Turbo Girl

^^Awesome! You can do eeet! Lol

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[SIGPIC]

PlatinumTanTer

SO glad to hear you're still hanging in there and have been busy! Yay! As you probably know, save anything you can for JASON (the traditionally slow season of July - November).

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Terry

Platinum Tan & Skin Bar
The Premier Tanning Salon in San Diego

tcastagna06

Thats awesome things are picking up for you. We too are celebrating our 1 year in business and things are going great! Hard work and thinking outside the box will help you survive. We busted our butts to get this thing going and and trying to compete with the other local salons was tough but things are great now.

We are now able to have a manager and 5-6 employees, pay all of our bills and pulling a profit now.

parrot head

^^^WOW, 1 year in business and already have a manager and 5-6 employees; tell us your secret. We're in our 7th year, no manager, 2 part time employees, busting our butts, and just barely paying our bills. You spose' we could do better if I worked more then 2 hours a day? lol

gravesmc

That is GREAT!!! I don't think I will ever have a manager though. I will never be big enough. I only have 1 part time employee (8 hours/week) , and I work all 7 days of the week. You really do have to give up having a life when opening a business. No weekends relaxing at home, vacations, shopping trips, or even lunch out with friends for me for a long, long time. Funny, I've gotton so used to it, that I don't even want it anymore.

tcastagna06

Haha, yeah maybe.....


But I think location is everything as well. We are located in the Sf Bay Area so we have millions of people to draw from. The specific city we are in we have other salons in the area but we alos have 200k people and every neighboring city has at least close to 100k people, then you have the big cities. I think that makes the difference. So more people, more competition but more opportunities imho.

tcastagna06

Thats self employment for you. We have had other businesses over the years and I can tell you that self employment is always a 7 day a week job. You just find ways to re work your schedule. Even though we have employees, we still work plenty ourselves and we are always here or availible by phone. It works for us.

delany

I wouldnt say long, long time. I would say 2 years max. i cant imagine sacrificing my life to not make money longer than that.

VirginiaTan

Hang in there - I purchased a failed tanning salon concept, and rebranded/renovated and this is our third full year in business. We have increased sales by 50-60% each year. I keep up with the business, but am technically an "absentee" owner as I have a manager and don't work any of the staffed hours. I do, however take an active role in marketing, pricing/incentive planning, the financials/billpay, maintainence etc.

If you believe in the concept and don't cut corners - the clients will see the value, and the business will grow. We've brought in over 3,000 new clients since July, 2009 - and this month we are on pace to have our highest gross sales number to date. Still, I had the opportunity to carry the business and not take an income until we achieved profitability (which was right at the end of the second full year).


So hang in there - and remember, when times are tough DON'T try to skimp on marketing.

Roger

delany

hmmm...I always wondered how my sunless spa compared to other salons. I have brought in 1500 new clients, w no marketing in the first year open. This is on top of the clients I brought over from my tanning salon. And its just me doing one service at a time :) Cool deal.

I have ramped up marketing immensely since I am letting the new location as well as my current one go employee ran.