Location: Puyallup, WA
Years in Business: 7.5
Owners: Michelle Norvell & Linda Bushey
Staff: 5 (including owners)
UV Tanning Units: 8
Lotions: Supre/SunEvolutions, MR International
Software: TanTrack
Other Services: Custom Norvell Spray-Tans, Norvell Auto Revolution Teeth-whitening, Formostar Infrared Body Wraps
Salon Operator Training: Sun is Life®, Industry webinars
Distributor Partner: All Hours, Tan International
Best-Selling Lotions: Hempz Hydro Black, Hempz Original Moisturizer
Best Selling Packages: Silver Level EFT, 260-point package
From bed-cleaner to owner: When I asked Michelle Norvell how she got her start in the tan biz, it was that simple. Of course, a lot of hard work happened in the 28 years that have passed since then.
Michelle took a job in a salon at age 15 to help out a friend, and really had to hustle to earn her money. But being around the salon environment (a year ‘round tanner since her bed-cleaner days), proved to her that her direction was to move forward in the tanning business. In her late 20s, she procured an SBA loan, but they wanted her house for collateral. There was no way she was going to do that; so she went another route. She took a loan against her 401k, added a small inheritance and of course, used credit cards to get her dream up and running. Michelle felt that she could get the most out of her start-up funds by initially leasing her tanning equipment. Now, how about a name? Phonebooks were still in use and so, quite simply, she wanted to be in the front – and “Bare Necessities” put her near the top of the list of area tanning salons. Some of you may remember the theme song from the movie Jungle Book. To this day, some of her customers still sing it to her.
Michelle is passionate about augmenting her indoor tanning knowledge and continuously keeps up with education and trends. In fact, she has attended two Sun is Life® Salon Operator Certification classes that I’ve taught over the past several years. Why would she attend two SIL classes after already being certified by another program? “I need to keep up to date on new industry trends and research and noticed that IST Magazine did in fact, add more information to the class. It’s an amazing training program. It keeps us up to speed, which is so important as things change,” Michelle explains.
Speaking of changes, what does she see as the most significant one over her career in tanning? Michelle stated, “I’d have to say the first big change was the advent of high-pressure tanning systems, which grew in popularity really fast on the West Coast, then followed by VHR (Very-High-Output, Reflector) technology.” On the negative side, she feels the largest impact was, absolutely, the Tan Tax; but adds that it really hurt businesses that were already struggling. “The Tan Tax alone did not put them out of business,” she says. “It is a tax on consumers that we unfortunately have to pass through. However, those who struggled probably did not have a strong grasp on sales, marketing, social media, finances, P&L and more, which ultimately led to their demise.”
I asked Michelle what she sees in the industry’s future over the next five years. “Sunless tanning will continue to become a larger share of the industry overall and salons will need to add this option to their offerings, if they haven’t already,” she says. “I could visualize states becoming stricter regarding eye and nose protection for sunless sessions – not only for the tanner, but also the technician applying the DHA solution.” Michelle also feels that salons will have to continue to be better business people, build on their tanning knowledge and improve their communication of factual info about tanning to their salon guests.
Michelle, thanks for sharing your words of wisdom and all the best to you and the team at Bare Necessities!
