Almost immediately after introducing the SmartSun Therapy SST28 at one of his Haute Skin Spa & Tanning locations in Minnesota, Cole Johnson ran into a big problem.
His single unit couldn’t keep up.
“Basically, what happened is it got too successful, too fast. We’re getting to that threshold where I don’t know if we can sell more packages right now because it’s so heavily used. This is a very good problem to have, but people start getting annoyed because they have to wait or they can’t get in because it’s so busy,” Johnson says.
Since launching the SST28 in late 2025, usage has surged well beyond expectations. By integrating the service into both a $149.95 all-access membership and a $100-per-month wellness membership, the system quickly became one of the most utilized offerings in the salon.
After upgrading from more basic red light equipment to the SST28, Johnson saw red light revenue increase more than tenfold year-over-year. As of March, he was awaiting delivery of two additional units to help keep up with demand.
“I’m a numbers person because they don’t lie. I ran the numbers for the first 68 days with it just to see from the time we launched it to that time frame how much we had grown our red light services, and our revenue had increased over 10 times. This time last year, our basic red light generated maybe $800 in that two-plus months, and we’re now nearing about 10-grand in revenue for 68 days.”
What stands out isn’t just the growth—it’s the speed. The SST28 didn’t require a long ramp-up or heavy marketing investment. Demand built quickly through client experience, visible results, and word-of-mouth, with membership adoption accelerating alongside it.
“We do have a blend of both memberships and sessions. The SST created two new memberships that are dominating sales right now. We have it paired with infrared sauna in a membership, and a lot of people see value in that. We also have a premium membership that includes those and all UV. You can buy five sessions for $100 or do a membership for $100. We did that on purpose,” Johnson says.
To introduce the service, Johnson focused on creating early engagement and establishing usage habits from the start.
“One thing we did that got people so interested is we did a buy one, get two free. We sell the one session at $25. We put a time frame in there where they have to use them within 10 days because we wanted to get across the notion of you don’t just do one session. You don’t go to the gym once and get results. You don’t diet once. You have to make it a lifestyle change or pattern. That really got people into it and got people’s mindset correctly with doing it as a habit and understanding the science behind it a little bit,” he says. READ MORE