Industry Articles

If new tanners get a tour of your salon, why not make a video tanning salon tour for your salon’s Facebook page? This exposes all the great things about your business to a much wider audience!...

Do you want your tanning salon to have the most effective social media marketing? Put it in the hands of your Millennial salon staff. I recommend this to many of my clients, including one in Texas...

Successful mobile spray-tanning success is all about communication. This is especially the case if you’re traveling to new locations and meeting new clients. Do you know how to communicate...

J.A.S.O.N. is the perfect time to focus on the management at your tanning salon.  I recommend tanning salon owners use this time to evaluate each associate and see what, if any, changes need to be...

J.A.S.O.N. is the time tanning salon owners have to keep as many people enrolled in their EFT programs as possible!  It can dramatically save profitability through the off-season.  So, how do we...

In the movie Friday the 13th, Jason is a psychopath who sets out to destroy everyone in his path.  For the tanning industry, J.A.S.O.N. is the months of July, August, September, October, and...

July, August, September, October, and November (J.A.S.O.N.) is usually the time when some tanning salon owners just seem to give up.  They probably figure that since things will slow down, they...

Is there a reason you don’t offer EFT memberships?  I’ve heard them all, and none of them are convincing enough for you to not offer them.  As tanning salon business consultant, it still amazes me...

Do you want the secret to retaining tanners in EFT memberships?  I’ve been a tanning salon business consultant for two decades.  In that time, I haven’t met a tanning salon owner who doesn’t want to...

Do you offer commissions for level-one membership sales?  You should because it’s a great way to improve morale at your tanning salon.  My approach to tanning salon management can be summed up with...

This week, sex and other good reasons for tanning!  What does this have to do with radio ads or tanning salons? Everything! As a tanning salon owner, you want to make the most of your radio...

Here’s a way to cash in on radio ads… make this medium your salon’s branding and call-to-action champion! Radio is a cumulative impressions ad vehicle. It creates a “top-of-mind awareness” at some...

Digital streaming seems like a new hope for radio, but it’s not a sure thing for your money.  Every radio broadcast company wants to create alternative and additional revenue channels. “Streaming”...

Are you considering buying radio advertising for a tanning or sunless salon?  Be sure to zero in on the three best formats for your target demographic.  Research from the Radio Advertising Bureau...

There are a million ways to lose good employees.  In this installment, I focus upon the specific ways you can lose good Millennial salon employees.  You don’t want to do this, especially since these...

So much has been written about the Millennial generation and what makes them tick.  They are certainly different from the previous generations, particularly in some of the visual ways. (Can all...

To get respect from your millennial tanning salon employees, you must be truthful.  Millennials have little time for B.S.  Their access to the Internet in their young and early adult lives caused...

Some tanning salon owners find it difficult to manage their younger workforce.  Baby Boomers were raised to believe that having a job was a privilege, while Millennials grew up receiving trophies...

Tanning salon owners must understand the Millennial generation and what makes its members tick. These youngsters are your salon employees and tanners, after all! Among the tanning salon owners I...

If you sell spray tans, attracting and retaining new clients is the name of the game. When it comes to spray tan marketing and promotions, the best tips can be found on the frontlines of indoor...

Mobile spray tan parties are fun, easy, and very profitable. Here’s how to host a successful one. If you’re a UV tanning salon owner who’s invested in a portable sunless spray-tan unit, you should...

While social media is a great way to promote your spray tanning business, it’s not the only way. Low-tech marketing that’s a bit of throwback to the days before social media are still an excellent...

As a tanning salon owner, you spend a lot of time building your business one client at a time. When it comes to your hand-held spray tanning business, you can vastly increase your clientele by...

I know you’re eager to market your spray tanning business but don’t make the mistake of offering too many specials. While you might think offering rock-bottom prices will help build your clientele...

Are you a tanning salon owner who’s struggling to build your handheld spray tanning business? I’ll be that attracting clients is one of your biggest challenges. Ask any spray tan technician and...

As you read this article, imagine the strains of the “James Bond Theme” playing in the back of your mind... It should seem readily apparent to all of us that the days of double-digit unique tanner...

Want to be shocked by the mathematics of your salon? Okay, let’s assume that your salon generates $150,000 annually, with 14 tanning systems, a per-tan average of $7.50 and 20,000 transactions or...

There are as many “plans” for compensating staff as there are hairs on the heads of most tanners; so much depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Here’s what doesn’t work: Not paying...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …” Charles Dickens could have been speaking of the indoor tanning industry when he...

