Issue 3, Development days
(The cre8tive collective)
Welcome to the third issue of the nail on Sunday. This week we are discussing development as our main topic. We will be looking into reopening our salon spaces with Sam Windsor. And discussing decontamination and sanitation for a safer salon space. We will be going over development timescales and looking back at changes in creative work over time with Carly Dorman. I'll be looking at development from a viewpoint of taking on new challenges, developing over time and setting small achievable targets. The Heff will be delving into personal development for positive outcomes. I'll also be sharing more social media business development top tips.
We also have a brand spotlight feature that this week has been amalgamated with our success stories feature.
Development
Leo Ko-Nkengmo
Development is a process that creates growth and positive change. From the very get go of lockdown we have been trying to make the very best of a bad situation. We have all felt pain, anguish, boredom, worry and more. We have up all had our blips and moments where we have had to check ourselves and re-evaluate. This is development.
Developing a new way of thinking, developing a new way of living, developing new processes, developing our mindset. Development is good, it helps you figure out what you want to do. You'll be able to make clear goals and learn more about your life the people around you and the activities you partake in.
Once you have started on the journey of development you will achieve new goals you will gain additional skills and you will naturally feel good about it all. The lockdown situation is developing for the positive itself and it is now time for us to be grateful and not look back on the past year as something that will hinder us going forward.
While we are all so excited to re open, we must be mindful of the changes that must be made within our businesses, with our work colleagues, with our customers and of course with ourselves. Our very own David Heffernan explains the importance of personal development.
Personal Development
David Heffernan
"Personal development is like having a wash. You have to do it daily otherwise you start to stink."
This may sound harsh but it is true. So many people have taken part in various 5-day free challenges around meditation, gratitude, goal setting etc. Momentum soon runs out when they realise, they have to be consistent and unfortunately life gets in the way and off they go back to their old habits but then blame everything but themselves when things go wrong again.
Which brings me to your average day/week/month? If you were approached by a wizard or witch and they put a spell on you which made you live today over and over again – what would your life look like in 5 years’ time? Do you have dreams? Goals or aspirations of living a better life? Bigger business? Less weight? We can all sit there on our lunch break or waiting for a bus imagining ourselves on a golden sandy beach in the Maldives or if your me, losing myself in the crowds of New York but how many of us act upon these dreams? How happy are you with the status quo? Because most people live in a way that only preserves this.
I know times are a little different to normal at the moment but maybe think back to before Lockdown and restrictions. What did your typical day look like?
This is a task I remember taking part in many years ago which is quite impactful. We are all guilty of falling into autopilot – this is a great way of not only getting out of the funk but heading towards those goals becoming a reality if you embrace this.
So, taking your typical average kind of workday:
· Consider what you ate and drank.
· How much exercise did you get?
· What did you do with your social life? Did you spend time with anyone else socially?
· Did you call any friends?
· If you’re single, did you ask anyone out on a date?
· If you’re married, what did you do to enhance your relationship?
· Did you do anything to increase your income or advance your career?
· Did you learn anything new that would be useful in the future?
Consider your average weekend. Ask yourself the same questions
Imagine living those same days over and over for the next 5 years. Where would you end up? Based on your food intake and exercise output, where would you expect your health and body composition to look like in 5 years?
· Do the same with your finances, social life, marriage, and career. After 5 years of living your average day, what is your prediction? If the outcome horrifies you then start today and do something about it. Making those small positive changes over times become huge ones.
Complete the above task and TAKE ACTION and I assure you – your future self will thank you for it?
Until Next time?
Sanitisation, Disinfection and Sterilisation
Sam Windsor
As we all know, the next few weeks will be full of developmental stages to re opening our businesses and working practices. This week we look at sanitation, disinfection and sterilisation.
These are all terms that we are familiar with, however do you understand what each one is and when it should be used? This week we will be looking at each term and discussing its meaning and use. Firstly, we will look at Sanitisation. This is the most basic level of decontamination. It removes physical debris and some pathogens, but not all. It is suitable for both living and non-living surfaces.
Sanitising can include actions such as:
.Washing hands with warm soapy water
.Scrubbing tools in warm soapy water ahead of disinfection/sterilisation.
.Cleaning surfaces with warm soapy water ahead of disinfection.
.Spraying hands/feet with sanitizing spray.
Disinfectants are available as wipes, sprays and chemical solutions. In order to be effective they need to be in contact with the surface being disinfected for the correct amount of time.
When using chemical solutions, it is absolutely vital that the solution is made up exactly as per the manufacturer’s instructions, and that the tools are fully submerged for the time stated in the instructions. Remember, you must still sanitise before disinfecting, to remove physical debris, otherwise disinfecting will be ineffective.
When looking at disinfecting products for the salon you should only be using professional grade products, not supermarket brands. As a minimum they should be bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal, (ideally sporicidal too.)
Disinfecting can include actions such as:
Fully submerging tools in chemical disinfectants such as Mundo or Barbicide.
Spraying files with disinfecting spray and leaving to dry.
Using spray or wipes to disinfect work surface, equipment and contact points.
Finally, sterilisation, and this is where many people become stuck due to the amount of false
advertising on products. There are many products that claim to sterilise items, but not all are as they seem, so it’s important to do your research!
