Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Not every float center owner wants to be tethered to working their shop for the rest of their lives. In fact, even some that enjoy that work immensely can be doing their business a disservice by focusing on day-to-day operations as opposed to dedicating their time to marketing or expansion.
So how do float center owners get out of the shop? How many managers (Or Taco Supremes as they’re called at Float On) does it take to effectively replace the shop owner at a business. Ashkahn and Graham have successfully implemented a system at Float On that allows them to be much more hands off on the business than when they first opened and they share how got to that point and how their business structure has evolved.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Alright.
Ashkahn: Hey everybody. My name is Ashkahn.
Graham: And I am Graham, and today’s question is. How many managers would a woodchuck chuck if necessary. “How many managers do I need if I want to get out of daily operations? How many managers do I need to take my job?”
Ashkahn: How many managers?
Graham: How many other people make up a single one of me. So I think we can get this. Thank you for submitting that question. I wasn’t trying to make fun of it. It’s a very good question. What would you say? At the least, zero.
Ashkahn: To replace us? At the most? I guess, the full human population?
Graham: That would be yes. Now that we have those upper and lower limits …
Ashkahn: So, I think it’s probably somewhere in between those.
Graham: Brilliant! So what do we … we don’t work the shop.
Ashkahn: No.
Graham: How many managers do we have?
Ashkahn: We kind of have like-
Graham: Kind of have is already the start to another great answer there, huh?
Ashkahn: Kind of like two and a third. We have like one full manager and two like two-thirds managers.
Graham: Uh-huh. Yeah.
Ashkahn: You know what I mean?
Graham: Yeah, so we have like, yes, you know a normal business would call it as Tacos and Taco Supremes.
Ashkahn: That’s the hierarchy we have and that we Float On. So, we have one taco supreme at the top and then, right below that person is two just normal tacos and below that is just, kind of, the rest of our employees. So, there’s really, kind of, three classes of people.
Graham: It’s really hard to get away from needing one taco supreme, at the least.
Ashkahn: It’s basically, like one person could do it, but.
Graham: Yeah. One is the loneliest number.
Ashkahn: Yeah, one is the lonely, and it’s just like, sometimes what the manager person is doing is like covering shifts that don’t get covered and going in when things are broken, and stuff like that. So, if you only have one person who is kind of that safety net for putting fires out, then sometimes they are not available. You can’t expect someone to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People have to have days off or go on vacations or sleep or all sorts of numbers of non-work activities.
Graham: Get sick.
Ashkahn: Unfortunately they have to do because they’re humans and not robots. Once we get robots, we will be able to answer this question then.
Graham: Oh yeah. One robot. Done.
Ashkahn: It’s nice to at least have two. That way, between the two of them, there’s a lot more just coverage that can happen. It’s just a nicer work environment, too. I think it’s just nice when you’re in charge of something to have someone to bounce ideas off of and really just have that back and forth. I think it just helps refine ideas and make sure that you don’t do something totally crazy. That, to me, is a nice number.
Graham: There is a good lesson there too. Whenever possible, having back up or redundancy in different positions is ideal for all of those reasons. Or, on the other side, if someone quits. If you’ve trained up one manager and they have been working at your store for four years and they know the ins and outs of everything and then they quit. That’s a really painful transition.
Ashkahn: Right. Or get sick, you know, all sorts of things even if they don’t want to leave your company. There are so many things that can happen. They can break their leg and they need to deal with that for two weeks or something like that.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: It’s having that redundancy. It’s one of the really tough things about running a business of our size. It’s just very difficult for us to have good redundancy in place, because we have such a small group of people to begin with.
Graham: We did have two managers for a while. That did also work great. Then, having this one main manager and two sub-managers or one Taco Supreme and two Tacos has been working out well.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s a different model around those, sort of, numbers, I think, can all work out as long as you have things distributed well.
Graham: Initially starting out, we didn’t even want managers. We really tried that for a while. Even as calling things by their taco names, is us really still not liking the idea of a manager, specifically.
