Manicure street vending is 'in'

Mpho Tlale | Thursday January 23, 2014 16:25

While it took a while to reach other beauty trades, the fever has now hit and there are manicure street vendors mushrooming in and around Gaborone.

 Towards the end of 2013 the streets of the main mall and the bus rank has a flood of nail business advertisers, in the form of flyers and marketing assistants approaching people. Monica Rammai is one in the flourishing industry. She runs Just Nails with a partner, who has been running the business at their makeshift nail parlour for two years now.

At month-end Rammai said that they usually they get about 10 to 15 clients a day. And like other such businesses, mid-month is slow.

'We do nails at an affordable price as compared to salon based manicurists. Those based at salons charge a higher price because they have to pay rent month end whilst we don’t,' she said.

But there are challenges. Once such is transportation costs. The street manicures get their supplies from Mafikeng in South Africa, which Rammai said is a costly exercise.

The manicurist said just like their salon based counterparts, they offer good quality service and have a range of assorted nail types from clear, French, gel and stick on tips as well as a variety of colours for their clients to choose from.

“Our clients range from tertiary students to the working class type of women,” she said. One of Rammai’s clients, Magdalene Kaote said that she preferred to do her nails on the streets because it is affordable. Kaote said that salons are expensive and sometimes they do not even offer value for money.

Cosmetics entrepreneur Norah Mphoeng supports the development of manicure street vendors, saying it is a good business initiative. Mphoeng pointed out that she is aware that beauty parlour owners complain about the competition, and advices established business to accept the trend as normal and expected.  She added that the manicure street vendors face a challenge of competing with established business but are so far doing good because of their affordable prices, which pulls in clientele.

Mphoeng noted that it easy not easy to start a business. But, with good service, it can grow. What she has noticed that the emergence of streets manicure vendors has seen to the improvement women’s image around the city.

Street based manicurists charge from as little as P50 to P100, while those in salons charge an average of P180 going upwards depending on the type of nails done.