Before I get rolling and all of the tanning salon owners get fired up or insulted it is important to know that this post about tanning salons is a post with my twisted views, much like my Best Tanning Salon in Florida post was. If you are a tanning salon owner or get insulted easily than I would probably recommend exiting stage left right about now.
If anything it would be nice if this helps people looking to start a tanning business or tanning salon related business when it comes to some of the choices they might make as they design and open their new business. Anyway, enough of the foofy stuff any trying to sooth the faint hearted, let’s get down to what makes a tanning salon suck so we can all learn something new today.
10 Reasons Your Tanning Salon Sucks
- You have carpet
- You stock 3 bottles of tanning lotion
- You have membership fees
- You have a “Last tan time”
- You lack originality and copy others
- You and your staff are not nationally certified
- You don’t change your bulbs
- You don’t know your customers names
- You sit on a stool
- You never go there
Here is yet another one of those “list of 10 things” posts that I could easily turn into a list of about 50 different reasons a tanning salon would suck, these are just a few of the things that lead up to salon sucking.
Leave a comment if you would like to add more reasons as to why a tanning salon would suck, you can certainly add about 100 maintenance things to this list as well, who knows your input might help someone that wants to start a new tanning bed business. Owning a tanning salon business is honestly an amazing experience, I personally would rather own and operate my own tanning salon brand as opposed to a franchise tanning salon business.
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Twitter: alan_neville
Membership fees totally suck and am no longer a fan of franchises for the most part. How bout:
11. Unidentifiable smell.
12. No hot chicks on staff
13. Pushy staff trying to constantly sell you stuff.
14. Located in a crappy area.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Alan @ Glass Pipes, I have never been a fan of franchises, hence the reason we don’t sell them.
I have had “10 Reasons Franchises Suck” in a draft format for a while now, I have just decided to stay nice for the moment.
Twitter: BenjaminCip
Couldn’t agree less. BTW, I really like the changes you made your your blog except maybe the red characters with a gray background color on your sidebar. How did you include a Fan Page?
.-= Benjamin Cip´s last blog ..Detailed Information About The Membership Site =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Benjamin Cip, just copied the code from Facebook widgets and pasted it into a text widget.
Twitter: smartbloggerz
I nice way to tell your rival business players, why their tanning salon sux
Twitter: extremejohn
@Typhoon,
that’s not my intention.
Twitter: ShotOfCoffee
Dumb question – What’s so bad about having carpets?
.-= Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee´s last blog ..Richard Charlton’s Coffeehouse in Colonial Williamsburg =-.
@Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee,
any lotion spills, or oil, or smoothies, etc… would be stuck in the carpet = smelly
Twitter: extremejohn
@Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee, Bacteria, Foot disease, sweat and other “matter”.
Twitter: freemanlegacy
Um well I really don’t have much knowledge about tanning salons because well if you read my About page you’d understand why I don’t.
But I do agree with your tips and have some opinions about your 10 Reasons: If a person is required to take off their shoes then carpet would be a really nasty thing to have in a tanning salon. Gross. And I am often put off by a staff at any establishment that doesn’t know my name if I am a repeat customer. Shame on them, why should I return if they don’t know who I am and what my preferences are?
Great Post John!
.-= Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..I’ve Got Nothing: The Crowdsourced YouTube Video & iTunes Song =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Ms. Freeman, you are correct you can’t tan with your shoes on, well you can but the tan lines would be brutal.
Twitter: celebfickle
Even I don’t know much about tanning salons. But all the reasons you gave are pretty reasonable, well membership fees for anything totally sucks and also I agree with Alan from Glass Pipes the salons should be well located.
.-= Nehh´s last blog ..Dakota Fanning: Upcoming young talent in hollywood? =-.
11. Dirty Old Floors
12. Dirty Old Wh*
13. Greasy Beds
14. Long Term Contracts
The number one reason your tanning salon sucks…Its not an ETAS!!!!
