GRACE AIGNER: Hi everyone! I’m Grace Aigner from the Minnesota Daily. Welcome back to another episode of In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota.

College students are notoriously worried about money. If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly keeping a mental note on how much you’re spending, how much you’re making and where you can cut costs. Part-time retail or food service jobs, campus positions or internships can help keep a cash flow throughout the year. But some students take a slightly different approach to making money in college: starting their own business.

On today’s episode, we’ll hear from three university students who run their own side hustle. However, starting their own business is about more than the money—they’re fueled by a passion for what they do.

Charissa Short, a fourth-year student studying fashion design, started doing her own nails as a creative hobby to keep herself busy during the pandemic. She got a Gel-X kit, which are gel nail extensions, as a Christmas gift. With a few tools and polish colors, she gradually taught herself how to do salon-style nail sets.

CHARISSA SHORT: I’m a very creative person and I can’t really sit still. So like I would be watching shows and you know, I made rings and jewelry and I did, I don’t even remember how many different things. And so especially nails, like it was kind of just a distraction or an escape from what was going on in the world. 

Because I was pretty harshly quarantined. Like I was not one of those people who was still seeing my friends because I have family members who are immunocompromised, so I was pretty much completely shut off. 

I had painted before, but this was like a new medium. It’s a very different way of creating art. It’s kind of like trying to tell a story through these tiny little canvases. I think for me it was mostly like an escape and a way to kind of get away from what was going on in the world.

AIGNER: If you get your nails done by Short, you could get a set of long stiletto or almond shaped nails with bright colors and 3D tropical flower designs.

Now with six years of experience under her belt, Short has a network of about 15 clients, mostly students, who she does nails for regularly. But Short said the transition from a word-of-mouth business in high school to marketing herself for a larger audience in college was a nerve-wracking one.

SHORT: I was a little worried. I’m a pretty outgoing person, but it just feels very vulnerable to like, put your work out there and to try and like, I don’t know, it kind of feels like fishing. I’m like just putting all these photos out there and then hoping that somebody finds them and DMs me.

I feel like nail artists are kind of like tattoo artists where you wanna find one that kind of has your style. And I feel like I definitely do have a style that’s not for everybody, but for the people that it is for, they can see like, “Oh yeah, this is what I’m looking for.”

AIGNER: Short said the biggest shift in her nail tech business from high school to college was opening a public Instagram account. She uses the platform to share information about pricing, appointment booking and photos of completed nail sets.

Like Short, Jinda Sengsourichanh’s interest in nails and beauty services started in high school. She runs her own small business creating and selling custom press-on nail sets. 

JINDA SENGSOURICHANH: I’ve always had like a really strong passion for the beauty industry. I’ve always really loved doing my makeup and like, press-on nails, like hair, and especially like skincare for me. And it would go down to like, I really like studying products and their ingredients and figuring out like what they work well with.

In high school I really struggled with acne a lot and so that’s when I started studying and ingredients, and like skincare and stuff and like what worked well with my type of skin. And then I really fell in love with doing nails specifically just because there’s so many different methods and honestly I think the biggest piece for me is just that it’s fun for me. 

AIGNER: Sengsourichanh, a fourth-year student studying business and marketing, said she takes commissions for nail sets over Instagram. Most of her clients are students, and they will usually send her inspiration photos for the set design. 

One of her sets uses jade green, white french tips and gold charms to create jewelry-esque nails. She said she can be most creative when someone gives her loose guidelines for what they want their set to look like.

SENGSOURICHANH: I started doing gel extension nails on myself and then on my friends, and then I would get a lot of questions if I took clients and I would always have to tell them like, “No, like right now I don’t.” And that’s kinda what made me start thinking maybe I should open up my work to like other people. 

It’s also like a really big creative outlet for me because I feel like 99% of me is analytical, that’s just like how my brain works. So it’s like my one way to be creative. 

AIGNER: Finn Nicholson, a third-year student studying earth and environmental sciences, runs a Depop store selling second-hand and vintage clothing. Depop is an online clothing resale app. Nicholson started his side hustle about a year ago after getting the idea from his brother. He said reselling clothes is how he practices sustainability.

FINN NICHOLSON: I was at home with my brother that summer and he kind of showed me the ropes, how it works. What sort of things are sought after, like in terms of camera angle when you’re taking the picture, kind of keywords you use in the listing. So he was the one who kind of opened that door to me. 

