by The Cowl Editor on November 1, 2018
Features
by Malena Aylwin ’22
Providence College is full of self-made businesswomen, such as Alex Teri ‘19 and Grace Moynihan ‘21, who, in just a few months, have used their entrepreneurial spirit to create their own spray tanning businesses at PC.
Moynihan commmented on the fact that since a young age, she has always been “business-oriented” and has always had success with her “self-made” businesses.
She considers herself a very focused individual and has always loved selling things to people. This past October, while self-tanning, Moynihan realized that doing it yourself is very hard. “Just putting on self-tanner myself is probably the hardest thing.”
“All my friends would complain about what a hassle it is to self-tan,” she stated. And that is when she came up with the idea to start her business called PC Tans.
She started planning and checking her availability throughout the week and the cost of investing in equipment and materials.
“So I found time on my schedule and I decided to research a little more about it and the next thing you know I was making it a business,” said Moynihan.
At first, she started trying it out on her friends, and little by little she began to get more and more clientele.
“I just love making businesses, but I also love self-tanning. In the winter, we tend to get extremely pale, and sometimes you just want to be a shade darker or you have an event coming up and you wish you were less pale, but you know it’s a mess and a hassle doing it yourself. So that’s why I’m here.”
The business was started less than a month ago and has already grown to over 400 followers on Instagram. “It’s been almost a month, and it’s so crazy because I really didn’t think my business would get this big so fast.”
As of today, Moynihan is completely booked, saying, “Up until Senior Ring Weekend, I have about 60 people, my schedule is completely booked through these weeks and up until Senior Ring Weekend,” she said, “and I’m happy my business has jumped off so much and I’m very excited to help the girls for Senior Ring Weekend.”
Moynihan plans on continuing this up until her senior year.
Just like Moynihan, Teri has been very business-oriented since she was young. She started developing the idea of her own businesses during her junior year of high school.
“I had to take a course and then I started working at a tanning salon,” said Teri.
She took a course sponsored by Norvell, which lasted a few months. “It took a lot of training, we practiced so much,” she stated.
After that, Teri went to college and during her junior year, some friends started complaining that they needed spray tans.
“I went on Amazon, researched a little bit, and bought the whole kit.” Teri stated that she was not planning on creating a full operational business at first, saying, “I was just doing it for my friends and posting it on Instagram and slowly more and more people started reaching out to me.”
After a few months the business kept on growing. “Usually these weeks are very busy,” she said.
With Senior Ring Weekend and Halloween coming up, Teri has over 70 customers in the upcoming weeks.
Teri stated that men are welcome to make an appointment, “I’ve taken on very few boys, but all of them have loved it, so don’t be shy and book an appointment.”
“I feel like this business has made me a lot more independent because I earn money that I use to buy food and other things and at the same time makes me think twice when I buy something.”
“Also,“ Teri added, “it has taught me time-management skills and it’s way better than staying at home sitting in my bed.”
Both equally determined women have created huge businesses on campus. Follow Teri’s Instagram @notyouraveragespraytan and Moynihan’s @pc_tans, for more information.