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Old 05-07-2014, 02:11 PM   #11 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

Quote:
Originally Posted by peach View Post
The average tanning customer is not aware of what are new or old tanning beds. That is the area that gets me the most. Customers want performance and value. Whether the bed is new or 10 years old, they want a bed that performs. So why salon owners are obsessed with a 2014 versaspa vs a 2010 or 2012? or a Ergoline 1050 vs another top of the line HP bed that is 4-6years old. Tax purposes?
There is a distinct difference in some equipment based on age and manufacturer. There is also a difference in condition. You can't just buy any used bed. Some equipment was not good when it was new. There is a distinct difference in new and used spray booths. Spray booths are implementing improved technology and mechanics. There are a great many problems with spray booths that are being addressed as more effort is put into design.

There is not nearly as much risk buying used UV equipment as there is with spray booths.

Also Peach you do not give your tanners much credit for knowing the difference in equipment. That is something you have convinced yourself to validate how you operate and think.

based on your theory there is no difference in levels, they all tan you and that is all tanners are concerned with.
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Old 05-07-2014, 02:31 PM   #12 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

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Originally Posted by Steve Underhill View Post
There is a distinct difference in some equipment based on age and manufacturer. There is also a difference in condition. You can't just buy any used bed. Some equipment was not good when it was new. There is a distinct difference in new and used spray booths. Spray booths are implementing improved technology and mechanics. There are a great many problems with spray booths that are being addressed as more effort is put into design.

There is not nearly as much risk buying used UV equipment as there is with spray booths.

Also Peach you do not give your tanners much credit for knowing the difference in equipment. That is something you have convinced yourself to validate how you operate and think.

based on your theory there is no difference in levels, they all tan you and that is all tanners are concerned with.

You are right Steve, I do not give customers credit for knowing what I know about tanning equipment. They prove that every day in my store. They also prove it when they tan all year long at a another salon with crappy equipment.

But they do not need to be equipment experts. That is what I am there for. They expect performance AND value from my salon. They trust me for that. Could I go out and buy a 35k Ergoline 1050 Open Sun? Sure. But I'd have to charge them prices that I know most of them could not afford.

Tanners only know what they have seen and experienced. That is why the independent salon owners are being wiped out. These people go and Tan at PBT a couple of times, can't afford it, but think that all tanning salons should be and look that way. They set unrealistic expectations for customers that most independent salons cannot match. Combine that with dirt cheap prices, and that is one of the main reasons that small salons are dropping like flies.
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Old 05-07-2014, 03:39 PM   #13 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

There it is again...lower prices for spaceships driving clients away from the industry. Makes no sense to me.
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Old 05-07-2014, 05:30 PM   #14 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

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There it is again...lower prices for spaceships driving clients away from the industry. Makes no sense to me.
If there are alternatives to the spaceship salons, clients will find them. That is the problem, at the rate we are going now, in 5 years, there won't be anything but spaceship tanning salons with Airline style pricing structures. People will really begin buying all of the "old" tanning beds at dirt cheap prices, that are on the market, because of all of the defunct tanning salons, or lay in the free sun, and you will get to fight it out with PBT, STC, and Zoom over the 1% that can afford the spaceships.
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Old 05-07-2014, 05:57 PM   #15 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

Quote:
Originally Posted by peach View Post
If there are alternatives to the spaceship salons, clients will find them. That is the problem, at the rate we are going now, in 5 years, there won't be anything but spaceship tanning salons with Airline style pricing structures. People will really begin buying all of the "old" tanning beds at dirt cheap prices, that are on the market, because of all of the defunct tanning salons, or lay in the free sun, and you will get to fight it out with PBT, STC, and Zoom over the 1% that can afford the spaceships.
I'm really trying to follow you. So over time all the indys who overspent, who are doing low price EFTs, will be gone. And all the PBT/STCs will remain. What about your salon? You know, the one that keep prices REAL, who didn't buy spaceships, who did everything else the way you should. Are you still standing?

If so, then you are promoting a road map for indys to follow. If they follow it, then the future you described above will not happen.

UNLESS you are saying that there is no way to compete with PBT/STCs long term?
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Old 05-08-2014, 08:01 AM   #16 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

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Originally Posted by uts-sj View Post
I'm really trying to follow you. So over time all the indys who overspent, who are doing low price EFTs, will be gone. And all the PBT/STCs will remain. What about your salon? You know, the one that keep prices REAL, who didn't buy spaceships, who did everything else the way you should. Are you still standing?

If so, then you are promoting a road map for indys to follow. If they follow it, then the future you described above will not happen.

UNLESS you are saying that there is no way to compete with PBT/STCs long term?
Who, in this industry is following MY roadmap? Judging from the feedback I get, not many. There aren't very many of me. In my opinion, if indy's follow the advise of the "experts" they will become extinct pretty quick.

It is simple; you will either separate yourselves from the herd and be the antedote to the big box mega chains or you will imitate them and try to blend in.

Sure there are many in this industry who are tired of trying to "adapt" to changes in this industry driven by the industry's mega chains, and are getting out. I have a formula that I have used all along and it has worked to a degree, I will use it until it doesn't and then I will have a choice to make.....
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Old 05-08-2014, 12:23 PM   #17 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

Peach, I've been playing devil's advocate with you with a splash of sarcasm the last week or so, not because I disagree, but because sometimes your message is confusing.

On one hand you say set yourself apart, but on the other hand the industry is going to h*ll anyways.

On one hand you say I'm doing fine with SBTs all around me, but on the other hand you say "I'll have to make a choice."

On one hand you say low prices are killing the industry, but on the other hand you don't want to raise prices (or we have this idea of REAL pricing).

On one hand you say consultants don't know anything and every market is different, but on the other hand you complain that no one can enter the market. Well, why would anybody?

On one hand you say the ITA and ASA are a bunch of idiots, but on the other hand you don't want anybody to donate any money and expect everyone to get organized.

I hope you can see how it's hard to boil anything down to a solution .

To me, it sounds like the take home message is this:

You can set yourself apart from deep pocket, low price, spaceship salons for only so long, eventually you won't be able to compete. Combined with public sentiment and government policy and spaceship salon business models, they too will be history eventually.

So to me, there is NO solution to that scenario, so when you try to present one, it just sounds like Peach screaming the sky is falling again.
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Old 05-08-2014, 08:01 PM   #18 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

Solutions? For the industry? or for myself? I have been doing this for 22 years and will probably do it for another. As bad as things are in the industry, it is still better than punching someone else's time card. As for the tanning industry....the fishbowl gets smaller every year....I am powerless to change that.
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Old 05-09-2014, 11:21 AM   #19 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

My only comments:

#1 - I DO NOT allow personal cell phones. I don't pay these people to be on their phone. Nothing is that important, and if it is, they are allowed to have people contact them via the shop's phone.

#2 - Flexibility is the key to success.

That is all.
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Old 05-09-2014, 10:12 PM   #20 (permalink)
 
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Re: Start With The Basics

Steve's quote
"The single most distracting item for an employee is a cell phone. they should be turned off and left in a purse or designated area while at work. No other service business allows cell phones or sitting. This is not being a tyrant these should be establish rules of employment. Salon business should be conducted on the salon phone only"

Steve

Good employees can sell, clean and have their phone on. Bad employees cant regardless of the phone or not.

When an employee is at the back of the salon working alone and she gets trapped by an aggressive man she better have that cell phone in her back pocket and it better be on!

And you give this advice based on how many stores you run and how many hours you spend behind the counter Steve?????
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