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By the time you are reading this, most salons around the country will begin heading into the peak time of the year. As we all know, 2014 was a lackluster year and I'm sure we're all glad that it's behind us. You should also know we were not the only industry that struggled last year. Retail and the restaurant business in general were soft. Iconic retailers like Sears, Toy "R" Us, Staples, Abercrombie & Fitch, Aero- postale, Barnes & Noble, Radio Shack and many others closed hundreds of stores in 2014. Yes, some of that is due to shoppers buying more products online which is itself an important lesson. But, here's some good news which bodes well for our industry: Gas prices are at historic lows, which puts more discretionary spending money in our customers' pockets. The Dow broke over 18,000 in late Decem- ber, which makes those with stock invest- ments wealthier and makes them feel more prosperous and more likely to spend. With increased consumer optimism, I predict that 2015 could be a better year if you can capitalize on it. You need to be absolutely laser focused on maximizing every opportunity to grow your business right now. I too often hear, "I'm working on doing this," "I'm going to start that," "I need to finish up a project," etc. This is no time to dilly dally. I can get somewhat distracted myself, which makes it difficult to focus on the priority projects at hand. I'm pretty sure I'm also a perfectionist, which makes me want to have something perfect before I roll it out. Despite all that, I've learned that it's best to do one thing at a time and "good is good enough" most times. Create something, test it and implement it – fast. If things work, keep doing them. Things that don't work either get tweaked and retested or die a quick death. Then, I just keep repeating this cycle. Create some marketing, implement it fast and do it again. I challenge you to think of and implement just one thing every day that would add revenue to your business. For example, try something that would bring in a new cus- tomer, increase the revenue of an existing customer or to reactivate an old custom- er. You need to be constantly filling your marketing bucket with new ways to increase revenue. If you did this for 30 days, at the end of the month you would have implemented 30 ideas. Surely, a handful of them would have given you a positive result. If so, you will have added some important and much need- ed tools to your marketing arsenal. When you start doing this it becomes positively addictive. Nothing is more fun to me than implementing a marketing idea and reaping the financial results. Of course, not everything works as expected, but that's just part of the game. The important part is doing something. Then you can perfect it with time. Ready, Fire, Aim! CONSULTANT'S CORNER 73 ❘ SMART TAN MAGAZINE ❘ MARCH 2015 WWW.SMARTTAN.COM The Road to Someday Leads to a Town Called Nowhere Grant Miller is the owner of Sun Your Buns in Erie, Pa. and is a salon marketing expert, consultant, speaker and author. For a free report on how to turn your tanning salon into a cash churning-machine, go to www.tanningsalonmarketing.com.