A bit of advice needed

catsy_2

Hi all, I just want to say thank you in advance for any help you may give me. In April I decided to set up a mobile spray tanning business as a friend of mine does it (she lives far away so we wouldn't compete) and she taught me everything, and where to buy it all from. The set up costs came to about £400 and it started ok, slowly but ok. However I haven't had any bookings in a few weeks now and only one person for next week. I had done a really good deal as well, £10 introductory rate and £15 thereafter. Groups of 6 or more £10 each and the host for free. All my friends are telling me they love the idea but never actually commit to doing anything. Also my regulars are now saying it's not something they can afford to do regularly (although they all end up buying shop bought tanning solutions which are much worse!). I thought I'd done it at a reasonable enough price to make people do it regularly. My friend does it for a flat £15 and she gets lots of bookings every week. I do not want to advertise as I don't like the idea of going to people's houses I don't know, and my house is too small to have people there. The plan was always to have people who I knew and build it that way. I have a full time job so it was only supposed to be maybe one or two evenings a week, I didn't really want to do much more but I'm not getting anywhere near that.

I'm thinking of selling the kit, but now I'm going to end up making a loss which I'm really upset about and the whole thing has just got me down.... I don't even know if I'll be able to sell it on ebay at a good price. I just don't know what to do.

Entertainer

catsy wrote: »

Hi all, I just want to say thank you in advance for any help you may give me. In April I decided to set up a mobile spray tanning business as a friend of mine does it (she lives far away so we wouldn't compete) and she taught me everything, and where to buy it all from. The set up costs came to about £400 and it started ok, slowly but ok. However I haven't had any bookings in a few weeks now and only one person for next week. I had done a really good deal as well, £10 introductory rate and £15 thereafter. Groups of 6 or more £10 each and the host for free. All my friends are telling me they love the idea but never actually commit to doing anything. Also my regulars are now saying it's not something they can afford to do regularly (although they all end up buying shop bought tanning solutions which are much worse!). I thought I'd done it at a reasonable enough price to make people do it regularly. My friend does it for a flat £15 and she gets lots of bookings every week. I do not want to advertise as I don't like the idea of going to people's houses I don't know, and my house is too small to have people there. The plan was always to have people who I knew and build it that way. I have a full time job so it was only supposed to be maybe one or two evenings a week, I didn't really want to do much more but I'm not getting anywhere near that.

I'm thinking of selling the kit, but now I'm going to end up making a loss which I'm really upset about and the whole thing has just got me down.... I don't even know if I'll be able to sell it on ebay at a good price. I just don't know what to do.

That's your big problem right there. You are restricting your market far too much if you are relying on friends only. I wouldn't rely on friends in a business venture. You are going to have to advertise more widely if you want to make a success of this.

Good luck.

nexuss

Look how many other mobile tanners they would be in your area.

http://www.tanprofessionals.com/index.php

Do you have public liabilty insurance and do you have business insurance for your car ?

glowgirl_2

I think the problem might be peoples lack of cash and also a privacy issue, I can speak from experience that I would much rather do my own tan, I use a professional spray tan solution that I apply myself without a machine and get outstanding results and it costs me next to nothing, unfortunately thats what your up against, would you consider selling the solution for a profit (not everyone knows where or how to get it or that you don't need a machine) and maybe training people to do it themselves if people can only buy the product from you you could set up a site and run that from home quite easily or just sell to friends, family etc as I am sure you know once they try a professional product there really is no going back, if you want some links of products I like pm me - I too am in the process of starting a new venture so know how stressful this can be - best of luck:)