I have been reading the forum for about a month and think the information shared here is awesome. I have a question in regards to opening a new salon. I am currently looking at opening a salon in a town that has two other salons. Do you think that customers will frequent a newer salon with Ergoline equipmnet and a high end look over a older salon? This question assumes that the pricing will be competitive and service second to none. Also what concerns would you have if you were in the same situation? I just dont want to miss anythng, being new to the business. Thanks in advance for any input.

Wow. I hope you realize what you're asking is next to impossible to answer. No one can predict whether or not your business will be a success, there are just way too many variables. Obviously new equipment and excellent service should win every time, and though it will definitely go a long way towards helping you make money, this alone can not be an indicator of a winning combinition. It takes A LOT of things.
You say you live in a town...how small?? Maybe two salons is too many. What will you hours of operation be? Open too late and close too early and you lose customers. Will you clean the tanning beds or will you have your customers do it?? Will you keep a clean salon or maybe just clean enough??
I'm just throwing things out there that could possibly spell trouble for you even if you have the best of equipment.
If you want people to cheer you on and wish you much success, well you've probably come to the right place. Beyond that, the most I can say is GOOD LUCK:)

Randy, thanks for your reply. I am aware that there are alot of factors to running a business, this will not be my first busines. The town that I am talking about has about 40,ooo households and surrounding areas another 25,000. So although I call it a town I think the numbers are there. In regards to hours I am thinking of 9-10 M-S and 9-7 on Sunday. What i was looking for is more along the lines of. would you be comfortable with this situation or would you move on and find a town with no competition.

Town with no competition and of similiar population and revenue per household would be the way to go. I know when I opened I thought we'd be stealing clients from the competition like nuts, newer equipment, cleaner, more focus and tanning and fantastic customer service backed up with less expensive pricing, they were going down I screamed. But it didn't happen. Sure we pulled many away from them, and still are, but we ended up creating our own brand of clientele. Definintely do not count on stealing enough clients to keep you going. Go after the untanned market, keep the non-tanners who are thinking about it away from the competition.

I think you need to find something to offer the other salons don't have. Spray-ons, or special promotions that make yours a gathering place or just someplace that they really enjoy visiting. A lot of it is in the marketing.

Thanks Southerntan. I was going to wait on the spray-on tan for a little while. But after your statement, I am having second thoughts. It might make more sense to get it for the grand opening, to bring in a different client. Also gives me something to advertise different. I also agree with you on the marketing. I believe most salons fall short in this category, We have some new ideas that we will try to pump up the client base. I am also in a position to give away the store to get people in the doors to experience it. Thanks again for everyones input. Any new advice would be greatly appreciated.

One thing I have learned through other is not to buy too much equipment at first. Purchase a few beds, have rooms ready for more. This not only lowers your up-front costs but feed back from customers about beds and bed usage will help you decide on future purchases. Southerntan is right about spray tanning, its a lot cheaper to setup than a bed and its a good niche to go after. Just do your research on that too! The key factor is the solution, a good solution will give good results. We use Amber-Mist - is there somthing better? Probably, but for now we like it and our customers do too. A bad solution can make customers orange or unhappy, and in a city of 40,000 it wont take long for people to say "dont try that, it sucked". I grew up in a town that size and saw first-hand how the salons opened and closed, once you have a bad first impression in tanning it is hard to recover!

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[ This Message was edited by: unity on 2004-02-03 13:11 ]

You may want to expand on services. Offer NOT just tanning. It really helps. IMO

Eeeeeeeeeeh! Mist-on tanning is whole different clientele. Yo won't lose many to mist-on. My lotion wholesaler put a mist-on in each of his 2 salons. He is trying to sell my one, but tells me that the mist-on units do not take away from his regular UV tanners. It's extra money yes!, but does not take away from the UV revenue. He himself prefers a tanning bed. Unity is correct, I tried this guys mist-on, it was confusing at first, but after a few times you'd get it, however, I was not happy with the results, my UV tan went orange, I looked orange, felt orange and even ate an orange. Until the solution is improved, I'm not convinced that I "need" to invest that kinda bux ($60,000 CDN) to compete. My UV clients will not switch long-term.

I agree with Neon on the Mist On. I went with the airbrush system. I'm now selling it. I prefer the tanning bed as to mist on. Even if you do a great job with the application, when if starts to wear off (due to exfoliation) it looks horrible. I've been learning a lot about DHA and it is not a product that is good for your skin. Stick with good education and great lamps.