DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160231

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   69 lines

TAN AND MAIL AN UNCONVENTIONAL BUSINESS UNION TAKES ADVANTAGE OF SEASONAL FLUCTUATIONS.

The manager of SunSpa tanning salon doesn't worry when business slows down in the fall.

She doesn't have time.

She's too busy gearing up for the Christmas rush at Postal Express, the packaging business she runs from the same counter where she dispenses tanning oil.

Dina Spiva manages both businesses, which are owned by the same business partners and which operate out of the same retail space. Customers can bronze their biceps and buy some bubble wrap all in one stop.

More importantly, however, the partnership is good for business.

The two companies balance out each other's business cycles, Spiva said. The tanning season heats up in spring and summer, as sun lovers build a base tan before hitting the beach. Customers stay away during the fall and winter when it's too cold to bare all.

That's why many tanning salons without other revenue sources to fall back on fail within the first two years, Spiva said. SunSpa, which opened in the Battlefield Marketplace in Great Bridge in 1995, could have suffered a similar fate.

Instead, the owners decided to add a Postal Express outlet last October. The mail and packaging industry is busiest in the months before Christmas, Spiva said. The owners, Alex Jaroshewich of Pennsylvania and John Robinson of Richmond, teamed up with a third partner, Brad Sinclair, who operated several similar enterprises in Pennsylvania.

So far, growth of the fledgling businesses has been encouraging.

``We're pleased with the numbers we had until the UPS strike,'' Sinclair said. ``We were growing at a rate of about 10 percent a month. That's going to level off, of course.''

Most combination businesses are aimed at giving consumers more choices.

Co-branded fast-food restaurants, for example, are becoming more common. KFC and Taco Bell, former Pepsico restaurants that recently were spun off into a separate company, have opened several joint operations in Hampton Roads. Across from Old Dominion University, a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop shares its digs with Dunkin Donuts.

For supermarket shoppers, Chesapeake's 3 Stores, 1 Roof, owned by Farm Fresh, combines an open-air market of flowers and produce, a Rack & Sack grocery store and Drug Store Plus.

Unions of very different businesses are rare, however.

Artist Susan Howell has combined two of her great loves, painting and massage therapy, into The Sun Therapeutic Massage and Artist Studio in downtown Norfolk. Howell treats clients in the same office space she uses to create free-lance illustrations. Howell also rents space on her days off to another massage therapist.

For Howell, combining businesses lets her pay the bills and make art at the same time.

``I didn't want to wait on tables but to create the same working environment that an artist has,'' Howell said. ``I was tired of not being able to produce my artwork.''

While Howell's massage clients appreciate viewing her work, few buy or commission artistic creations. Howell illustrates primarily for magazines and corporate or municipal sponsors.

Likewise, relatively few customers come to SunSpa/Postal Express to tan and mail letters all at once, Sinclair said. But SunSpa does provide Postal Express with free advertising. And some tanning customers later return with packages, he said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

CHARLIE MEADS

The Virginian-Pilot

Sun Spa...Postal Express...

Dina Spiva...

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