For owner Jennie Rebellato, tanning began as preparation for a special event and grew into her dream career.

Like many high school girls, Jennie tried on her homecoming dress and decided that a tan would be the perfect accessory. She stopped into her local salon several times to build the perfect color, noticing each time she entered the building that the girls who worked there seemed to be having so much fun.

It wasn’t long before Jennie decided to join the team at Sun Place Tanning. In 1997, she started as a part-time sales associate and worked her way up to assistant general manager and trainer in the nine years she worked there. But when the time came to get married and start a family, Jennie left the salon for a full-time position as a personal banker.

While lending and banking were certainly less fun, Jennie called upon many of the skills she learned from Sun Place. “Working for a tanning business early in my career taught me everything I needed to succeed with future jobs: providing great customer service, communication and sales. Any my job in finance certainly prepared me for what was ahead.”

Click here to read more in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine.