trusno1

Neon, it's true. We called puretan a month after opening and needed more beds. We were and still are the only tanning only salon in town. We opened with only six beds in a town of 30,000. There had been a tanning only salon in town several years before but someone bought the property and tore the salon down to put in a drugstore. We waited a couple of years to see if they would reopen but they never did. We opened in Feb. and went from 11 people the first day, to about 150/day by the end of busy season. Puretan's program really helped. Everyone that bought the 1 year membership got 3 gift certificates for 1 free week of tanning to give to friends and though we had a few freeloaders, that is what built our client base so fast. The majority of the free weekers bought the package for themselves. I have no reason to make any of this up. I don't get my kicks by misleading people and I assumed our situation was the norm.

TANQUEEN

SOUNDS NORMAL TO ME. IF I HAD A STORE WITH ONLY 6 BEDS THE PEOPLE IN LINE WOULD NOT BE HAPPY.

nativetan

Quote:

Why dont you give us some insight on tropical rays, do you own one? what value do you get for $3900 and how do you customers like the short bed? What was its resell value when you dumped it?

enquiring tanners want to know??


I have tropical rayz beds. short beds? they are 7 feet long I dont know how big your tanners are but I've never had anyone say the beds are too short for them. Yes, they are cheap for the price but not cheaply made. I compete with sundash and sunquest, sunvision beds in my area and I have no complaints that my beds tan any less than the ones in my competition area. If I had the money to spend 10K on each base bed I would of but when you live in an area where I live and people complain about $35 a month for base beds I'm not about to spend 10-30K on a bed. And as for Sundash never tanned in them but the guy that just opened up down the street from me has their cheapest model. I have his customers coming in with very distinct lines on the sides of their body from where his beds arent tanning them. Not bashing sundash here. He bought them used he may of bought used bulbs with them so who knows why they are tanning people the way they are. But dont think I bought tropical rayz because I'm cheap. Im not cheap but you spend what you can based on the area that you are in. If people in your area dont want to spend 10-20 a session on a base bed you dont go out and spend 10-20K on a bed. I've only been open 4 month but I'll tell you this where I live at least its all about who has the lowest price not who's bed is the biggest, best, and has all the frills.
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[ This Message was edited by: mrsats on 2004-05-26 12:52 ]

Macguyver

Great thread!

Hi everyone. I'm new to this site, doing some research. My family is looking into opening up a salon as an investment in a new shopping center being built just down the road. Obviously we need as much SOLID, SPECIFIC, information as we can find before we can make any intelligent decisions about weather or not we can/should do this. In reading this particular thread, despite some realy sarcastic and/or totally uninformative comments by some, I have found some truly helpful information. I'm rapidly discovering that as yet, I still don't even know what questions to ask the 'Experts' for one thing. Heaven forbid I should ask a repetitive or open ended question, so I'll continue to plow through the hundres(thousands?) of posts AND THEN I'LL ASK! Kudos to mrsats for getting this thread started and for pushing for real, substantitive, useable, info. Same goes for you TexasTanz, keep it up.

tanrep04

I'm a lotion rep for a Maryland distributor and would be more than happy to answer any questions. please feel free to contact me

JIMJEN

I think it is a hoot that this thread keeps popping up with a new post. Quality stuff. I have nothing to add - I just wanted it at the top again.

electricparadise

Nobody has said anything about the build out cost....And it seems people (we all know who) need to know #..s So here goes ...Did my whole salon, 12units, for under $6,000.00 .that includes walls/doors(6panel)AC(3units) & wiring (that includes bringing in 3phase)washer/dryer/etc. Total cost for ALL beds including 1 HP /2 mega /8 base /1 standupw/ dressing probably under $30,000.00 . Are these figures off ? a little,but not by much.Am I making money? A little, but not much. Could I do this in a big city .....probably not. Did I answer your question ? maybe , but not by much.

geotanner

Thanks to everyone who took the time to post I just signed a lease on a recently closed salon and have talked to many!!!! dealers and it is really a hard choice to make. For awhile I thought I was on to something with the all metal verse plastic thing, but found other things like pull out ballast trays, cost of and/or ease to change acrylics and lamps, warranties or lack of when buying used, limit electricity can make, some beds allow you to put different wattage lamps in same bed some do not each rep tells her or his strong points and even some beds are all metal but not welded together.

I also have read many opinions here and other forums and it is true people can only tell what they know about what they have. Like many things in life whats good for one person may be wrong for another. Thats whats cool about the free world we can make choicesand take chances.