Sitting on a sunny beach, Bobby Catone contemplated what to call his tanning salon. Although the name — Sunbelievable — seemed to come with relative ease, that was the only thing that came without too much effort.

Bobby is a firm believer in the law of attraction, but he’s not afraid of doing hard work to get the job done. For 15 years, he worked at a large supermarket chain, molding the foundation of his work ethic and developing important managerial skills. But in 1995, it was time to put his positive thinking into action as he searched for a change. No longer wanting a nine-to five job where he worked seven days a week, he quickly decided that a tanning salon was the way to go.

With no money to start the business, he relied on personal loans, credit cards, and a lot of elbow grease to get his first location opened on Staten Island. The largest hurdles came after Sunbelievable’s doors opened in November of that year: Bobby knew how to be a great manager, but his limited knowledge of tanning kept him on an aggressive regimen of self education.

“I still remember my first staff meeting. I said, ‘To be honest with you, I don’t know how to run this place. I know how to run you guys, but the rest will be trial and error.”

Eighteen years later, Bobby has a lot of knowledge and experience to his credit, and his three salon locations are his world. His dedication to improvement has led the business down a long path, which is still yielding new and interesting opportunities.

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