gon2cali

I've been thinking about opening my own salon, but ran across a salon for sale. Got a quick peek today w/o the broker. Business is less than 2 years old, freestanding building, approx 1550 sq ft so a little room for expansion(?)- 11 rooms, 9 beds, busy location, decor is nice. The catch is the beds. Majority are either Sunstars or Solaris - which I've never tanned in and are regularly dissed by salon owners on all sites. Also 3 older but far from ancient Sonnenbraunes. Equipment,inventory, furniture, improvements all included in price, Low $120,000's. Any comments, opinions, HELP, greatly appreciated.

CHUNN

gon2cali,We have had great success taking over other salons. 4 takeovers to date. You may want to wait a bit. Find out why they are selling and you may be able to wait them out some and get the price down. This time of year they will begin to drain money supply and you might be in a good position. Are they about to go out of business? We took over 2 salons for NADA! We came along at the right time. One of these generates the biggest dollars per bed for us! We remodeled and bought all new Tan America beds.What all do you know about the situation?

gon2cali

According to the broker, the current owners will be leaving the state. The lease is good, no problems continuing in the location which - even though as a rule I don't care for the town - is quite attractive demographically. My first impression, upon driving up to the facility itself, was "I love it", it's a grabber visually, good signage lots of neon, really cool looking outside as well as inside. But the staff was dumb as dirt. When I asked for a tour, it was packed (this is good!), so I asked what kind of beds they had. They have "superbeds". What brand of bed? They didn't know, "they're the kind with facial tanners". I finally saw the beds and the air went out of my sails a bit. (see previous posting) Not to repeat myself, but I really don't care for the beds, but this is what the clients are using. What I could use here from all the veterans, is some advice on what I need to know about this salon before I buy. I know I want to find out more about the beds, existing warranties, and other details since I've never used this brand,(I'm a Tan America / Orbit kinda girl...) age of beds (were they previously owned??), number of bulbs, fans - I noticed they didn't have the optional fans on the beds, rather standup fans in the rooms. I'll need to know about the air conditioning, electricity, software system, etc. which is all very general info,but if there's anything specific that I should be asking about or some warning signs to watch out for, please let me know. I'm really excited about the prospect of becoming an owner, and appreciate all help in advance!!!

CHUNN

gon2cali,One thing to remember when purchasing this salon is that you will take on the LIABILITY of servicing the customers on packages that the current owner has already received payment for. Be sure to subtract the outstanding services due to the customer from any negociated sales price.

gon2cali

I never thought of that. Thanks. Any other advise is appreciated.