Slow......

[froglips]

Originally Posted by AlphaMale

I find adding new equipment this time of year and marketing the new toys keeps intrest up for my clients. I know that spending money when it isnt comming in is hard to justify but if you invest a little of your earnings back into the company then do it during these months.

good luck getting revenue....unless you got some kind of savings or sugardaddy...banks ain't loaning shat, and when you mention TANNING BUSINESS they end all talks...lol

[AlphaMale]

It is savings. A forced savings by taking a percentage of our profits and putting back into our investment.

[SBT 501]

Every year I think its really slow. I then pull up my spreadsheet of sales and tanners that compares each month for the last 8 years. I then realize I have a really bad memory and it's really not that bad.

[Drew]

very hard to get any new people this time of year. People start spending on Xmas in November which makes people not buy tanning even more. December will pick up a bit. 10 to 15 percent for many people

[perfecttan01]

Originally Posted by froglips

good luck getting revenue....unless you got some kind of savings or sugardaddy...banks ain't loaning shat, and when you mention TANNING BUSINESS they end all talks...lol

We've been lucky, we have only been below last year 1 month this year, and we're having to struggle to match this month.
Foot traffic is about the same, but it's so much harder getting the clients to spend.

I believe lower credit lines, less credit, lack of credit, has something to do with clients spending less.
It used to be clients would even upgrade and purchase samples on their credit card, I see more using cash.

[goldenimage]

i am running a crazy special..tan till the end of the year in my base bed for 35.00 and you get a free lotion.crazy i know...but its working...numbers are way up.traffic flow is way up which creates upgrades,lotion purchases,eyewear....been doin this for 20 years...we gota think outside the box...no lamp changes till the 1st of the year.

[perfecttan01]

Originally Posted by goldenimage

i am running a crazy special..tan till the end of the year in my base bed for 35.00 and you get a free lotion.crazy i know...but its working...numbers are way up.traffic flow is way up which creates upgrades,lotion purchases,eyewear....been doin this for 20 years...we gota think outside the box...no lamp changes till the 1st of the year.

Your numbers may be up and traffic may be up, but your profit can't be very good at those prices.
Your correct, that's a CRAZY special.

Not changing your lamps if needed is also a bad idea.

[goldenimage]

why cant profit be up?????save your lamp change till first of year..the ppa for a year is approx. 70.00.anyone who pays with cash also gets a free high pressure tan..he he..cha ching.it works.

[goldenimage]

you have to have a lost leader to bring the people in.have you ever gone to myrtle beach in the off season?cheap cheap hotel rates...hmmmmmm...i wonder why??

[perfecttan01]

Originally Posted by perfecttan01

Your numbers may be up and traffic may be up, but your profit can't be very good at those prices.
Your correct, that's a CRAZY special.

Not changing your lamps if needed is also a bad idea.

Not trying to be sarcastic but giving my opinion.
you run that crazy special to get them in the door, if you gain 200 clients you took in 7K.
3 months rent i would assume would cost you that or more, you had to pay for your lotion,,loss, the rest of your overhead has to amount to another 2 or 3 K mininum till the end of the year and that's assuming you have no employees.

I assume you are doing this to build a client base, but doing it with dead lamps.
You will not keep them when you let your quality decline, thats like saying i'll tan you cheap, but I have sucky lamps.
All your doing IMHO, is getting more clients to pas the word, don't go there, you don't get anything..

Keep your prices up, your quality up, and you would have no need for these crazy specials, you may even make some profit.

I also have been in the industry for 20 years, do you remember what you used to charge for tanning, when the overhead was a fraction of what it is today?

[perfecttan01]

Originally Posted by goldenimage

you have to have a lost leader to bring the people in.have you ever gone to myrtle beach in the off season?cheap cheap hotel rates...hmmmmmm...i wonder why??

They don't actually lower their rates in slow season, they raise them in busy season.

I have a friend that owns a motel in Daytona, we have discussed this issue.
His off season rates are actually his standard rates, as busy season comes he can sky rocket his rates due to demand.

[jordie114j]

yea but in this buisness people are stupid and always lower them thinking they'll get all the customers, we should almost double them in the busy season cause people will pay it, now you can't give it away, it's just the biz.

[perfecttan01]

87% of your client base this time of year are year round tanners.
Those clients are going to tan regardless, if you charge less, you simply get less.

[goldenimage]

by no means are the lamps dead.fixed cost are just that fixed cost no matter what your doing.not trying to build a client base,but more important,traffic flow and the committed customer till the end of the year.while they are committed you sell the xmas specials,the upgrades,the 2010 yearly special.wal mart runs crazy specials to suck you in the door for the holiday spending.there is strength in numbers.tanning will never be what it used to be as far as pricing....unless we get creative...there is good logic behind why other industries have off season rates and specials.

[perfecttan01]

Originally Posted by goldenimage

by no means are the lamps dead.fixed cost are just that fixed cost no matter what your doing.not trying to build a client base,but more important,traffic flow and the committed customer till the end of the year.while they are committed you sell the xmas specials,the upgrades,the 2010 yearly special.wal mart runs crazy specials to suck you in the door for the holiday spending.there is strength in numbers.tanning will never be what it used to be as far as pricing....unless we get creative...there is good logic behind why other industries have off season rates and specials.

What form of advertisement do you apply to make the clients aware of this crazy special?
What i'm saying is unless you got the word out heavily, how did you make all the new clients aware of it?

We also do a Christmas special, it runs about a week, we do a basket combo.
10 visit in our top level bed, a bottle of lotion, eyewear, lipbalm, and Twilight teeth $99.
Thats cheap and we sell a ton of them, then you have to factor in the cost of advertisement.
We stilll don't get a great profit from it, considering the cost.

We actually do better with gift cards.

[jordie114j]

plus most customers don't care, they just want cheap, they call on the phone to get the cheapest deal and they go there, they don't ask what kind of equiptment you have etc,

[dcjjp1]

I agree that the clients we see now are regulars that would tan anyway. Advertising in house of crazy deals is stupid as they are already clients so you've won them already. Crazy ads should be sent to perspective to drive new traffic into the salons.

[perfecttan01]

Originally Posted by perfecttan01

We've been lucky, we have only been below last year 1 month this year, and we're having to struggle to match this month.
Foot traffic is about the same, but it's so much harder getting the clients to spend.

I believe lower credit lines, less credit, lack of credit, has something to do with clients spending less.
It used to be clients would even upgrade and purchase samples on their credit card, I see more using cash.

Are any of you also noticing this changing trend in credit card spending?

[kwalker]

I'm seeing more cash but in the form of debit card...

[jordie114j]

my comp is running half price specials, i won't do it, it's a matter of principal with me, why are you even in buisness if you cut your throat so bad to get buisness, the only one who wins is the customers.