sunsally

A few thoughts ---

1. When they say they would prefer an "unmanned booth", I wonder if they just mean a "personal" experience - as opposed to being hand-sprayed. Since none have seen a booth, they may be just THINKING they would want to walk in and figure it out all on their own, when actually they just want to spray in private! This of course IS the biggest advantage of the booths.

2. I still have my doubts re. idiot proof even with a great DVD. It is POSSIBLE - but is it really worth it? Once you spend money on the booth, lease the space, advertise, etc etc etc -- the cost to actually have someone STAFFING your salon is pretty minimal! Plus - how would you sell all the retail products you suggest without having someone present? Let alone prevent damage/vandalism, people "hanging out" in your salon, etc. Just can't see the "unmanned" part of your plan. Plus - I can tell you, even your "regulars" (who wouldn't think they would need to watch the DVD) can forget stuff without your "reminders". I've had people forget it ALL - everything from the hair nets to barrier creams to turning around, etc! I think if you decide to leave it unmanned, you risk the definite possibility of being the salon that 'introduces and educates" the tanners of Bergen - and then a salon or other business person putting in a booth and giving great SERVICE with it and taking away most of your market!

3. If 22102 of 110000 people in Bergen already tan, you are at double the percentage (on average) of people in the U.S.! (how do you get these numbers?). Now - how many will convert to Sunless? Well, in your current anti-tanning environment, many might. Plus, you'll pick up NEW customers - who do NOT UV tan now, but will be interested in UV-Free (probably 1/3 of my UV Free customers are that exclusively - don't ever UV tan). BUT - it is NOT as "easy" as UV tanning or tanning outdoors. They have to "stay on it" weekly or as the sunless wears off unevenly (and it will...) they can see patches of white/normal skin compared to sprayed skin. So it is either an "investment" where they stay on it weekly - or an "event tan" where they just do it occasionally. So 10-20 a day is DEFINITELY do-able, but keep in mind, they only have to come in once a week (or so), so that is really having to attract about 70-140/week. And realistically, only a small percentage of those will really be regular, weekly tanners. Let's say 25%. So then you are having to have 280-400 clients to get your 70-100/week --- minimum. Realistically, it'll be more, plus you'll want to do more than 10-20/day! But it does sound possible at your figures. Keep in mind though too - you won't have 10-20/day starting from the first day (will have to build a market), some times of year are better for tanning than others (and that holds true for sunless) etc.

BUT - still love your idea/location and think it could work! Start thinking/looking for "cross-promotions", try out those booths, get your girlfriend networking with her dermotologist contacts and keep us informed!!

Norwaytan

1: They actually mean that they would prefere to have an non personal experience, like all the unmanned UV-salons here. If they want to do spray tan now, they have to call a dermatologist and pre order a session. Im doing a market analysis now, where I ask people on the street what they prefere, and when I have all the answers I will post it here.

2: I just talked to the distributor of tha booth Im going for, and she says that she has already thought about the consept and thinks that it can be great. She will also help me produce the video so that it covers all cinds of problems that can occure. She will also help me make posters to put on the wall with ALL the info the customers need. Like beeing extra careful before special eventa and so on. The booth i`ve chosen also stops when you have to turn around, so that the customer presses a button when they are ready. To prevent damaging/vandalism and people "hanging out" i have bought a Video survailance system, plus an alarm. I can log into the video trough the internet and watch it from home also. Of course I only survailanse the room with the paying machine. As said earlyer, there is 19 UV- salons in bergen at the moment, and every one of them is unmanned. No vandalism there.

3: my number of population in Bergen was wrong.. 110 000 is the number of households. The population is 239 151. And the people between 15 and 50 years is counting 166 719. The number i found that is already sunbaking, i got from "The national buraeu of statistics" in Norway. A lot of mine friends is already UV-tanning and they also has been looking fore an alternative way to be tan. With 20 people a day my turnover is $285.324,79:)

Im working full day now to get finances and everyting in place. Next week i will try different booths but i have my favorite:)
I truly have faith in the consept...
I will keep you informed!:)

TheMagicalTouch-UK

Quote:
On 2005-04-11 13:13:00, Norwaytan wrote:
To prevent damaging/vandalism and people "hanging out" i have bought a Video survailance system, plus an alarm. I can log into the video trough the internet and watch it from home also. Of course I only survailanse the room with the paying machine.

Eeeek!!!!

Watch out for this one. You could get into really big trouble for that......;o)

Especially as most booths, located in a 'private' room will encourage the client to remove all clothing to avoid tan lines.

Out of interest, which booth have you decided to go for???

Norwaytan

Hehe...
I knew someone would react to that:) But as I said, there will be no camera in the room where the booth is located. Imagen this; You enter trough the front doors of the salon, into a room with a paying machine, a machine for the retail products, and there are two doors. This is the room that will be survailenced. The two doors goes in to the rooms with the booths in. So if someone wants to distroy/vandalise the booths, I have them on tape becaus they have to pass the camera. Plus if they rip down any of the equipment the alarm goes off to the security company.

I dont know if anyone has experiense with the booth I`ve decided on but the name is EclipseSprayBooth. Think they are made in UK. The norwegian distributor is called Naturasun. And Naturasun is located in UK too. Anyone hwo have tried the booth?

tempest

see what this world is coming to... people don't even want to be around other people these days, everything is done by machine. your cutting yourself off from healthy interaction with people.