But apart from that, the reason why I like doing it is I like not wasting things. I like recycling. Especially when it comes to clothing. Like if you’ve ever been to the bins, like there’s so much clothing that just it, no, no one reutilizes it, and a lot of that goes to waste.

And I feel like me doing this, it’s a very small fraction of the total amount of clothing that exists on this planet, but I feel like it’s a good deed to take a piece of clothing that would otherwise be burned or, I don’t know the process for all that, but take a piece of clothing that would otherwise not be reutilized and reutilize it.

AIGNER: Despite their passion and enjoyment, the three students still deal with stress and self-doubt while they manage their small businesses and full-time student schedules. Learning how and when to say no, to stick to a personal schedule and find balance between school and business responsibilities are key to their success. 

Sengsourichanh said she’s learned how to weave her nail business tasks and appointments into her busy schedule.

SENGSOURICHANH: I do try and fit my business into like any pockets of free time that I have. I will say that nails do take up a very large majority of my free time, but when it comes to like answering DMs anytime someone messages me, whether it’s like I’m walking to class and I respond to a DM. 

Or if I need a homework break, honestly, like I’ll just like look through my DMs or like look through content ideas for my page. When I first started my business, I wanna say it was like last semester I was taking 21 credits, so it was pretty hard. 

So I limited myself to taking like only two orders a week. But if I have a lot of assignments or like, I know I have a big exam coming up, I will just close my orders down for like that week so I can really focus on school.

AIGNER: Short said managing her time can be difficult. She said finishing her degree while keeping up nails appointments can feel like she is being pulled in 100 directions. 

SHORT: It’s tough because not only do I have like the hour or two that I have the person here, I’m doing their nails, but like the setup and the cleanup afterwards. And I also sometimes have to practice if people are sending me inspiration of something I’ve never done before. I have to like, try and practice that. 

So I don’t even really know how I balance it. I kind of just work around it, but it is, it’s really difficult. There have definitely been a lot of times where I don’t even clean up, I just leave it there and I have to get straight to my work.

I kind of have like, not completely stopped, but I’ve stopped putting myself out there as much just because I’m coming to my senior year and we do a thesis where I have to create a collection. And so there’s like a runway show and everything, and so I’ve kind of had to slow down just to kind of focus on that.

AIGNER: Nicholson spends about eight or nine hours a week managing his Depop account. Each week, he spends time finding and purchasing clothes from thrift stores, posting items regularly, responding to offers, and packaging and shipping orders. He said ironing out a weekly schedule that accommodates his class and work load and is essential.

NICHOLSON: The start of the semester is always like uneasy for a lot of reasons, but part of it is also like I’m trying to figure out when I’m gonna allocate time for Depop. And this semester it’s quite nice because I don’t have class on Mondays or Fridays, but I do do research responsibilities on those days. So they’re not completely free. But Monday and Fridays are typically when I’ll do that picture taking, so I’ll do a batch of like, let’s say six to 10 on Monday. 

I try to post like two items a day. I would say definitely on the days where I have time allocated for picture taking, which is the thing that takes up the most amount of time and therefore on those days when I have a lot of schoolwork, deadlines with classwork and I just joined a research lab this semester, so. 

These responsibilities, yeah, when it’s, when it’s tough, it’s that aspect of having to dedicate a couple hours to take these pictures and it’s not the same as sitting down with like schoolwork and just doing it for a couple hours.

AIGNER: At times, the stress of managing their time and succeeding as a college student can overwhelm the fulfillment the three students get from their businesses. 

Sengsourichanh said comparing her skills to other nail techs and the busy schedule can make it hard to stay motivated. Previously, she’s slowed down the number of orders she accepts, but has recently been questioning if she should continue her nail business.

SENGSOURICHANH: I was talking to my boyfriend and I was like, “Actually, I don’t know if nails are for me. I don’t know if I’m cut out to do this.” I just feel like sometimes I do feel the burnout because I’m doing nails and like taking a couple hours of my day to do them. It’s like I have homework and I also work a few part-time jobs right now. So yeah, it gets stressful.

I feel like sometimes I struggle with comparing myself to other nail artists because I feel like I’m not as good as them. And I’m like, I don’t know if I’m cut out to do this because I feel like I’m not as fast as doing nails or I’m not as good as doing designs. 

