Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
It gets a little tricky sometimes starting an alternative wellness business. Should you offer other services? Should you only have float tanks? Which situation is right for you. Fortunately, you can listen to this episode and get some insight into this exact conversation.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question is, “Would you say that most float centers can be profitable stand-alone operations, or do they work best when paired up with other services? Massage, chiropractics, spa, etc.”
Ashkahn: So.
Graham: So the first part is would we say that?
Ashkahn: Would we say that? Okay.
Graham: I probably wouldn’t say that. Wait, what was the question again?
Ashkahn: You wouldn’t say float tanks work-
Graham: They can. Sorry I got distracted by the massage. I would say that they work either way.
Ashkahn: I would hope so. Because we run a float center, that doesn’t have any other services. So if you didn’t think that could work, we’re in some trouble.
Graham: Yep. So I would say there’s probably a couple of caveats to that. Like, number of tanks that you have and whether or not you want to get out of the business, or you’re running this more as a lifestyle-type of thing and want to be working your business, right?
Ashkahn: Yeah. I feel like anything can work if you care about it. You know, if you’re really into massage and you’re really into acupuncture, and you’re into floating, and you’re willing to put in the time to do all that stuff well, that can work.
If you’re really into float tanks and you don’t know anything about massage, and you’re like maybe I should just throw a massage thing in there too because that makes sense, I feel like that’s one of the variables that leads to success or failure more than the idea of a float center with multiple services or a single service.
Graham: Anything can not work, is what you’re saying?
Ashkahn: Anything can not work, and anything can work. I think you just have to be interested in doing it and be passionate about it.
Graham: I think, once you get above three float tanks, as a stand-alone center, that works a little better in my opinion. Especially when you get down to under three float tanks, you’re talking about one or two tanks, there’s no other services, that’s all you’re doing is one or two float tanks.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: I usually warn people against that. I feel like that’s the danger zone.
Ashkahn: It can be tough. It can just be hard to make enough money to-
Graham: I mean, at that point it feels like just having a float tank in your house and sharing it with people.
Ashkahn: Right, like you’re not going to be able to hire people. You’re working that kind of business yourself.
Graham: Yeah. So, that’s the time where I would say, again, it’s the danger zone. Not to say that it couldn’t work, if you can book that thing up with people paying $150 per float, then you can totally run a profitable business with a single float tank. But it’s gonna be way harder.
And that is where I see massage and chiropractics, specifically from the financial standpoint, being able to come in and balance that and their other services. If your passion is other stuff, and you just want to have a float tank or two to make it available to people, that’s when you should have one or two float tanks.
Ashkahn: Yeah, and I guess usually the worst float tanks I see out there, commercially operated, are by a place that has a big spa with a bunch of different services, and they have one float tank-
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: And they generally don’t know much about it, the staff doesn’t know exactly how to clean it, maintain it, operate it, that sort of stuff. I’ve definitely been to a couple of spas where they have a whole number of devices, and this seemed like one of the other things. They’re like oh, cool, I’ll buy this float tank and put it in-
Graham: And not realizing how completely insane that proposition was, yeah.
Ashkahn: Yeah, maybe there are other devices out there that are easier to handle and they really are just set it and forget it kind of things. But a float tank is not like that. And that’s probably, of all the places I’ve gone to float around the world, those are the worst float centers I’ve seen. Places where it’s just one of a number of services and they clearly haven’t put a lot of time and effort into understanding it and properly taking care of it.
So, it goes both directions as well. But those people probably aren’t listening to this podcast either, so we can’t quite reach them.
Graham: If you get up to the point where you have four or five float tanks and you’re wondering if four, five, six float tanks with the whole wing of massage and additional services versus just those float tanks is going to be more successful? I don’t think there’s any way to tell. I think both are just as likely to succeed as each other.
Ashkahn: Yeah. But, I mean it’s certainly possible to run a center with just float tanks. We do it, there’s another handful of places around North America and the world that do just that.
Graham: A fair amount, actually.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: There’s a lot of float centers out there, that’s all they do. Designated floating.
Alight, good question.
Ashkahn: Great. If you have other questions out there you can hop onto floattanksolutions.com/podcast and that’s it for today. Talk to you tomorrow.
Recent Podcast Episodes
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In this episode, Graham and Ashkahn break down the pros and cons (not Kahns) of different types of heating typically used in float tanks. Aside from going over the most common types of heating, they also provide tips and tricks for keeping your tanks warm that don’t have to do with water temperature and making sure you’re providing a comfortable experience for your customers.
Tips on Managing Staff – DSP 179
Float On, for all its quirks, has ended up being very traditionally structured as a business. There are managers, co-managers, and employees who all have different responsibilities and commitments. Graham and Ashkahn break down how they came to structure the company this way, despite aggressively fighting against that mentality of a corporate, top down structure.
What’s the Difference Between Loans and Investments? – DSP 178
The financial cost to opening a float center is huge at the startup, given the high ticket cost of float tanks themselves, as well as the expensive technical construction that comes along with making your rooms sound/water/saltproof. It’s rare for a float center to open entirely self financed, so what are the best options for getting funding? Loans versus investments.
Graham and Ashkahn break down the differences in these two approaches weigh the pros and cons to both for float centers.
What About Vertical Float Tanks? – DSP 177
So for those of us who’ve wanted to float in a vertical tank ever since seeing Luke Skywaker use one in Empire Strikes Back, Graham and Ashkahn dish out what they know about vertical float tanks.
Fortunately, another one of Float On’s owners, Christopher Messer, actually makes vertical float tanks, so the guys have the inside scoop on all things vertical.
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