Welcome to: How to set up your own professional spray tan business

My name’s Caroline, and having done over 26,000 spray tans in the 5 years of my beauty career, I am really exited to share the advice I have for you about setting up your own mobile, at home or salon based spray tan company.

I started out my mobile spray tanning business, to then renting a small salon space to setting up a salon business in my city centre focusing on being the only spray tan dedicated studio in my city.

So why a spray tanning business and how Profitable is it?

• Spray Tanning is tricky business to learn, but once you know how, it will take about 8 minutes to achieve a flawless finish
• You can fit in 3 people per hour with a profit of £20-£35 per person depending on your location
• Being beautifully bronzed never goes out of fashion so it’s always a profitable business
• It’s fun, enjoyable and socially satisfying

Choosing a Spray Tan Brand for your business

We stock three spray tans in our salon and we love them all, but they all have different advantages and flaws to them which need to be considered before proceeding with our clients application.

For example, all our tans come in varying shades, but we have a certain brand that we would never put on someone who likes a deep colour, and we have another brand that we wouldn’t dream of putting on a tan shy customer.

It’s important to;

Pick quality over price – Quality spray tan solutions usually don’t have preservatives, synthetic dyes, are usually organic, non fragranced with no alcohol. So why is this important? Synthetic dyes are cancerogenic and permanently stain clothing. Fragrance (which requires alcohol to make it) and alcohol are drying to your clients skin, which means TIGER BREAD scaley skin!

Consider branding that suits your business and area – There is a lot of opinions about certain brands generated since spray tanning was invented. You’ll often hear people say ‘Fake Bake’ looks dirty on me or ‘St. Tropez’ makes me green which is complete NONSENSE.

It may of happened to that particular individual, but it’s usually down to bad spray tan storage or not enough training. I’m sure St. Tropez being one, if not ‘thee’ most well known tanning brand business in the world, wouldn’t be so popular if they turned customers green!

You can read about why spray tans turn green on this article: Why Your Spray Tan Turned Green

Whats your clientele

Before setting up your business, figure out what kind of people your clients are. Have you got clients seeking a TOWIE transformation, or ladies and gents who want a light, natural glow? I stock tan shades for both of those types of clients and one in-between.

Age – Ladies and gents of all ages ask for anything from a light glow to ‘as dark as you’ve got please’.

Preference – Does your clientele enjoy an organic only spray tan business, or are they looking for bridal spray tans?

Rapid Spray Tans (Express/1hour tans)

How are we to know what someones version of dark, light or medium is – we can’t until they try it. That’s where rapid tans come in to save the day!

Let me explain how to explain this to your client.

1) In spray tan the liquid that turns you brown is clear

2) They add in the brown for the therapists benefit, so we don’t miss bits

3) When you are finished you will not be that colour

4) We will look in the mirror and judge together as client and therapist what you think of the shade you are

5) When you make that decision, will use our knowledge of the brand to determine when you should wash it off

Here’s my best tips for finding the right spray tan solution for your business:

• Don’t buy for cheapness – buy for quality – it’s good business
• Get samples and try them out on yourself, friends and family
• Big brand names attract clients to your spray tanning business, but also consider that one of my best tans is not that well known
• If you can’t afford loads of bottles, buy express or mix them (easier with tanning brands that use percentages). For example 50ml of 8% mixed with 50ml 12% will make 10% or 50ml light shade with 50ml dark shade will make medium
• If it’s cheap, it will be riddled with chemicals and preservatives that do not give a good tan
• If your still unsure, pick a well known brand for your business. The brand promotes itself and comes along with pre-made images and posters for easy marketing.

What’s The Best Spray Tanning Machine of 2019

At the Tropicoco Spray Tan Studio we spray around 15 people per day each and my Maxi Mist machine has never let me down. It’s got a very powerful motor allowing 25+ applications a day.

That’s the thing about spray tan machines, if you buy a cheap machine, the motor will burn out and leave you in the lurch with a week of angry pale customers! Not great for business or bank balance either!

