amctanning

I'm new to the tanning industry. I need some advise on how to pick the beds I need to purchase, ie: Number of bulbs? what kind of bulbs? wattages? what kind of Facial lamps? Tan time? etc.......
I would greatly apreciate your veteran knowledge.

DWhite6872

How big is your salon? Can you give us a little more information?

amctanning

The salon has 6 rooms. 5 of the 6 have beds in them but they are 20 year old wolff 24 bulb beds and we will be slowly replacing them over time. I would how ever like to lease 2 new beds to get started so we have a little veriety. Is this enough info? If not let me know what you need to know. Thank you

DWhite6872

what are the demographics for your area? What kind of beds does your closest competitor have in their salon? How many people are in your 1,3,5 mile radius? There are a lot of choices... depending on area...6 beds 3 "regular beds" 100 watts/no facials 2 "super beds" with facials 160's and 1 "Mega bed" 180w-200w...can you fit a stand up in the corner?

amctanning

by super beds what are you meaning? are there any particular brands that you feel are exceptional? I've looked into TanAmerica, Purtan, Heartland, and I've heard good things about Dr. Mueller beds but haven't been able to locate anything on the web about them. We have three salons that are somewhat close to us. They all have wolff tanning systems, two of them have no facial lamps in their beds. They are all atleast fiteen minute beds. We are very interested in having a stand up bed. Do you feel that a stand up bed would be more benefical than a "mega bed"? this would put us at, 3 reg beds, 2 super beds and one stand up. Thanks again for all your help!

Neon Beach

Regular beds ~ perhaps 28 to 32 lamp
Superbed (depending on a person def.) ~ 40+ lamps

As for a stand-up, I would get one if the competition has them. Not the same unit though.

DWhite6872

I like Tan America, Ultra Sun, UWE, ETS, Heartland, Future Industries....it depends on each level...I would rather have a 180-200W bed "mega" as your big bed....I would pick either the sungate from Future Industries or the S Class from UWE or the Sunscape from ETS....Heartland has a new bed in this category..but its the first year for it...so I would wait... you have limited space so....pick a bed for your salon that will be your "draw"....I like S Class, Sungate, and Sunscape....the super category, or regular beds....there are a lot of options...

sunsally

Lvl 1 - 30-32 lamps, no facials. Want something that will hold up well over time, give a "good" tan, but nothing too spectacular so that they never have a reason to move off the base bed! With a 6 bed salon, 3 would be these.

While this differs from what has been "typical" for many bed companies and much of the industry, I would NEVER put anything but a 15 minute bed as a base bed! 20 minutes - whether tanning or waiting for a bed to open --- feels like a half hour. 15 minutes feels like 15 minutes. It's goofy, but customers really agree!

But even more importantly, from a revenue standpoint, putting in 15 minute beds rather than 20 minutes is like buying 3 and getting 1 free! They are typically the same price, but you can see that many more customers per day/week/month/year to drive that much more revenue. With cleaning time, figuring on full sessions, can tan 3/hour in a 15 minute bed or 12 in 4 hours. In the same 4 hours, can tan only 9 in a 20 minute bed (5 minutes cleaning/down time between each session). In a 12 hour day, that is 36 vs. 27 or 9 more tans. In a week - 9x7 or 63 more tans. In a month -- 250 more tans. I can go on! Even if you are only getting $2/tan on average, you can see how it can add up!

Lvl 2 - Usually 20 lamps. Typically 100/120 Watt in the bench, and 160/170 watt in the canopy ("extra" in the top gives more results for the face/arms/front where we want to see the color). Sometimes facial lamps. I prefer a 15 minute bed here too. 2 of these.

Lvl 3 - the "big gun". 160's all around, big "presence" (looks more substantial than the others), facials, etc. Normally 12-15 minutes. Personally, I believe that you get your best results from a 15 minute bed (the faster you go, the more UVB you are introducing), but many like to go to a 12 minute and call it their "high speed" bed. I wouldn't go to an 8 or 10 minute bed - results won't be there (my opinion) and higher UVB will make it more difficult for more clients to use.

I would only have a stand-up if you have 10 or more rooms or if it is REALLY well-accepted/used in your market (some are). Generally the least used bed in a salon. Yes - you will turn away a SMALL number of tanners who say "I only like a stand-up bed" but in a small salon, you will more than make-up for that revenue with the number of people you will run through your lay-down bed taking up the same room instead!

sunsally

Oops - don't know how to "edit", but for Level 2 I said "usually 20 lamps". I meant 40. 20 top/20 bottom.

By the way - with you having only 24 lamp 20 year old Wolff beds now, I would strongly recommend replacing them immediately, not "slowly over time"!! These really aren't competitive for a base bed anymore, and in my opinion, you will be shooting yourself in the foot to spend time and money trying to get people to your "new and improved" salon and have them find new decorations and owner, but same equipment. They will think "oh - same ol', same ol'" and not come back. You will have missed a golden opportunity and lose any "buzz" you might have gotten from being the "new salon in town". You know the phrase "You don't get a second chance to make a first impression".

If your choice is Pergo floors now but same beds, or steam clean the old carpet now and improve beds, you HAVE to go with improving your equipment! You can explain that you will be "remodeling" this summer/fall after the slow season. And this will give you a chance to biuld excitement a SECOND time about your "new salon" NEXT season!

If you get the TIPPITY TOP-of-the-line beds, you are looking at "only" 60K for 3 base beds, 2 40 lamp and 1 "big bed". If you aren't willing to make this investment in the business, it isn't going to survive. If you do, you will make that up and more in the first 18 months or less.

My opinion - and experience.

amctanning

We are thinking about getting two new base beds as well as getting a stand up bed. This giving us three new beds, while keeping three of the older beds. This way we can still afford to do some minor repairs that must be done (flooring mainly). Then working in three newer beds as time goes on (probably one more base bed and 2 more level 2 beds) then in our off season we will do the rest of the "face lift" on the place. The main reason why were are looking at purchasing this place is because of cost. Yes we will have to buy all new beds, but the walls, plumbing and HVAC, computer, computer system, etc...are already there as well as some clients. If we looked at opening up from scratch we would need to have the wiring, walls, plumbing etc put up first before we could even start all of this costing more than we can deal with at the moment.