Sandman

Morning All:
About to sign a 3 yr lease on premiun property. 1410 sq ft. Plan to open with 9 beds. 4base(28/100/20min) 3mid(34/3/VLR/15min) and 2top (160/4-500watt facials/12min)Leasing equipment. Will pay for everything else and have emergency stash. I will need to bring in 8000.00 a month to operate comfortably and live in a home instead of a box and drive a car instead of ride the bus.
Some info: Beach town of 45,000. Very affluent area. Large Designer Mall with 120 stores that employs some 1000 women and men ages 18-50 located just 1 mile from shop location. Also large Gold's gym at 1/2 mile. Closest competition is 4.5 miles with 4 ETS beds in a hair salon. Next is 6miles away and ETS also. Only actual "tanning salon" around is about 8 miles away.
All of the research has been fun and a great experience but all of the sudden I am scared sh..less at the thought of doing this. Do you think I can generate the #'s. $8000.00mo=$310.00 a day roughly on a 6 day work week. All of the sudden it seems like a lot. Think I can make it? All comments welcome and appreciated. Any suggestions on pricing thoes beds?
Sandman

ellas14

Do you need to make 8000.00 to break even on the salon or to pay your home and car payment also? What ever it is plan on opening on Sunday and you work, and plan on having maybe one bed cleaner and you or someone that is not getting paid at the desk that can SALE. Also do the cheapest advertising possible with the gym and the local areas around you. You may also want to cut down the amount of units you are buying to maybe 6. 2 lows 20 2 15 vlrs and 1 vhr. You are the jugde and grow into the joint. Everything looks like it is easy until the bills come!!!! Looks like you are going to open at a time when it will be good business just get the flaws out ASAP. Hope this helped.

Sandman

Thanks for the reply.
$8000.00 would cover the salon expenses as well as my home mortgage, insurance, car, and some crackers to eat. Sunday is definitely an option. I guess my thinking on that was I could always add Sunday on easier than I could take it back. There will be two of us working full time not on payroll.
I could lease less equipment to lower my lease payment as you suggest but do you think I could generate the needed revenue on six beds. I know that it is better to have 6 beds cranking as opposed to 9 working part time. I guess I worry about the customers having to wait, especially in a new business. Again, thanks ellas. you did help.

cutiepup

Sandman the best advice that I could give you is be sure that you have $$ in reserve in case things don't take off as soon as you think they will. We made the mistake of cutting our reserve back for advertising etc and now we really are hurting. Even tho you are going to open during the busy time you have to remember that it may seem all good but the slow time will hit you and you won't have the funds. Also keep in mind that even tho you may do advertising some of your potential clients may not find you right away. Everyday we have some new come in and say "We didn't even know you were here". And we've been open since February.
I understand your point about the Sunday hours, but maybe you could start out only being open 3-4 hours and see if your business needs more than that. Some areas do well on Sunday's others not. I'd hate for you to loose business tho not knowing.

Cutiepup-I hope I didn't ramble too much.

Tamar

Demographics sound perfect with no competition to speak of! Hit the mall with flyers, work out something for gym employees discount, open on Sunday. You'll be hard pressed to not be available all weekend. Don't underprice yourself out of fear. They will pay for good equipment. Starting with 6 might be good, but you may need to add sooner than you think. I think you are well situated to survive quite nicely. Good luck and keep us posted!