Unfortunately, the winter months can linger on for what seems like forever, and all of us in the tanning world are praying for the return of our beloved tanning season where all is well with abundant tanners and where overall salon excitement explodes!

In the meantime, here’s what you should be doing now:

1. KEEP A BUSY SEASON MINDSET. Just because it is slower, you don’t have to act like it. Create an energy in your salon at all times, and employees will feed off of it! Don’t get into the “lazies,” or your employees will. Step into your salon each day with a “busy season mindset!” The customers that are coming in now need to see the same excitement on your face as they do in March. We do have more time to spend with customers, so take advantage! Encourage your staff to engage in some type of conversation. I do not let my staff just put people in beds. We are better than that! I like to be very specific with my staff, so I actually have a list near the counter suggesting things to say to customers. It is not always about selling! It’s really just stirring up some conversation, whether you ask about their weekend plans, suggest a higher powered bed to upgrade to, ask if they are still using a certain product, or do they know about our referral program? The point here is to let your customers know we care about them and their experience.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.