dcjjp2

Shnerez, there is a HT franchise near me and there is never anyone in there. I get alot of the clients in here (and they are like 4 miles away) because of the bait and switch techniques they use to lure people in especially for their $19.99 deal where they have one booth and over an hour wait for. The place is a joke for what you pay for. Just my opinion.

engfant

"Every privately owned salon I looked at is selling because they are doing HORRIBLY! There seem to be only a few privately owned salons holding their own and those have been around for quite a while.
It seems that the franchises have a model down pat and they follow it to keep a certain level of business flowing."

I have an idea.

You have 2 people going into tanning, Joe and Jim. Joe goes solo and Jim goes franchise. Joe spends $60K and buys a salon in process. Jim spends $400K on the franchise.

Economy tanks, both businesses suffer. NOW, Joe only sunk $60K into his salon and is able to turn over the salon MUCH EASIER cause $60K is "easier" to get than $400K. Also EVEN IF Joe just walked away from the salon taking the $60K hit it's not the end of the world.

$400K on the other hand, is HUGE. Jim is further up "sh*t's creek" than he ever thought, AND he's paying royalties that he doesn't have AND is almost FORCED to go down with the ship cause getting $400K together is not that easy ESPECIALLY for a tanning salon.

Instead of thinking about how rich and sucessful you are gunna be, think about what kind of MESS you are getting yourself into and if it's even possible to bail if necessary.

Shnerez420

WOw, that last comment surprised me....
Lets be real though... what do you get for 60k and what do you get for under 300k with a franchise?

dcjjp2

Agreed Engfant. If the economy sucks (which it does) let's face it... Both would tank. HT's all standup mentality already negates practically 1/2 of all who want to tan because of just having standups and those sunless that is like the "red-headed" stepchild of sunless. People just don't like them. Maybe look into a different franchise Planet Beach, Executive tans Hottie Body tans just not HT.

Shnerez420

Ive met with Planet Beach on numerous occassions and not only was I not impressed by them, but I was absolutely turned off by them in their management structure and in their support. They want their franchisees to answer to a 20yr old kid whos been in the business for about 2 years.
I looked into BeachBumTanning and didnt like what they had to offer.
I love what I saw about HottieBody but they are not in my area so their advertising efforts wouldnt reach my territory.
Im in the NY/NJ area and HT has their TV and radio commercials all over. And theyve got some decent coverage so that if you havent heard of HT around here than you must be living under a rock.
Any other franchises you can think of because Id still be interested in meeting with a different franchise to see wqhat they have to offer?

engfant

Quote:
On 2005-06-11 11:00:00, Shnerez420 wrote:
WOw, that last comment surprised me....
Lets be real though... what do you get for 60k and what do you get for under 300k with a franchise?



60K got me a small salon that I can handle. It gives you an idea if you even want to be in this business (working at and owning a tanning salon are 2 TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS)

Also, can you even come up with $400K? Cause a $400K investment requires about a $500K loan as you have to cover EVERYTHING for the year. You are gunna have WAY MORE BILLS than the one manned salon will ever have.

dcjjp2

Those are the only ones that I can think of. Just go to an area franchise (HT) and talk to the owner and get some insight on how they are to be with. Most on here own their own and wouldn't have it any other way. I thought about the franchise route and decided to go with my own vision. Personally I don't like the whole HT's look, feel etc... It just screams ordinary.

Jancy

I'll sell you my ET franchise title, we're preparing to take them to court on issues I won't get into here. Beaware that a franchise is NOT the way to go, don't get suckered into that route. There is nothing you can't learn on your own that a frachise can teach you. You don't need to have anybody hold your hand. It's their way or the highway. You don't want to be giving them your hard earned money for doing nothing. In a month after you open you don't need the franchise anymore. Grow up! A franchise is OK if you are living on Mommy and Daddy's money and have more money than brains, but for the rest of us who scratched our way up to own a few salons and other businesses, I'd rather have hemorrhoids than go under the management of a franchise, I'll never make that mistake again. ET was a nightmare for us from the moment we got in touch with them!

Shnerez420

What is ET?

Moses

I have a suggestion for any potential franchisee. Why not get a job managing 1 of their stores for 6 months to a year and see if they are telling you the truth. That seems a good opportunity to learn the business without putting 400k on the line. I suspect you can make as much managing a franchise in most markets as you can owning it.