TOP RATED & MY FAVORITE: The MAXI Mist Evolution TNT

Why do I love it? It’s so powerful it can do a spray tan in 8 minutes and the control you have over each spray is unbeatable.

Your client’s are dry by the time your finished because the mist is so fine! It can also do up to 25+ clients a day which other cheaper machines just couldn’t achieve.

Best Value Maxi Mist Machine & Tent @ £209.99

Machine Only @ £179.99

Here’s the specs:

Powerful 570 Watt Variable Speed 2 Stage Turbine
Rated for 25+ applications a day
11.5ft/3.5m Hose
3 TNT Spray Heads with 6.75oz/200ml Cups
On Board Spray Gun Storage
Spare Spray Gun Cup Gasket and Pickup Tube
Spare Spray Gun Nozzle Gasket
Spare Turbine Filter
Detailed Instruction Manual
2 year warranty

Good practice

This is important: Clean your filters daily with lukewarm water (too hot will melt the plastic and ruin the airflow) & put a sign on the machine to not cover it as this will block airflow and over heat the spray tan machine.

Set up a Spray Tanning Business From Home

What you’ll need:

• A dedicated, quiet spot
• A large spray tan tent
• Extractor fan – this has the best extraction in my opinion:
• Waiting chairs
• Well lit area
• Privacy

Set up a Mobile Spray Tanning Business

I set up a mobile spray tanning business at first and to be honest it was the easiest part of my career, but you are limited in what you earn, but it is good money all the same.

I usually started at 4pm and worked till 9.30pm so that’s roughly 5 clients per night @ £20 equaling £100 per evening. Wednesday, Thursday an Friday were the most popular days so you could easily earn at least £1200 a month once you get busy.

In hindsight I charged too little for mobile spray tanning. You have to put your business head on and consider the time taken to travel, petrol, wear and tear on your vehicle and providing a professional service plus the cost of solution and disposables! For mobile spray tanning I would suggest £30 minimum or £25 for two people at the same location.

Quick business tips for mobile spray tanners

• Organise your clients by region to save petrol and keep you petrol receipts 
• Don’t buy a tent in any other colour apart from black – it will look very dirty after each person if  you don’t
• Buy an extra large black sheet to go under and around the tent in case of spillages
• Get your client to step out of the tent to dry with your machine so you can start packing away to leave for your next client (“Can I give you this drier while I take down my tent” always drops that hint that your in a hurry!”)
• Try to set up while chatting as you can lose track of time and be late for your next client
• Don’t go to anyone’s house you are uncomfortable with and don’t be afraid to just leave and drive off
• Encourage spray tan parties but take deposits for these
• NEVER do the spray tan in a badly lit or carpeted floor (been there, splattered a cream carpet – oh the cringe)  
• Wash your tent with a hose or wipe
• Text people on the day before or morning of their appointment to check they are still wanting the appointment

Set up a Spray Tan Salon Business

After setting up a mobile spray tanning business for 1 year, I opened in the city centre and rented for 2 years until moving to a larger location. This made sure at each step of the way I had enough clientele to sustain the business.

Here’s some advice to consider before renting:

Location

Is it near where people work, does it have easy access to subways, car parks or train stations. People do not like to walk far in their baggy tan outfits, especially when they look so brown or it’s raining.

Size

Does it have space to expand for yourself or staff. I had 4 rooms installed in my spray tan business so I could fit 2 people in per half hour and 2 staff members could work in the other rooms. While one person dries, I start the other.

Rent

If your renting on a busy street then you will pay extra, but it’s worth it because of the footfall. If you don’t have existing clients, an online presence, or aren’t renting a section in a very busy hair salon for example, then don’t tie yourself into a contract before you have achieved any of those things.

Deal Websites

I don’t deal with them anymore apart from one referral booking website that I see as a fair company.

Groupon – in my experience didn’t work for me. They try to get as much money as possible out of you that for a month I was earning £5 per tan after their discount and fees! Let’s just say it wasn’t long before I ended my contract with them and never returned!

Treatwell however, are a fair company. Ok they take 35% on first bookings but only a 2% fee once the client has been already. They are paying for Adwords, so it’s only to be expected that they would charge so high because adwords can cost around £1-5 per click!

