bbare

I recently purchased an exsisting salon. I was given the numbers on her cost of running the beds, but i would like to figure it out on my own. For example, our lay down is a vip catalina. How the heck do I figure out how much it costs me per minute to run?

kookyguy

Tree Fity!

bbare

Thats what I suspected. Seriously guys, help a newb out, is there way to determine this information?

kookyguy

Are you saying it's NOT Tree Fity?

engfant

electricity, cost to clean, wear and tear on the bed, rent on the sq footage of the tanning room, personal property tax, excise tax, tan tax

It's going to cost you between $2-20 per session depending on the tanning bed.

VIP catalina is going to be closer to $2 a tan.

sunsally

There are fixed costs - and variable costs.

For example - your rent and payroll and any loans you took out are fixed costs you have every day whether you turn the beds on or not.

The VARIABLE costs are those that go up - because you turn on the bed. Generally speaking - the cost of the electricity to fire up the unit and the amount of "wear" you use on the lamps.

Electricity costs vary from community to community - so if you want a PRECISE number you would have to do it through your local power company.

Same thing with lamps - how much you spend on lamps, how long you run them before changing to new ones -- all has an impact on the cost.

And so - to break it down to the cost per minute - is probably too precise to be practical.

However, in general........expect that a Catalina (with 32 lamps total, 160W lamps in the canopy only, and a couple of HP facials) will run you no LESS than 25 cents per tan to run and unlikely any MORE than 50 cents per tan. Probably in the 35-40 cents range. For the VARIABLE costs of electric and lamps. Not taking into account your rent, payroll or anything else.

kookyguy

Like I said...Tree Fity!

bbare

Thank you to the helpful replies. I understand the variables, I just want to figure an estimate cost per minute based on the bed. I want to encourage upgrades, but not at a loss to myself.

sunsally

If an upgrade is a loss to you then you need to re-do your pricing. If you are selling tans based on minutes you will DEFINITELY want to re-do your pricing! Minutes is the LEAST profitable way to sell tans for salon owners.

Generally speaking, depending on your equipment, you will find probably $2-5 (or more) per session would be charged between levels.

bbare

Nope, not Tree Fify. Sun Sally, we dont charge by the minute, we have 3 different levels of beds. I'm trying to figure out the upgrade cost so I don't incur a loss. I want to encourage upgrades though from one level bed to another to up average spent per customer. I have my pricing currently based on basically on the old salon's pricing. How did you figure the best cost per bed? You seem to be very knowledgable on this. I want to figure cost without variables, just running the bed cost. Do you think encouraging upgrades is a good sales technique?