going to buy a distressed salon

[JustTans23]

Well excuse me for having an opinion.

[Island Cove]

you don't have an opinion because you have nothing to base it on. you have a theory. and its wrong. thats whats wrong with people these days, they think too much what they THINK customers will think, with no proof to base it on.

hill, is there hp in that town? probably not? what a great way to set yourself apart from the rest! it would become the talk of the town! You want to own your comps customers? HP is the fastest way to do that, along with friendly service. news travels fast and when peopple hear they can be tanned in 3-5 sessions, go a full session the first time withought burning, maintain their tan 1-3 times per month, they will be walking through your doors to get their tan! Ive proved it 3 times with my salons, and have shown 3 other salons, all in completely different demographics how to do the same.

One of them is in a town, no bigger than my original location, 12,000 people (pulled his demo's) and there is another full size salon in his area! And to top it off, more than HALF the population is NATIVE they don't tan, and that town has mills shutting down like crazy, and he is finaly after being in business for 10 years with LP, he is finaly making money! I taught him pricing and he has an 818.

[theislandtan]

Originally Posted by hiii98

so are you suggesting getting one HP unit theislandtan? Or should i just get a few VHR beds? Also i'm still not sure what the advice is about the current standups.

To be up front, we are a new salon owner. We’ve owned other businesses, but never a tanning salon before this one.

With that said…

I don’t doubt my decision to buy the HP in the least. We are a smaller salon in a smaller working class area. We might be able to sell a couple of $35 HP visits, but the bed would sit unused for most part. We have had great success selling $10 member, $15 non-member, and $50 packages to the HP. The $50 was a temporary thing that included a sample lotion, water and 5 visits.

If you have room and power available I’d recommend it. I know you’re getting hammered on how your beds aren’t going to work, but our biggest bed if a 32 lamp with facials. We have one stand up. We are averaging around 75 people a day in the salon and have never had a problem with unacceptable wait times for it.

You will need a way to make the beds different. Talk to John at URI. He posts here, but mainly in the lamp section I think. He was helpful in choosing lamps from my beds that made differences the customer could feel and see. We have 3 levels, and when we purchased the salon all beds had the same lamps in them. The customer really had no reason to upgrade. Now our base beds are the least used.

I know it’s easy to get caught up in the “you need bigger and newer beds” routine, but save your money. We’ll probably buy a nice big bed next year, but that’s after we have a better understanding of the business over the entire year. Everyone harps on how bad JASON is, but turns around and tells you to buy all this expensive equipment.

In my newbie opinion, this is what I think you should do.

• Re-lamp your current beds with different types of lamps. We have velocity’s in our base beds. They are nice lamps that work well with beginners, but take a long time getting someone dark. We have beach suns in our level 2’s. Nice lamps that the tanner can feel a difference in. Level 3 has midday sun reflectors. Personally I think they are awesome. This bed had facials so it’s an easy up sell. Level 2 is easy if you let a tanner lay in it for free. They’ll feel the difference and want it.
• Clean your salon! Make it nice. Do some painting if you need to. Make each room or level a little different. Add some pictures or furniture to the rooms. Above all else, make sure it stays clean. We have a number of clients that come from nearby salons because the carpet and beds are clean. I can’t for the life of me understand why someone won’t clean their salon…
• Price accordingly to your area. I am probably the opposite of what you’ll hear here, but I price what I feel is fair. Charging $35 a visit, $99 monthly packages, or retail on lotions is not a fair price to your customers. Treat them well and give them value and they’ll continue to come back.
• Save your money. Buy a new bed when you have enough cash to pay for it. Don’t take this money out of your savings. Same goes for other items as well. We want a formostar, but we’ll probably wait till next season to buy it.

In short, use what you have for now. We did and it has saved us a bunch of money. Sure, we probably would have brought in more money off bigger equipment, but what would have been the rate of return. The risk is too great now that the season is ending and we’re not sure what the next six months will bring.
On the other hand, if you can come across a nice bed for cheap and you have the cash to pay for it I’d say buy it. My idea of cheap and everyone else’s is probably different. Cheap to me is a bed under $2500. This includes shipping…

You’re going to spend a lot more than you expect the next few months. We did any way. Had we went out and bought a bunch of new beds we’d be hurting now. As it stands, we don’t fear JASON. Worst case we burn through the stores savings, but this is something we accepted when buying a salon that had only been open a couple months. At least you have an idea on what to expect during JASON.

Once again, I’m a new salon owner with little experience in the tanning world. These are my experiences with our salon. Yours may not match. With that said, I have nothing to gain from this either.

[Island Cove]

Price accordingly to your area. I am probably the opposite of what you’ll hear here, but I price what I feel is fair. Charging $35 a visit, $99 monthly packages, or retail on lotions is not a fair price to your customers. Treat them well and give them value and they’ll continue to come back.

pricing what you think is fair to your customers is what gets people in trouble because the do not charge what is fair to their salon! price what you need to pay your bills. and don't prejudge what your customers will spend! let me tell you something. ONE HP session is equal to 6 base bed sessions. what does 6 base bed drop ins add up to? more than your asking for your HP. WAY more than YOUR asking for your HP. and no one buys the drop ins anyway, well almost know one, they buy 5-6 session package on HP . If you knew how to sell HP, you could show your customers how a $35 drop in is a great deal on HP, and its not lying to them. if you can be tanned on hp in 3-5 sessions on hp, how many base bed sessions would they have to used to equal it then? and how much lotion? on HP they will use less lotion, but they will also buy the higher end lotions too! how many times would they have to travel to your salon and use up their $4 gallon gas when using basebeds? and then they gotta start out slow and work their way up so they don't burn! Dont ever ever judge what customers will spend! YOu are leaving a ton of money on the table!