Spray Tan Customer Service Tips 

Whenever someone joins our team, I always tell them that most of their job is telling people exactly what to do and warning people what not to do!

We laminate the aftercare advice for clients to read while drying and place warnings in the spray tan booth (e.g. don’t touch the walls, don’t go on the floor in your bare feet).

It’s our job to make sure our clients know EXACTLY what to do every time they come in the salon

If someone has a problem with how the tan turned out, then offer to fix it for them for free and don’t make a fuss about it. It’s just good business to be kind and helpful.

Feedback can surprisingly be good thing to you improve your service, but bear in mind that sometimes spray tan just doesn’t work out on certain skin types – either way, it happens to all of us, so it’s best to be light-hearted and do your best to fix it for them.

Spray Tan Storage

So what’s so important about storing your spray tan bottles correctly:

• Tanning fluid loses it’s strength if it is exposed to oxygen for too long – so it’s best to keep your bottles closed.
• Hot conditions can also cause the fake tan to go off
• In and out of hot and cold conditions can also alter the potency
• Each spray tan has different use by dates

Advice for Mobile Spray Tan businesses: When I did mobile spray tanning, I always used a cool bag or box and I placed my bottles in a cool room in my house

Advice for Salon businesses: In our salon, we use a dark cupboard in a room that doesn’t change temperature.

Spray Tan Business Website Set up 

Websites are great for storing information for your clients to read and if you do well on the search engines your basically getting free advertisement. If you come up as one of the top businesses on Google for the term ‘spray tanning’ you basically have free advertisement.

Go Daddy or Heart Internet are easy to use providers for hosting and setting up a wordpress account.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Salon Booking Systems

You might be told that booking systems are the bees Knee’s, and they are in some ways, but BE WARNED, they have a few flaws in my experience.

When I first purchased my salon booking system for my spray tanning business, I thought it was fantastic. No more replying to clients at 9 o’clock at night or messing up a booking, they just did all the work for me! It saved me loads of time, it meant I got paid upfront and some people really enjoy how easy it is.

So your thinking, why on earth don’t you rely on booking systems for your business?

1. Because most people have questions about your service and will not book and pay if they’re unsure about anything. If they phone or email you are giving a more personalized booking experience by putting you clients at ease and making  sale
2. Clients will be looking for your name on the booking system and if you are booked and have staff, they will not pick them and go elsewhere unless you persuade them on the phone (YES REALLY!)
3. It takes away the urgency to book. If your clients can see you have an empty diary in a months time, most people will think ‘oh I’ll book later in case I don’t need it nearer the time’ or ‘I’ll book when I get paid again as she doesn’t look that busy’ This is BAD for BUSINESS! By the time they get around to booking a space, it will have went to a new client that statistically costs you 3 times more to obtain than retaining that existing client, and this cycle will repeat itself over and over again for years.
4. Some people just can’t work technology 
5. You’ll never know how much in demand you are. If I have a full diary and 6 people go on to book for that evening but couldn’t find a space, they aren’t going to phone and tell me that. So I should be hiring another member of staff instead of sitting in the dark about my salons demand.

What I do now:

I incorporate both in my business, but only advertise the booking app to those that will only book online. I advertise that we take phone calls and emails and I’m very efficient at answering emails (Twice daily).

Spray Tan Hygiene Advice 

Cleaning

Clean your spray tan rooms after ever person. This is one of the most common complaints of why they left another salon because the floors and walls were disguising and you risk tan to skin transfer. Cleaning the walls only takes a couple of minutes and your client will know your salon is high standard.

Spray Tan Guns 

At the end of the night, take apart your gun (it should have around 5-6 parts) and wash them out with water until clear. Put lukewarm water in the gun and flush out your gun to stop the needle eroding or getting clogged with tan. Spray tan crystallizes (goes hard) in the needle if left for long periods of time, so flushing it with water stops it clogging up.

Spray Tan Marketing Advice 

It took me a long time to realise that it’s your job to make sure your clients remember to book in for their spray tans. Frequent social media posts and email campaigns make sure your retaining your existing clients.

