The holiday season is upon us, and many salons are gearing up for their promotions and sales. We are entering one the best times of the year with customers wanting to get their holiday tans on. November and December can give customers multiple reason to come in, such as Holiday parties, concerts, get-togethers with friends and family and much more.

During this time of year, we aren’t just competing against the salon down the road but instead we are competing against every retailer that is trying to persuade customers to spend their last few dollars with them. It’s pretty simple – if a customer has only a few dollars left in their pocket, some big department store wants it!

So what do salons do? We try to come up with our own version of Black Friday or last minute Christmas specials. Competing with the large box stores is an extremely hard challenge. They will be on TV, radio, social media, print and probably, during Black Friday, the news will cover a story about two customers fighting over the “hottest” toy this year. So, should we just give up this Holiday season? The answer is no! We just need to be smart about it.

How many salons owners or managers that are reading this right now set long-term goals every year? How many set their goals with the holiday season in mind? My guess is not many. So, when the holiday season comes around, we tend to act like big box stores (without the large marketing budgets) and start to advertise sales that might not make sense any other time of the year.

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