Coming to America: This Russian girl overcame her fears to build an international nail empire

The fear of failure is one of the biggest roadblocks for entrepreneurs. Many people crumble under the pressure before achieving their goals or reaching their highest potential. For entrepreneur April Ryan, founder of the multi-million dollar Red Iguana nail enterprise, failure was never an option.

Once one of the poorest children at her school in southern Russia, Ryan is now the world's biggest producer of silicone practice hands for nail art. She is also the creator of over 300 nail products that together generated $3 million in sales last year.

Throughout her journey, Ryan has faced obstacles that would make even the most experienced business owner falter. Yet by staying true to her vision and powering through even when she wasn't sure what the outcome would be, she has managed to create a life that before she could only dream about.

Starting from nothing

Ryan was born in the small town of Nadym in northern Russia and moved to the city of Salsk in southern Russia when she was three years old. Her parents were working class, but still struggled to make ends meet and provide for April and her two older brothers.

"I remember I only had one pair of shoes for winter that was ripped," Ryan recalls. "We had no money to buy clothes, so my mom would sew them for me, or I would use my brothers' coats. We grew vegetables just to have food because the market was too expensive."

When Ryan turned 14, she realized she had to do something to help her family. She had always wanted to be in the beauty industry, but makeup was too expensive. Nail polish, however, was relatively affordable. So she decided to become a nail artist.

"I practised on myself using my nails as canvases for my art," she says. "My classmates were impressed and that made me want to progress further. But there were no beauty schools in my city at that time, so I couldn't get any professional knowledge or even a beautician's license."

Despite the lack of opportunities for formal training, Ryan persevered and continued to teach herself new techniques. It wasn't until she was 18 that she got a lucky break when an independent school offered a vocational course in her city. Ryan came out at the top of her class, earning her a position at a local salon.

Taking matters into her own hands

After six months at the nail salon, Ryan became frustrated with the lack of ongoing training and professionalism, so she decided to branch out on her own and work independently. She quickly became the most sought-after nail technician in the city. 

Never one to dream small, Ryan decided to move to a bigger city and open her own salon, which she named Red Iguana. By the time she was 23 years old, she was running three successful nail salons. Although she had reached a high point in her career, Ryan was faced with a new set of problems.

"Russia is not an easy place to do business without fear. It's very corrupt and there is a lot of jealousy, so you never know if someone is going to break your windows or set fire to your car. I was very young then, but I look back at photos of that time and I look older than I do now from all of the stress."

Ryan knew it was time to move on and that she wanted something bigger and better for herself, so she decided to pursue her childhood dream of moving to America. Even though she barely knew any English, she closed her salons, packed up her life, and made the trip across the ocean.

From fearful to full speed ahead

"My biggest fear when I arrived in America was talking to people because I really didn't know what to say," Ryan says. "What surprised me was how supportive people were. They would just say, do your best and everything will be okay. That made me realize that I could take on this challenge too."

With a growing grasp of English and a solid portfolio, Ryan soon landed a job as a nail artist at a well-known Beverly Hills salon. In her free time, she created nail art tutorials and posted them on social media. Within six months, her Instagram blew up with brands contacting her to do videos for them.

"At one point I was making up to five videos a day," she says. "The problem was that I used my own hand in all of my videos and I was using a UV lamp. After a couple of months, I realized that the UV light was damaging my skin, so I knew I couldn't keep doing it much longer. That's when I had the idea to create a model of my own hand."

Ryan knew that the fake-looking plastic hands that nail artists used wouldn't look good in her video tutorials, so she spent months researching prosthetics and came up with a silicone model of her own hand that was lifelike down to the creases and scars. When she launched it on her Instagram account, it was an instant hit.

Never stop pursuing your dreams 

In just three years, Ryan has grown Red Iguana into a booming business that distributes high-quality salon products around the world. The company currently produces 24 different types of silicone hands in different colours, sizes, and left and right models. They also offer a range of high-quality salon products.

Business is so good that Ryan is expanding Red Iguana to keep up with demand. She says, "Right now we're working to find new people to help us. It's not easy because it's delicate work and I don't want to just work for quantity. My main goal is to keep the quality high."

Never one to rest on her laurels, Ryan has no intentions of slowing down any time soon. In the next year, she plans to put out 40 new products and a new nail art line that caters to people who want to do their own nails at home. She also plans to boost Red Iguana's sales to over $5 million by 2022.

"My advice to anyone who has a dream is to stop thinking about it and start right now," she says. "I remember being afraid at every step I took because I didn't know what I was doing. But now I realize that things are much easier than they seem. If you want to do something, there are so many resources, apps, and teachers. Just start doing it, keep going, and never stop."