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Old 12-15-2017, 07:59 PM   #11 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Tony is correct for all the reasons he mentioned. We are thinking about doing it.
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Old 12-18-2017, 12:45 PM   #12 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony View Post
Cash is a burden, it causes employees to steal. They cant make change, they cant count. Customers get back to much or too little.

Stores with cash can get robbed. Taking cash to the bank is dangerous.
Its safer for staff and customers if you dont have cash present.

It takes employees lots of time to balance their drawers that are always off.

Taking checks is not even worth addressing.
Cash doesn't cause employees to steal poor management allows employees to steal. Lack of due diligence in managements safe guards against theft whether with cash, product, customer information or payment info falls on management, jmo,.

Fortunately in 20 years I have not had to deal with a robbery, a stolen car crashed into store yes, robbery no. The jewelry store 2 doors down a much more attractive target.

Plus that 2.5% saved by accepting cash or checks (lol) adds up over the years.


I don't want to limit my customers option of payment my competition already does this. Granted cash is used less than 10 years ago and that is ok.

Idk about your areas but do you see a lot of tanning salon robberies?? I have heard of one in 20 years and it was a former employee. Tony you have been doing this a long time before u went cashless how many times were your stores robbed? Just curious and once is too many times.....

As far as employees balancing till. Don't employ dumb employees if they can't balance the till how are they selling and explaining why a package or offer is the best value for your customers? If the till is consistently off, this falls on management.

Yesterdays sales 97% cash last 3 days 87% cash, granted this is far from the norm but those sales cost me 2.5% less than running credit.

Besides online what other business that has sales transactions under $15 doesn't accept cash?? Besides car washes??
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Old 12-18-2017, 10:11 PM   #13 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Quote:
Originally Posted by sbt501 View Post
Cash doesn't cause employees to steal poor management allows employees to steal. Lack of due diligence in managements safe guards against theft whether with cash, product, customer information or payment info falls on management, jmo,.

Fortunately in 20 years I have not had to deal with a robbery, a stolen car crashed into store yes, robbery no. The jewelry store 2 doors down a much more attractive target.

Plus that 2.5% saved by accepting cash or checks (lol) adds up over the years.


I don't want to limit my customers option of payment my competition already does this. Granted cash is used less than 10 years ago and that is ok.

Idk about your areas but do you see a lot of tanning salon robberies?? I have heard of one in 20 years and it was a former employee. Tony you have been doing this a long time before u went cashless how many times were your stores robbed? Just curious and once is too many times.....

As far as employees balancing till. Don't employ dumb employees if they can't balance the till how are they selling and explaining why a package or offer is the best value for your customers? If the till is consistently off, this falls on management.

Yesterdays sales 97% cash last 3 days 87% cash, granted this is far from the norm but those sales cost me 2.5% less than running credit.

Besides online what other business that has sales transactions under $15 doesn't accept cash?? Besides car washes??


SB you are being very naive. I have run tanning salons since 1985. I have written one POS software program and designed two. 70%+ of the features that went into Helios was to stop or slow down employee theft.

Hyperion is closer to 85% geared to defeating employee theft. GREAT management wont stop employee theft. It wont even slow it down.

I can tell you countless ways your employees are stealing from you at will right now. Yes SB at WILL. I dont care how great you think your due diligence is. It wont put a dent in deterring employee theft.

The reason for this unlimited ability to steal is primarily due to the antiquated TMAX timer commonly used in almost every salon PLUS antiquated software. Helios, Sunlync, SunTouch and TanTrack are all extremely easy to circumvent.

In 1991 I had one salon and it was robbed at gun point. In 2010 or 2011 every tanning salon in Estero FL was robbed EXCEPT for my salon. Granted robbery in tanning salons is not common like in a liquor store or convenience store, BUT if your store is robbed it is emotionally devastating for your clients and staff (yes they robbed our clients in the lobby too).

SB you have to hire your staff from the same cesspool of candidates we hire from. I think its somewhat naive to think your staff can count change better then the rest of the worlds employees. I have watched first hand how these young people struggle at McDonalds, Starbucks, Dunkin Dounuts and every other retailer i often frequent.

It was the exception if we went a full day with all drawers balanced at the end of the day. Employees commonly spent an extra 15 minutes of payroll counting down their drawers in an attempt to balance them. SB even if you have the best of the best that never make mistakes with cash they are likely stealing!

The 2.5% you "save" is costing you a boatload of money. You clearly have no idea how easy it is for an employee to steal $20, $50, $100 or more on a single shift. This is the epitome of penny wise and pound foolish.

If you are collecting 87% cash at your store then something is seriously wrong? The national average is around 25% now. All of my friends in tanning tell me that cash is a very small part of their business now.

Many airlines dont except cash anymore and there are now a few restaurant chains in NY and CA that dont except cash. The beach club I frequent does not accept cash.

I understand that not accepting cash can be counter intuitive for many salon owners. The majority is often wrong. Below is a list of of counter intuitive things I did FIRST that most salon owners back then thought was crazy and would hurt my business. Some of these seem silly now but in the 80's and 90's these things I did were considered very risky.

1) Eliminating appointments
2) Requiring fingerprint identification to verify members
3) Only using stand ups (i was actually the 2nd one to do this)
4) Eliminating cash
5) Allowing members to cancel their memberships online

There are likely more over the last 30+ years but they slip my memory now. The push back I got from my fellow salon owners was extreme in most cases.

I go to security shows for big box retailers often and their #1 concern is employee theft because of the 10/80/10 rule that is hard and fast to the loss prevention professionals i speak to at these events. The 10/80/10 rule states that 10% of your staff will steal regardless, 10% will never steal regardless BUT the 80% will stand in the balance. They can be swayed to steal or not to steal based on the perceived risk of getting caught.

