Before I get started with this post I want to take a quick second to welcome any first time readers to my blog. Those of you that subscribe to my rss feed and read the blog daily already know that I am somewhat of a blogging CEO, in addition to updating this blog on a daily basis I am also the owner of Extreme Tan and Smoothies a six location indoor tanning salon chain based out of Pinellas County Florida and Insane Limos an exotic limousine business.
Over the course of the last few months I started to feel like I had accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in the indoor tanning industry and tossed around the idea of selling our indoor tanning salon chain, Extreme Tan and Smoothies. I went as far as to call a few small business brokers about possibly hiring them to sell the company and placed a couple of ads online, the ads generated 10 leads and a few phone conversations. With each conversation about selling Extreme Tan and Smoothies I couldn’t help but think about the amazing customers and associates I have connected with over the last 5 years, I also started to think of a few things I still want to accomplish in indoor tanning.
All in all and for one reason or another I didn’t make any real effort to return phone calls about selling when it seemed the buyer was more serious than other potential buyers that didn’t seem as serious. I completley sucked at making any real effort to sell Extreme and found myself spending more time working on things to continue the growth of Extreme Tan and Smoothies, instead of actually trying to move forward with a sale.
North Clearwater Tanning Salon Picture
Just before the new year rang in I realized that the last two months of the year were pissed away thanks to me standing at the fork in the road trying to talk myself into doing something I clearly didn’t want to do. If my goal was to sell Extreme Tan and Smoothies and move on to do something else I would have put more effort into trying to sell the business.
I have my head out of the clouds now and my vision has never been more clear than it is right now, the days of Extreme Tan and Smoothies being considered for sale are over. Those of you that were looking forward to me getting out or Extreme being sold, sorry. To our valued customers and associates I look forward to providing you with the best tanning salon experience possible for a long time to come.
Extreme Tan and Smoothies is a family owned and operated chain of indoor tanning salons with six locations serving Pinellas County and Tampa Florida, all locations are open 8am – Midnight Monday – Friday, 9am – 9pm on Saturday and 10am – 9pm on Sunday.
Florida Tanning Salon Locations
Largo Florida Tanning Salon – 727-593-0994
Our Largo tanning salon location is located on the corner of Walsingham Rd and Indian Rocks Rd. next to the new Wal-Mart Grocery store, this salon offers super bed tanning and sunless spray tanning services by our nationally certified airbrush technicians.
Clearwater Florida Tanning Salon – 727-449-2660
Extreme Tan and Smoothies Clearwater tanning salon is located on the corner of Bel Air Rd. and Highland Ave. in the Publix shopping center, our Clearwater tanning salon offers super bed tanning, and sunless spray tanning services.
North Clearwater Tanning Salon – 727-723-2660
This Extreme Tan and Smoothies Clearwater Florida tanning salon is located on the corner of Belcher Rd. and Gulf to Bay Blvd. behind CVS and is the largest indoor tanning salon in Clearwater. Super bed tanning is available with over 5 levels of indoor tanning, or try out our sunless spray tanning services.
Seminole Florida Tanning Salon – 727-397-6755
Our Seminole Florida tanning salon is newly remodeled and features more indoor tanning lotion than ever before and even features big name sports nutrition products by the makers of Muscle Milk and more. One of the best features that we added to our Seminole tanning salon is the addition of sunless spray tanning, now you can get that same deep dark bronze glow that your use to and it’s completley uvfree tanning!
Pinellas Park Florida Tanning Salon – 727-546-2660
When it comes to Pinellas Park tanning salons the best choice is our brand new 3,000 sq.ft state-of-the-art indoor tanning facility located on the corner of Belcher Rd. and Park Blvd across the street from Sam’s Club. Our new Pinellas Park tanning salon has everything from spray tanning to high pressure super bed tanning and the best prices on indoor tanning anywhere, be sure to check out our huge product selection when you come in.
St. Petersburg Florida Tanning Salon – 727-521-2063
We remodeled our St. Petersburg tanning salon in March and added a massive line of indoor tanning lotions and our exclusive spray tanning services. Our St. Petersburg Florida tanning salon address is 5921 4th St. North across the street from Lifestyle Family Fitness, the best tanning salon in St. Petersburg is Extreme Tan and Smoothies.