Sterilisation is the highest level of decontamination. It destroys ALL living things on non-living
objects. Tools should be checked to make sure they are safe to be decontaminated in this manner.
(Don’t forget you must still sanitise before sterilising to remove physical debris.)
Sterilising actions include:
Use of an autoclave on metal tools (an autoclave is a machine that works much like a
pressure cooker to sterilise tools, reaching temperatures of between 120-140 degrees.)
Autoclaves are very expensive pieces of equipment, and require regular testing and maintenance to ensure they are working correctly.
Development Success and brand development.
Leo Ko-Nkengmo
Rachel Hanks a nail qualified tech since 2012 and a specialist in nail art explains she can and would paint anything. "I love anything whacky or funky." She even had online workshops that techs could join to learn from. However she really wanted to create something that didn't take 4 hours or didn't have the price tag as bespoke or custom.
Having to develop this idea quickly to adapt to the fact that business wasn't going to be as usual over lockdown wasn't easy at all. "I’ve had decals in the past and they been so small with no other range, but I wanted create lots of sizes on one sheet. I wanted them to be bigger and better, offering more which is a win win for me."
" I have an amazing team of ambassadors who play with the decals and create sets to show off how my products can create a beautiful finish or a stylish adaptation to a set.
Adapting and developing an idea into a business over lockdown is certainly a great achievement and one to be admired.
Rachel runs 2 groups called nail art community, where any brands, groups or techs can share posts of their work and also post showing them using our decals. Rachel believes she has found a solution to a problem and is making every success of her lockdown founded business.
Rachel explains that she has had amazing support from the whole nail industry and sells mainly Waterslide decals but also helps techs with a side businesses of creating packaging and stickers. She also Collab's with nail junkies and they share 2 ambassadors which help build the businesses and each other up .. "it’s been an amazing response and we now have more then 100 designs for nails decals and still growing"
You can find Rachels amazing decals, personalised stickers and more here at Products – printbyexample
Development and growth.
Carly Dorman
What do you see in your development ?
Sometimes we can find development and growth all the time and it can be scary pushing yourself to try new things or develop new skills .
Part of development is something we will all go through and will do in our every day life.
when used in the workplace, development is part of every day life. Learning how we adjust to do better than the day before.
We all have our own ideas where we want to develop and grow in. For me it is developing on my nail art and the creative side which I love the most, as I love being able to see how creative I can be and the passion that it makes me feel. For some it could be getting that apex right as we know the apex and structure can be a well-known nemesis but with continued development you will get you there. Work on your own areas you wish to develop in and build on your own growth.
I love to go back to old work and try it again and for me this is a good way to develop and practice making your skills better, to look back and see how far we have come from when we first started, sometimes we forget to see how much we’ve improved.
A challenge for you this week is to recreate a design you previously did when you first started out Your growth depends on your activity Be the best version of you XX Carly
Development is Key
Leo Ko-Nkengmo
Starting out as a make-up artist and qualifying back in 2009, I was all for learning as much as possible although after a year of creating I thought I was pretty good. I loved creating glam make up looks for my clients as they went on nights out. I thought at the time that my career would be developed into just gaining more clients that wanted glam makeup looks and I was was happy with that. However looking back now, i was developing all along.
After around two years I started to look into special FX and was surprised to find the amount of skill you needed to develop in this area. It was honestly a lot harder than I ever thought it would be and I struggled for awhile getting to grips with the multitude of techniques, products, skills and attitudes that you needed to succeed in that industry. I almost gave up!
I love all types of make up techniques now. I still love developing my skills but I spend most of my time creating vintage box special effects looks and still love doing the glamour looks but I can definitely see the improvement that has developed over my years of constant practice and realisation and what needed to be developed in the first place.
Here are some examples of past and present work and I'm sure you will be able to spot the older form the new creative work photos.
Never be too sure of yourself at first and understand that development is constant and we are forever making changes for positive development.
Developing marketing for your business.
Leo-Ko-Nkengmo
Developing your social media skills is key to successful marketing of your small, medium or large business. Understanding how social media works and developing skills to produce good content that will resonate with potential customers is one of the most important things you can add to your business planning.
Growing your brand within social media will level up your business. Developing your social media skills will help increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website or social pages, generate new leads and grow revenue by increasing sales or signups. Brand engagement provides social customer service, builds a community around your business, increases mentions in other publications, and listens to conversations about your brand.
If you are writing content, one of the skills you need to develop is mastering different writing styles. The reason for this is that each form of writing has its own style and therefore appeals to different people, markets and so on. Blogging is a personable, friendly, and often overlooked way of marketing yourself, a brand or something else. Ad copy is short and persuasive however blogging creates a bigger picture of what you are trying to communicate and you can appeal to a wider market and make for a more interesting read about your business, yourself or what you're trying to say.
Developing your blogging skills, I feel is key if you want to translate your message to be able to make clear changes to your business in the form of popularity and interest. Picking an ideal topic each blog will make your blog centralised, interesting and allow you to understand and analyse the data around who is visiting your blog. This will over time, help you realise who is interested in you and your business.
Next week we will be looking at specific aims for developing a good blog in order to help boost your business for the better.
see you next week xx The Cre8tive Collective
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