Spray Tan Business Money Saving Tips

You can check out the best value products I have suggested at the top of this page. I’m going to share one of the best money saving and environmentally friendly salon tips that saves my business over £5000 a year.

So lets do the calculation

Say we do 1000 spray tans a month in our salon, we will need 1000 sticky feet which will be roughly 50 pence each, costing the salon £500 a month. If we make our own sticky feet, it will costs us 7 pence and 30 seconds to make them individually saving us £437 a month and therefore £5244 a year and if your doing a portion of those 1000 spray tans in a month that’s you sorted for a well deserved 5 grand holiday!

Here’s how I make them:

Step 1: Fold two card board sheets in half (must be thick card)

Step 2: cut the corners off

Step 3: Open the card up again and cut the inner corners and down the centre

Step 4: Put two 2-3 inch tabs of double sided sticky tape on each foot

Retailing tips for salons

The power of three – statistically, people like products to be displayed in three’s

Music – Research shows that playing spa or classical music increases sales

Display – Display products near the till and in waiting areas

Sales – Give the team commission on sales or do competitions and make sure to mention products during the treatment

Here’s our display which was a two tiered breakfast bar I found on Ebay! Most retail units for salons are about £1000, but I got this stylish unit for £100.

What Is The Best Spray Tan For Pale Skin?

The invite’s in, you’ve got your dress, your makeup booked and now your looking at your pale pins next to the colour of your new dress but somethings just not right!

You’ve guessed it, you need a spray tan booked pronto!

What spray tan can do for you

Complete’s an outfit: A tan can lift the colour of your outfit. Some colours just don’t look right without a tan e.g pastels, metallic or white

Creates an even skin tone: Just like makeup, tan evens out blotchy or patchy reddened skin

Like Makeup for the skin: Helps conceal varicose veins, blemishes, bruises and cellulite

Slims and tones the body: Have you ever heard the phrase “If you can’t tone it, tan it!”. Skin that’s darker allows less light to bounce off the body, which allows the body to look less round. Dark skin also defines the muscles by creating the illusion of shadow where the muscle begins.

What is the best spray tan brand for pale skin

At a salon, you can usually pick from a range of shades which usually include light, medium or dark. However, this doesn’t mean that every brand is going to suit your skin tone. 

For example, in our spray tan studio, we have 3 brands that we use, but there is one particular brand that we would never give to a pale skinned individual as it would be too dark for them.

Gold, caramel or olive based tans are best for very pale individuals, and it’s best to pick the lighter shade on your first time at any salon.

Our Top Picks: 

St. Tropez Original £20-£30 (Depending on location)

Vita Liberata Hawaii £20 – £35 (Depending on location)

Nouvatan Express for 1 hour max £20 – £25 (Depending on location)

Our advice for pale spray tan newbies

• Pick a gold, caramel or olive based tan 
• Don’t pick a red based tan
• Book a trial visit and pick the lightest shade and work up from there
• * Check out our recommended caramel/olive based tan*: Click here
• * Check out our recommended olive/gold based tan*: Click here
• Check out our tips and advice on preparing: Click here

Why you shouldn’t get too dark a spray tan

If you love being a deep brown but your chalk white, then go for it! However, you need to know the consequences of how it will pan out! It’s a fake tan, so at the end of the day (or should I say week) it will have faded. So it’s not the end of the world if you’ve picked something too dark.

So Here’s Why:

1: No matter how high quality a false tan brand is, if it’s too dark for your light chalky skin tone, it will fade BADLY. This is called ‘a bad fade off’.

What we mean by ‘fade off’, is when your skin naturally sheds and renews itself, the contrast between your new casper like skin poking through the extremely dark fake tan will be very noticeable.

This creates what is known as a ‘tiger bread’ like fade off.

2: Good tans ain’t cheap and cheap tans ain’t good! By this we mean a high quality fake tan will not be filled with chemicals, alcohol, perfumes and preservatives.

This is a good thing for multiple reasons, but in relation to tanning, these ingredients will also dry out the skin and cause a bad fade off.

Pick a well known brand that’s fragrance free.