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{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post. Glad to see that you have a vision.
One small error in the article, you forgot to mention
that your Clearwater location is not only in with Publix
but it is also in the same plaza with the BEST family owned pet store
in Clearwater *** PET SAFARI ** http://www.petsafari.com
Glad to see you will continue to serve Pinellas with the best
Tanning Salon around.
Make it a Super Safari Day
Twitter: extremejohn
@safaridave, you know what Dave you are exactly right. I will edit the post in a few minutes thank you
@Extreme John, You don’t have to adjust it after the fact. But if you insist, I take the free props.
Thanks John
Twitter: extremejohn
@safaridave, actually with the comments link and the posted link I think it should be good. Keep an eye out though something coming up has you in it.
Twitter: FamousBloggers
mmm.. I am not sure how this happen, but don’t sale it man.. you are tanning all Florida’s girls
keep tanning!
I suggest you expand it to Facebook Tanning :high:
.-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..Facebook Cafés from Lebanon to Bulgaria using Huge Online Brands to Promote Offline Business =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Hesham @ FamousBloggers, thank you Hesham. I have plenty of tans left in me
Twitter: lacerocks
Yay!!! You cant get rid of Extreme. Its the life, you know this. :high:
Glad to see this post. You know I was devastated when you brought this up.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Lace, I knew it bothered you bro and when the dust settles I won’t be forgetting it either
Ride or die.
Twitter: ShotOfCoffee
So let me get this straight…you’re not going to sell me ETAS for five bucks? I thought we had a deal! I was going to have fun switching them in coffee shops.
.-= Mike´s last blog ..Fresh Brews: Coffee Pranks And Coffee To The Rescue! =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Mike, no sir. Sadly for the coffee shops and a few of the others that wished I would ride off into the sunset it looks like you will just have to deal with me for a little while longer.
Twitter: ShotOfCoffee
@Extreme John, What if I tripled my offer?
.-= Mike´s last blog ..Fresh Brews: Coffee Pranks And Coffee To The Rescue! =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Mike, as tempting as that sounds Mike I am going to have to pass. :laughat:
Twitter: sangalicious1
@Mike, I can’t believe he won’t except your offer Mike, what is he thinking
Twitter: extremejohn
@sangalicious1, that Mike is out of his mind.
John that makes me feel so happy to look back at old times when i had blonde hair! I hope you never sell ETAS!!!! We love having you as our Boss!!!!
Twitter: extremejohn
@Nathan H., thank you Nathan I appreciate that. Trust me when I tell you the pleasure is all mine.
Twitter: myblog2day
Glad to see that you’re not selling them, but what make you to sell it John? Between, your company looks big and great! You know I’ve never seen any Tanning Salon in my country, haha!
Cheers,
Lee
Twitter: extremejohn
@Lee Ka Hoong@Make Money Blogging, I wouldn’t say that anything specific made me consider selling, if anything it was my own lack of creativity I guess.
Twitter: sangalicious1
Besides the great employees you have,, I love those peanut butter smoothies, yummyy!!
Nobody does charity work and has outrageous tanning specials like you buddy!
Twitter: extremejohn
@sangalicious1, thanks bro I appreciate the kind words and I would have to agree that Peanut Butter smoothie is the goods.
Twitter: alan_neville
Good for you bro. You actually brought up a great point…if you really were 100% sure you wanted to sell you’d put a big effort into it. I always feel you should never force something and let it come organically. When the day comes for you to move on you’ll wake up and know it.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Alan @ Glass Pipes, your exactly right. I typically don’t get hung up on decisions like this, I usually laugh them off and move on or act on it. The fork got the best of me for a hot minute there, but that’s done.
Twitter: zxxxt
I am pretty sure your employees will love your decision not to sell your business. You look like a very accommodating boss
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..Shopping Galore =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@ZXT, haha probably too accommodating
I hope they are happy about it, I know that I’m excited.
Keeping the chain huh? Good for you. I’m still waiting for you to expand up in to Minnesota.
Twitter: extremejohn
@The Norseman, haha not sure what chain it is but I guess I’m going to hang on to it and see if it takes me to Minnesota some day.
