tnannie

Oh! I see. Smart thinking there Neon. :)

Steve Underhill

If your salon is on a downward path you must step back and identify what must be corrected or you will continue to slide. It wont fix itself. You should never experience a two year decrease in business. Typically when this happens you feel you must sell. You spent a lot of time and money to open this salon. It can only take some effort and additional investment to fix it and make it profitable.

cassie3

my clientel has gone down in the last two years. i live in a small town. i have a bunch of high school kids and a bunch of 28 - 45 year olds. i try to keep the salon hip for the high school kids but i also see the older crew frown when the place is packed with hyper high school kids. how do i keep both clientel happy at the same time?

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cassie3

Sandless thong

Cassie3 - my suggestion is to determine which times the high school kids are there the most and which times the adults are there the most - set those 1 or 2 hour windows as "Student discount Time" or "Loyal Tanner Time" offering a slight discount or free lotion sample to incent them to come in at scehduled times. Just a thought - where you take it is up to you.

Steve Underhill

If you are properly packaged and you are spending the appropriate amount of time with each tanner selling your services and products there is not going to be the disruption that is caused be looking like a teen hang-out. Train yourself and employees to create the proper environment.

parrot head

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. I hate to beat a dead horse, but if you have it and/or build it they will come. Don't believe what you here about college kids not having any money. We've been open a year and are located adjacent to a small college campus (about 8000 students). We built and decorated the salon, so as to appeal mainly to college age patons. It's a fun and colorful atmospere and our busy season starts in September and lasts til July. I would love to have more local , towny patrons, but I love the college crowd. They're just like family. They come with a little smile and leave with a big broad grin. A smile goes a long way.

BigLeo

did you say industry growth. that's easy. flat to negative growth. it's been that way for the last two years as the industry is flushing out over-capacity and undergoing consolidation. about a third of new salons opened in the last two years have gone out of business. you can expect the same to happen this year. high energy costs, bad weather and over-capacity are the culprits. this is a very seasonal busiess. you cannot operate under the breakeven point for more than a month or two unless you have lots of capital. those are the facts, all the big manufacturers have admitted as much. good luck to you and roll up your sleeves.

sunsally

As a general statement -- all true Big Leo.

brandx1969

Soo, what's this plan on doing it right?

BigLeo

the plan that steve underhill is talking about is whatever you need to do to revive business, slow the hemorraging, etc. unfortunately, the dynamics of the marketplace change when an industry reaches maturity. if you were to chart this it would show a few salons in year 1, with lots of clients per salon. 25 years later, you show lots of salons, with a lot less clients per salon. this results in many salons operating under their breakeven point or at a loss. add to this high energy costs, poor weather, regulation and the anti-tanning, skin cancer groups and you end up with more serious problems. we we have is an industry that is not in equilibrium. too much capacity, too few tanners per salon. lots of red ink. we are in a consolidation period where salons will go out of business. this may take several years untill we again reach equilibrium and most salons are breaking even or making a profit. gee, i hate to sound like an economist, but that's how it plays out. Leo.