Ashkahn: We do love tacos.
Graham: And we love tacos, yeah. But, there are things that are just really hard to, like tasks, that are hard to get addressed without having someone who’s in that higher level of responsibility and often getting a higher level of pay as a result. Like Ashkahn said earlier, a lot of those involve things like covering emergency sick time, going in when something breaks in the middle of the night to get the pumps back up and running. Basically, being that around the clock kind of safety net. You know?
Ashkahn: Yeah. Or just deciding something every once in a while. You know? We have a lot of fear of authoritarian decision making happening where if there’s one person at the top just making decisions willy-nilly, but in reality, sometimes people just don’t want to have to make the decisions themselves. There are certain decisions where everyone else in the company is like, “Great, we’ve discussed two or three options. You just choose whichever one sounds good.”
Having someone to, at the end of the day, make a decision or two here or there just to decide on something and keep moving forward is a useful thing to have too. So having someone who feels like “Okay, the buck stops here.” I’ve heard a lot of “We’ve all come up with a bunch of good ideas but we can only choose one of them. So, let’s go this direction.” I think our model works really nicely now too. Especially with the two two-thirds managers.
Graham: Tacos, yeah.
Ashkahn: Two tacos. Because, it turns out almost that we needed more than high level decision making. It was flexibility. More people to be available to go in and deal with missing shifts or things breaking or having to order something at the last minute or whatever. Having three people instead of two to spread out that availability. I think our shop functions just as well as it did before. I think their lives are a bit easier. It’s still a little less stress on people individually.
Graham: And it actually, ultimately, saved us a little money on payroll.
Ashkahn: Actually, it did.
Graham: Doing it that way.
Ashkahn: By changing and paying more, like, all three of those people got paid a slight pay increase when we did this. It’s still saving us money.
Graham: Yeah. Which, of course, depend on what the heck you are paying to begin with. It’s almost arbitrary to our circumstances, but worth mentioning.
Ashkahn: Really, you want to start this process early. Getting people trained on, especially like, how the pumps and filtration systems work and things like that. It just takes some time.
Graham: Yep. How you like your breakfast, since one of the managerial responsibilities is to cook breakfast for us every morning. You know?
Ashkahn: Yeah, the shade of brown your coffee is. Like, how much mocha that goes into it.
Graham: Yeah. Well, before you even hire a manager, you should start this process of grooming, or I guess shadowing is almost more what it is. It’s just when you’re doing stuff that only you know how to do, make sure there is someone else around also doing it with you. It’s a great motto.
Ashkahn: Yeah. That’s the nice thing about having a couple people, too. They’re kind of always shadowing each other. If one person leaves, it’s not as debilitating for you as having just a single person there who could leave.
Graham: Yeah. Even though we only have one main manager right now, the fact that there are, sorry, Taco Supreme. The fact that we have these other Tacos’ means that if our Taco Supreme takes off, you know, one of those Tacos can become Supreme themselves. A lot easier than you can just take a normal employee and turn them directly into a Taco Supreme.
Ashkahn: Yeah, the sour cream.
I guess that’s our recommendation. Is, two to three. It seems.
Graham: Yep and use food-based comparisons, rather than straight managerial titles.
Ashkahn: It really spices things up. Great.
Graham: I really enjoyed this episode.
Ashkahn: Question answered. We did it. Done.
Graham: I’m glad we all came together here today.
Ashkahn: In the bag. Alright. If you have more questions that we can just crush like we did this one, you can go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast.
Graham: That’s it.
Ashkahn: That’s the whole URL there. Yeah. Go there.
Graham: Yeah. Go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. There’s a little surprise for you there, too.
Ashkahn: You don’t even have to type in the name. Just go there.
Graham: If you go there, whatever day you are listening to this, there is a little surprise there for you. You should check it out.
Ashkahn: Yeah. I don’t even know what it is. That’s the surprise.
Graham: Yeah, that’s right. You should, you know, just go take a peek.
Ashkahn: Alright. Okay.
