good luck.....
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Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on November 18, 1999 at 14:18:29:
In Reply to: OPENING A MENHDI STUDIO posted by TRACEY SEBASTIAN on November 18, 1999 at 13:31:45:
Anything you want to know? JUST ASK HERE! You will never find a more knowledgeable group of people willing to help you promptly and freely. Take a LONG evening off and read every last post in the forum archives. You will be amazed at what's back there that will help you! In the US henna outside of the most expensive cities is something like $35 an hour, or $1 an inch. Put your prices at something comparable to a good nail parlor job. Small shop secrets? Great henna music at all times! (Some people here are absolute specialists in wonderful world beat music ... I'm not one of them, but I'm sure people can make suggestions) Music cheers you up when you're down, and adds to the enthusiasm and joy level. One or two excellent lights at your henna table are essential. Some comfy couch things where people can rest as they look through your pattern books, and where they can blow-dry their hands.....in darkish or greenish colors, because you never know when there will be a henna splat. Your henna table should be very firm, not prone to bumping. Check out the tables beauticians have for doing nails. They're very well set up! All their supplies are at hand and in order.....clean and perfect. You'll need a pleasant little rug and comfy chair....you may need to sit on the floor while people sit in a chair to do legs and feet. You'll need a futon-bed like thing for people to lie down for tummies and backs. There should be a second privacy room where you can do backs, tummies and such in privacy. If you're doing really private parts, you should have an assistant there for the legal issue of potential "he said, she said". Make everything, and yourself, in your studio very, very beautiful, inviting, and pleasurable. Keep everything squeeky clean at all times. People are used to the cleanliness of beauty parlors, and they will judge you on that standard. Be professional and cheerful at all times. Always be beautiful. Always be hennaed! You'll need mirrors to show people hard-to see hennaes. If you get inespensive mirrors and wedge tiny bits of cardboard behind them just the right way, the mirror will flex and everyone will look 10 pounds thinner. You wouldn't believe what that does for sales (oooh, I look so beautiful all of a sudden....."Vanity, my favorite sin!") Find a library with big glossy books with miniature paintings from Mughal and Rajput India, and make enlarged color copies of the paintings with ladies with hennaed hands. Frame them. Don't start up your studio until you have an absolutely reliable source of henna. Never use any product that will hurt people! Never, never, never use PPD black henna!!!!!!!!!!!! You and your shop and everything you ever hoped to own will go up in a puff of pain and suffering lawsuits if you go the black henna route! I wouldn't advise starting up a studio without 3-4 years experience hennaeing people regularly, so that you're run into and dealtwith the variabilities and suprises that henna can throw at you. Have at least 20 books of patterns from all over the world. Be able to freehand every last one of them. I can help you with patterns. Free. Just email me. You say you've done business before; so you don't need the business rant. Model your business on a very nice nail parlor. Good luck!
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