mrsats

thanks Sundizzy, you are one of the more open posters, I saw your posts and I am
glad I am not the only one that thinks sharing info is beneficial.

If I have offended anyone with the straight forward style, I apologize, but this
has got to be the tightest lipped forum when it comes to dollars and sense (yes sense)!!
It was frustrating to read a years worth of posts, see the same darn question a 101 times
with very few straight forward answers.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggg ggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

and the sales reps, well my god, why hide... lose the nick and put the company name up if thats the
only way you are willing to post or quote a price, but dont hide and say "I own it and its fantabulous"....
everyone hates a sellin scam sam routine.

if you are a company rep.. be proud of it, state the price and deal with the issues and complaints.
I have seen a few used resellers in here step up but thats it. And the great thing about this kind
of forum is that it should be easy enough to catch a lie or help a newbie avoid an ETS meltdown if ya
know what I mean.

scoobydoo

That was quite an interesting read! I have been reading posts for several months trying to learn as much as I could before opening my salon. I thought I was the only one who wasn't "getting it". Being a newbie sucks. I agree with Mrsats..... no one wants to discuss real prices. I understand that each person will try to get their best deal, but give me a break....At least you can go to Kelly Blue Book when buying a car but where do you go when buying a bed? Thanks for posting Mrsats.... I think there are several of us who feel the same as you.

summerbreeze

What is all this garble? It was a simple question. I have Tan America beds and they are fantastic. A basic 32 lamp, 100 watts and no facials will run you about $5600ish. They are a reputable company and they are willing to work with you in all aspects. Remember, you get what you pay for! Do you consider it an investment or expense? It's that simple!

Steve Underhill

An existing salon owner will typically tell you that the equipment they purchased is the best because it is their only frame of reference. You can buy the cheapest equipment and get what you pay for with no support. You can buy quality equipment and look at all of the added values that come with that product. You should be thinking more in terms of what are the things that I should be doing to insure my success and which equipment will best support that effort. Not what is a good cheap bed, there is no such thing. Are you interested in opening a successful salon or do you just want to open a salon for as little investment as possible.

jayjay65

I think I can help here Steve:

Your question was:

Quote:Are you interested in opening a successful salon or do you just want to open a salon for as little investment as possible.


Earlier in the thread mrsats stated:

Quote:I am a research analyst by trade. The wife
would like a new salon and she will get it.

If I could be of further assistance, please let me know....


Sorry mrsats - I couldn't resist. There does seem to be a fairly high level of secrecy in here but I would imagine these guys get pummeled with the same questions over and over. Your hotheaded approach is unique and entertaining though. However, there may be something that you are overlooking. That is, there does not appear to be much opportunity in creating a sustainable competitive advantage in the industry (based on many comments that I've read) so if a particular salon owner has managed to negotiate what they think is a sweetheart deal (whether it is truly a sweetheart or not) they might be very reluctant to share that deal with others - thinking that at least temporarily they may have an advantage - and I could understand that position.

TexasTanz

So what is wrong with telling me how many customers you tanned in the first, second months and so on? You don't have to say where you are or anything else. At this point I cannot go to the bank and say I will tan 300 people each month I am open so give me 150,000! Before you guys state the same old thing...I know our situations are different, but I just want your real numbers...are you ashamed of your beginning????

I can't even pay someone like Underhill until I can prove to myself that I have a good chance of haning some of that 150,000 left in the bank at the end of year 1 and 2!!!!!

Thank you all

trusno1

texas, our 1st day. We started with 6 beds 4 reg and 2 upgrades. I had 11 people. I was scared 11 people in almost 12 hours. I had run half page ad in paper before and we were the 1st tanning only salon in town. After a month we had over 100/day had to add 2 more reg. beds. We opened in Feb. by jan. we added a second vhr. My advice- start with the minumum with room to expand. We use puretan because we spoke with a successful owner-40 miles away and she had used puretan and ets and been very happy with puretan. The owner of the company took time to call us about A/c info. We now have 14 puretan beds and are very happy with them as are our clients. Tan america would be my other choice. Puretan offers extra discount for using their beds exclusively. I would see what other salons in the area use and make sure you use something different. We decided to stay away from the beds with excessive plastic because they seem to creek more, and we know how plastic can look over long term uv exposure. With puretan and tan america you can replace the stickers and the canopy cover and the bed looks new again. I know other beds probably do as well, but those are the reasons we made our choices.

THETANMAN

mrsats.

I opened up 7 years ago with 5 Beds and the cheapest ones I could find! (Big Mistake!)
And I had to replace them 4 years into my business. If I had spent a extra $1000 per bed I would still have the original beds and alot less headaches.

SO SPEND THE EXTRA MONEY AND BUY A QUALITY BED!

Our 1st Half year (started in July)we had about 1500 customers in our database with about 800 to 900 tanning with us full time.

Its all about how you treat your customers, If you just treat them only as customers then you will never make it! Treat every customer like the are spending $100's of dollars every time they come in and KEEP YOUR TANNING SALON CLEAN! No body wants to tan in place that they think is dirty!

THETANMAN

Neon Beach

Stop your whining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve Underhill

It is not about how many people you have tanned unless you only sell sessions