A customer walks into Nail Time salon on California Avenue and vigorously shakes off the cold. Within seconds a few women greet her by name. The room is clean and toasty-warm.

After filling out the client's nail kit, owner Samantha Nguyen shows her to a table and begins her delicate work.

Watching Nguyen, who now employs nine, no one would guess her humble beginnings in a fishing community outside Saigon.

Her business, which she opened 15 years ago at 4836 California Ave., was one of 12 finalists in the Better Business Bureau's Torch Awards for Western Washington this year.

The Better Business Bureau is a non-profit organization that reports on just about every business in its region. It has accredited about 8,000 businesses in Western Washington, and around 10,000 more can be nominated for an award, says Marcella Kallmann of the Better Business Bureau.

Better Business Bureau members range from Microsoft to that little caf