We were lucky to catch up with Kaitlyn Whitaker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kaitlyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I came up with the idea to start my own business during Covid year, 2020. Everyone was quarantined so I had nothing but time to teach myself something new & I was already in need of a career. The end of the previous year, I had entered a new chapter of my life. I got married and moved out of my hometown state. I left my full time job along with the cosmetology school I was attending to live my newlywed life. I was pretty much taking a leap of faith but I was very happy to be getting married to my high school sweetheart and to be able to move outside of my hometown. Everything just felt right. Enduring such a healthy relationship with someone like my husband has helped me heal in so many ways. I feel as if this healthy relationship helped heal my survival mode tactics and helped me grow into my own sense of individuality, leading me to be where I am today. I grew up in a very toxic, dysfunctional household so being able to experience life outside of what I’ve always known to be chaotic, is a huge blessing. A lot of people who grow up with emotionally immature parents are creatives like myself, using any form of art to express their bottled up emotions or freedom, even. Also, having something of your own feels like taking your own power back from those controlling, emotionally immature parents. I have always wanted to be my own boss for this reason so I knew this was the time to start my own business. I still have so many goals to reach with my business and I can’t wait to see where it will be within another year. Although I’m still developing in the entrepreneur side of things, being a nail tech is great because I get to be creative while pampering others in my own way. This is my favorite thing about entrepreneurship and one of the main reasons why I got into it, I get to do everything my own way. I’ve always told myself that, we as human beings, have to work & make money to provide for ourselves so we might as well do something we enjoy doing. Already having experience in cosmetology school inspired me to continue my career in the beauty industry. Having such a safe space with my husband as well as emotional and financial support, I’ve been able to follow my dreams to become successful and being my own boss. It’s true when they say you become ten times the person you were when you’re loved correctly.
Kaitlyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have created a very healthy life for myself with the blessings that God has gifted me with. Some of those gifts being the black sheep of my family which caused me to be the generational curse breaker. Him placing creativity and a dream in my heart to want to be an entrepreneur which will create success and generational wealth. Gifting me with an amazing man as my spouse means I’m able to experience true, unconditional love, inner child healing, emotionally immature healing and more. Sometimes people just simply need love and support in order to follow their dreams. I’ve always dreamed of being my own boss. Funny thing is though, I always wanted to do hair. Once I got hands on experience in cosmetology school, I realized doing hair wasn’t for me. Fast forward to about a year and a half later, I’m living in a new state 5 hours away from my hometown, as a wife, everything is new. I definitely wanted to continue my career in the beauty industry but I didn’t know where to start. Being that it was the year of COVID, I seen lots of people on social media starting to work from home. I was honestly so comfortable at home for the first time in my life so I thought why not. I was choosing between doing nails or eyelashes for a while and finally went for nails. I specialize in acrylic nails. I also love doing nail art. I’m really big on nail health as well so I take great care of my clients nail beds and offer cuticle oil pens for healthy nail growth. I think what sets me apart from other nail techs is my patience and my consideration for others. I’m very considerate of my clients likings and comfortability. My clients never have to apologize for things like, being too tired to talk, wanting their nail lengths or designs changed, or even if they feel they have “ugly” nails. Once my client sits in my chair, it’s all about them. I work with my clients to make sure they get nails they love. I would have to say what I’m most proud of is choosing to be alone. Choosing to start a business on my own, choosing to teach myself how to do nails alone, choosing to be alone on my healing journey, choosing to be alone by marrying the man God sent to me so that I could move 5 hours away from the chaos and be ALONE. God put it in me to make these choices so that I would be separated from everyone and everything only to bring me closer to myself and to Him. I’m grateful for it. Not only am I truly blessed but I am divinely favored. If you can find another nail tech that knows this about themselves, you’ve got a nail tech with a great spirit, positive vibes, who’s humble and is definitely going to take care of you and your nails!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Consistency. I believe that consistency is the key to a lot of things. Honestly, life as we all know it can get so busy sometimes so when I get inconsistent with my work, my clientele slows down. Although there will be times when servicing clients is naturally slow due to things like a lot of people paying their rent on the first so the first of every month may be slow. Those time frames are when you can do other things for your business to get ahead or to practice your craft. Especially in the nail industry, there’s always new trends and things so it’s important to stay up to date with things in order to keep that clientele coming in.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Although I do not have experience in managing a team, maintaining a high morale I feel like I have really good advice for. As long as you are doing something you genuinely enjoy, something you feel God has called you to do, you will naturally carry that high morale. A lot of people get into careers only for the money, or because that’s what their parents or spouse want them to do, or because of the attention that comes with it. But if that passion isn’t there, it’s never going to spark you in way that connects you with the willingness to freely give your best in the workplace. And that’s what having high morale is. There is so many ways to make money, whatever you genuinely enjoy doing I guarantee you can make money off of it. If you want to maintain high morale in your workplace, I feel as if the first thing you should do is make sure you genuinely enjoy what you’re doing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kreativeknails.as.me/
- Instagram: Kreativenailtech_