from home.  I really feel such a trade based thing can not be learnt from behind your computer screen. You need real live models, you need experience, salon experience, trade experience.

So for those of you interested in starting out, I think almost certainly to keep your options open an NVQ or VRQ should be sought. Lots of places are now offering the VRQ instead of the NVQ but it is totally equivalent. NVQ is designed for people in the workplace where as VRQs are designed for the classroom! If you want to know the difference check out:

http://www.cityandguilds.com/Courses-and-Qualifications/Qualifications-Explained

In London not many colleges offer the course in nails. I could only find LCBT, City and Islington College and Bexley College, none of which are very near my house. In the end I researched and found an independent college which delivered VTCT level 2 in Nail Technology. It was spread over a few months, and I needed to do a portfolio which I was allowed to do from home and it suited me very well! Check what your course covers, mine did Acrylic, UV Gel and fibreglass enhancements. I found it hard but I passed!!!!!

Seriously if you do nothing else.. get a good foundation of training.  cutting corners doesn't pay and you get what you pay for! If you don't invest at the beginning of your career, what foundation is that to build upon? Trust me, you will only end up spending more money in the long run, retraining anyway, believe you me!

If anyone wants to know where I studied, do message me!


bye for now

xxxx