Businesses everywhere were hit hard by the recession; many are still struggling. The tanning industry has especially felt the effects of the weak economy, considering all the hits it has taken in recent legislation. First it was the tan tax, now it is legislators around the world considering age-specific tanning bans.
So how are tanning businesses getting by? Many salon owners have gotten creative, adding services they didn’t offer before and trying new marketing techniques.
Spray tanning is getting very popular very fast, and many tanning owners are jumping on board and are adapting spray tanning services of their own to supplement their incomes. One salon owner offers his advice on starting a spray tanning service and his take on the industry is optimistic and encouraging. Definitely worth a read.
Other owners are offering other services like red light therapy, and even body wraps in order to offer more variety for their customers. Who knows, you might find a new niche to take advantage of; it never hurts to get creative. Think about what the customer wants: to look good and feel good. Tanning helps your customers achieve a favorable body image for your customers, and in turn they feel good about that, while enjoying some endorphins along the way. Think about what you can do to supplement that.
Other salons are engaging the community. This salon for example is offering free tans for anyone who brings in canned goods. Charity drives like this may not get you as much revenue in the short run, but they also build rapport with the community and bring in more customers, which not only being good in itself, could get you more customers and revenue over time.
Salon owners everywhere are doing their best to make things work. It takes some creativity and perseverance, but owners are definitely making it happen.
Well, this can often happen when one state starts a legal precedent: to put it simply, other states are now considering the teen tanning ban.
Last Sunday, governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that banned anyone under 18 from using a tanning bed. Now other states, specifically Ohio, New York, Illinois and Rhode Island are considering a similar bill. Naturally there are all sorts of opinions for and against the possible measure, and there are definitely some interesting perspectives represented in the above-linked article.
This is definitely troubling news for many tanning businesses that depend on a portion of these younger tanners for their income. However there are other salon owners that are coming to terms with the new constraints and are quietly rethinking their business strategies and considering other means of income, such as spray tanning (especially for the younger customers) and red light therapy to make up for lost income. It will be interesting to see what business owners come up with. Some associations, such as the ITA will most likely fight the bills, as they have with the tanning tax, but the tanning tax is still active too, so it would be best to plan on the bans being around for a while if you are in one of the mentioned states (assuming the bills to ban teen tanning are passed).
Speaking of the tanning tax, reports are showing that it is bringing in less income than projected, which was what many opponents predicted when the tax was announced. It looks like the tax is going to bring in around 70 to 75 million in 2011, which is going to fall short of the projected 200 million. Several reasons were given for the shortfall, such as an abrupt announcement of the tax and its subsequent hasty implementation, as well as the confusing nature of its exact application.
Should’ve gone with the botax!
Yep, that’s right, Canadian tanning salon owners are battling business regulations too. This time in Victoria, British Colombia. The news article linked features comments from parents that are concerned that the new tanning age regulations being proposed are violating their right to choose for their children. Whether you agree with the argument or not, the article is definitely worth a read.
In other news, tanning salons are catching on in – you’d never guess – China! The article discusses some very interesting cultural views and how those views are changing in large cosmopolitan centers such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, where the tanning salons are becoming more popular.
Apparently, lighter skin is more highly valued among the more traditional sector of Chinese culture, to the extent that people will even pay for skin whitening products. But now those attitudes are changing, especially with younger members of the culture, where people want to try different looks and lifestyles. There are definitely a lot of interesting developments going on around the world!
The 2011 Smart Tan Downtown indoor tanning industry convention is coming up next month! The convention is going to be held in Nashville, Tennessee again from October 14th to the 16th. Always an exciting event, this year’s Smart Tan convention is going to have all sorts of useful seminars such as on benefits of vitamin D and UV light, political and grassroots advocacy, business advice, marketing tactics, growing profits, science of sunlight, redlight therapy, spray tanning, International Tanning Association activities, and more.
There’s definitely going to be alot of information and tools available to help grow your business and be successful. There will definitely be plenty of great social opportunities as well with music and conferences and gatherings and all that.
Definitely a great place to be if you want to see where the industry is going and find connections and figure out what direction to take your business next. We highly recommend it.
Here is a link to the event and a schedule if you are interested!
And while we are on the subject on Smart Tan, here are a few links to some good articles on their site.
Here is an article about sun light and another one about vitamin D. Enjoy!
The tanning debate continues on with one group stressing the benefits of vitamin D and another group stressing the dangers of UV rays. We’ve talked about these issues before, and the arguments are constantly coming up. Definitely a big issue having to do with the tanning industry.
Here is a well-balanced article that tackles the issue and lays out the pros and cons of both tanning and sunscreen. The article definitely seems favorable to getting some rays here and there, as it mentions that we are seeing new breakouts of vitamin D deficiencies that could be very costly to our health.
So again, we have two main sides to the debate. One side stresses that we need sun and the vitamin D that comes with the UV and then the other side stresses that UV rays are carcinogenic and that we should avoid them at all costs.
In the end, moderation is the answer. We don’t want to fry in the sun all day – this leads to sunburns and possibly other future complications such as skin cancer. But we also don’t want to avoid the sun all day either. We’ve lived with the sun for a long time and there’s no reason to abandon it now. A fearmongering sunscare message is not going to get us anywhere except perhaps a low vitamin D level.
After all, UV rays give us our much needed vitamin D and even fight depression. Knowing to moderate and live a healthy life is key to a long and happy life.
