Smart Tan & NTTI

[Soo]

When I first Got into this business...I was like a sponge...any information I needed I sucked up...any I didnt I still sucked up...just to be able to weigh out the pros and cons of what may come up I would like to be knowledgable to have somewhat of a valuable opinion that may or may not be helpful...So in that endeavor...I decided that my Hubcap and I would be crossed trained...so we read and took and passed Smart Tan and NTTI basic certification...one can never know enuff and we also wanted to see if there was any difference in the 2...and there is...so we were happy to have that experience...and the other reason is we do airbrush or spray tanning in our salon and Smart Tan does not have that certification yet...NTTI does so that is where we are trained from for that application and gun usage etc...I do advise at least reading both manuals and learning what you can from both which ever you choose...Good Luck!

Now on the other hand...Our salon is in a very regulated State (Florida) but not as tuff as many as I have picked up a lot of info to sort out what I thought we needed for our Store and believe me there is a lot to learn and I continue to read and learn daily...makes for great meetings with the Clerks also to teach them what you know they don't read when they leave...Yesterdays meeting was on SPF and how to figure the ratios on them...Since we are in Florida we deal with that daily and all year long as well...so we need to know that as well...I do have the note sheet on the SPF info if anyone would like it emailed to them please email me and I will forward it to you..It also helps us sell the Physicians Formula SPF Powder for your face..as it is in front of the register and we sell 12 a week or more...great add on sale...retail is 12.99 and you can make it anything you want...it's your store...and it is also sold elsewhere but sometime...who cares...it works and is a great product...If you want to know about that also email me...

And the point of this was Smart Tan...they have helped me on everything that came up and help me get settled with the State on bed tanning time issues and usage of their form for skin typing and the head of Smart Tan Attorney even called Mrs. Brown from the State of Florida to help state my point on having to stick with the bed times per week and he explained that if we were to only be able to tan a new customer for 4 minutes the 1st week and 6 the 2nd and so on...we would have NO SALON!!! So we have that resolved if anyone here would like to know what is acceptable here in Florida...again email me and I may be able to help you out...also with the regulations of what must be handed out to new tanners in our salons in this State...So basically my HAT IS OFF to Smart Tan...They helped me thru all of this...and also on a lady trying to sue me for a burn under her boobs from our stand up...they gave me all the right things to say and do hence the lady walked away with her bottom lip hanging lower then her 44 longs...Again Smart Tan helped me...So we are and have been and will continue to be a Smart Tan Salon....Good Luck to all ~ Sorry this is so long ~ Hope it helps ya... Soo

[SunLover24]

hi i was wondering where i would get the info to become smart tan cert. ? i'm just recently buying a salon and would like to make it a requirement the eveyone take the test.. is that possible? i've been a tanner forever but unsure of the busniess.. any tip would be amazing thanks

[Ziti]

www.smarttan.com

We never tried the NTTI therefore, I have no comment on them.

We did however joined the ATS and got our online certificaitons from them this year. Not a bad org, but was a little disapointed in the criteria, for tanning salon owners/employess unless you need to know the skin part. Which by the way is important in the tanning process. You must know skin to a certain degree to know exposure time.

[tanningtrainer]

In addition to Smart Tan, check out these sites

www.tanningprogram.com - ATI (American Tanning Institute)
www.tanningtraining.com - NTTI (National Tanning Training Institute)

Both offer online certification in addition to in-class courses.

[catchinrayz]

I was very interest in Smart Tan too. Their prices are quite high. Its not so bad with just one salon, but when you have multiple salons and they charge you per salon, we simply just can't afford it. I wish they had a better program for salon owners with multiple salons. Its no extra work on their part for the online edition, so I dont understand why they want so much money for each additional salon. Greed I guess.

[Editor-in-Chief]

Just a reminder, ATI (American Tanning Institute) is a tantoday sponsor and Rick Mattoon participates in the online community. The others are noticeably absent.

ATI supported the Today's Image Las Vegas Expo and provided certification training onsite.

Their salon program provides an unlimited number of training certifications for your employees for $195. / year. That is an extraordinary value. www.tanningprogram.com

[frankie]

Jim yes, and Rick is a super guy BUT he does not have the material that Smart Tan does. I have been using Rick for well over a year now and we do our certification online from my corporate office. I spoke with Rick in LV about more material so hopefully he is working on some things. It is fine to let your employees get their certification when they first start but I need follow up training too. Cd`s, manuals, etc. JMO

[Din]

Originally Posted by catchinrayz

I was very interest in Smart Tan too. Their prices are quite high. Its not so bad with just one salon, but when you have multiple salons and they charge you per salon, we simply just can't afford it. I wish they had a better program for salon owners with multiple salons. Its no extra work on their part for the online edition, so I dont understand why they want so much money for each additional salon. Greed I guess.

Quoting CDN pricing.

Smart Tan offers memberships at $315 and full branch membership to every other salon for $125/salon. That is a discounted price. Each salon gets full membership and material. That's a $190 discount per location.....

Here's the link to Smart Tan canada http://www.smarttancanada.com/page.php?pid=11

They offer the same thing in the US too.....just call them.

That $315 is on initial sign up....renewal of it would be cheaper i think $245 for renewal.

[catchinrayz]

I wasn't interested in just the membership, but their online training. The prices were something like $2,040 for a two year membership for the first salon and $1,560 for each additional salon for two years. That's a whole lot of money for online training. Just too much money.