Danita Sauerwein became owner of Australian Sands Tanning resort in March 2007, just before the chaos of the recession hit. Read on for an exclusive look at the strategies that helped her navigate through tough times.

Q: What challenges have you faced during the course of owning the salon, and how have you overcome them?

A: I would say that the biggest challenge has been the economy. When the economy went bad, most people stopped spending. Businesses started cutting expenses and doing less advertising. We did the opposite – we advertised more, which has helped to get us through it. It was unfortunate that we opened around the time everything was happening.

Q: Do you collaborate with any other businesses?

A: Yes. One of our clients opened a hair salon. She stopped in and told us she was open, we set up a cross promotion: We put up info about her business and set up a drawing for her hair salon. We drew a clients name for a free haircut. In exchange, we gave away one month of tanning at her salon.

I also have a friend that opened a restaurant. We cross-promoted with him by giving away a free month of tanning to his customers and a $20 restaurant gift card to our customers. But that time, we put up a sheet and had people sign up for the giveaway via email. That benefitted us because we got more people for the email list, too.

Q: How did you make an impact with sunless services and products?

A: When I first started airbrushing, I went to local nail and hair salons to give away coupons to the manager. They’d get one free airbrush and four vouchers for $10 off airbrushing that they could hand out to employees. I said that we didn’t expect them to tell their clients about us if they didn’t have the opportunity to try it out firsthand.

When the employees and clients came into the salon, we’d give them another free airbrush session – my business tripled. I think that I’ve gained a few clients that we would not have had otherwise, but we’ve also been able to offer a service for those that were in a hurry.