@Extreme John,
In a couple of years ETAS will be a household name all over the country, and I’ll be one of those that can remember it when it was just a couple of stores in Florida.
Twitter: extremejohn
@The Norseman, I hope that your right and when the day comes and there’s an Extreme Tan and Smoothies in Minnesota you will be tanning for free
@Extreme John,
Sounds like motivation for me to help you expand ASAP.
Keeping the chain huh? Good for you. I’m still waiting for you to open up a store here in Minnesota.
As long as you still have goals for the business, you would be a madman to sell it. Especially if it is still making money. Not to mention all the hot chick pix you get to post on the blog.
.-= Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Jan 10, Norman Rockwell The Dugout, Saturday Evening Post Cover =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Keith@Norman Rockwell Art, I can be a madman at times so anything is possible haha. As for the hot chicks that I post on the blog, selling wouldn’t have changed that
No need to sell! Glad to hear you are keeping it, I will look you up next time I am in Pinellas (have family in Largo).
.-= Keith@Need Information´s last blog ..Add Multiple Feeds to Facebook Fan Page =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Keith@Need Information, thanks Keith. It’s a small world huh.
There is a saying “Behavior never lies.” You demonstrated that by recognizing that you actions said you didn’t want to sell.
Sometimes making a decision or taking an action makes us realize what the right path really is.
.-= Ned Carey´s last blog ..1099s Are Due! Have You Sent Yours Out? =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Ned Carey, very true Ned and who knows this might not even be the right path, it’s just the path that I am willing to focus all of my energy on.
@Extreme John,
If you are willing to focus your energy on it, it probably is the right path. I wish I had that kind of focus and clarity right now.
.-= Ned Carey´s last blog ..1099s Are Due! Have You Sent Yours Out? =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Ned Carey, trust me it took 2 months to reach the level of clarity I have right now. It will come, music did it for me and usually does.
Twitter: jaredplittle
John,
Glad your not selling, I think you should look at offering some franchises. You can then expand your market and brand accross the states. Get a nice cut and percent of sales for life, cut of startup costs, provide some managment training, support marketing and over course your brand.
I would think you have a good system down after doing 6 of these.
.-= Jared P Little´s last blog ..Brian Tracy Tuesday – Strategic Thinking =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Jared P Little, that’s another option I considered for a while as well but never really seemed to excite me, the fact is that we work franchises over all day every day. There is something to be said about the dilution of your business the minute it’s franchised, on the flip side there is something to be said for making bank by selling franchises.
Coin flip anyone? Haha. I would rather find some serious investors that look at the concept and invest in it’s long term future growth as a privately owned business. That’s where the real long term growth is, I am confident that with the right partners we would do a tremendous job expanding in a very efficient and profitable manor.
Twitter: websiteweekend
It’s about the people, John. From everything I can see, you’ve built yourself a rockin little family there. How could you give that up?
.-= Dave Doolin @ Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..DIY WordPress: 7 “How to” Procedures You Need to Know for Running WordPress =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
@Dave Doolin @ Website In A Weekend, I guess I can’t Dave. Even if I thought that I could, I enjoy the people more than any of it.
Twitter: onesuite
I’m jsut wondering, what was like the reaction of the prospective buyer? Did he try to offer more? Or maybe talk you out of it (not to sell the company)
.-= MichaelR´s last blog ..OneSuite Has Canada Covered! Up to 50% Cheaper =-.
Twitter: newbizblogger
Good for you John!! We all experience lows in our business that makes us consider throwing in the towel, but it is obvious that you have a true passion for your business and it takes a lot to get back in the ring and keep on fighting.
Very interesting how you were able to recognize that your words of saying you wanted to sell and your actions of not following through with call backs and putting MORE time into your business were not in line. That’s a skill not many people possess.
Thanks for sharing your story and congrats on your 5 year anniversary!!
Michele Welch´s last [type] ..Plan Your Tweets And Tweet Your Plan
Twitter: extremejohn
Thank you Michele, all though I will say as time goes on and I get older I think maybe… “Now might be the time.” Then I find myself waking up and doing the things I love to do again, some relaxation would be good. Maybe a year or two.
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