BELLATAN

i am still fairly new to the tanning biz.., openign my doors in mid june, have 175 clients, 4 beds. In june & july i averaged around 25-25 tanners a day. i am seeing a major decline this month of august with an average of 10-15 . Never any consistancy. im starting to get alittle depressed. when does it start to pick up again. i am planning on going to expo in orlando with my daughter who is my 1 and only trustworthy employee. shes only 17 but as mature as a 25-30 year old woman. my clients all praise her and our clean atmosphere. i must add that previous to me opening the doors, there was a nother tanning salon who abandoned her clients leaving them disappointed with unused tans. i completely renovated and have all new equipment and try my best to convince them to trust and give my new salona try. most do and seem very happy. any helpful advice for my situation would be higly appreciated.

Teresa

Doesn't pick back up for us till mid February.

Too Sunz

depends on where you are located, More to the north, it will pick up sooner that February

Gene

Cheer up Bellatan. I've been in this business 17 years and I still worry about slow season. It's just human to do so when you see all those unused beds. You got in late with a June open. You'll have more momentum going into 2005. Try to maximize the next season and save, save, save for the rainy days (and months).

pam

I totaly agree with Gene. Our August is always slow for the two weeks before school starts. It picks back up a little but stays pretty slow through December. The only exception for us is that the closest high school has their big prom of the year in November so that helps us through the month before that. Hang in there. Have you done a Free Tan Weekend? There are various opinions about them but they do generally get people through your door. Then have a killer 'one time' special package to keep them coming back. Good Luck!

tuscanysun

Hey Bella Tan I opened the first of May and I did the same as you in May and June. Died the middle of July and I wasn't ready for it. I only have a data base of about 240 right now. Although I am still tanning an average of 25 per day. It's hard to predict anything here. Last week we picked up and I had a few more sign up. I had two new ones sign up today. I am running all kinds of specials. Right now I have my regular beds 10 visits for $25. I am running some "tan the rest of 2004" specials. I am just trying to find something that works. I'm nervous also and I am taking one day at a time. The only thing we can say is that we will definitley know what to expect next year!!!

tropicalescape

Things have slowed down for us, but we still have a consistant flow of clients, with the exception on Sunday. We have anywhere from 30-55 clients a day. And we are having a decent amount of revenue each day, enough to pay the bills.

I truly believe it depends on your location. Everyone told me, "make sure you put money aside for the slow times", which we did, but we are making it through these slower times without having to dig into our money put aside. We will always have our little nest egg, just in case. It is good advise.

You may want to run a monthly special as we did. This month we are running buy any full size bottle of lotion and get a month tanning for $35 in the regular base bed. It did so well this month, I am extending it during September.

tigers1962

It picks up here significantly in September for the October football homecoming, then slows down until about mid January. I just had my second anniversary. I knew from working at another salon that the summer months are bad, and am always prepared for the worst. So far, so good!

JOLEE

I'm also a new salon owner this year, however I opened in January and have done quite well so far throughout the slower season, just happy I can pay the bills. I had a great season, but then again doesn't everyone? lol. But, its hard to visualize how its going to be the next few months, I can't wait to get a year under my belt so that I can more accurately predict how I will do month to month. Same here as tropicalescape, I put money aside as everyone has stated, and so far "knock on wood" haven't had to dig into it either.

Bella-I agree with Pam, if you haven't done so already, do a free tan weekend, at the same time, give a $ amount off your packages and a % off your lotions, I was amazed what mine did for me, plan to do it again on my anniversary.

One thing I did when I first was opening which was really inexpensive, was work with my closest pizza shop, and offered to put boxes together if I could tape my flyers to the top of them, they were thrilled, and I was able to reach over 1000 people in like a weekend with their deliveries...think cheap, easy advertising, i'm thinking of doing that again for the off season. (also give the pizza shop employees a discount) -just some things to share.

engfant

JOLEE that is a fantastic idea. I will be calling the greeks up the street in the near future. What did you run for an ad?

Tan that pizza eatin *** for 10% off!