New Location!

It's been a few months since my less than dramatic return to the industry and I'm just starting to feel like myself again.

As of October 22, 2018, my humble operation will be hosted by a new location:
Blessings Nail and Hair Salon
2015 W Tulare Ave
Visalia CA 93277

Located on Tulare Ave just west of Mooney Blvd, Blessings is a small venue that promises more privacy, an opportunity to expand my availability, and the casual atmosphere that my clientele has come to associate with me over the years.

I'm working with yet another online booking system too-- so if your reminders come from a new number, that's the reason.

I'm excited about the new place, folks! There are few things that I had to give up...but ultimately, I feel like Blessings is going to be a better fit for me, my clients, and my business.

Plus! It's right next to Starbucks and 7-11! That means I get coffee and sodas to keep my caffeine reserves on full so I can keep up my stream of non-stop, manic chatter that I really don't understand why my clients put up with.

Looking forward to seeing you at the new place soon!
~Maggie

This @!*!&*! Online Booking

Bear with me, folks! I promise online booking will be reliably available and running smoothly very soon.

Back at the end of 2012, while I was recovering from a broken wrist and forced to take 8 weeks off work, I spent some time researching, and painstakingly test-driving, online booking software options.

I eventually settled on one that met my rather persnickety criteria at the time and spent the next 3 years merrily paying their fee for a service that was pricey as online booking for a solo tech goes-- but worked just the way I wanted it to.

When I came back to the salon a few months ago, I promised myself I wasn't going to be such a control freak. This time around, nails is a hobby, not a full time career. I'm not running my own empire anymore (at least not in the nail industry) and it makes perfect sense to use the same system the salon I'm booth renting in does.

Right?

Except the salon uses a system I test drove back in 2012/13. I remembered that it frustrated me then, but I told myself that was because I was being unyielding. It's a popular salon booking system and it works for thousands of people-- it's just me and I can get over myself.

Weeks later-- it might just be me. But it's my business. It's my schedule. You are my clients and this is your time and schedule as well.

You deserve better.

The tiny glitches and inconveniences of working with software that I don't find intuitive costs us both time and patience. The lack of features and ease of interface on the back end that make me crazy result in too many errors in managing my schedule.

Vagaro and I don't get along.

So, you may notice that it (should) be impossible to book an appointment with me online at the moment. Please feel free to text me!

I am testing some options that are new since I chose my previous system, and revisiting a couple that didn't meet my criteria then but might now.

In the end...it's very possible that I will end up with something that's already proven itself. For the moment, you might find my "book now" button taking you to new and exciting places as I try to find a perfect fit.

Feel free to give me feedback on what you like and don't like.

So What Are You Saying, Maggie?

I retired from 25 years in the nail biz in March 2017. 

I packed up my supplies, sold off most of my stuff, gave the key back to the landlord, took my glitter and moved to Tahoe.

I spent a little over a year in an authentic cabin near the lake, working in the independent publishing industry-- writing, editing, proof-reading, and creating cover artwork for indie authors.

Then I got bored. 

I guess "bored" is a good term.

After 25 years of holding hands, laughing and talking to other people ALL DAY LONG-- I thought I'd love the solitude and the sound of nothing but my mechanical keyboard as I type.

And for about a minute, I did.

I did love the opportunity to embrace my night owl nature. I went to bed with the sunrise and woke when darkness fell like a true vampire.

I also loved not being tied to a schedule. As long as I had my trusty laptop with me and could find wifi for at least a couple hours a week, I could go anywhere! And I did some of that as well: I chased the solar eclipse all the way to Seneca, Oregon; I spent 10 days in Cartagena, Colombia; I got in some hiking and some camping and a good, long trip to the Rice Shoe Fence out yonder past 29 Palms, CA.

Then a friend of mine-- one of those people who emerged at the last minute and elevated from "random person who was always sorta around but not close" to "one of my closest friends on the planet despite being one of the most unlikely candidates" decided to raise cattle full time.

Now THAT is an entirely different adventure! And primarily someone else's at that. But-- after months of hearing about his attempts to make it work, I finally got a tour of the ranch while I was passing through the Valley on my way to Disneyland.

And I never left. (Well, I did go to Disneyland. Duh!)

Partly because when I showed up that April morning, I was immediately put to work.

And then I did something that NO ONE WHO HAS KNOWN ME FOR THE LAST 48 YEARS WOULD HAVE SUSPECTED: I volunteered to come back to the ranch the next morning-- at 6 AM.

Late spring and early summer of 2018 has been a lot of trips back and forth between South Lake Tahoe and a small calf operation currently located somewhere in the Devil's Triangle of the Hanford/Goshen/Kingsburg outback. 

So just this week, I did something else that I never expected to do: I moved back to the valley. To get up at 4 am and work on the ranch 7 days a week for the foreseeable future.

So what am I saying?

Why am I telling you this? 

On my NAIL BUSINESS website? 

Well maybe-- just maybe-- I miss talking to people.
Maybe-- just maybe-- I miss the smell of monomer.
Maybe-- just maybe-- I'm thinking I could probably handle a few clients a week again?

I have some ducks to get back in a row before I can make any promises-- but maybe-- just maybe-- the appointment book is about to get dusted off.