[theislandtan]

Originally Posted by Island Cove

YOu are leaving a ton of money on the table!

I don't doubt that we are leaving some money on the table. We're working to get as much of it as we can, but we don't want to run our customers off in the process. This is our first year and I understand they'll be some mistakes and a lot of learning, but the most important thing is getting customers in the door. Our HP that some think no one would use has helped with that and brought in a good chunk of money on the process.

You made some good points on selling the HP for a higher price. I appreciate that.

[SandiGirl]

Originally Posted by Island Cove

no they demand the EXACT same price! and how do you know most people aren't flippers unless you have a matress unit! they will happily become flippers when they try and see how comfortable that unit is and the increadable long lasting tan they get. and it feels like the real sun. like your lying on the beach. If you don't have this unit, don't presume what people will or will not do.

SO you charge the same for your old mattress as you do your new 360?

[SandiGirl]

This needs to be in a whole other thread. This is about hiii98 buying a salon, not another HP debate.

[hiii98]

what other items besides lotions and tans can be sold in the lobby? I was thinking about high end sun glasses...

just some brain storming ideas might be

jewelry
perfumes
hats
sandals
watches
skin products non tanning related
high end purses
cosmetics?
teeth whiteners


these are just my random thoughts... i'm sure some of these may have been tried

[JustTans23]

Originally Posted by SandiGirl

SO you charge the same for your old mattress as you do your new 360?

Obviously. DUH!!!

[theislandtan]

Originally Posted by SandiGirl

This needs to be in a whole other thread. This is about hiii98 buying a salon, not another HP debate.

Actually I think this provides good information for someone looking to buy new beds for their salon. You can pick a used mattress bed up cheaper than any bed that is being recommended here and in my opinion have a much greater return on investment.

Just because we're not following along in all the bashing and "spend lots of money" stuff doesn't mean we're not contributing.

[theislandtan]

Originally Posted by hiii98

what other items besides lotions and tans can be sold in the lobby? I was thinking about high end sun glasses...

just some brain storming ideas might be

jewelry
perfumes
hats
sandals
watches
skin products non tanning related
high end purses
cosmetics?
teeth whiteners


these are just my random thoughts... i'm sure some of these may have been tried

We're getting ready to sell Arbonne, but that is it. We didn't want to carry some of the other stuff becasue we thought it took away from the atmosphere we have. Mainly we didn't want to look like everyone else or add the clutter.

[SandiGirl]

Originally Posted by hiii98

what other items besides lotions and tans can be sold in the lobby? I was thinking about high end sun glasses...

just some brain storming ideas might be

jewelry
perfumes
hats
sandals
watches
skin products non tanning related
high end purses
cosmetics?
teeth whiteners


these are just my random thoughts... i'm sure some of these may have been tried

Choose wisely so it's not flea markety.

[JustTans23]

We're also adding Arbonne and I hear it has done well for other salons. Other things do well at certain times of the year. Now clothing or swimsuits I think would do well. We sell candles around Christmas time as well.

[Tanning Queen]

My suggestion is get into the tanning and really learn about it and sell it well. Once you start going off on other directions you lose your focus. YOu are a TANNING salon. Be one. Eventually, bring in other products that relate to tanning. Skin care, bathing suits (seasonal) etc. If you start with all of the other stuff, you will end up having alot of inventory to deal with and not being able to focus on what you are there for, tanning.

[SandiGirl]

Originally Posted by theislandtan

Actually I think this provides good information for someone looking to buy new beds for their salon. You can pick a used mattress bed up cheaper than any bed that is being recommended here and in my opinion have a much greater return on investment.

Just because we're not following along in all the bashing and "spend lots of money" stuff doesn't mean we're not contributing.

I hope you aren't meaning me.

Regardless, you and Tammy going on about your salon, your HP and your prices can be in another thread...which there are already plenty of.

[Tanning Queen]

Tammy, you just seem angry nowadays. I hope things are ok with you.


NO one is saying spend tons of money. But you really are clueless about what the beds can make and should make. You have left TONS of cash on the table. I dont think your advice is that good to someone starting out. Your bed easily could get more money and now you have to fight to get it because you priced it so low. Kinda hard to justify to your clients that were paying $10 a session that now you want $20. You lost a good $10+ per session on any deal you did...

[SandiGirl]

IF this was another thread I'd be curious what prices they're getting for their other beds if their HP is that cheap.

[Island Cove]

i think he likes you Sandi, i dought he ment you

Yes sandi I charge the same price for my old matress units as i do the 360. same tan, 3-5 sessions no matter what unit they choose. if you had 3 different VHR's but they all tanned the customer in the same amount of sessions, even if one was older, one was newer, one was a longer session, would you charge different prices? I wouldn't. they are all the same level.

[theislandtan]

Originally Posted by Tanning Queen

I dont think your advice is that good to someone starting out.

My advice may not be good for them. That is why I stated such in my post!

I think the difference between us is I currently have a salon, you don't. You should be honest with people and tell them you don't before handing out information. Do you have anything to do with the tanning industry now?

[Glowtanning530]

OK so this is totally becoming off topic I am not a mod and am so guilty of running threads off but if this will become a debate perhaps a new thread would be a good idea.

I am already lost