Getting started as a nail, lash or brow studio

This walkthrough takes a nail, lash or brow studio from a new account to its first booked day. Follow it in order.

1. Create the business

1. Choose Start free on BookNovi's site, or Create an account on the sign-in page, and make your account. The guided setup starts on its own.
2. Type the studio's name under The business’s name, pick Nail salon, Lash studio, Brow studio or Makeup artist under Beauty, and choose Next. Each fills in a starter menu with its stations or beds and its forms, yours to keep or delete.
3. Check the Time zone, type the address and phone (or leave them for later), and choose Next.
4. Under What do you sell and book?: say yes to stations if each tech works at a set table or pedicure chair, to photos to keep pictures of the work, and to forms for patch tests and consent. Choose Next.
5. Say how many people work there, how you heard of us and, if a rep or a partner gave you a code, type it in. Choose Start my business.

The business opens with What to do next: the steps of this walkthrough as a list that ticks itself as each gets done, under the top bar and in your menu at the top right. Your free trial starts the same day; see Plans and billing.

2. Set up the business

Open Settings, Business: set the Time zone, the calendar's hours and Time slots, and choose Save. Under Location and Tax, type the address and the sales tax, and choose Save.

3. Make the menu, with add-ons as extras

1. Open Services and choose Add category: Manicures, Pedicures, Lashes, Brows.
2. Add each service with its price and length. For a full set and its fills, or a service in different lengths, use Add an option.
3. For a short add-on (nail art, a French tip, a lash tint), switch on An extra. Extras are listed apart when booking and at checkout, so they are added to the main service rather than booked alone.
4. For services that need a dry time or cleanup, switch on Has buffer time.

See Your menu of services.

4. Add your techs and stations

1. Open Staff and choose Add staff member for each tech. Tick their services and set their Work hours.
2. If you said yes to stations, open Resources, choose Add group (Nail tables, Pedicure chairs) and add each one. On a service, tick what it needs under What it needs, and a booking holds a free one.

5. Patch tests and consent

1. Open Settings, Records, and under Forms start from one of the ready-made forms or write your own: the questions and what the client is agreeing to.
2. Switch on Signed with a typed name and a signature for consent.
3. When a client comes in for a patch test, open them in Clients, choose the Forms tab, and hand them the tablet. What they signed is kept on their page as it was worded that day.

6. Photos of the work

Open a client and choose the Photos tab to add a before and an after, with a word about each. They stay on the client's page for the next visit. To show your work on your website, add a Before and after section in the website editor and put your best pairs in it, of clients who agreed to it.

7. Online booking, cards and reminders

1. Settings, Online booking: switch on Take bookings online and copy Your booking link for Instagram.
2. Settings, Card payments: an owner chooses Set up card payments.
3. Settings, Messages: switch on the confirmation and a Reminder.

Best practices

• Make add-ons extras, not services of their own. Clients add them to a set; they never book nail art alone.
• Put the fill window in the service name or option ("Fill, within 3 weeks") so clients book the right one online.
• Keep a photo of every new set. It settles questions about a lift or a break, and it feeds your gallery.
• Ask for a card to hold new clients' bookings (Settings, Online booking, A card to hold each visit booked online, From new clients only). Lash appointments are long; a no-show costs you the afternoon.