HOW TO BECOME A NAIL TECH AND GET CLIENTS QUICKLY: 6 TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Do you want to learn how to do nails professionally but don’t know where to start? Are you worried becoming a nail tech will take ages? Well, stop stressing now. If you’re really passionate about doing nails and you’re consistent, the results will come sooner than you think. To help you kick off your dream career, we’ve rounded up 6 tips on how to become a nail technician quickly. You’re going to learn how to perfect your craft, gather your nail salon equipment, and build a loyal clientele. Let’s get started, shall we?

1. FIND NAIL COURSES ONLINE

If you want to attract clients and turn them into loyal clientele, you need to become a certified nail technician, so your potential customers would trust you. But what to do if you’re currently working or studying full-time, and you just can’t fit nail tech school into your schedule? Try nail courses online – you’ll get all the necessary knowledge in the time frame that’s most convenient to you.

ADVICE: Look for the classes where you can not only learn how to apply acrylic and gel nails, but where you will also learn how to pamper clients and manage your business. Most importantly, make sure there’s practical experience included in the course, so you can put what you learned into practice.

After you’ve finished your courses, you can either work for a nail salon, or become a mobile nail technician - whichever fits your lifestyle better!

2. GATHER NAIL SALON SUPPLIES

If you enroll in nail school or online courses, you should get basic nail salon supplies to start with. Though they will be sufficient for the beginning, you should already start gathering additional nail supplies for the future to make sure you have everything you need to put your knowledge into practice.

  • Test different brands. What suits some nail technicians, will not necessary be a good fit for you, so you need to take your time and try different nail kits to find the one you love the most. Which leads us to the next advice.
  • Don’t buy everything at once. At first, you might be tempted to try out all of the glitters, gels, acrylic powders… and it’s ok, but be sure you’re not hurting your wallet. The wisest thing to do is to only buy the nail salon supplies that you know you’re going to use on your clients in the next couple of months. Otherwise, you might end up with lots of nail tech polishes or nail art accessories that you don’t need.
  • Follow the trends. Be sure you’re following the trends when you’re buying nail polishes and nail art supplies. Need ideas? Try scrolling through Pinterest! The most liked photos are always shown on top of the page, so you will not only be able to find the latest nail design trends, but you will know which ones people like the most. This will help you a lot when deciding which nail salon supplies are definitely worth buying.

TIP: We recommend trying Shellac trendy trial pack. Shellac award-winning nail polishes are known for their extraordinary chip-free quality. This nail polish starter kit includes all the essential products you need to start with. If you don’t have the UV light, you can get one here.

3. PERFECT YOUR CRAFT

Nail technician courses will give you a great start to kick off your career as a nail tech, but that’s just the beginning. To make sure you’re on top of your game, you need to constantly improve. Here are a few useful tips how to become a successful nail technician:

  • Watch YouTube videos. It may sounds a bit lazy, but you will be surprised how much you can learn on YouTube! Here’s just the taste of what you can learn:

How to do Gelish French manicure:

Why Gelish? Gelish gel revolutionized the industry with their quick and easy gel application process. This brand offers a wide range of nail products adored by professionals worldwide, and is definitely worth trying to work with.

How to do acrylic nails step by step:

The nail technician in the video is using CND Retention+ sculpting liquid. This liquid helps to create durable and color-stable enhancements that would make any client happy!

  • Read nail art blogs. There are plenty of nail technicians who are willing to share their tips and tricks on how to become a nail tech, just find the one that you like!
  • Practise. Use every opportunity to paint someone’s nails. In the very beginning, when you don’t have your clientele just yet, practise on your sisters, mother, friends, boyfriend! This guy, for example, let his little sister practise on his nails so she could pass her nail tech exam! If your brother is not that brave, practise on yourself. The point is to do it as much as you can, so you can become a professional nail tech and start making money as soon as you can!

4. BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO

While practising, make sure to take photos of your created nail designs to start building your portfolio as a nail technician. Not only your potential clients or employers will be able to see what you are able to do, but it will be a fun way to document your progress.

TIP: Take good quality photos. The thing is, no matter how good you are at doing nails, if you upload pics with bad lightning and weird composition, you’ll not get the attention you deserve. So get your lightning ready, make sure there are not irrelevant objects in the background, and edit the photos if needed.

5. MARKET YOURSELF

It’s not only what you do, but how you present it to people, so, before you launch your business, make sure you have your marketing tools ready.

  • Get a website. A nice website will give you credibility and a medium to showcase your work. You don’t need to be a programmer to build one. Just use one of Wordpress or Wix templates!
  • Be active on social media. If it’s not on Facebook, it didn’t happen, right? Social media is a must for a business person, so be sure to regularly upload photos of your works on Facebook and Instagram – these platforms are the most suitable for beauty business. Here are a few things to keep in mind when working with social media:
  • Research your audience. Find out what your potential customers are into and deliver accordingly.
  • Find the best times to post content. Test different times (morning, afternoon, evening, late evening) to see when you get the most engagement, so your content gets the biggest exposure possible.
  • Be consistent. Try your best to post regularly. If you can, categorize your posts and post different stuff on different weekdays. For instance, you can share photos of nail nail art on Tuesdays, and nail supplies reviews on Fridays.
  • Engage with your audience. Do live videos, reply to comments and messages – when people feel appreciated, they tend to be more loyal.
  • Use automation. See what takes the most time and try to automate it, so you could save time. There are many tools that can help you edit photos without specific knowledge, as well as those that can help you schedule your posts, and gather useful metrics.
  • Choose quality over quantity. You don’t have to flood people’s feed with posts 5 times per day to drive results. The most important thing is to make sure you’re sharing relevant content that will benefit your audience and help you build your clientele.Remember, less is more.
  • Print out business cards.

    Even though we’re living in a digital world, business cards are still relevant. For example, if you’re at a party or getting groceries and someone compliments your nails, you can give that person your business card - it’s a great opportunity to get a client!

6. NETWORK


You can learn a lot from nail technician courses, YouTube videos and nail bloggers, so can other aspiring nail technicians. Why not share the knowledge with each other? Remember, your not competitors, you’re fellow nail artists who live and breathe gels nails, intricate patterns, and newest trends. Connect with other nail bloggers, go to trade shows, learn from them and share your own experience.

TIP: You can even buy products together with other nail technicians - this way you will get to try more nail polishes, brushes, and accessories for a cheaper price.

That’s about it, darlings! Now that you’ve covered the basics of becoming a nail tech, go and put the knowledge into practise - the world needs more beautiful nails!

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