Andrea Guinard and Ron Brunette, Heatwave Tanning

Small but mighty, Heatwave tanning holds down a great reputation as an independently owned chain in Ontario. With four locations and a lot of hands-on effort, Ron and Andrea have created a salon to be proud of. Andrea shares how their dedication to good business practices keeps them ahead of the game.

Q: What are some of your most important business practices?

A: Before we owned the salons we had a janitorial business where we cleaned up industrial buildings. In the janitorial business, things have to be done impeccably – it’s clear to people whether you’re getting the job done or not. I think that obsession with cleanliness stuck with us, so attention to detail in that department is important.

I’m also really big on training, but it has to be done the right way. Training is done by me or one of the managers. I don’t get too many people involved with it, because if you have too many hands in the pot, things can get misconstrued. It’s important for training to be consistent.

We do have a commission structure, but we refer to it more as a bonus because that seems less aggressive. We don’t want our employees to do any high-pressure sales and turn off customers.