If you are thinking of becoming a nail technician, you should keep in mind that you will be doing some other things other than just your normal nail tech jobs. You will be helping customers, making appointments, keeping up with your tax information (if you are renting a booth) and maybe help with selling items in a salon.

To learn more about how things work, you should seek out established nail technicians and speak with them about how things are worked out between them and the salon. Speaking with other nail technicians before you decide to become a nail technician can really help you with your decision of becoming a nail technician. Speaking to salon owners about how things work in the salon for a nail technician can be very helpful too. You will be able to get some good answers from the salon owners if you can speak with them. Not all salon owners will be doing business the same way, so you should choose to speak to at least 3 salon owners about how they would work out hiring a nail technician. Let them know that you are thinking of going to school to become a nail technician and that you would like to find out how things work in the salon before you make your decision on becoming a nail technician.

If you decide that you want to be a nail technician, the first thing that you will be doing is getting educated on doing nails. Different states have different requirements for becoming a nail technician. You can check with your local beauty school or community college to find out about costs of the courses and when the course will begin.

Once you finish and pass the course, you will be on your way to a job or finding a job. Renting a booth is not recommended until you have plenty of clients that you know will follow you to any salon that you decide to work at in the area. Working as an employee at a salon is good when you first start out so that you will not be paying a weekly or monthy payment to the salon when you do not have many clients. Salon owners will work out a deal with you on how you are going to work with them. Some only will have you work as an employee, while others will only rent a booth.

It is recommended that you start asking around at salons before it is time for you to start working. Speak to salon owners of salons that you may wish to work for and ask them about what their rules are for renting booths or having you work as an employee.

Nail technicians usually will perform manicures, pedicures and apply false nails.  Of course you may be doing polish changes and false nail repairs too.

You may be helping in the salon such as selling shampoo or polish to customers.  You may be required to answer phones when you are not working or even while you are working.  Possibly you could be helping with anything that needs to be done in the salon.  You will be responsible for keeping your area clean and neat.  You will also be responsible for sanitizing your tools between each client.

Some salon owners will require you to dress up in certain colors or wear certain kinds of clothes in order to work in their salon. 

Being a nail technician can be stressful at times when you are really busy.  Major holidays seem to be the busiest time of all. 

It is not easy to take days off of work while you have lots of clients.  If you take some time off, you may have to squeeze in lots of clients before and after your time off.

Being a nail tech sometimes requires you to work long hours especially before the holidays and before major events such as high school dances.

Some people really love being a nail technician. There are things that you should think about before you decide to become a nail technician. You should think about the chemicals that you will be using and if you are sensitive to chemicals, some of these chemicals could bother you. You will be sitting all day long, so you should make sure that you can do this easily before you decide to do this job.

The money usually is pretty good as long as you have plenty of clients. It may be easier to do this job if you are not sick often, or do not need to miss days often, as you will not get paid while you are not at work.

Some people think it is OK to do this job if you need to have 3-4 days off per week. This is because you can sometimes make your own schedule. If you are able to make your own schedule, you may be able to work fewer hours per week and have some time off.

Most of the time, this job does not offer health insurance, so that is something that you should think about too. You can buy health insurance, but it is not that cheap to buy it for yourself.