Studies conducted on employees ability to work without supervision (which is almost all salon employees in tanning salons) often come to the same conclusion that about 14% of people can work without supervision. The remaining 86% simply can not work properly without supervision.

These two stats SCREAM trouble for naive salon owners. This is why I spend thousands of dollars a month developing software and timers to eliminate as much theft as possible. I have uncovered more theft schemes that I care to admit.

All of the above is why we have made the commitment to install kiosks in all our salons in 2018. It will be much easier to build our company with technology then on the back of our rapidly deteriorating society.

As salon owners we have a moral obligation to remove both the temptation and the opportunity for our employees to steal!

Last edited by Tony; 12-18-2017 at 10:20 PM.
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Old 12-19-2017, 11:14 AM   #14 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Thanks for the reply that is what i expected vs the statement that started the thread. It is thought provoking. I think your perspective and I may be wrong is based on having a large company that has many stores and hundreds of employees. In dealing with so many poor employees it has skewed your view todays young people.

I understand you think I am naive and as a single salon owner it is much easier to over see vs having many salons and hundreds of employees. The odds of getting great or even good employees is probably very difficult when hiring 20,50 or a 100 at a time vs 1 or 2.

I do know how easy it can be to steal $20,$50,$100s. in a shift. I am ashamed to admit but that was me 30 years ago so my perspective is a little different than most. Yes employees have stolen from me $, product and services over the last 20 years more so when I had multiple stores. What I have found with the pool of employees we choose from, the thieves tend to be not very smart.

The 87% cash over the weekend as I stated is not the norm. or the 100% yesterday. We are typically a little higher than your stated national average.

It is unfortunate that you, your staff and customers had to go through the trauma of a robbery. Does being cashless eliminate the possibility of your employees and customers going through that again? I think majority of thieves would not know if you are cashless until that employee says We have no cash.



I do agree with your 10/80/10 statistic. Just gotta find that good 10%.
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Old 12-19-2017, 08:52 PM   #15 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Quote:
Originally Posted by sbt501 View Post
Thanks for the reply that is what i expected vs the statement that started the thread. It is thought provoking. I think your perspective and I may be wrong is based on having a large company that has many stores and hundreds of employees. In dealing with so many poor employees it has skewed your view todays young people.

I understand you think I am naive and as a single salon owner it is much easier to over see vs having many salons and hundreds of employees. The odds of getting great or even good employees is probably very difficult when hiring 20,50 or a 100 at a time vs 1 or 2.

I do know how easy it can be to steal $20,$50,$100s. in a shift. I am ashamed to admit but that was me 30 years ago so my perspective is a little different than most. Yes employees have stolen from me $, product and services over the last 20 years more so when I had multiple stores. What I have found with the pool of employees we choose from, the thieves tend to be not very smart.

The 87% cash over the weekend as I stated is not the norm. or the 100% yesterday. We are typically a little higher than your stated national average.

It is unfortunate that you, your staff and customers had to go through the trauma of a robbery. Does being cashless eliminate the possibility of your employees and customers going through that again? I think majority of thieves would not know if you are cashless until that employee says We have no cash.


I do agree with your 10/80/10 statistic. Just gotta find that good 10%.


SB it is definately much easier to oversee 1 store versus a 100 stores. Having a 100 stores shows me a larger microcosm of employees and clients to observe. Not getting robbed is a benefit not a reason to stop taking cash. It happened 26 years ago when I owned a single salon. In fact I wrote Helios starting in 1987 to primarily eliminate employee theft that was rampant in my single salon. I had many creative ways to catch staff back then but they took hundreds or thousands of dollars before I could catch them. I do think its easier to find the good 10% for 1 store but in the end its a losing battle. Society just turns out to many morally deficient people.

My 30+ years of experience has allowed me to observe that the most trusted staff often stole the most money. I have observed ingenuous schemes devised by employees to fleece salon owners of their profits. Dishonesty is not related to IQ at all. The smarter thieves are just harder to catch which is likely why you think only the stupid staffers steal.

Sadly SB you just cant stop them from stealing in your salon. Its just too easy and the TMAX makes it all possible! If you lose only $20 a day to theft or error (you would be very blessed) that is $7200 per year in theft. It extrapolates as they gain confidence and become more greedy.

I dont want to be negative but when salons viability may hang in the balance I feel its more important to wake people up to what is happening in their salons!

Last edited by Tony; 12-19-2017 at 08:57 PM.
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Old 01-08-2018, 12:58 PM   #16 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Tony is right. the overall money and aggravation you save by not taking cash will far exceed the income you feel you are making or saving by accepting cash.

The real problem as with many forward thinking ideas is the salon owner stuck in the past with blinders on.

The good news Tony, is that there are a great many salon owners listening and will make the change.

By the way as long as you have cash changing hands your employees are stealing. They are also stealing in ways that don't involve cash.
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Old 01-09-2018, 09:52 PM   #17 (permalink)
 
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Re: Now is the time to go cashless

Steve

We run as tight a ship as possible. Hyperion software gives us unprecenedted insight along with great video and audio surveillance and employees continue to find new ways to steal or in most cases just screw the owner out of money.

If the average salon owner knew just a fraction of the crap we discover they would be mortified. When I say that employee theft/misconduct is rampant in a tanning salon that is an UNDER statement.

If you are running any available salon software with a TMAX manager timer you CANT STOP employee theft. Its likely the difference that pushes many salons out of business. Of course they have no idea that its not lack of sales that pushed them out. It was probably lack of sales PLUS lack of sales/revenue retention.

It really is dismal and sadly no one in the industry will serioulsy tackle this issue.
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