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Jonelle Easter and Brad Jacques of du soleil Tanning Studio

Kemptville, ON and Smiths Falls, ON

Q: What is the essential piece of advice you have for owners wanting to expand their business?

A: For us, expanding was a matter of being sure our first studio was established before expanding to another one. You have to have a certain amount of expanding clientele to be sure what a good location will be. If you don’t have a great location, clients won’t see you and they won’t come. Our Kemptville location is on a main highway and Smiths Falls is downtown so they are both very visible. And you have to be ready to work. I ran the Sm iths Falls location by myself for a while – and I was pregnant. There are so many things that go into owning your own business, but if you’re willing to put in the time and the effort that goes along with servicing two locations it’ll be a great investment.

Q: Do you have a sunless tanning booth?

A: We do at our Smiths Falls location, but that really isn’t a huge draw for customers yet. It’s usually a big draw for special occasions when a customer needs a tan quickly. The best selling sunless products we offer are instant self-tanners from Norvell. If you don’t like the way it looks it washes right off and that makes them more willing to try it. And we can show them the proper way to apply it. A lot of customers are turned off by the self-tanners because they don’t know how to apply it correctly and they get streaks or spots, so we’re really able to set them in the right direction.

Q: What are some of the things your salon has done to combat Sun Scare?

A: We really advocate education. For us, training ourselves and our employees has been so huge because we can pass a positive indoor tanning message on to our clients. We have Smart Tan brochures in the lobby, we have the lobby video and posters up around the studio and in the rooms. If anyone asks us any questions they’re mostly about the negative press that’s been going around. They’re afraid because the Sun Scare message is everywhere, so we make them feel better about their decision to tan moderately because we’re so educated, therefore confident. No question is silly or strange, we welcome them all.