How To Make More Money As a Spray Tanning Artist

 

The sunless tanning industry is exploding in 2017 and I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't dedicate a blog post to exclusively helping these bronzed businesses to find more clients and make more money by winning at online marketing.

In this blog post, I interview sunless tanning professional and founder of the Association of Sunless Tanning Professionals Shonna Dexter. Shonna has grown a thriving business during her 6 years in the industry and has helped numerous other spray tan businesses to start up and grow.

She’s also acutely aware of the growing pains and marketing struggles of sunless tanning businesses. How do I differentiate myself from other spray tan studios?

How do connect with my target audience on Instagram?

I want to do ads but don't want to waste money... help?

How do I come up with fun ideas for videos for my business?

Any of these sound familiar?

We’ll be chatting about the most important lessons Shonna has learned and the top marketing issues that sunless tanning businesses have, along with how to solve them.  

From the 9 to 5 to building the first sunless-only business in her city

To say that she is knee deep in all things sunless would be an understatement.

"My life revolves around this industry that I've been a part of for just six years,” Shonna says. "My business began as a side hustle in July of 2011 and quickly turned into a passion."

Within a few years of working two jobs, she had left her full-time gig to pursue her dream of building a successful sunless business, as well as creating the ASTP. Stepping away from the security of her 9-5 was scary, but Shonna has continued to take risks and they keep paying off.

"Recreating Rays is the first storefront sunless-only business in my city. There are three of us who handle all of the tanning and I will be hiring another employee this winter to allow myself to step further away from doing the tanning, giving me more time to dedicate to building the business.”  

The unforgettable lessons Shonna has learned about the Sunless Tanning industry

As director of the ASTP, Shonna has helped hundreds of sunless tanning pros start and build their businesses and create a dream job that helps clients feel fantastic. She’s learned some crucial lessons about the industry.  

Lesson 1: Turn vulnerability into strength

"Our clients are in a very vulnerable situation: getting naked or half naked in front of a complete stranger. Hair and nail pros don't have to stand in front of a naked person and make them feel comfortable. We do.

This vulnerability allows us to really get to know people. You have to be to make total strangers feel comfortable naked all day. From my experience, a lot of the women in this industry are also highly sensitive and in-tune with others feelings and emotions."

Lesson 2: Tenacity wins. You can’t succeed if you aren’t patient.

"There are those who enter the industry thinking it will be easy to make a quick buck and have no real passion for it, but they are usually gone within a year.

It takes time to build a clientele and if you're not willing or don't have the wherewithal to keep going when things get hard or are slow building, you'll quickly sink.

"Overnight successes" are extremely rare. Most of the very successful people in this industry have been at this for five-plus years. It doesn't happen overnight.”

Lesson 3: Take every opportunity to learn more

"A lot of the really successful owners understand that they will never know everything there is to know about building and running a successful business, so they are always engaging in learning activities.

It may be reading books or taking classes or networking with other business owners, but they are always looking to extend their knowledge-base in some shape or form.”

Lesson 4: You have to know who your clients are first and foremost

"Knowing who your target market it is, what makes them buy and then KEEPS them as a client is the most important aspect of building a successful business.

For instance, I charge a higher price than most in my market and I know that a lot of people won't spend what we charge on a spray tan...but some will. We don't try to convince the people who are only motivated by price because it's a lost cause. We focus on our time, energy and marketing dollars on the people who are driven by service."

Lesson 5: Go it alone, but know when you need to bring in support

"The vast majority of pros in this industry begin alone (some are partnerships, but those would be the minority, for sure). Until you build a strong and steady clientele, solo is all good. Once you build a strong client base, though, solo can be VERY overwhelming.

Not only are you doing all of the tanning, but also trying to find time to market, order product, respond to calls and emails, form collaborative partnerships...the list is never ending!

A lot of sunless pros suffer from burnout BIG TIME during busy season. It's very difficult to do it all AND have a life when you're spending 10-12 hours each day just seeing clients.”