Twitter: extremejohn
@Tracy (trackbrat on TTF), haha wow Tracy thank you for the kind words. If only EVERYONE felt the same way
I don’t tan all the time. But the salon I use when I do tan is owned by a lady I really like. I offer to buy lotion, but she finds me a sample. Then she helps me out by putting it on my back where I can’t reach real good. She has even given me free sessions (tanning, of course) at times.
Of course, I always help her when she calls with a question about whether a drug is a sun-sensitizer or not. She calls me because she knows I don’t ever mind helping.
She has a somewhat small operation, but I do not intend to ever tan anywhere else. Unless, of course, there was an Extreme Tan and Smoothies around.
.-= Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Nov 10, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is home to Norman Rockwell painting =-.
-you have a sign up fee for your memberships
-you offer low quality tanning lotions instead of the best
-your staff isn’t the one at Extreme, lol
and i totally agree with the carpet thing. i worked for salon up in NY that had carpet and it was a pain in the butt to keep looking good!!!!!
Never tanned in my life and I’m guessing I won’t start now. LOL
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..What Is Your Favorite/The Best Affiliate Marketing Forums? =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Dennis Edell, you should try it at least once. Who knows you might enjoy it or find it to be a good relaxing time for yourself away from the eveyday life stuff. Just a thought
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
@Extreme John, OK then. I’m 6’7 and approx. 400lbs…would you want me at your salon?
Twitter: stilettosportsj
Your clients have to buy minutes like a pre-paid phone card….. even VIP members.
at least that seems ridiculous to me. Been tanning for years and had never heard of such a thing until a few weeks ago. I was shocked and kinda disgusted. No way I would deal with that crap. If its a 20min bed you should be able to tan for that amount of time.
.-= Stiletto Sports Jen´s last blog ..Girl’s Guide to Basketball: The Court, The Game, The Basics =-.
lol @ the top ten list. Could could apply that to most retail outlets too
.-= matthew@franchises´s last blog ..Eden Delicious =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@matthew@franchises, so very true.
Twitter: tanninginfo
I have to agree on all of those, plus with Alan on his #13 about pushy people trying to sell stuff. Ever since the economic downturn, everywhere you go you are pushed to buy something else. Even my massage salon sometimes tries to sell me a candle or lotion as I’m exiting my massage. I don’t mind the stuff being out, but let me enjoy my blissful after massage glow without putting me into the having to say no position.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Maria @ Hot Tanning Beds, I can’t really say that the selling thing bothers me, it’s a business that needs to make money in order to survive and be able to provide service to you and other existing customers.
In this kind of economy it can mean the difference between being a business and being out of business, sadly.
I agree with all these reasons specially in winter.
.-= purva@wholesale thailand clothing´s last blog ..Baiyoke Wholesale Apparel =-.
In short, businesses in the health and fitness industry should be fresh, friendly and professional. What I mean by that is:
Fresh: Attractive, Open & Clean Environment. Unique ideas in the facility’s operation.
Friendly: Really Needs No Explanation
Professional: A Focus on Clients’ Needs.
I think all of the nasty stuff that you mentioned above are hold-overs of a time long gone, when business owners weren’t client focused. Frankly, I’m glad that time period is gone.
I am totally coming into this post late and don’t ask me how I got to this one in general, but I don’t see what was my biggest complain when I tanned.
Cold beds. Keep the place warm enough that you’re not laying on an ice cube when you first lay down. (This usually just applies to first in the morning appointments if you go to a busy place.)
I miss tanning.
After I had a skin cancer scare on my shoulder I’ve been terrified to go tanning or out in the sun without 3000 SPF sunblock on. It was the one place I could just relax. 
Twitter: extremejohn
@Heather, eeek I hate cold tanning beds, gotta warm those babies up before the doors open.
Twitter: Franchises_UK
Lol… I found your list amusing John. But surely the point about not being original is half the point with a franchise as its a replicated system. A franchise is based on the concept that a customer knows what they are going to get no matter which town they visit a franchised outlet (in theory!). But then if you have some of your own creative ideas on what would make a good salon then you are probably better off setting up on your own.
Joe
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