The ability to adapt and evolve is a prerequisite for success for any tanning business, but the most successful operators are those who can seemingly envision the future and lead the entire industry in a new direction. In many cases, being first is even more important than being the best. Becoming an early adopter of a particular service or approach in your market leaves everyone else playing catch-up, while you’re already gobbling up customers and cash.

In most cases, it’s a race between competing tanning businesses. But, in this scenario, it’s the tanning industry versus everyone else.

In this vision of the future for the tanning industry, it’s really not even the tanning industry anymore. We’re in the light therapy, or sun therapy, business. High-end tanning equipment and hybrid tanning equipment are not just complemented but paralleled by multiple levels of equipment that provides a variety of beauty and wellness benefits via red light and other light spectrums. Everything will work synergistically. Every service, traditional UV tanning included, involves utilizing specific light spectrums from the sun to achieve a variety of results. And consumers around the country will know that they can find the highest level of expertise and best value for access to a variety of light spectrums in a controlled environment at their local sun spa.

Red light therapy is already becoming a full-fledged business of its own outside of the tanning industry. New franchises that specialize in red light therapy exclusively are becoming more predominant, and with devices that are inferior to the best red light equipment found in tanning businesses, they’re charging $200 for monthly memberships.

As an industry, we need to take control of this emerging market before other types of businesses take hold. We’re not just in the best position to do it; we’re also the best people to do it. Many of today’s tanning businesses are already focused on the use of multiple light spectrums with hybrid equipment and a variety of devices that incorporate other spectrums in various ways. We are already the light spectrum treatment centers of the world.

Going all-in on multiple light spectrums doesn’t mean tanning services will be any less important or profitable. This is simply the next step in the evolution of the industry. At the beginning, there was one kind of tanning. Then, there was better equipment and multiple levels. Then, there was sunless and other forms of spa and wellness diversification. Then hybrid tanning equipment. Red light therapy equipment came along somewhere along the line but never really became a primary offering until recently. Why? One of the main reasons is the right technology wasn’t available yet, at least not at a cost that was practical for most tanning businesses.

The SmartSun Therapy SST28 represents the tanning industry’s first big step into becoming full-fledged light therapy businesses. It’s a different category of equipment than any other red light device used in tanning businesses in the past. No other equipment found in tanning businesses today is carefully engineered to balance the amount of energy emitted from each diode, the total amount of energy emitted from the device, and the distance between the light source and the body. You’re only likely to find other equipment of this caliber in medical facilities, and comparable options are often sold for upward of $100,000.

Now is not the time to wait for the perfect time or the next generation of light therapy equipment. It’s time to utilize the advanced technology and proven profitability of the SST28 as a giant leap into the light therapy space. Invest now, start profiting now, and when the next generation of red light technology comes around, your SST28 will have already paid for itself. It will likely have already paid for your next light therapy unit, too. Then, you’ll have two levels of premium light therapy equipment, and those two units will go on to pay for the next level.

Now, you’re really in business. You’re a full-fledged light therapy business, with multiple levels of UV services and multiple levels of non-UV services. Without sacrificing profits from tanning, you’ve established a whole new revenue stream that rivals or possibly exceeds that of your UV services.

The state of red light therapy business today is comparable to the indoor tanning business in 1990. Are you going to wait until 1995 after everyone else has been profiting from it, or get in now? It’s not coming soon. It’s already here. Now is the time to move forward.

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