Factoring in two weeks of vacation, the average U.S. worker punches the clock around 250 days a year. What if you could spend about one-fifth less time in the office and still make six figures at a job that does not require a college degree?

Liley Villazan, 47, lays out the simple math for the nail technician students enrolled at Magnolia Beauty Academy, which she owns and operates at 1017 N. Sixth St. in Kansas City, Kansas. (Villazan named the school after her late father’s favorite flower.)

She points out that making the manageable daily figure of approximately $500 for 200 days translates into annual earnings of $100,000. A manicure/pedicure can cost as much as $150, she said.

Turning a love of manicuring into a career is something Villazan did herself in 2017 upon quitting a stressful office job in the paving industry.

Villazan knew the business potential of the field, having done hair and nails as a side gig in high school. She also helped found a small business development center called The Toolbox in KCK’s Central Avenue commercial district.

The beauty school blends Villazan’s twin passions.

“I love nails, I love entrepreneurship, and I was like, ‘How can I make them work together?’ she said. “So my thing is, I have a nail school, but what I’m doing is helping take (students’) hobbies and turn them into a career, making them a business.”

Including current enrollees, Magnolia Beauty Academy has taught two dozen students — mostly low-income women of color — since opening in early 2023. Five graduates have earned state certification or are ready to take the licensing exam.

In addition to offering manicurist and nail tech instructor courses, Villazan is keen to equip her students with entrepreneurial skills. At the center of her 4,000 square-foot academy she provides a library of her favorite business and entrepreneurship books for check out. She said a series of Harvard Business Review texts on management, strategy and leadership are some of her “must-read” literature for students.

Villazan grew up bouncing between Louisiana and Texas. Through a series of twists and turns, including working in New York City, she moved to the Kansas City area with her husband in 2006.

She goes the extra mile for her students by driving them to Topeka for the licensing exam if they can’t get there on their own. The director of the academy also went above and beyond by helping one student get Medicare reimbursements for caregiving time after her mother suffered a stroke.

As Villazan worked to launch Magnolia in 2022 and 2023, two banks rejected her loan applications. Villazan said her AltCap business development officer took whatever time was needed to walk her through the paperwork for a $50,000 loan that leveraged another $100,000 from a statewide nonprofit that assists entrepreneurs.

In one instance, they went through five revisions to get one form right.

“AltCap made my dream into reality,” she said.