I started Smart Spray Tan in September 2011, did free practise tans on friends and family til December, and now I'm happily doing spray tans as a part-time home-based business. I'm a nurse by trade, the Clinical Leader ("head nurse") of Maternal Child Care Unit at Prince County Hospital in Summerside. I love my job. And, I never ever considered starting a business from the ground up, but here I am. I got the idea from a few things that had happened in quick succession. A friend had shown her newly acquired spray tan on Facebook that she had paid for on preparation for a wedding she was in. Normally, she is pale, but the spray tan was quite dark yet natural-looking. Then, another friend had been saying that her visitor from Australia could not readily find a place to re-spray her tan while she was on vacation on PEI. Apparently, spray tans are quite popular in Australia, as well as elsewhere in the world. Then, I saw an episode of "Dragon's Den" which featured a Toronto woman trying to get investments in her successful mobile spray tanning business. That was the part really did it for me, I started doing some research. For several weeks I researched all I could find out about airbrush tanning. I contacted the woman from the Dragon's Den to inquire about franchise opportunities ($10,000 -- yikes no thanks). I got a spray tan from a local spa -- did not like that she used one shade on everyone --dark--, it was ok, but decidedly orange on parts and uneven. I knew I could do better. I considered a spray booth, but they are megabucks, plus fixing it would be a nightmare I would suspect. So, I googled business plans and started writing one. The more I knew the more interested I became.
I once said to my husband during all this intense study ,"If you think this is crazy or stupid you need to tell me because I am going ahead with this if you don't." He was very supportive and still is. I registered my business name in September after much thought. Some other names? iTan (taken), uTan (taken), TanGo (taken) and finally Smart Spray Tan. I had learned to come up with a name that says exactly what your product is so it is not mistaken as something else and people can google you easier. I also like Smart because of Smart Car, Smart Phone, etc. and I wanted my customers to feel "Smart" about the choice they had made. I felt pretty smart coming up with that actually! Once I had confirmation that no one in Canada had a similar business name, I registered my name with CRA. Next I started my website and purchased the URL www.smartspraytan.com . And then I was officially a business. It would be quite some time before I was ready to make money.
The fun was soon to begin!
I once said to my husband during all this intense study ,"If you think this is crazy or stupid you need to tell me because I am going ahead with this if you don't." He was very supportive and still is. I registered my business name in September after much thought. Some other names? iTan (taken), uTan (taken), TanGo (taken) and finally Smart Spray Tan. I had learned to come up with a name that says exactly what your product is so it is not mistaken as something else and people can google you easier. I also like Smart because of Smart Car, Smart Phone, etc. and I wanted my customers to feel "Smart" about the choice they had made. I felt pretty smart coming up with that actually! Once I had confirmation that no one in Canada had a similar business name, I registered my name with CRA. Next I started my website and purchased the URL www.smartspraytan.com . And then I was officially a business. It would be quite some time before I was ready to make money.
The fun was soon to begin!
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