Scratch Stars Awards: Am I good enough?

So many techs think they aren’t good enough or ready to compete in industry competitions, such as the Scratch Stars Awards. I have news for you – no one is ever 100% ready. If you wait until you are ready, you’ll never achieve your goals.

Having low confidence isn’t necessary a bad thing; it means that you can see there is room to improve and will continue to progress to reach your goals. When you become complacent, it can be harder for you to see areas that need improvement. And it doesn’t matter where you are in the industry. Every single tech, influencer, judge, and artist you aspire to has at least one area that needs development. This is because no one is perfect. And perfection in every single technique, and with every single set is impossible to achieve.

The Scratch Stars Awards isn’t about nail perfectionism. It’s designed to award nail technicians who perform expertly in a variety of areas on a day-to-day basis; so great nails, great customer care and great industry awareness.

They may not be the most perfect nails in the world but if the customer walks away happy after a wonderful experience then that’s what makes a Scratch Star. Scratch therefore aims to keep the judging process and competition day relaxed to reflect an everyday environment.

You may not be ready, but no one really is and if you don’t try you will never know. By completing an entry form, you learn a lot about what you have achieved throughout the past 12 months and it can be great to give yourself a sense of accomplishment.

You may even want to prepare this ready for next year and add to it throughout the year, using it as a guide to what you would like to achieve in yourself and your business going forward.

When entering, it is essential to focus on yourself and not others. Make no comparisons to others. Everyone has strengths and weakness, and these are not always apparent on social media as everyone only shares their best selves and best work. Where one tech excels, another may not and vice versa. A competition is not just about the best-looking sets; it is also personability, product knowledge, client care and much more. And where someone can create an incredible set of nails on a customer, it does not mean they can excel in customer service or perform the same skill under the pressure of a competition day so on the day, the prize really can be anyone’s for the taking – including the underdog.

Katie Barnes at the Scratch Stars Awards 2018

It is imperative to focus on the process and not the results – did you learn something? The answer is always yes!  When entering a competition, whether you get short-listed be proud of the steps that you took to enter and use that to learn from your mistakes. Use it as self-reflection and consider what could you do different next time. Maybe you need to work on your images; undertake more training or other changes to implement in your work and your nail business. The good thing about this is that it opens your eyes to changes you may need to apply and may have never considered before. In turn, this will benefit your salon business. Action the changes and try again next year, knowing that you have grown as a tech and as a business.

In a previous article for Scratch I share 6 reasons why nail competitions can help your salon work.

Helena Biggs and I presented a free webinar discussing how to create a great entry to the Scratch Stars Awards. We also discuss confidence and the benefits of entering competitions.

Competitions can be great motivators to better ourselves as businesses and individuals and open our eyes to changes that we need to action in our business and may not have considered before. As the old saying goes, if you don’t try, you’ll never know! You may just surprise yourself.

Good luck! Enter the Scratch Stars Awards 2023 by 28 February by clicking here.

Love Katie B x