But also, I’m getting a degree right now, so I’m like, I spend so much money on the degree and then I’m gonna spend more money to get like an esthetician or like a nail license. So then I’m like, should I just sell the whole business? 

AIGNER: Nicholson said when he sees a drop in the number of sales he gets on clothing items despite putting in the same amount of effort into his site each week, he starts to question whether his business is worth the time commitment.

NICHOLSON: Definitely haven’t considered stopping the whole operation. But there definitely have been days and especially like now, like I’m not really seeing a whole lot of sales to my page. But that’s just one thing that when you engage with Depop for long enough, you kind of recognize these trends in your engagement.

But it tends to, to ebb and flow. And right now I’m in the, in the trough of that right now. But I know, because it’s happened before that I’ll come back out, but. Yeah, so during those times where it’s like a little low in engagement, it can get a little bit like get into like a questioning kind of mindset of like, should I really be prioritizing this?

I mean, it’s not like a major priority. It’s kind of equal with all my other responsibilities, but. That’s kind of when the doubt creeps in, if any. But there’s never been a moment where I’m like, gonna completely shut it down.

AIGNER: Despite these stressors, neither Nicholson, Sengsourichanh or Short has stopped their business. While their schedule can be stressful, their passion and fulfillment for what they do overcomes self-doubt. 

As she finishes her degree and starts her professional career, Short plans to reduce her business to only doing nails for friends in the future. But she said the interpersonal aspect of doing other people’s nails has helped keep her dedicated to her clients. 

SHORT: I’ve really gotten to love doing nails and I also really love the interpersonal part of it as well. I love getting to know new people. I’ve made a few friends through this. Like there was one time freshman year that a girl found me, I started by posting on the U of M Snapchat stories, she found me on there, I did her nails and she hung out in my dorm for like two or three hours afterwards and we just like talked and we’re friends now. 

So I think both of those things, like I’m extremely passionate about it and I love getting to create things that people bring me. And I also love getting to know people.

AIGNER: For Sengsourichanh and Nicholson, they simply can’t imagine giving up their businesses knowing how much time and effort they’ve already invested and the success they’ve already seen.

SENGSOURICHANH: The passion that I have for creating, not just like having the nails and like doing designs being my creative outlet. But I really enjoy making graphics and content creation. And so running a business, I can also do a lot of content creation, which I really love.

And also I put so much effort and work into building my business and getting all the supplies for it. So I just feel like I’m at a point where like, I feel like I can’t give up, but I also wouldn’t want to. 

NICHOLSON: I don’t like to look at the numbers of it because Depop is like a lot of numbers to look at, whether that’s like the amount of five star reviews you have, how many followers you have, how many total sales, how, how much revenue and all, all these like statistics and numbers, like it can bog you down.

But I feel like those numbers are also helpful in that I can see that and be like, “Wow, like I really have taken the time to source like 300 plus items, and now I’ve sold those 300 plus items.” And seeing that number kind of reminds me of like, this was a lot of time and dedication spent on dealing with these items and interacting with buyers and shipping out to them, like this whole process.

And I, I kind of just sit and be appreciative of that. And I think that’s like the main thing that kind of allows me to be like, “Well, yeah, it might not be so good now, but like, look at how far I’ve come.”

AIGNER: For any student thinking about or in the process of starting their own business, Short, Sengsourichanh and Nicholson said to remember to set boundaries, take care of yourself and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. 

In my conversations with them, it’s clear they don’t regret taking the steps to put their passions to work. I was really impressed by the skill and determination all three of them expressed. If you’re considering starting your own side hustle or sharing your creativity with others, I’m rooting for you. Short said you’ll be surprised by how many people want to work with you.

If you’re interested in their businesses, Jinda Sengsourichanh is @beauty.by.jinda on Instagram, Charissa Short is @nailz_by_c_01 on Instagram and Finn Nicholson is @finnnichol on Depop, that’s @finnichol on Depop. Links to their pages can be found in the transcription for this episode on the Minnesota Daily website.

That’s all I’ve got for you today folks! This episode was written by Grace Aigner and produced by Ceci Heinen. Thanks for listening and if you have any questions, comments or concerns don’t be afraid to send us an email at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you.

My name is Grace Aigner, be safe, be well and I’ll talk to you next time on In The Know.