Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Do you need a business plan if you’re not building a business from the ground up?
Graham and Ashkahn chime in and give a solid “maybe” as a response. It depends on a lot of factors, for sure. Do you already have financing? Are you maintaining the existing business model or revamping it?
Show Resources
FTS Product – Business Plan Package
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Ashkahn: Hey, everybody.
Graham: All right, another day, another podcast.
Ashkahn: Yep, yep. We actually have a slogan now, huh?
Graham: Kind of. I’m Graham.
Ashkahn: I’m Ashkahn.
Graham: And today’s question is, “I’m buying an existing float tank …” man, a lot of purchasing float tank questions.
Ashkahn: Recently, yeah.
Graham: Yeah, recently. All right, so, “I’m buying an existing float tank center. Do I still need to have a business plan?” Well-
Ashkahn: Yeah, you should definitely purchase one from some sort of reputable float tank business plan company, I would say. That would be my advice.
Graham: Not all business plans are made equal, okay?
Ashkahn: There’s really only one, I think, that would be justified to purchase.
Graham: Yeah, there’s only one that’s made equal to itself. That’s it. That’s ours.
Well, okay, so there’s two ways to look at this, right? Or I guess there’s just different levels of business plan and business planning, and you didn’t capitalize yours. You obviously mean lower cased business plan.
Ashkahn: The informal.
Graham: Yeah, but should you have a plan of how you’re going to run your business and staff it and market and make a profit and all those kinds of technical details? Absolutely. I mean, you need them. You’re about to run a business, you know?
Ashkahn: You should have a plan.
Graham: Yeah. So, in that sense, you need to plan.
Ashkahn: For your business.
Graham: In the other sense, like, do you need a robust-
Ashkahn: Business Plan.
Graham: …30 page written business plan and five years of projected financials and kind of this more robust, capital B-P Business Plan? I mean, only if you’re financing the purchase of your float center, really. In that sense, it’s the same way as if you were building this from scratch, which is, it’s going to cost money to purchase and you can often get loans or investment for a purchase of something as well, just like you can for building it out. So if you’re doing that, then you probably need to have about the same diligence with your business planning that you would if you were starting from scratch. I guess the nice thing is some of those numbers can be filled in with the business that you’re taking over. Rather than needing to make projections for what your first year is going to be when you’re drawing on a totally blank canvas, you have someone to give those to you, and as far as things to market and what their usual customers are that are coming in.
A lot of these things that are guesses before you’re getting into a new business are solid and, again, should be provided in a really nice form by the people you’re purchasing this thing from. So, it’ll certainly make the planning easier.
Ashkahn: Yeah, I mean, yeah. A lot of times people are making business plans to go to a bank or investors or something like that, and finance the start-up costs, and if you are needing to finance the purchase of another float center, they might ask you for a business plan in that context, too.
Graham: Yeah, they likely will.
Ashkahn: It’s just going to be a different sort of beast in either way, right? When you’re writing a business plan to get a loan to start up a float tank center, you’re talking about, like, “Here’s the type of space I’m going to be looking for, here’s why I think this neighborhood would be good.” You’re making a lot of projections about why you think this area would enjoy a float center and there’s just so much more kind of intangible stuff going on there than if you’re purchasing an existing business that has already a track record of how many customers are coming in. Like, the bank’s probably going to want to know what are you going to do to improve these numbers or get this profitability higher or-
Graham: Or why is buying a float tank center here especially valuable right now?
Ashkahn: Why are they selling it? Why is it even up for sale in the first place? Those are the sorts of questions. And if you’re financing it yourself, this could be a lot more casual. You may just have that information from the float center you’re buying it from and even maybe have operational information.
Graham: I was going to say, an operations guide in that case is almost more … well, I don’t know, there’s still the whole marketing side of things and how are you going to make this valuable and in that sense, it is more operational. It’s kind of like the logistical business plan of how are you going to do this, and rough costs. Like, roughly what are my utility costs going to be per month, and hopefully, like Ashkahn was saying, that’s provided by the center you’re purchasing, and a lot of those variables will be stable. You still need to figure out what the heck you’re going to do when you take over these keys and grab your center. That’s going to exist no matter what.
Ashkahn: But yeah, I mean, with the capital B-P, I wouldn’t … if the center has finances you can look at and the basics of running their place-
Graham: If they’re not going for a loan.
Ashkahn: If they’re not going for the loan. If some of that stuff’s already there, I wouldn’t be tempted to sit down and write a formal 50-page business plan.
