Industry Articles

J.A.S.O.N. EFT Membership Strategy

J.A.S.O.N. EFT Membership Strategy

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...

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J.A.S.O.N. Tanning Business Plan

J.A.S.O.N. Tanning Business Plan

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...

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4 Tips for Retaining EFT Memberships

4 Tips for Retaining EFT Memberships

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...

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How to Interview and Manage Millennials

How to Interview and Manage Millennials

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...

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5 Tips for a Successful Spray Tan Party

5 Tips for a Successful Spray Tan Party

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...

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15 Tips to Increase Spray Tan Clientele

15 Tips to Increase Spray Tan 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...

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Need James Bond on Your Staff?

Need James Bond on Your Staff?

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...

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Do the Math

Do the Math

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...

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The “Touch Points” of Tanning

What are those magic moments of the tanning experience at your salon that differentiates it from every other set of four walls that houses tanning beds? (I’m reminded of a New Jersey muffler shop 15...

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Dickens Had it Right

Dickens Had it Right

“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...

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Is Your Elevator Going Down?

Is Your Elevator Going Down?

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...

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The Winds of Change

The Winds of Change

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...

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Are you losing Marla?

Are you losing Marla?

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...

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Friends & Family…

Friends & Family…

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...

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Managing Your “Boss from Planet X”

Managing Your “Boss from Planet X”

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...

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“I’m goin’ to Kansas City…

Kansas City, here I come!” Recognize those song lyrics? They were sung by Wilbert Harrison in his 1959 hit song,“Kansas City.” It was a big record for him and a reminder to all of you that one of...

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“Schwerpunkt”

“Schwerpunkt”

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...

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What animals work in YOUR salon?

What animals work in YOUR salon?

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...

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No Silver Bullet for Salon Success

No Silver Bullet for Salon Success

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...

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Which Body are YOU?

Which Body are YOU?

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...

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Some Men Just Don’t Get It!

Some Men Just Don’t Get It!

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...

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Do You Have a Post-Peak Plan?

Do You Have a Post-Peak Plan?

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...

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Is the Heart of Your Business Healthy?

Is the Heart of Your Business Healthy?

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...

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Step away from the samples!

Step away from the samples!

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...

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“The Age of Reason”

“The Age of Reason”

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...

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Flirting with Disaster

Flirting with Disaster

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...

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Beware of the “Trophy Kid”

Beware of the “Trophy Kid”

(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...

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A “Dirty Dozen” of Salon Leadership

A “Dirty Dozen” of Salon Leadership

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...

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The Magic of Mathematics

The Magic of Mathematics

(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...

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“The Thrill of the Kill”

“The Thrill of the Kill”

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...

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The Journey

The Journey

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...

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Compensation and Incentives

Compensation and Incentives

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...

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