Nail This Tan That

I am trying to find out how many customers an average tanning salon has in their database. I mean REAL customers that are either signed up on a monthly service or have been a regular tanning customer for some time.

It would also be a bonus if you stated your population within a 2-5 mile radius. I am opening another tanning salon soon and wonder if 1500 REAL customers (within 6 months) is realistic for a 13-15 bed tanning salon in a population of about 120,000 (2.5 mile radius)

Also how long do you think, or did it take you, to reach the 1500 mark?

Your impute is appreciated!

Tonka Splash

We've been open for 4 months and have under 300 in the data base. Good luck!

CAYENNE2005

859 clients in 9 months, 761 active.

Tommy

Quote:
On 2005-09-02 03:50:00, Nail This Tan That wrote:
I am trying to find out how many customers an average tanning salon has in their database. I mean REAL customers that are either signed up on a monthly service or have been a regular tanning customer for some time.

Every salon and location is different, and the question is a little touchy, but the question seems honest and is reasonable so I’ll try to help with the information you need, without giving the information you don’t (our database numbers).

Quote:
On 2005-09-02 03:50:00, Nail This Tan That wrote:
It would also be a bonus if you stated your population within a 2-5 mile radius. I am opening another tanning salon soon and wonder if 1500 REAL customers (within 6 months) is realistic for a 13-15 bed tanning salon in a population of about 120,000 (2.5 mile radius)


We also have a total population of 1200,000 but within a 3 mile radius, and when comparing tanning populations between locations it’s important to compare apples to apples, not just total populations, but populations of people who will tan.

Published industry analysis suggests that a typical tanning customer profile is white, between the age of 18 and 44, from an average household income of 50K+, living within a 3 mile radius of the salon. This profile holds up against our database and I've tested this profile on this board.

To compare tanning populations between locations I wrote a program to determine zips codes within a 3 mile radius of a particular zip code. (PM me with your zip code if you need a list.) Once I have all the zip code(s) within that radius, I run two free demographic reports from www.freedemographics.com

1) "Census Trend" 1980 to 2000" from the "Summery Report" tab
2) "Rank by Age" from the "Rank Report" tab

You can download these reports in MS-Excel format, which is what I do, and use these two reports to make an analysis.

I look at Total Population for the combined zip codes, % of White Population, % of Population within target age and % of Population with an average Household Income of 50K+. A multiplication of those figures revel your market size (of people who will tan), looking up the number competitors within the same zip codes and dividing market size by number of competitors will give you market segment.

You may have to change the way the numbers are presented in some of the reports to convert then into percentages. I look at other numbers there too, but have yet to work them into a formula.

Our Market Size is 31947 and we have 7 competitors, meaning that if all thing were equal (which there not) that each competitor in our market could expect a market segment of 3993 tanning customers. Obviously, your market segment could be way different than ours with the same total population, and the only way to find out is to run the numbers.

Quote:
On 2005-09-02 03:50:00, Nail This Tan That wrote:
Also how long do you think, or did it take you, to reach the 1500 mark?


We certainly reached that mark within three months, but here too apples to apples. We have a very good Grand Opening and aggressive marketing plan to reach our Market Segment.

Good luck, have fun.

Tom

Nail This Tan That

Tom,

Thanks for the info. Thank you everyone. Yes, we think it is going to be do able. Not only do we have a good marketing campaign but it is opening in a brand new shopping center where all the stores are opening at relatively the same time. meaning , in our opinion, that even if they were coming to the shop with intentions other than tanning, well then they will at least see our shop. We feel this is a unique opportunity to really give the salon it's best shot at the most customer exposure in the shortest time.

We have a mailer campaign that will launch just before the salon opens. Any idea how long before the salon opens should the mailers go out? I would think the optimal time would be long enough to give the customer time to come in but not too long as they might forget about the salons grand opening. We were also thinking of having a website set up to take early customers info in exchange for a pre opening discount.

YOUR THOUGHTS??

Nail This Tan That

CAYENNE? Those 859 customers how many of them are on a monthlt plan?

Nail This Tan That

CAYENNE? Those 859 customers how many of them are on a monthly plan?

numbersgame

I have a question, my wife doesn't have to work for us to pay our bills a nd have several thousand left over every month. She wants to open a tanning salon and I think she found a great location there will be over 60,ooo people living in this area in the next 24 mos with over 40,000 currently avg. income is 65,000 which is good around here and the only tanning salon within 15 minutes is inside a hair cutting facility with only two beds. All the others are way out of the way. Our rent would be $2100 a month for a 1200 Sq ft location in a new strip mall right on the main highway that includes all taxes. I have enough to pay cash for the buildout which i already have quotes for and enough to cover her expenses for 4 mos. even if no one walked in the door. plus the required down payment on 10 beds. should we go with this, we are still young 25 and i would hate to lose all our money in a very short period of time but this seems like a great opportunity! what do u think

Tommy

Quote:
On 2005-09-03 04:29:00, Nail This Tan That wrote:
We have a mailer campaign that will launch just before the salon opens. Any idea how long before the salon opens should the mailers go out? I would think the optimal time would be long enough to give the customer time to come in but not too long as they might forget about the salons grand opening. We were also thinking of having a website set up to take early customers info in exchange for a pre opening discount.

YOUR THOUGHTS??

We never had much luck with the ValPak type mail it seems our Market Segment just doesn’t go through them. A direct mail post card is ok if you can work the word free (in big, bold letters) into it. Grand Openings are used to get the attention of your Market Segment, “leave no stone un-turned” I would spend a day compiling all the ideas that have been posted on this board using the “Search” option on words/phrases like “Grand Opening”, Advertising, Marketing, and anything else run into. The TSOs here have already traveled this path and there are some good ideas squirreled away in the past posts here.

I would time the mailing to coincide with the Grand Opening. As for the web-site idea, I believe in web-sites as a part of an overall marketing/advertising strategy, but I don’t understand the value of early customer info, maybe you’ve invented something new.

Tom

Tommy

Quote:
On 2005-09-03 09:22:00, numbersgame wrote:
I have a question, my wife doesn't have to work for us to pay our bills and have several thousand left over every month. … and i would hate to lose all our money in a very short period of time but this seems like a great opportunity! what do u think


Research, research, research! The outline for demographics I posted above (in this thread) and someone also send me some reports generates by a Business Planner located at:
http://sunpowersource.com/startup-salons.html
I was impressed by this software, it’s as much a “Business Modeler” as it is a ”Business Planner”. “Business Modelers” are businesses that exist in computer model only, permitting you to run “what if” questions on the computer model and see the impact on the business. “What if” you had 6 beds instead of 10, “what if” you rent was this instead of that, “what if” you had these packages, instead of those. It has a huge number of business variables to play with and costs about $260.00, cheap when considering it’s a Modeler and Planner.

I know I’m repeating this twice in the same thread but, I would spend a day compiling all the ideas that have been posted on this board using the “Search” option on words/phrases like “Grand Opening”, Advertising, Marketing, and anything else run into. The TSOs here have already traveled this path and there are some good ideas squirreled away in the past posts here.

The point is that unknown people’s opinions on some board can be helpful, but it’s your and your wife’s money and it seems that you would want to take as few chances with as possible.

Good Luck
Tom