For the past 6 years, Float Tank Solutions has released the State of the Industry Report for the float industry based on a survey we release each year at the beginning of summer. Over the years, we’ve refined the process and adjusted the report, making it more robust, thorough, and accurate. It has expanded every single year, sometimes adding entire sections to the report.
This year has been the largest expansion since the report’s inception and putting it together was no small task.
You may have heard about the online discussion we hosted about the report this year. The full video is linked below, but first, I’d like to go over some of these changes.
Cross-Year Analysis from 2014-2019
Since we now have industry data for every year going back to 2014, we decided to try out a cross-year analysis for some of the most 
common questions we’ve asked over the years. While we didn’t get to dive too deeply into this data, we did get to look at several questions and it has shown some really interesting trends across the years.
This data is useful for a few reasons. Most significantly, the responses that remain consistent year over year provide us with much better confidence in those results. This is particularly exciting because our survey has a relatively small sample size to begin with, so there’s already uncertainty baked into our responses. Inversely, when the data makes a huge shift, we can recognize that because the rest of the data remains pretty normal. We may not know why exactly infrared saunas have gained so much popularity in conjunction with floating, but we can see that it’s not just a one-off trend year over year.
Real World Data Pulled Directly from HelmBot
Undoubtedly the most exciting addition to the report this year is the inclusion of data from HelmBot customers. Since this information is pulled directly from their operating software, it removes a lot of the issues of personal bias or confusion from the regular survey.
It was important to us that we respect Helm users’ identities throughout this process. When requesting the data we used a double opt-in method so we couldn’t get any false positives. Through our collection process, each center’s data was randomized and assigned a number code, making the information useful, without being recognizable. From here we could safely aggregate the data like normal and turned it into the colorful, pleasing graphs that you’ve come to love (let Graham know what you think of them, he worked hard to make them look good while keeping them informative).
Finally, we wanted to include the video from our chat with the industry. It’s a lengthy discussion for sure, but definitely worth the review. Graham and I could easily talk for hours on this report and it was exciting getting to see where people’s focus landed with the information we presented.
If there’s something not covered here, please reach out to us, we love talking about this information and we want to make sure that it’s as useful as possible.
Take Part in the 2017 Float Industry Report
We’re gathering responses for our 2017 Industry Report through the end of June, and we once again need your help.
Please take a brief moment to answer a few questions about your float center (or future float center) – it may be easiest thing you can do to contribute to the growth of floatation around the world.
The Basics of Float Tank Sanitation
Some of the most common questions you’ll get as a float center operator involve the cleanliness of the tanks. This post will be an introduction to some of the most commonplace sanitation methods used in float tanks. These are generally either chemicals that go in the water or devices that attach to your filtration system. We’ll be discussing chlorine, bromine, ozone, UV, and hydrogen peroxide, which accounts for the sanitation methods used on nearly every float tank on the market.
Testing and Maintaining Float Tank Water Quality
Editors Note: This is a revision of a past blog post, updated to reflect the most current sanitation methods and standards
In a perfect world, you could just pour water and salt into a float tank and it would stay pure and clean and fresh and salty forever. In the real world, conditions in the water are constantly changing, so keeping your water safe and clean takes a fair amount of vigilance.
This post covers how we maintain basic water quality in the float tank, except for sanitization methods, which will be covered in their own beastly sanitation blog post. Stay tuned for that coming out next week!
Floating, mental health, and wellness
This post will explore the intersection of floating with the concepts, beliefs, and experiences related to mental health and wellness, with a focus on anxiety and depression. I’ll explore my own story as it relates to floating before diving into the current intersections of floating and mental health, with a look at past, current, and potential opportunities for research and personal growth.
Massage, Acupuncture, and Float Tanks… A Chat with Sandra Calm
We’ve seen lots of float centers that aren’t just float centers.
Many have massage, some offer counseling, some have yoga classes next door. Lots of people start out either by incorporating float tanks into a larger business, or with float tanks only being one of many modalities at their center. Being specialists in floating, Float On has not mastered anything else.
So, to help gain insight into this growing aspect of the industry, we contacted our old friend, Sandra Calm. She started up The Float Shoppe here in Portland with her husband and podcast sensation, Dylan Calm, back in 2011. When they first opened, they had just two float tanks, and slowly added acupuncture, massage, counseling, along with two more tanks. Talk about expansion!
She was more than happy to take some time for the industry to help us understand just what it’s like to run a center with multiple services by answering some questions.
Reflections from the Rise Float Gathering
Over this past weekend, a good chunk of the Float Tank Solutions and Float Conference crew ventured to St. Louis, MO for the first ever Rise Community Float Gathering. Beyond our excitement to see old friends and meet new ones, we were thrilled to be able to attend a float event that we didn’t have to plan.
When it comes to float tanks, we often deal with a lot of the “what” and the “how” of things – what do I need to do to open a float center and how to I make everything work? We write blogs and put out content. We spend our days thinking about conference flowcharts, water chemistry, detailed business plans, soundproof insulation, etc.
Rise, on the other hand, focused on the “why?”
The Story Behind the Float Marketing Forum
Over the past few years, primarily through feedback received from conference attendees and through industry survey responses, float center owners struggled with and wanted a solution to one thing… marketing. It makes sense – if there’s one thing every center needs (besides salt), it’s a solid flow of customers in tanks.
After some brainstorming with Ashkahn, we’ve decided the best solution for this year was to host a series panels covering key marketing topics that will provide the biggest impact in growing your float center business.
Introducing: The Float Conference Marketing Forum.
Announcing the 2nd Ever Start-a-Center Giveaway WINNER!
In what was one of the most difficult decisions that we had to make as a team… and after sorting through nearly 200 entries… we’ve decided upon a winner in our second ever Start-a-Center Giveaway.
Read more to learn who we’ll be guiding through the process in starting a float tank center in their community.
Gut your space before construction!
One line we don’t think you should cross is this: as much as possible, when building out your float center, gut it completely. Start from scratch.
At least then the mistakes you make are your own and your building will hold fewer surprises down the line. There are many benefits that you may not think of immediately. In this post, we’ll guide you through some of them.
The Heart of Floating – Guest Post by Kevin McCulloch
“When we commit to The Heart of Floating, we form relationships and communities. We share experiences, we connect, we learn, we teach. We care.”
In this guest post, Kevin McCulloch, owner of Float St. Louis and organizer of the Rise: Float Community Gathering, explores the heart of floating and it’s power and potential to connect, heal, and grow individuals, relationships, and communities.
