Meet the owners. Did you know the owners of SUNsual Tanning were high school sweethearts? It is actual a very sweet story. Ryan and Melissa were going to different high schools. They had mutual friends and Ryan asked for Daniel to set Ryan up with a girl from Summerville. Megan, Daniels girlfriend had just the girl. Ryan came to meet me at Summerville on our lunch break. He was limping as he had injured his knee the weekend before at a jet ski race. Some may say it was love at first sight. Ryan asked to come back after school to give me a ride home, of course Melissa said yes. Ryan came back with a single Fire & Ice rose and Melissa was forever smitten.
Fast forward years later we married on our 16 year anniversary and have two beautiful boys which are our whole world. Ryan was self employed as he comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. Melissa started her professional career in banking. After several years in banking and two different large banks she was feeling unfulfilled. Ryan encouraged and saw the potential in Melissa opening her own tanning salon. We opened our first tanning salon across the river in the neighboring town of Angels Camp. One we didn't want to compete with the current tanning salon in town that Melissa had a relationship with and two our hometown was flooded with tanning salons at the time. April 2007 our flagship store was born. With our first store we wanted to set the bar high to create an industry standard and hopefully keep other salons from popping up. Our focus was excellent customer service, multi level tanning options with a focus on pristine cleanliness. We survived a recession in 2008-2010.
In 2019 Melissa was approached about purchasing used tanning equipment. We didn't have a need for any used equipment as our salon was still new and full. Come to find out the salon in the town not too far from us of Valley Springs was closed and they were trying to liquidate. The salon Bronze Lounge was opened just a few years prior to ours and used the same tanning bed distributor as we had. We were familiar with the layout and brand of tanning beds. Melissa was very comfortable with her current business and wasn't feeling confident about branching into a multi salon owner. Ryan gently pushed her into just going to check it out. She was still very hesitant after taking a look at the salon. It had been closed for several months. Could we do this? Have two salons? While Ryan was running his business and having two busy boys. Ryan assured Melissa she was absolutely capable and so we made an offer to purchase the equipment. We opened our second salon on April 29, 2019. We turned the Bronze Lounge into SUNsual Tanning Valley Springs. The former clients were so happy to have us and loved the reputation we brought with being a successful tanning salon. March 2020 hit and we were hit with covid shut downs. How could this be happening? Could we survive closures during our very small busy season. Our clients showed up and with the encouragement grew our tanning business by adding in a clothing boutique in August of 2020. Living in a small town we do not have a lot of options for shopping. Melissa posts live try on sessions and clothing has been a wonderfully, fun addition.
Our two salons were thriving. We were seeing a greater pull of clients visiting our Angels Camp salon from our hometown of Sonora. Our social media presence was very great and friends and family from our hometown really wanted us to bring SUNsual home. In October 2021 we started shopping for space to bring SUNsual home. We landed at the perfect place at Sonora Sports and Fitness located in East Sonora. Got our keys March 1, 2022. We quickly got to work to bring SUNsual Sonora home and were able to open our doors to our third and final salon on June 13, 2022. It really does feel so good to have our final salon in our sweet hometown of Sonora. We never could have done any of this without the love and support of one another and ultimately all of our amazing clients. We wouldn't be here without any of YOU. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you. Remember SUNsual Tanning for salons near me.
Much love from our family toy ours,
Ryan, Melissa, Cameron and Corbin
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