Looking at opening a sunless tanning salon, with a primarily subscription-based business model.
Location: campus of a large university on the west coast; it's swimsuit season year round. 55k students nearby, and I'd be located in a shopping/nightlife district that has around 4 million visitors annually.
Competition nearby: one person
airbrush salon and one mega chain that is very poorly run
Expenses: $1k/mo rent & overhead. I'd work there for "free" at first until I had enough clients to spend $4k/mo on an employee.
Equipment: 1
airbrush sunless, 2 mystic units.
Model: $32/mo subscription for weekly Mystics. $45/mo for weekly
airbrush . Walk-up $15 Mystic, $25
airbrush . May tweak this upwards to make the subscription seem like a better deal.
I'd aim to get as many subscriptions as I can and add on mystic booths as needed if I can book them.
At this model, about 140 ongoing "subscriptions" is my break-even point (with an employee), which is about 1.6 tans per hour in a typical day. Walk-ins and additional subs would be profit.
Does that sound like a reachable goal? What am I not thinking about?
Thanks!