Hey Everyone...

[Extreme John]

Wanted to stop in after a long absence and say hello. Missed the board and had some extra time now that the Tanning Salon can somewhat run on it's own.

For those of you that care, Extreme Tan & Smoothies opened up on April 4th and we havent done less than 150 Tans a day since, largest day was 182 Tans, and we avg around 170.

Im a stats freak

[Greenguy]

It's about time you got your tan ass back to the board

[jscott]

good to hear your biz is going good, congrats and welcome back

[Bell]

welcome back sweets...

pictures... pictures...

is the Mrs. HAPPPPPY now she has something of her own...??

~Bell

[Extreme John]

My ass is VERY tan GG, and NO you still cant see it!!!

Thanks Jscott, appreciate that.

Bell Ill do photos, I should have taken photos the night we did the 182 Tans, 2hr wait and people were just having a blast, it was wild as hell.

The Miss is always Happy, she had my daughter keeping her busy, now she has the Salon and my Daughter

Salon #2 Started being built already, My Sister in Law will be running that one for me. - It will also feature full service Ice Cream

[Fonz]

Damn John, seems like you're planning to become the #1 in Florida if it comes to tanning sallons

[Greenguy]

I have a tanning bed in my house - I tan for 3 minutes every other day, seeing as I am Irish

[Jim]

Originally posted by Greenguy
I have a tanning bed in my house - I tan for 3 minutes every other day, seeing as I am Irish

Hey John

Where does an Irish Family go on vacation?
A different bar

[Greenguy]

Oddly enough, I hate potato's

[Ramster]

Welcome back John.

170 tans a day? Damn, that sounds like a lot. Congrats.

I desperately need a tan. I'm so white I glow. When I take off my shirt my family has to put on their sunglasses.

[MrMaryLou]

Hey John good to see ya back to the posting world Hey Tanned boobhats now thats a concept

[Linkster]

Hmm - lets see - 170 tans a day - assuming they are not all Superbed sessions, thats about 1400 a month electricity
are you doing monthly pkgs or some sort of token system?

Sounds like a real good start though - hopefully it carries through to the fall - we usually lose about 50% traffic starting in late Sept but then we have no colleges nearby, so we lose a lot of that clientale.

[Extreme John]

Linkster, not sure what the avg tanning day out by you is, in this area it's in the 100 area, so we are putting a big hurtin on the competition in the area, which isnt a bad thing.

We do monthly packages between $39 & $99 a month unlimited.

We have 5 20 minute beds, all with High Preasure facial tanners, and 30 bulbs.

We have a stand up with 48 bulbs thats 12 Minutes

We have the monster in the front window 13 minutes 3 High Preasure Facial Tanners (1500 Watts each), it cooks people alive

And we have another monster 15 minute bed, 36 bulbs, 3 High Preasure facial tanners 1500 watts each as well.

The smoothies are doing great, we do Italian Ices from 6pm to Midnight.

We also have Stand Alone Facial Tanners which are doing well also.

We are selling a shit load of lotion too, most Salons around here the only employee's are the owners, we have a staff of 13 and it helps with the sales ALOT, to the point we place lotion orders daily (and the place delivers the same day - they love us.

Hey MML your right, Tan boob hats rock

Jim, I agree Irish need to be careful with the tanning and the beer might be a safer route.

[Linkster]

John - that sounds great - and definitely the lotions part - thats where the real money is - BTW - lemme know if ya ever want to go online with lotions (I have a great domain for it) - although there's a couple of those manufacturers that take a dislike to online sales

Sounds like you are going to do really well if the avg is 100 and you're already getting that many

To give you an idea - Im in a town of 25k, and there's a total of 6 salons LOL - we push the "cleanliness" by having more employees like you - and not allowing customers to clean after themselves - seen too many incidents from that way of doing things - but the other salons here are mom/pop and push low selling point ($25 monthlys) when we do the higher prices and keep things real spotlessly clean and we pull customers away from the others every day - we do an avg 100 a day this time of year - which is about double the others - plus sideline with the manual spray tans and spray on tatoos

[Extreme John]

Linkster how well do the Spray on Tats do??

Who does them, the same girl that does the Spray tanning? And is she an actual employee or is she Contracted by apointment only?

There's tons of tanning salons around me as well, one pretty much across the street (she's been there for years and years), and she has the "Cyclone" stand up which everyone seems to think they love, until they try our equiptment, plus like you we stress the cleanliness of the salon, the 16 x 16 tiles on the floor really as well as the colors make for a much cleaner feel than the brown carpet of most salons around me. I do beat her on pricing as well $39 for the unlimited month (she's at $45) with a much lower quality of bed.

We also did a large media type blitz as well, advertising just about everywhere, top Radio Station (had them out for the grand opening), Every Coupon magazine and home flyer, Adult Magzines for dancers, Weekly newspapers, and we just signed a deal for a massive billboard for the next year that should surely grab some attention. (I hope), and we will be advertising in restrooms of all the local restraunts as well.

Just trying to really brand and stick the name, logo etc. Honestly though the word of mouth response is huge, which is key for us especially with the competition. Im thinking about putting in a spray booth.

[Linkster]

Actually my partner does all of the spray tats and tans - we dont use a spray booth as unless you keep it spotless every time you use it, it will start clogging and cause runny spotty tan applications - and for the price it wasnt worth it - so we do manual spraying which is the big fad in Hollywood, because you can get a much better looking tan, no orange problems, and no streaks.

Branding is the key - and try to get yourself on the good side of the newspaper - when they run their "best of" yearly contest - get your customers to fill out copies of the ballots so you are "voted" best of the tanning salons - also look into sponsoring little league and soccer teams - it's cheap and a lot of exposure to the moms

[Extreme John]

Linkster thanks for the tip on sponsoring little leauge teams, thats a great idea

Ive waited on the spray tan stuff so I could get customer feedback, and the general feeling is that people coming in do not like the thought of someone manually tanning them, weather it be for personal reasons, bad previous experience's, etc. There's one place that has a manual spray thing going on and it's been less the lucrative for him, thats my main reason for leaning towards an automated private system, keeping it clean is a key.

[Linkster]

Yeah - the experience we had with the booth here was another salon uses one - and every prom season, we get a ton of HS girls that went over there, and need fixing - so we basically repair what the unclean booth did - its nowhere near our biggest seller, but for the layout of $400 it's paid for itself many times over - plus it can be used with a different adapter for the tats

[Extreme John]

Yeah that is pretty cool, so no issues or concerns with customers concerned with getting Nakes in front of a stranger?

[Linkster]

John, not really any problems with that - as long as they feel comfortable - and the ones that don't will wear a bathing suit just as they would in the tanning beds We get alot of people that just want their top back, front and arms/face done for proms weddings etc. (speaking of which - wedding party deals are a good way to get new customers - tell the bride that she gets free tanning if she brings in her wedding party for sessions)
Another thing that seems to work real well is the cust. referrals - give some of your better customers a "coupon card" (you can buy them at most of the tanning suppliers) where for every person they refer for a free tan(and hopefully a package and lotion sale) - the existing customer gets a free tan also - just kinda limit it to the more "upstanding customers" as you can probably see where rings of HS girls would figure out a "cool scheme" - I caught them actually stealing a pack of cards not realizing they had to be signed by an employee

[Smoothie]

HEY JOHN!!!

I have a patent pending on"Smoothie".
I been watching all these frivolous patent thins since the one on the word "sex".

Maybe we can work a deal.....






Just kidding