THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 12, 1996 TAG: 9608120033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KIA MORGAN ALLEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 119 lines
It's Susan Marchiola's job to make women beautiful.
Women spend a pretty penny at Marchiola's shop for a tailored, well-maintained look. If it's a fashionable hairdo they want, a French manicure, or a comforting pedicure, Marchiola delivers. But Marchiola does more than make women look good. She makes them feel good about themselves.
Marchiola, 42, has developed a special training program where low-income women, many on welfare, can learn to become nail technicians.
In her eight-week job training program at Tech One Nail Academy on Poplar Halls Drive, she teaches students the art of nail sculpture and the techniques for a well-paying career. She also gives her students skills she hopes will help them throughout life.
``Some of these girls have never been taught basic things like how to dress on the job, how to carry themselves, how to properly answer a phone or even how to scrub a floor,'' Marchiola said.
Four women graduated from Marchiola's second class a week ago and four more are enrolled for the next. All are employed in her shop.
The students attend class in the back of Marchiola's shop on Mondays and spend the rest of the week earning money painting and filing customers' nails. That's how they really learn, Marchiola said.
Since they are still in training and customers are the ``guinea pigs,'' the students' customers receive discounted prices.
One student, Kim Ferebee, 22, said her habit of looking at people's nails and feet prompted her to learn the craft.
``I can't stand looking at grungy hands or tore-up feet,'' she said. ``I said, if I can just do one person, it will make a difference.''
Ferebee likes working with Marchiola. She said she's also learned a lot about operating a business.
``She took us to downtown Norfolk and told us what we had to do (to get a business license),'' said Ferebee. Marchiola also shows them how to get a trade name and where to pay their taxes.
Ferebee said she looks forward to studying business management at Tidewater Community College in the fall and wants to own a business someday.
Nichole Duncan, 23, made the transition from nail customer to student in the program.
Duncan, a Virginia Beach resident, worked for NationsBank and was looking for extra income when she walked into Marchiola's shop last February. She was a frequent nail customer.
``She (Marchiola) said she was about to start the school. I asked if I could have more information. I thought about it and signed up,'' Duncan said. Although Duncan already had a job, she wanted a new skill. Taking in a second income by working in Marchiola's shop enabled her to meet her financial needs as well.
Students have seen Marchiola's tough and tender sides. A former correctional officer, she has an authoritative presence and won't let anything slide. Marchiola never has a hair out of place or lip color out of line. She dresses professionally and expects her students to do the same.
``I sent a girl home for not having the right clothes on,'' Marchiola said. She doesn't allow students to talk loudly or giggle among each other.
At the shop, each student has duties, just like housework.
``It (cleaning) will help them if they plan to run a business. They need to know about this business from the front door to the back door. It's not just sitting down doing nails,'' she said.
``You might do a pretty set of nails, but if you go in the restroom and the sink is nasty, that's a definite turnoff for a customer.
Marchiola recalls a student telling her she wasn't going to scrub the floor.
``She said, `I'm not scrubbing the floor. I have never scrubbed a floor in my life.' I said, `You won't say that after today,' '' Marchiola said.
``A week later, (the student) said she cleaned her mom's whole house. That's all it took.''
Tuition normally is $999, but Marchiola gives students a $250 discount.
She believes she can help women like Duncan and Ferebee because she's ``been there.''
Marchiola grew up in public housing in Wisconsin. The next to the oldest of eight kids, she often had the responsibility of caring for her siblings.
``I can remember fixing formula at five years old, mixing Karo syrup and evaporated milk,'' she said.
Her family was on public assistance and she said she never received any kind of specialized education or training like college. Marchiola hated failure as a kid and tried to hide from those she thought would ridicule her.
``When I was a kid, I would walk around with one eye closed because I thought you couldn't see all of me,'' she said, reminiscing. ``I always had sense to shut up, look and learn about things around me. Nobody could beat me down, nobody.
``Most of these kids (today) wait for their fathers to come home from the Navy. I waited for mine to come home from jail.''
This is not her first business venture. Marchiola once owned and operated a tanning salon in Springfield, Ill. She said working in a negative environment at the correctional facility prompted her to run a business of her own.
``I got so sick and tired of the negative attitudes of the other officers I worked with, that one day I looked out the window and said `If I took all this negative energy, what would I have?' ''
She began calling every business similar to the one she wanted to own and asking questions about things she needed to start a business.
From there, ``I pulled from every credit line I had,'' she said. She found a building, renovated it and opened a salon.
Marchiola passed a test and got her license to be a nail technician. After moving to Virginia Beach in 1989, she rented small spaces here and there to teach class and eventually opened Tech One Nail Academy, which she co-owns with Alfonzo Albert, in 1995.
All it took, Marchiola said, was marketing skills. ``You have to market yourself. It's all about survival. That's how I made it in this business,'' she said.
When the eight weeks in the program are completed, Marchiola usually hires her girls. Still, they have the option of working somewhere else.
``You can go and work somewhere else,'' she said, ``but you can always come back home.'' ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN photos\The Virginian-Pilot
Kimberly Ferebee, 22, gives a pedicure at Susan Marchiola's shop in
Norfolk. Ferebee said that she likes working with Marchiola, who
trains low-income women for jobs, and Ferebee looks forward to
having her own business one day.
Ferebee gives a customer a manicure at Tech One Nail Academy on
Poplar Hall Drive in Norfolk.
Sharon Harris, left, and Sophian Wilkerson, right, give pedicures
with their teacher, Susan Marchiola, supervising. by CNB