Giving back while moving forward: The Spray Tan Society x Excelerate Marketing
The Excelerate Effect shines a spotlight on the small businesses in our network that are excelling in their industry, gearing up for growth and harnessing the power of marketing to take their businesses further than ever before.
Excelerate Marketing sat down with founders and directors from businesses in a range of industries, exploring the business attitudes, lessons and levers that have set these businesses apart.
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The Spray Tan Society
Small business owners know all about the hunger to keep pushing for success and to do more with your business. But the best small businesses can take that drive and use what’s thrown at them to turn challenges into growth opportunities for their business - and for others too.
Pushing your business to go further than you ever dreamed possible, and remembering to uplift others in your community, is an invaluable trait as a business owner.
This is exactly what Tara Wagner, Owner of The Spraytan Society, did this year when her business, which relies on person-to-person contact, was impacted by the changes of 2020.
While juggling two kids under two, and a husband whose own income was also affected by Covid-19, Ms Wager found a way to support her community by partnering with local businesses and donating proceeds from her business to those impacted by the summer bushfires in NSW.
Not only was she able to pivot towards helping others, she felt a renewed hunger to drive her business towards a bigger and better place than before.
We sat down with Ms Wagner to discuss supporting your community, as well as the importance of upskilling in your downtime, using the right systems as a business owner and the value of word-of-mouth referrals.
Helping your business and others
It’s not just about recovering and rebuilding when facing challenges as a business owner but growing from them too.
For a business that relies on in-person contact, learning to adapt to new distancing regulations was interesting for Tara Wagner and the staff at The Spraytan Society. In fact, Ms Wagner’s number one lesson learnt this year was that you never know what is around the corner.
“You have to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice. I don’t think anyone in our industry had a contingency plan for a global pandemic,” she said.
“…COVID impacted us hugely, with the forced shut down of the beauty industry we lost huge amounts of revenue. When we were finally allowed to reopen the new COVID safe measures meant that our capacity was still greatly reduced, and people were still reluctant to get out and about.”
And all of this hasn’t deviated her business from its original mission from 2014. In fact, this year has only made those original goals more important.
“When we started in 2014 the mission was to bring specialised custom spray tans to the shire and allow me to work for myself. This hasn’t changed but has grown.”
By rising to the new challenges, The Spraytan Society has flourished into a business Ms Wagner could never have anticipated six years ago.
“We’ve changed our appointment times to allow for thorough cleaning of rooms after each client,” explained Ms Wagner.
“All staff are required to wear masks and gloves which are changed after each tan. Our tanning process has also been adapted so staff no longer physically touch clients, and each client is provided an individual kit of disposable items which they dispose of themselves.”
Not only was the business able to adapt and provide a more suitable service for customers, but Ms Wager never forgot to help those around her too.
“We’ve done a few collabs with other businesses through social media giveaways to kickstart everyone’s reopening. We’ve also partnered with other local businesses to cross promote, offering mutual discounts to clients,” she said.
Use your downtime well
As a small business owner in the beauty and retail industry, who grew a team of just herself to five additional employees in only six years, Tara Wager understands that using your downtime well is invaluable.
When asked how The Spraytan Society has accelerated this year, Ms Wagner said: “Downtime has allowed us to focus on some extra areas such as ramping up our social media activity and allowed me to develop some new skills.”
A recent McKinsey Global Survey found that 44 percent of business owners say their organisations “will face skill gaps within the next five years, and another 43 percent report existing skill gaps”.
Meaning, 87 per cent of respondents were facing, or about to face, skill gaps, and less than half of these respondents knew how to address this issue.
If your business is facing a hibernation period, consider turning your worries into something constructive. Use this time to develop your skills, whether in upskilling yourself and your staff with the latest industry knowledge, joining a business seminar or taking a management course.
And don’t be afraid to look online within industry community spaces for help. Ms Wagner found herself turning to industry forums for assistance this year.
“We’ve found industry forums to be invaluable throughout this time. At the beginning of COVID they helped to simplify the information overload and make it clear how announcements applied to our industry specifically.”
Effective organisation systems
When asked what Tara Wagner would change if she had the chance to start her business again, she made note of a crucial element many small business owners underestimate: utilising systems that work harder to make life easier.
“If we had the chance, we would implement systems and procedures earlier to make scaling the business easier,” Ms Wager said.
“When you hold all the knowledge it makes it difficult to delegate and step back for your personal time.”
“Also, the importance of having proper accounting and booking systems in place is vital to scaling. When we started everything was shoe box accounting and manual diary appointments by text.”
“The cost of these may seem high but will repay itself tenfold through efficiencies freeing you up to concentrate on other things,” she said.
We’ve spoken before about how a business owner cannot wear all “hats” effectively on a long-term scale. Eventually, as your business grows, so too will your need to delegate your work to third parties or staff.
But starting your business with the right tools from the beginning is also, as Ms Wager noted, priceless. There is a range of cloud-based accounting software available for Australian business owners, including:
1. Xero
2. MYOB
3. Quickbooks
4. Reckon
5. Sage Business Cloud Accounting
Tracking your business expenses by using accounting software will take a weight off your shoulders so you can focus on what really matters. Not only will this help come tax time, but you’ll also have a more positive cash flow if you’re tracking your invoices, leading to a greater understanding of your business profitability.
If the process of handing over the reins feels hard, try and push through it for the greater good. In fact, Ms Wager says this is the one piece of advice she’d give new business owners.
“It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There will be hard times, but the rewards are worth it,” she said.
The value of word of mouth
According to The Nielsen Company, 92 per cent of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.
Tara Wagner understands the significance of word of mouth marketing for small businesses, noting that it has been their most successful tactic.
“We have never actively marketed The Spraytan Society, our growth has been organic through word of mouth referrals. Of course, social media plays a part as well but isn’t a major focus,” she said.
Word of mouth is based on relationships but sometimes it can look like a one-way street. That is by no means the case. The referrer has just as much reputational risk as the referee. They are validating another business and putting their credibility on the line.
As our society continues to grow and become more connected than ever before, we’re seeing an emergence of ‘Word of Mouth 2.0’. It’s no longer just about one person sending a customer your way. There’s more at stake and there’s more value to be obtained.
Excelerate Marketing provides both marketing consulting and management to client and helps facilitate synergies between a variety of parties. Much like The Spray Tan Society, Excelerate Marketing was build on referrals, with companies validating and advocating the business. This fuels greater investment into the client relationships to ensure success.
This chain of support is not uncommon between businesses, and 2020 has really shown how much business owners are ready to help one another when times are testing.