3: The contrast between the pale you yesterday and the chocolate you this morning can be quite alarming to some spray tan newbies.

Pick a light or medium colour at max, and if you want to go dark, just tell your therapist to go easy on your face.

Make-up Artist in Glasgow

What do you associate “make-up in Glasgow” with? Glasgow people would describe us as a culture that transforms from the ‘little effort as possible look’ when we trudge to work in wet weather, to a jaw dropping full glam look if were heading out in town. 

The question is, do all Glasgow woman revel in strobe like highlighter and cut creases? The answer is probably yes and that’s great, but there are more make-up looks out there that Glasgow woman like, so if your stuck on what to ask your MUA for, take a look at our Make-up guide.

Full Glam 

This look would be considered ‘full glam’. Heavy contouring, eye-catching highlighter, heavy eye-make-up or lip colour with thick liner, heavily defined and elongated brows and almost always lashes are added for complete look.

Soft Glam

Think Rihanna, Kim Kardashian or Irina Shayk. The soft glam look is basically a make-up look that emphasizes your natural beauty, but being a bit “extra” too. This type of makeup style usually includes a nude or nude brown lip which can be matte or gloss. Flawless face makeup with contouring. Although the contour is apparent, it is blended so well that it almost looks like those cheek bones are actually yours. Highlighter can be included, but shouldn’t be heavy. Eye makeup is usually consists of browns, creams, bronzes, warm pinks, peaches or oranges. Liner shouldn’t be as heavy, lashes can be added and brows should be defined yet fluffy to give a more natural look.

Pin-up or Retro 

Pin-up or the retro look can be kept classic, or it can be modernised mattes lipstick or highlighter. With the pin up look, traditionally the paler you skin is, the better, but you don’t actually have to have pale skin for this look, it can look just as good with a bit of bronzer! Flawless, doll like complexion is a must have, along with eyeliner, long lashes, bold coloured lips and perhaps a beauty spot for the ultimate Munroe look.

Are you wondering when to shower after a spray tan? Does your colour guide look too dark and your panicking that your going to turn out THAT ACTUAL COLOUR!

To answer that question, it really depends on the type of spray tan you had applied at the salon. By what type of spray tan, we mean the brand and wither or not it was a standard ‘9 hour development tan’, or the latest innovation in spray tanning, the ‘express tan‘.

9 Hour Development Spray Tan 

This is the standard spray tan that you will be used to receiving at your local spray tan salon. It usually takes 9 hours to development to the shade you chose, but some take 12 hours. The salon you had your spray tan applied in will probably let you know how long you are to leave your colour guide on. The colour guide is the brown spray that is left on your skin after the tan has been applied.

In this development time you are responsible for making sure you don’t damage the colour guide till it’s time to shower. That means no washing your hands, spilling drinks or going to the gym. If you do damage the colour guide you might risk the tan looking uneven. For example, if you spill some water on your arm, the colour guide will wash off that area causing it to not develop as much as the rest of the body.

Once your 9 hours is up, you can wash your colour guide off in the shower. Wash your tan off with pure water in the shower, which means no soap or shampoo. If you are looking at your spray tan, and you think – “my word this is really brown”, don’t worry, it’s just a colour guide so your therapist doesn’t miss a bit. You’ll end up just as brown as what you asked for. If however your really worried about it developing too dark, just wash it off in half the time and you’ll be half as brown!

Express, 1 Hour or Rapid Spray Tan

The Express, 1 hour or rapid spray tan, are all the same thing. Basically these tans get to work faster, meaning you can shower them off before you go out or go to bed. This is rather convenient when life is busy, or your asked to come in for a shift at work!

It works like this: 1 hour for light, 2 hours for medium, 3 hours for dark or keep going for even darker.

Once you wash this type of spray tan off, you will be brown but you’ll be even browner the next day. The thing is, even though your able to wash it off, it still takes 9 hours to develop into the shade you wanted.

Don’t damage your tan till you wash it off, and try to wear loose clothing after you’ve washed it off as well. That means no jeans, leggings or tight bras. Avoid perfume on bare skin till the next day.