Graham: I’m pretty anti-business plan except for the purpose of raising money. I think a lot of that time that you’re going into detailed financial projections for five years could be better spent on-
Ashkahn: Running something in the real world.
Graham: … a little more day-to-day kind of things. So, I think we’re on the exact same page for that. So, again, the answer is maybe, for whether or not you need a business plan, but you definitely need a firm sense of operations and an operational plan for what you’re going to start instituting right when you take over.
Ashkahn: Yeah, especially because you’re flying a plane mid-flight at that point. The thing’s got to keep running from when you take it over.
Graham: Maybe you’ve never been a pilot before.
Ashkahn: Maybe the wing’s a little broken. All right, well, go dream about that for a while, and if you have any other questions, go to FloatTankSolutions.com/podcast.
Graham: Yeah. You can type those in, letter by letter.
Ashkahn: Yeah, and the little typewriter that we place behind our eyeballs will type them into our brain in sync.
Graham: I’m going to think about that now.
Ashkahn: Type that out .
Graham: I can’t get that out of my head. All right.
Ashkahn: Bye, everybody.
Graham: Talk to you guys later.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Should Float Centers use Light or Heavy Gauge Studs? – DSP 269
Still no Ashkahn today. He’s taking a couple of post-conference days to himself.
Jake and Graham are on the scene though to answer construction questions, though. Even the straight forward ones, like today. Jake informs us which to choose when doing construction, light or heavy gauge studs when constructing a float center, while getting a little sidetracked when comparing wooden and metal studs.
Construction to Make Your Life Easier – DSP 268
Graham and Jake cover a wide range of construction tips to make running a float center easier. Everything from making sure you have extra storage to installing mop closets with sinks in them for dealing with heavy duty chemicals.
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Post-Conference Ashkahn is still out of the recording studio, but fortunately Jake is keeping Graham company in there.
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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.
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Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #28
Home sweet home! After so many months on the road, it was strange being back here in Portland. We were exhausted, excited, and a little travel weary. The first night back, I slept in my own bed for the first time in three months and the world just melted away.
Having travelled across the United States, I’m reminded of how insular Portland is. We are aggressively fixated on keeping things local. Local beer, ketchup, bikes, pet food, pillows, phone cases… it’s part of our charm. We want to reward people for living here and being a part of the community. It’s so pervasive that, after living here for so long, I kind of forgot that Secret Aardvark hot-sauce isn’t available everywhere, and that most cities don’t even recycle, let alone compost.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #27
Our northern neighbor – a sister city, of sorts – Seattle is the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the land of Microsoft and Kurt Cobain, and the culture here embraces both simultaneously. It’s tech business professional in the front and rock n’ roll grunge in the back. This blend creates a perfect storm of high energy business life and high energy nightlife, making relaxation a valuable commodity. Floating helps fill the void left by nightmarish traffic and overcrowded restaurants.
Given that it’s so close to home, the float centers in Seattle are a lot more familiar to us. Our visits here were more like a high school reunion than they were like the first day of school. During some of our visits, we were picking up conversations right where we left them.
The Float Tour Blog Issue #26
Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, and third largest on the West Coast. It’s a major hub for international trade, with one of the largest ports in the world, giving it a large migrant population, mainly from Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. It’s also been a long-time home to the Canadian film industry, and has even been nicknamed “North Hollywood.” Dozens of film and television productions from major studios film here every year.
Vancouver is very much an international city. It has large boroughs dedicated to varying cultures, including one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. The society here is more receptive to new ideas, always looking for the next big thing; it’s not surprising that floating has blown up in Vancouver as much as it has.
In the last 3 years, 10 float centers have opened up, most of them being larger 4–6 tank centers. The really interesting thing is how they all opened within the same short amount of time about 1 ½ to 2 years ago, within months of each other.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #25
We finally made it back to the West Coast! We went through the Canadian Rockies and were overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. We drove through hours and hours of winding mountain roads, fertile valleys, and tiny towns so picturesque they looked like movie sets. It was so captivating, in fact, I suspect Graham and Ashkahn may have secretly replaced themselves with robotic doppelgängers to hike throughout Banff.
This post will focus on the smaller communities in B.C. that are bringing floating to new people every day. We also get to visit Canadian manufacturer Pro Float. They’re relatively new to the scene, just opening up earlier this year – another exciting sign of the growth in the industry.
