The solar salon, business with artificial tanning and natural profit

The time allocated to artificial tanning is more reduced comparative with the one of exposing to sun. The trend is that more and more persons want to look as recently arrived from the seaside, not just in the summer season. Opening a tanning salon requires investments of mostly 45.000 euro for three or four new machines and for assuring a portfolio of clients and expanding the business it is required only paying attention against the clients in order to have a guaranteed success.  

The demand for the tanning salons exceeds in most of the cases the offer.  Some clients are forced to go in the other corner of the city in order to find a center which to correspond to their pretensions. The key of success is given in the first place by the amability showed towards the clients and then by placing it in a good location.  The machines can be bought second-hand or new. For a salon with three tanning booths it’s enough an employee and only temporary a second employee.  It isn’t required a special job training in order to do this. The summary advising of the clients represents the main activity of those who practice this type of business, besides machines sterilization. 

The initial investment

“The initial investments assume renting the space, arranging it, buying the solar unit (a new solar unit is about  5.500 euro VAT excluded), buying furniture, chairs, armchairs, cabinet, desk, glass-case, folding-screen, all those being worth about 1.500 euro, cosmetics for solar – 300 euro”, Laura Bojtor, owner of the salon Bronze Age from Oradea stated. There are also required approvals from the block association and from SANEPID. “The company Talnes Impex from Brasov started 10 years ago with an investment of only 5.000 Deutsche mark (DEM) and last year exceeded the turnover of one million euro”, the general director Szasz Jozsef stated. “The company Ana Maria Beauty Center from Bucharest started with a total investment of about 40.000 euro in a space with three tanning beds,” Doina Butonaru, one of the two associates of the company stated.  The most important investment is the initial one. “The service of the machines is cheap”, Butonaru précised.

An employee or mostly two  

Bronze Age started in March 2006 with only two associates who also had a by-work of selling clothes and massage.  “The company had initially just one employee, which worked 8 hours (10 a.m-6 p.m), and I was working the rest of four hours till 10 p.m, and then I hired a second employee, with part time program”, Bojtor stated. “For Talnes it’s a family business, I’m partner with my sister and my brother-in-law, each being responsible for a department of the company”, the director of the company stated. “It isn’t required a special ability”, Bojtor mentions. The employees must only give some minimum recommendations to the clients. 

Expansion

Talnes has now 20 employees. If at the beginning they had only a unit and they didn’t have too many clients, after only two years they reached at the performance of having appointments on two-three weeks before, with full program from 5 a.m to 12 p.m.  At these hours came to tan the ones which finished the night shift (barmen, dancers, bodyguards, restaurant owners). Gradually they have bought other performing machines and have opened new centers. Then the company developed the import department –sales. Talnes, owns in present five tanning salons in Brasov. Besides this, the company has extended its activity and imports and commercializes important tanning units brands as Ergoline, Soltron and Hapro Luxura or cosmetic products especially for solar, Uv tubs and spare parts and accessories. Bronze Age owns in present two spaces in which has exclusively solar units, the first with 25 square meters with an attic of another 25 square meters, and the other space has 23 square meters. The company started with an employee and now has six. The company Ana Maria Beauty Center follows to buy in a week another vertical tanning bed. Moreover, the company has already in plan the opening of a new salon, in autumn, salon which will be more complex, with body reshaping, mud baths, for which are already looking to rent a space.

Promotion

Talnes makes its promotion especially on the internet and after expansion by participating to expositions. However the main promotion is made by the fact that the employees are paying attention to customers and there’s where from the recommendations come. The same is also valid for Ana Maria Beauty Center. At the beginning, Bronze Age promoted its salon in magazines, fliers and even in Tv shows but remained at the conclusion that “the best promotion for the company was the talk of the town”, Bojtor stated.

“To promote into magazines dedicated to spare time costs between 60 and 100 euro, depending of the period and size, and to show up at TV  was barter, we offered subscriptions for several benefits in exchange for commercials”, the administrator of  Bronze Age stated. The most difficult thing proves to be drawing the clients. This is only a problem for the beginning, respective a period of three-five months. Then there are made different promotions, free creams, subscriptions.

Full almost all the year

Even if it can be spoken of a certain period of the business, only two months are less crowd, respective July and August. In this period many clients leave the city for holiday. “The most crowd period is between December and May”, also précised Bojtor. “March, April and May have the most clients”, Butonaru stated. The company Ana Maria reached to have full 90% of the program’s time at one year and a half from the opening.

Sales

“Last year we’ve reached at a turnover of one million euro, this psychological limit being an élan for our next plans”, the director Talnes précised. In 2006 Talnes had a turnover of over 700.000 euro, and in 2007 they maintained the increased tendency of over 30%. “The factors which determined this increase were the tendency of market increase, continue promotion and representing the most important brands in domain”, Szasz stated.

Set up in November 2006, Butonaru’s company reached to have monthly incomes of almost 20.000 lei in the top months and in average, the monthly sales are of 10.000 lei. The most companies in domain use the practice of subscriptions. Although, the most clients come without subscription depending of the free time which they have. “About 20% of the customers come in base of subscription”, Butonaru stated.

“I think that each business needs some time in order to reach to maturity. Then, a tanning salon can bring a net monthly profit of 1.000 – 5.000 euro”, Szasz stated.