My Island Tan & Spa celebrates 1000th customer
A local salon and spa opened in December 2008 and less than four months later is already celebrating a huge salon success – its 1000th new customer.
Offering a host of tanning and spa services, My Island Tan & Spa, located at 15880 San Carlos Blvd. in Fort Myers, was the idea of owner and Chicago native Lillian Canfield, who moved to the Fort Myers area seeking the ideal Florida outdoor lifestyle.
“Individuals get uneven tanning results when they tan outdoors due to varying weather conditions, intense heat and clothing,” Canfield said. “This uneven tanning drives people to indoor tanning salons to balance things out. Therefore, I just felt that a better salon and spa experience needed to be available – which is why I wanted to open this salon.”
The salon opened December 1st and it is set to reach 1000 new customers in May – an almost unbelievable goal for Canfield, especially in the tough economic times.
“We projected to hit our client goal of 1000 customers around the 12-month mark in business,” Canfield said. “And now we are reaching it in less than six months.”
And with that goal achieved, other plans can now be put in motion.
“Our original business model planned for us to open our second location once we reached our 1000th customer,” Canfield said. “But it also requires more exposure to the industry’s business cycle. The model requires multiple locations to derive the necessary economies of scale to fully reach our projected level of success. In addition to the original plan, we have also received franchise inquiries and are working this possibility into our existing plan.”
Reaching the 1000th customer mark also allows for better marketing strategies for the salon. “It allows us to begin to market to our customer list via e-mail and direct marketing versus broader mailings to specific demographics and zip codes,” Canfield said. “It’s much more cost effective and successful.”
Owning and managing a successful salon in a difficult economy is something that Canfield planned on.
“The economy is very tough for everyone right now,” Canfield said. “We decided to create our business model and ultimately open during these particular economic conditions for several reasons. First of all, tough times force good decisions. Good decisions lead to higher success rates for new and established businesses. Businesses that opened during or operated at length during periods of economic ease or low levels of competition must ‘get right’ quickly – or get out.”
My Island Tan & Spa carries a full line of tanning beds manufactured by Indianapolis-based ETS Tan, the global leader in manufacturing and distributing indoor tanning beds, including the SS756V, SolarForce 648 and Solaris 336. These beds are powered by Wolff system lamps and have advanced after-tan cooling systems. The salon also offers an exciting addition to traditional tanning with the Velocity HP1000 bed.