One of our industry’s biggest failures today is its early success. There was a golden period when your salon didn’t have to be good … your doors just had to be open. There were far fewer tanning...

The winds of change – the haunting strains of the Scorpions classic 1990 rock hit, was targeted in its meaning to the events of that day when the USSR was finally throwing in the towel. Those winds...

A recent counseling session I had with a salon chain operator regarding his best manager, Marla, revealed a few reasons why the salon may soon lose her – a four-year company veteran and top...

Focus more fiercely on sales! For the tanning business, the first quarter was not one to cheer about. The still re-emerging economy and Nome-like weather in the Midwest, Northeast and relatively...

A candidate for the district manager position at a salon chain recently told me in an interview that when it comes to successful salon operation, “Someone in each salon has to be the adult.” Every...

Heartaches & Headaches The tanning industry is loaded with smart, independent entrepreneurial talents who saw an opportunity in the tanning business and seized it with a gambler’s vigor you may only...

Capitalizing on Trade Show Emotions Every year, our industry conducts dozens of trade shows to display tanning products and services. And every year, thousands of well-meaning salon operators and...

Are you thinking that the owner or manager at the salon where you work might be from another planet? Douglas McGregor, an American social psychologist, proposed his famous “X-Y” theory in 1960 in...

Now there’s a word you don’t see every day! It’s an Old Prussian military word for “focal point,” and in expanded 20th-century military terms, it meant, to take your greatest strength and drive it...

In 1940, George Reavis, the superintendent of Cincinnati schools, was involved with the challenges of teaching children with disabilities. As a result, he authored a fable called “The Animal...

So there I was looking for inspiration for this next article – there are just some days when nothing creative flows anywhere near my brain. I first thought I should speak of how you ramp up your...

Inertia: The resistance of a body to changes in its momentum. Momentum is the key word. Because of inertia, a body (or salon) at rest remains at rest, and a body (or salon) in motion continues...

Working with so many tanning salons and chains has afforded me interaction with many unique people, and more than 75 percent of them are women. Now, for some men, that can be problematic. Not for...

Once again, we look down the hill of a post-peak season nearly upon us. The winter’s “peak” months traditionally generate about 60-65 percent of our year revenue … and during that time our mantra...

On Monday, February 25th at about 12:30 pm, I was having some strange, physical symptoms. I’d had them before but mostly ignored them, because they usually went away. After all, even at my “maturing...

The Power Group Joins Forces with ist Magazine to Educate & Train the Salon Community By the way … The term “education” is derived from the Latin word “educare” which literally means to “bring up”...

With a new year comes the season for numerous trade events and some great opportunities to help your salon(s) be better – for many owners, 2012 was not a red letter year! Hopefully, the trauma of...

Ah… the wonderment of hiring new staff and the pure joy of seeing every new team member show up for their shift on time, cleaning rooms between sessions (not spending time on their cell phones or on...

About 20 years ago, nationwide TV audiences were educated by force to the concept and definition of sexual harassment via the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The...

(The Bane of Salon Operation) Growing up with the Baby Boomers and working with the millennial generation, it’s fascinating to see the differences in worker values and mentality. We, the Baby...

The Salon Manager’s Guide to Promotion Want to get promoted? Be more valuable to your owner? Make more money and secure a great future? “Yes!” you say to all of the above. But it takes hard work and...

(Build Salon Profits From Your Top Line) If ever there was a business that rewarded a focus on topline revenues, it’s the indoor tanning business. On any salon retailer’s balance sheet, the fixed...

Every tanning business needs an "April" – she's every salon owner's dream staff member, striving to ramp up sales revenue and customer satisfaction. Notice the connection of the two: ramped up...

Making a living in the tanning industry presents many challenges, and one of the more difficult is transitioning a great sales associate into a good salon manger. It’s not an easy task; you face the...

Every day of every week I spend tons of hours on the phone talking to clients or client staff about a variety of HR and marketing issues. But of all of  the HR issues the most common is "what do we...

The lesson I learned from Bob Hope Every day it seems owners and managers ask about what must they pay in base salaries and incentives to keep their best workers? To answer that let me share my...

(And get employee actions & retention) As the old saw goes, turn over your inventory... not your people. Retaining good retail help is part art and part science. The part that is art is your...

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you always should! That old saw has been true for much of our daily lives and it also pertains to how we pay and incentivize our salon employees. To...

(But... many salons "Hire" their problems!) Ever wonder why an employee who you've hired, now seems to be some form of alien life, has not shown up for their shift for the 4th time in the last...