Groom to Grow: Startup costs can be low but this business is tough as nails
NY Daily News. By Elizabeth Lazarowitz. Photo:?ukasz Fus . In more than 22 years as a New York nail salon owner, Soo Jung Chung has gone from working out of a single room where customers had to dip their feet in buckets to running a pair of two-floor midtown spas lined with posh pedicure thrones.
The nail industry has been good to many entrepreneurs, especially those in the city’s Korean community, creating chain businesses and even a few millionaires. But the road to success isn’t nearly as luxurious as the manicures they provide.
“You have to upgrade all the time, and rent increases all the time,” said South Korean-born Chung, 54, who owns New York Nails and Spa as well as Salon Today, both on W. 55th St.