After finishing up three clients, Linda Luong preps her station getting ready to take on her last client of the day.

Even though she’s tired Luong anticipates Alda’s arrival. Alda, who manages a medical billing team, always looks forward to her nail appointments.

Luong takes her time with all her customers throughout their service and values the meaningful connections she creates.

“She’s personal with her clients,” says Alda. “You build that relationship where we’re not just clients to her. We’ve become friends and family like she says, and she’s very artistic.”

Alda and Luong talk about Alda’s recent trip from Dubai and catch up.

Luong, now 33, was exposed to nails at a young age and even went on to be an apprentice for her own sister who showed her the ropes throughout her life.

“And here I am, 17 years later, still doing nails and I love it,” says Luong. “It’s a passion that I never knew that I had.”

With this new profound passion, Luong pushed the bar and decided to make it her whole life career. By the time she reached high school she knew she wasn’t going to go to college but instead was going to go to cosmetology school after she graduated.

Loung is building a familial bond with her clients, not just trying to do them a service and take their money.

“My previous job I was in a larger-scale nail salon,” says Luong. “Which means they had a higher volume of customers.”

Luong finds it much easier to build personal connections in a more communal space and felt that this aspect of the experience can be overshadowed at bigger salons.

“I had to work with a very tight, short time frame like when I had customers,” says Luong. “I was on a time limit, so I wasn’t really able to be as creative as I am now.”

Seeing community as a driving factor in the nail business, Luong made the toughest decision of her career so far. Deciding it was time to leave she separated herself from her previous salon, found a space to rent and work in, and now is doing nails on her own time.

While Luong now rents space for her nail business in the East Field Mall, she is making her next move to a location in a small plaza off Fargo Street.

“When I take my clients in,” she says, “I take them in with the intention of becoming more than just clients. They become my friends, and just an extension of my family as well.”

Luong is constantly working hard to attract attention to her business as well as better herself as a business owner, and now she is able to build those strong connections that she always wanted.

“Overall, I think owning your own business or working for yourself is one of the best choices you could do for yourself,” she says. “You feel more rewarded too because you did that. No one else did that for you. You know, you’re not working for anybody. You’re working for you.”