Fewer Clients, Higher Expenses: How Aquatic Nail Spa is Staying Afloat

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July 10, 2020

Navigating COVID-19 has been especially challenging for local small businesses, but places like Aquatic Nail Spa on County Line Road are fighting tooth and nail to keep their business alive while offering the same great experience and next-level cleanliness standards.

Nikki Nguyen, manager of Aquatic Nail Spa, says that she and her team just took over this location in September 2019 and had picked up a significant client base when the pandemic hit, which caused them to close their doors for nearly two months.

“We could have opened on May 10th,” shared Nguyen, “but we waited until the 14th because we wanted to make sure that everyone was certified and trained with the new procedures.”

Nguyen says that every employee went through an official COVID-19 online certification program to make sure that employees and customers alike are protected from the virus.

“We do not want to close again,” says Nguyen.

For this reason, Aquatic Nail Spa has revamped all of their procedures to make sure that they’ve crossed every T and dotted every I. I visited Nguyen at the nail spa several days ago, and when I walked up I immediately noticed the bold sign on the door listing new procedures.

When I entered, I was greeted warmly and directed to wash my hands.

There were several clients receiving services all spread apart. Those in manicure chairs are now seven feet apart from others and pedicure clients are now eight feet apart. Employees doing manicures are seated behind plexiglass and of course wearing masks.

One of the biggest changes that Aquatic Nail Spa has made is that they were now asking for every client to make an appointment to ensure that there isn’t crowding in the waiting area. If someone does arrive without an appointment, he or she will be asked to wait in the car until the manicure or pedicure area is cleaned properly and ready.

Nguyen believes that requiring appointments has led to 50% fewer customers than they should be seeing this time of year.

“We are used to having back-to-back clients and people waiting in the waiting area, getting them in when a spot opens up. Now if a client with an appointment arrives early, they have to wait in their car.”

Nguyen says that her clients have been okay with the changes though.

Not only is Nguyen’s team experiencing a 50% drop in revenue, but they’re also spending 3-4x the amount on cleaning supplies.

“We clean thoroughly between each client and then do a deep clean every single night. We also have bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere. Even our menus are laminated so that we can easily clean them after each person views them.”

Giving Back

When Aquatic Nail Spa closed temporarily in March, they decided to give back to the community and do what they could for those in need around them.

Because they had a large number of disposable masks on hand that they commonly wore during various procedures, they decided to seek out groups in our community who could use them immediately.

Nguyen and her team reached out to groups in Madison, Athens, and Harvest, offering any resources that they could.

“We also wanted to donate to our neighbor, Urgent Care. We knew that everywhere was sold out of masks and other things, so anything we had on hand, we donated.”

Visit Aquatic Nail Spa

Nguyen encourages clients to follow along on Facebook and keep up with pictures that are added that feature a business card. The images with a business card mean that the services were performed at the spa and are offered to you! She says that this is a great way to draw inspiration for what services you’d like.