We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Deziree Ruhs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Deziree, thanks for joining us today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

I feel creating multiple sales funnels is one of the biggest challenges to becoming profitable in this industry. It is constantly evolving with so many platforms you need to have a presences on. The amount of content you need in different mediums counts for more than half of running a successful online business. From snackable content to how-to’s, to organic user content, to branding. It’s basically another business.

Deziree, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I was reintroduced to sunless tanning, it was at a salon party where a small group of women where invited to mingle over some cocktails and get a spray tan. I thought, yeah, I don’t think this is my thing but the cocktails where a pretty good selling point. So, I put on my baggy dark clothing, no make up and threw on my sandals to head to downtown LA for a spray tan party.

What I realize is just how much the sunless tanning industry had change, once thought of as a sticky painted, most likely a couple of shades to unnaturally dark experience, was now a all natural tanning actives, vegan, non sticky, non smelly, non orangey experience. Blown away with this new gorgeous glow and being the entrepreneur I am, I decided I wanted to seriously look into creating a brand of products.

Being a native Angeleno I grew up sun bathing, but near my 30’s I soon started to see the negative affects it was having on my skin. I had stop sun bathing or using tanning beds altogether for years and even though I have a natural olive color I still loved the look of get back from a vacation glow. This was a game changer.

SugarTan was born in Los Angeles just prior to the pandemic in 2019. It started out as a mobile spray tanning service with a handful of celebrity clients and locals looking for a VIP type spray tanning experience. Shortly thereafter as we all know the pandemic took ahold and all business had come to a screeching halt. This is when we transitioned our focus from the service side and started to launch an online presence with a range of consumer self tanning products.

What makes SugarTan different is our skincare approach to self tanning. We want to change the way you feel about sunless tanning altogether, from a stigma of bad for your skin to a part of your skincare regime. Our products are formulated with skincare in mind, with naturally derived ingredients that hydrate and illuminate the skin all while giving a fabulous bronzed glow. Taking it a step further, we developed tanning water drops that easily transform your already favorite skincare serums or lotions into a self tanner. It a revolutionary way to glow up!

We also sell to professional spray tan technicians with a similar good for your skin pro line of spray tanning solutions. Currently, we have a few locations around the US in Huntsville, AL, San Diego/Downtown LA, CA and the newest one in Chagrin Falls, OH.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

SugarTan started in 2019 around September as a mobile spray tanning service that mostly catered to celebrity clientele in Los Angeles. At the time there were no plans on becoming a brand selling products, mostly just service based with a possibility of opening a brick and mortar location down the line. As we all know now, the pandemic changed a lot of plans for everyone so instead of closing up shop since providing a service was out of the question and for an unseen amount of time, it inspired SugarTan to change direction and launch an e-commerce brand for consumers, then later a line of professional products.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

During the time of the pandemic, which completely changed the initial plan for SugarTan, there was a long down time where not much was happening as we transitioned from a service based business to a product based business. Marketing strategies changed, branding was now at the forefront and carving out a niche for what makes us different was another hurdle to overcome.

I myself had a jewelry brand for 9 years prior so I was able to take a lot of that experience and incorporate it into SugarTan, but it’s a bit different industry so there were still challenges along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sugartan.me
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/sugartan.me
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/sugartan.me
• Other: http://tiktok.com/sugartan.me