In study after study, self esteem is linked directly to body image. Body image is the reason people join your fitness center. At the end of the day, both the fitness industry and tanning business are about self esteem.

A healthy, golden tan is often equated with being fit and healthy. In fact, many of your fitness center's customers are tanning somewhere else. Adding tanning beds to your fitness center can be very profitable - most fitness centers report above $25,000 in annual revenue per tanning unit installed. Tanning equipment is compact, and existing unused floorspace can easily be converted to a profitable tanning area. When you include supporting products like tanning lotions and after-tan moisturizers, fitness centers report, on average, $28,000-31,000 in profits per tanning unit. While bottom-line profits are important, money isn't the best reason for adding tanning to your fitness center - fulfilling a very deep customer need is.

Let's take a minute to discuss some very powerful psychology. The very psychology that makes your fitness center succeed. It is not natural for people who are already very busy to get off the couch, brave the traffic and the weather to challenge themselves to exercise, perspire and push their physical limits. People workout because they are wired to seek security and confidence - to boost self-esteem. Several recent studies, including one by Dr. Josee L Jarry, have found evidence that people seek to look better as a defensive response to assaults on self esteem. An assault on self esteem can be as innocent as a glance at an image of someone you think looks better than you. With the media constantly showing images of models and actors so attractive that most people can never look that good, it's no wonder that people are heading to tanning salons, weight-loss centers, cosmetic surgeons and fitness centers in record numbers!

New customers do not usually walk into your fitness center just because they want a place to work out. Most of the people who walk into your fitness center are looking for something far more important: self esteem. Your fitness center, with a little of the customer's time and money, can be the partner needed to turn around the customer's own perception of themselves. If you can make that experience more powerful and tangible, you have a recipe for becoming a partner in self-worth and success in life. Of the add-on services you can offer; only tanning has instant, dramatic and lasting effects on your customer's appearance. After a single session, most tanners see a remarkable difference in themselves and they are fulfilling the need for self esteem that drove them to your door in the first place.

Giving your customers a way to look better and stay that way from day-one vaults your fitness center from being a generic health club to being a true part of your customer's life.

Tanning and fitness are also linked in one other way that makes tanning an especially good fit for the fitness business: tanning requires maintenance. Fitness centers are uniquely positioned to make maintaining a great tan convenient for the tanner. It's convenient to step into a vertical tanning booth or to take 15 minutes in a tanning bed after working out. Tanners no longer have to spend an hour at the gym and 30 minutes at the tanning salon to feel good about themselves.

Fitness owners are also looking for ways to maximize their profits and please customers. Take advantage of your customers' desire to look good and feel great by adding a tanning program to their facility. Especially during the dreary winter months, when customers are visiting your facility more often, the addition of tanning will boost their feelings of well-being, bring a little sunshine into long dark winter days and increase your profits-per-customer. They will welcome the opportunity to save time and go to a one-stop-shop fitness facility for feeling and looking their best.

This year when you evaluate what to add to your fitness center, focus on why your customers use your facility and add services that deliver the body image your customers are seeking. Add tanning. It works for your customers and it will work for your bottom line.

Bill Pipp is the CEO of ETS, Inc. He can be contacted at 800.668.5193, or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it