AN IRVINESTOWN beauty and cosmetic therapist who used lockdown to transform her business into an online international franchise has been “blown away” by the demand she has received from all over the world.
Jeanette Guy of NMD Beauty Aesthetics and Training Academy, who has worked in the industry for over eight years, was forced to “think outside the box” after Covid put a stop to her in-house teaching academy back in February of last year.
“I phoned my accreditation team and they authorised me to move all of my courses online, I then built a website by myself and it just
skyrocketed from there with international sales coming in from as far as Africa and New York,” explained Jeanette.
“As a beautician you can’t really afford to close the salon for
training, so a lot of people used this time of having no bookings
during lockdown to invest in their careers and through that initiative NMD Beauty Aesthetic and Training Academy took off.
“These girls are offering my training courses in their salons, and
I’ve had to get a full accountancy team and legal department in for my whole material.
“I’ve had so many companies coming in, partnership deals with three insurance companies, and I have major distributors on board.
“I’m going over to Liverpool to train and be the official distributor
for the whole of Ireland for another company.”
With over 7,000 students from across the UK now under her wing since NMD exploded onto the social scene, Jeanette has built up a team of over 40 people during lockdown to help her with the growing demand.
“Prior to lockdown I was teaching maybe a class of four students per month as well as doing treatments for clients who have been with me from the start of my career in my own salon.
“As well as continuing that, I now have 30 odd educators underneath me and we’re going on tour.
I have 23 locations secured so I’m nearly fully booked for 2021, 2022 and the start of 2023, with interest for academies that want to open for me in places like Lanzarote, Poland and Spain.
“The website really boosted things for me as well as social media, my page within 12 months has nearly 10,000 likes which is a lot.”
Looking back to the beginning of lockdown Jeanette revealed that she would have never imagined the position that she is now in one year on.
“I had absolutely no money last year, we went into lockdown and I put my last £300 into the business and now it’s worth a significant figure.”
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