How Much Can A Tanning Salon Make?

Don’t put too much faith in the numbers tanning bed distributors are giving you.  Why?  They are trying to sell you something.  While their intentions may be good, a lot will project sales on an ideal scenario.  This isn’t to say some do a good job, but be sure to run your own numbers too, so you aren’t overconfident and buying too many tanning beds for your business.  The bed distributors also are good about providing demographic reports.  Once again be sure to do your homework here too.  Visit www.freedemographics.com to do a site analysis for yourself.  The site requires a login but is free and will show you the demographics on the address you choose.  All of the info from the distributors is good and valuable but there have been a few that inflate the numbers in hopes of the tanning salon owner not verifying the data. 

A lot of people researching the tanning bed business ask, “how much money can I make”?  Keep in mind this is an impossible question to answer as there are so many variables and even if you had ten people start with the same equipment in the same location, each one would have different results at the end of the year. 

With that said here are a few average sales for the tanning salon industry.  Keep in mind these are averages we have seen in many markets and will be different for each market.

• An average bed should be able to generate $12,000 – $15,000 per year (Keep in mind this is only true if the business doesn’t have unutilized beds). 
• The average person should be spending $5.00 to $9.00 per session. 
• Sales do fluctuate dramatically during the year.  The JASON months (July – November) will tend to be the slowest in most areas with November typically being the worst and in some locations this will extend through January but that doesn’t give a nifty acronym. 
• To stabilize revenues through the slow months many salons have gone to EFT (electronic funds transfer) memberships.  While these memberships are lower in overall price than you would get in the peak months, it does keep revenue coming in during the slow ones. 

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