#119 - Why You NEED To Add Spray Tanning To Your Business!
I owe the life I live now to Spray Tanning.
So this blog might be a little bit biased, but anyone who knows me knows that I will force my love of spray tanning upon anyone that will listen.
Unfortunately having opened this blog and reading this far, that person is you. So listen up.
Once upon a time a young Emily stumbled across some Black Friday sales on Spray Tan professional products. With absolutely no prior experience in beauty whatsoever, she thought ‘hey, this could be fun’, and she purchased a Spray Tan machine, some solutions and a tent.
Fun, indeed... She fell in love. She fell in love with the way she could change the way people felt. She fell in love with the way people trusted her. She fell in love with creating works of art with a fine, bronze-y mist. She fell in love with having a beauty business.
And here she is years later, forcing others to fall in love (and being very smug about it when they do).
There are many, many different reasons why I think you are crazy if you don’t offer Spray Tanning. I’m going to break them down for you.
It can generate so much additional income without you having to change your business too much.
When I offered multiple services in my salon, I would block out 3 hours on a Thursday afternoon/evening and 3 hours on a Friday afternoon/evening, where I wouldn’t book any services other than spray tans.
I filled this 6 hours up with Spray Tan clients only, you can fit around 18 clients in this 6 hours with a Spray Tan only taking around 15-20 minutes from arrival to payment. At $40 a spray tan, you’re bringing an extra $35k into your business from these two afternoons. That’s without add-ons (retail products, charging more for express tans, mobile tanning rates etc.)
To look at it a little differently, if a Spray Tan takes 20 minutes, you fill up an hour and you’re charging $40 per spray tan - your hourly wage is $120.
Spray Tans are one of the easiest ways to bring new clients into your business, which you can then convert to your other services too.
Spray Tanning is not a huge investment for clients. If they are trying someone new, there is only the commitment of $30 - $40 (compared to a full set of lashes upwards of $100).
It is also more likely that you will spread word of mouth, for example by groups of friends who are going to the same event and all want a spray tan and one of them has been to you before and loved you. They’re then all going to come together, then those friends will come back by themselves, or with a different group of friends for their next event.
You think you need a lot more room than you do.
If you have a space to lash with a massage/lash bed, a lamp, a trolley and a stool - imagine that space and halve it… and that’s what you’ll need for Spray Tanning.
You can spray in a tent that you can fold down and store after completing the service, you can be mobile and not even have to set up a space at all, you can use your bathroom. You can make it work.
Your lashing will not be affected if you are doing the right things.
It is true that Spray Tanning in the same room as doing lash extensions can affect your lashing and retention - if you’re not proactive about it. Which you will be if you buy the Locks Lash Extraction Unit I worked so hard to find to make sure it wouldn’t do this.
I had nightmares with doing the two services in the same room, I knew that we would be selling the course and the products to mostly previously trained Locks Lash Technicians, so it was always a MUST that I found something to make sure it wouldn’t be a pain in the ass for lashing.
With proper ventilation and knowing how to time your lash and spray tan services, there is no reason for you to struggle - and if I have anything to do with it you will be able to nail all of the above.
You will develop incredible relationships with your clients.
Spray Tanning is such an intimate service. Your client literally walks in and strips down to nothing within minutes of meeting you - and you have the chance to make them feel incredible.
I found it impossible not to develop a relationship with each and every client that came into my studio.
You will get to play in part and be involved in your client’s birthdays, weddings, hen’s parties and formals and YOU will get to contribute to making them feel the best they’ve ever felt. How special is that?
The vibe in your salon while spray tanning is second to none.
My FAVOURITE day of the week was Thursdays.
Think about it. Clients coming in for a Spray Tan are usually getting a tan because they have something to attend on the weekend. That event is two days away! The prep is all happening, they’re excited, the vibes are high.
You can pump party music instead of soft, relaxing music. You can chat to them and get excited with them, hear about their outfits and their plans.
It’s like a little party every Thursday night.
You can help change the world.
It is becoming more and more well known how dangerous a natural tan is - especially in Australia. Overexposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays is the number one cause of Melanoma, a cancer in the skin’s pigment cells. Melanoma is the form of cancer that is killing young Australians more than any other form of cancer. It is predicted that in Australia, there is one Melanoma Diagnosis every half an hour and one Melanoma related death every five hours.
Providing Spray Tans, and making Spray Tanning more prominent in your area and your clients, will give them no reason to have to seek the sun to gain that bronze colour. You are meeting the demand for the desired aesthetic and giving them no reason to do it naturally.
You can be a part of educating people, and slowly changing the way people seek to have bronze, tanned skin. As an industry, we can change the world.
My experience with the spray tanning industry has been nothing short of phenomenal, successful and rewarding - and I think everyone should get a chance to experience that.