ETS Tanning Bed Blog

Last time, we discussed how to get occasional customers to become members of your tanning salon by bundling services together, adding some discounts, and throwing in things like Free Friday Bed Upgrades or Free Friday Friends and Family passes. This will get the occasional customers to become members, and increase your cash flow.

But what do you do for the people who are already members, and you want to get them to bump up to the next level?

Membership has its privileges.

Or so says the famous slogan. The question though is how to show the value of membership in your tanning salon to help you grow business and sales. And it's not as bad or difficult as it seems.

A tanning salon without members is like a Web site without visitors, a stadium without people, or a meatloaf without the meat: pointless. And having just a few dozen members, while nice, just won't do. To improve membership, you need to increase exposure, and do some work. It can be done without spending a lot of money on advertising or marketing. All it takes is some creativity and having a solid plan.

For the next three blog posts, we'll give you some ideas on increasing the value of your membership, including Getting Them to Join, Getting Them to Move Up, and Improving the Value of Salon Membership.

Buying an existing tanning salon involves a lot more than applying for a loan and signing a few legal forms. It takes research, an understanding of the business development, patience and a willingness to walk away from the deal (it happens).

I came across a recent article on the GlobalBX blog about buying an existing beauty salon or barber shop . Yes, I know a tanning salon is neither of those things, but the business development between the two industries can be fairly similar. Both are service-oriented businesses often geared towards individuals interested in improving their physical appearance. As a result, many of the tips and steps laid out in the article could easily be applied to the tanning salon business.

Anybody opening up a business, whether they’re a tanning salon owner or not, needs to make sure that the people supporting that business are capable of providing them with the key tools they need to not only survive, but thrive.

Most new businesses aren’t successful and failure rates are high. So, what’s going to keep you, a prospective tanning salon owner, from joining those failure-rate statistics? The answer is... good people and vendors that are going to help you remove hurdles (instead of setting them up)

It’s been a couple of busy weeks for tanning beds in the news. Here are the top stories:

Tanning Business Inspiration from Michigan  -  A couple in Michigan open a tanning spa that combines both skin rejuvenation treatments (infrared phototherapy) and three levels of tanning beds. If you’re looking for some new business ideas, pricing examples or even a little new-business inspiration - it’s a good read. Gettin’ Brown in the Downtown  click here to read.

A Tanning Salon Turn-Around Story from Texas  -  An inspirational tanning salon success story from Texas – a young woman took over a small, failing salon in 2002 and has since turned into a major business with add-ons like 30-minute circuit training, lumiere light therapy, 18 beds and a gift shop selling over $100,000 worth of inventory. The story, Island Tans Still Going Strong, can be found here.

The Edmonton Sun Reports on the Benefits of Tanning and Vitamin D  -  According to the Edmonton Sun, a Canadian newspaper, Vitamin D is an integral part of healthy living. In an interview with Dr. Marc Sorenson (the author of Vitamin D3 and Solar Power for Optimal Health), he recommends a few sessions per week in a low-pressure tanning bed. The article can be found here, but scroll down for the good part.

By working for a company like ETS Tan and being surrounded by tanning industry enthusiasts, I get to hear about and even see all the latest trends in tanning beds, lotions and related products.

For example, our customers are going wild for light therapy. Light therapy, infrared phototherapy, rejuvenation therapy, whatever you want to call it, is a light system designed to reduce and combat the signs of aging like discoloration and fine lines.

What we’re seeing is a lot of interest in beds that can both tan and do light therapy. That way, tanning salon customers can opt for a light therapy session, a tanning session or even both simultaneously. It’s probably the hottest trend in tanning beds right now.

Depending on where you live, a raincoat can be a slicker, a trench or even a mack. And just like a raincoat, a tanning bed can go by many names.

In the UK, Australia, South Africa and parts of the West Coast, it’s a “sunbed.” On the Eastern seaboard, it’s a “tanning bed.” In parts of South America, it’s often referred to as simply a “tan bed.” And in parts of the Canadian Maritimes, they call it a “sunny” (my personal favorite).

So, while most people refer to them as tanning beds, we hear everything from “tan bed” to, of course “sunnies,” a term used to describe both the beds and the tanning salons.