Graham: It’s a box asking for questions, though. I ruined the surprise. I ruined the surprise. Alright. Bye everyone.
Ashkahn: Bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Should I Wire my Float Tanks into the Wall? – DSP 265
Ashkahn is currently recovering from his talk and the after-party last night, but Jake and Graham have gracefully taken the time to answer a construction question again today.
On the docket today is a question about wiring a float tank directly into the wall. Graham and Jake provide an overview of why some people may prefer this (it’s much easier to keep waterproof, e.g.), and why at Float On they use the twist lock for their outlets and how to properly utilize them.
Can I Keep My Old Ceiling With My Buildout? – DSP 264
Hopefully everyone had a lovely time at the Friday Activities and the after-party.
Ashkahn is still busy running the conference, but Graham and Jake have stepped in to talk about construction!
Today the guys talk about keeping a drop ceiling or T-bar ceiling in an existing space that you’re converting to a float center. The short answer is don’t keep it, as it can cause problems, but the guys do have some workarounds if your landlord is opposed to changing the ceiling.
What to Expect When Expanding from 1 to 3 Tanks? – DSP 263
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Fortunately, these guys know the score and are happy to share.
All About Floor Drains – DSP 262
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Today, the guys are talking all about humidity and how to deal with it when constructing your float rooms. They talk about all the little nuances that you (or your contractor) might not think about when it comes to humidity and how soundproofing and regular airflow may not always go hand in hand.
Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #24
Alberta is often called the Texas of Canada. Part large oil industry, part cattle country.
Don’t Mess With Alberta!
At the base of the Rocky Mountains, replete with an Olympic Stadium, Calgary is a world-class destination for winter sports. The float community developed here similarly to Edmonton – there wasn’t anything nearby except for one or two residential float tanks, and then, in a short period of time, several centers opened all at once. Instead of competing, they’ve decided to work together and have developed one of the tightest knit float communities we’ve seen. They even have monthly Float Dinners, much like we do with the float centers in Portland. They don’t keep meeting minutes, so it’s hard to determine what they talk about at these dinners; my guess would be salt, the effects of salt on various substances, and how salty salt damage can make someone salty.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #23
After Montana, we blazed our way back into Canada. The drive was long, but the scenery was beautiful. We followed the Rockies north, driving up to Edmonton. It’s a bit of a detour but, there are so many float centers in Edmonton, it seemed crazy not to stop by.
The city itself is primarily made up of workers from the oil fields – high risk, high income jobs that fuel the economy. At least until recently. Our visit was right in the middle of the Fort McMurray wildfire which has displaced a lot of the workforce, forcing 100,000 people to leave their homes. Many came to Edmonton, being the nearest metropolitan area to Fort McMurray. Some already split their time between the two cities, living in Edmonton and traveling to Fort McMurray for weeks or months at a time for work.
It’s understood that, in economic hardship, luxury commodities are typically the first thing people cut back on. Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to be the case for floating. In fact, more people seem to be trying it to help alleviate the stress, many centers even offering free or discounted services to those displaced in an effort to help in a small way.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #22
We’ve got two more stops in Colorado Springs before heading west. It’s a town known for its military base and long history of weapons testing. With such a large military presence, it comes as no surprise that the float center owners here are veterans, themselves.
After that, we shoot across to Salt Lake City. Utah is filled with gorgeous sights, from breathtaking lakes to stunning painted hills. With an international landmark famous for its effects on buoyancy, Salt Lake City should be pretty familiar with the concept of floating. With five different float centers, and the manufacturer of the Zen Tent out there, there could be some cause and effect.
After that, we head up into Idaho and Montana to close out the Central United States portion of our Tour. We’ll follow the Rocky Mountains north, taking in the scenery along the way.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #21
Denver has been home to a vibrant float community for a long time. Some of the earliest commercial centers that started up in the ‘70s and ‘80s were out here. 30 years is a long time, and most of the old centers aren’t around anymore, but there’s a conscious community that has been floating since the old days and they love how much the industry has evolved and grown.
