Michelle N

Just an FYI - the reason for the sale by September is possibly because the slowest months of the year are still ahead for us. July - November, but I see the slowest in September myself.

Eagletan

I just want to add my 2 cents. I purchased my salon last year from an owner who had it less than a year, it had one other owner before that and its 5 years old. If i did my research and read all these posts about buying a salon i would of never bought it. That being said there are some salons out there for sale that need new owners the problem is it takes a lot of work (Long days lots of hours) for you to be sucsessfull. If came on here and gave the numbers i was given ( and they were inflated by previous owner selling pkgs and lotions to phantom people and old customers when they knew they wanted to sell) everone would tell me i'm crazy. but i have doubled the traffic comming through this 8 room salon (jan 10 to aug 11/10 they had 7,377 tanners we have so far 15,281 and so far to date did 30.000 more in sales and no sunless tanning yet. one of the reason for this is i'm a full time owner (they were not) with 2 pt employees at about 18hrs wk slow season and three during busy season about 35 total for all three. People are tanning... sorry for the long post.

delany

eagletan...have you lost any competition as of late to help your numbers?

Eagletan

That's funny you ask, i was talking to someone the other day about that but no the same 3 salons are still around, the same one's that have been in this area. There's 3 tanning salons 3 gyms that offer tanning within a few miles.

gringo1

Eagletan,

other than hours, have you done anything different to get a doubling of customers? how many customers do you tan a day?

Eagletan

we did between 140 to 150 day during busy season july the avg. was 45- 50 a day and so far same pace for aug. we don't do anything crazy, i run some specials here and there (not during busy season) i price my pkgs so everyone can afford tanning. Building relationships with the customer is huge. I think another reason we get a lot of customers is from referrals friends, family, co-workers. we also get many compliments how clean the salon is and how friendly we are compared to the comp. i hear a lot of (they have newer equip. but the owner is rude and employee are stuck up) and that's what i heard of how the last owner was, never here and she wasn't the nicest person to deal with.

sunsally

I don't want to sound like I am raining on your parade - good job and keep it up! Doubling tans on a salon that has been around 6 years already is great and 140-150 in season for an 8 bed salon is strong.

That said, now I would urge you to pay close attention to profitability and driving your sales numbers up even higher!

You have increased 7500 tans - but only $30,000. That is an average of $4/tan. Now - I'm not sure where they were before (e.g. maybe you made $75,000 on the first 7500 tans and then an extra 30K on the next 7500), but in general, I would be careful that while pricing packages so "everyone can afford tanning", you are also maximizing your profitability from all those door swings.


Look for ways to:

1. Increase EFT/Membership sales (keep the door swings coming - and keep the $$ coming even when they are too busy to tan)

2. Sell more product - tanning lotion, extenders, etc. A good way to do this is tie to a benefit -- e.g. get 2 free tans with the purchase of this lotion or 3 with this one (based on cost). One way has been called "Din's trick" (search it) --- if they buy a $50 bottle of lotion , they get $50 in WALK-IN value of tanning (e.g. 5 of your $10 walk in visits -- not a $50 "package)

3. ADD SUNLESS! That is an untapped source of revenue and additional customers just waiting for you!

4. Try to upgrade them (assuming you have upgrade beds available). If they buy a level 1 package, when they visit, look for ways to get them to upgrade to a Level 3 instead for a few $$ more. We do a "half price upgrades" day on Wednesday that is VERY popular -- and then they like the better stuff and tend to use it on NON-Wednesdays too! ;-)


The relationship building, cleanliness, friendliness and working hard is all great - and critical! Now work on fine tuning the selling as well -- and REALLY make the effort worth your while!

Great job -

Black Sun

Wait for him to fold, which should be soon, take over the space with a new lease...build-out in place..tanners know where you are..perfect timing for 2012 season in January..

dongal

I realize that this conversation is pretty much dead, however I would like to offer my point of view.

First of all, it is not necessary to have four employees. My husband and I own a salon that has 8 lay down and 1 stand up. And we work it EXCLUSIVELY ourselves. On slow days we split the shift of 9 - 9 and on busy days we work the full day together. We are open 7 days a week (but on only noon to 7 pm on Sunday!!!) If you work the store yourself or just have one or maybe two part timers you can reduce your overhead dramatically.

We have only been open since March and average about $3,000 per month and are doing great. Keeping overhead down makes a huge difference.

dongal

delany

You do not reduce the overhead dramatically, you still need to pay yourself. If you are working for free, you have a hobby. I do not want to work 80 plus hours a week even split between me and my spouse for free. How do you feed yourself, pay your mortgage, recoup your investment? I know it was cheaper for me to hire someone than to pay myself what I would need to survive.

One of my biggest pet peeves in this industry. The amount of people that think they are doing really well, but yet either do not pull a salary or pull a below minimum wage salary.