Steve Underhill

Every time I visit a market and tour the existing salons I am amazed. So many sub standard salons everywhere. Don't loose hope. Just remember that tanners are looking for the best tanning experience not the best tan. Once you raise the bar for what tanner expect they can't go back to the substandard salons. You end up with a lot of struggling salons that blame their failure on the industry when in fact they are 100% responsible for failing. These are the salons that there are too many of. If you look at this situation it makes it great for the salon owners that understand, proper location, packaging, marketing and advertising, these salons will succeed 100% of the time.

Brandy1

Well, don't you have to have money to do that? I have already invested too much money into this. Now every time I turn around I have to deal with the 'new money' of the other salons. I will lose business at first because people like to try the 'new guy'. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't. And I know you are trying to do business on your own with consulting, but you are blaming the salon owners. And it's not entirely the salon owners fault. You can have the fanciest salon in town and still struggle.

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Steve Underhill

Brandy this is an excellent question. To start you never want to be under-funded. When designing your salon after you have identified the best location it is time to work on the packaging of your salon. Design your space to have large comfortable rooms. Show some attention to detail and comfort in the restroom. A large enough lobby without wasting space. Avoid things sitting around that creating cleaning or potential damage to the walls problems. Look like a national chain even though you are not. Integrated seating in the rooms instead of chairs. Closed circuit sound systems so you can control what the tanners hear. Lobby signage that identifies your equipment and pricing program. Proper equipment mixes. Displays that create a buying environment instead of a selling environment. Color and textures throughout that lobby and salon that make the tanner say WOW. Always keep the salon looking the way it does the day it opens year after year. Carefully trained employees that meet and greet the tanners every time with the same enthusiasm and create lasting relationships with the tanners. Employee training meetings regularly that teach sales technique, not salon procedure. employee training manuals that teach procedure. Properly train employees before they are left alone. Your pricing should be very carefully calculated to control the tanners spending. Consistently advertise sending the proper message at the proper times of the year. Email, Radio, Direct mail used properly with the appropriate message each time is very important. All of these things coordinated like a well oiled machine will get you all there is to get. You must remember that every thing you do will have a positive or negative effect on business, never neutral. Not doing something that you should be doing will always have a negative effect. Have I painted a picture of your salon and your operating procedures. If i have, you are operating a successful salon. If you can't enter the market this way it will be difficult to compete and always maximize your potential income. This is a very broad stroke description of a successful salon model but I think you get my point. There are so many little things that also go into your success. Example. A lot of lotions leave your salon. They should all have a small label with your salon logo name address phone number and a line that reads. Return this empty bottle for a % discount off your next bottle of lotion. Small thing but effective. Every thing makes a difference. The right special at the right time.

Brandy1

But you can't keep competeting with unlimited funds. And by that I mean if someone new buys the salon down the street, then there is new money. And then they sell it to so and so and then another salon opens new and then they sell and so on and so on and so on. So, my point is I can't keep updating over and over, year after year. Especially when the price of beds have tripled in the past few years and the cost of wood/paint/flooring and all that isn't cheap either. And when new place and/or owners keep coming in we will lose people no matter how many coats of paint or new chairs are in my salon.
It's neverending.

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hockey92

Ok now enough of the ETS Bed phifffing........

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www.koolrayztanning.com
www.mymonavie.com/ginanewsome

Steve Underhill

If your salon is properly structured in the beginning and you always keep it looking like you just opened it and never let your equipment show any wear you can compete with any salon new or old. You are showing consistency by always being there and providing a clean fresh looking environment. You are building lasting relationships with your clients and providing service and results that can't be improved on at other salons. Women are about relationships, build those relationships. I bet you have a nail tech or hair dresser that you always go to no matter how many other nail techs and hair dressers pop up. If you have a solid plan and you are carrying it out consistently you should not worry about the competition, they must worry about you. There are enough tanners out there for everyone it is up to you to draw them and hold them with consistent contact. How often do you send a $10 coupon to your clients by email thanking them for tanning with you and rewarding them for doing so?

Steve Underhill

If you have the tanners name, address phone number and email address as well as an ongoing relationship, you have an upper hand over a new salon owner that is trying to build that. the reality is that most new salons are going into markets where existing salons are falling short with all of these elements. Keep the playing field tilted in your direction or at least level and you will do well. The minute you allow the competition to tilt the playing field away from you, that's when the problems start. Getting tanners is easy, keeping tanners is easy, getting tanners back after you have lost them is almost impossible. Just because a tanner may try another salon you have not lost them.

NewOwner

Steve you truly know your business and I applaud you for taking the time to write as much as you do but I think I could sum it up for you a little easier. I'll take a shot. HEY BRANDY ... IT'S CALLED COMPETITION AND IT'S THE AMERICAN WAY! Be better than your competition new or old and you will succeed. If you want a monopoly you are in the wrong country. I don't know you and certainly don't want to offend you but you why should anyone choose not to open a tanning salon simply because you don't want to share your customers? Even worse, stop assuming that a new salon owner will be any less of an operator than a current one. Just because we are new to tanning doesn't mean we are new to business. In my case, this is my wife's venture. Personally, I run a 750 seat restaurant with sales exceeding 5.5 million dollar's a year and every other day one of the newer restaurant's around me runs a ridiculous promotion or special to compete with me. Guess I should put a sign up asking people to stop putting up restaurant's withing a 5 mile radius of me. I don't want any hard feelings but the fact that people have taken the time to even find this site let alone post questions and read comments should show you that they are serious about being successful. Of course, that' s exactly what you don't want it seems!

Brandy1

You are missing my point complely. As a business person I would not go into a city that already has 10 salons. I would want to try to come up with something different. It not only will hurt my business but it will not be good business for them either. Plus restaurants are different. Everybody eats. Not everybody tans.
Calm down. I wan't attacking you or your decision to open a tanning salon. Just trying to put my two cents out there that the market is getting saturated for such a small percentage of people who tan. IN MOST AREAS. This might not pertain to you either. I don't know what your situation is. So chill on the Brandy hating.

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Brandy1

And Steve is a professional consultant. NOT a salon owner. What he says makes sense, but it isn't always reality. And Steve is a great guy. He put together my stand up booth about 5 years ago. He is smart and if I were starting new in the business there would be nobody else I would trust. Anybody who hires him has already made a great choice in getting started in this business.

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