Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Being strapped for cash isn’t a fun situation to be in. With an operating business, you have options, fortunately.
Graham and Ashkahn brainstorm some ideas for quick cash and some they’ve even used at Float On when a surprise expense has come up. It’s worth noting that to get money in the short term, you’re likely sacrificing something in the long term.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question is, hilarious, sort of. And desperate. It’s: “I need a huge influx of cash right now, what are some things I can do to raise some quick funds?”
Ashkahn: Oh boy.
Graham: Well, first of all, we’re probably not actually releasing this tomorrow so, hopefully this podcast gets to you in time.
Ashkahn: Yeah, how urgent is this?
Drugs are a very profitable industry to be in.
Graham: I think we have at least three kidneys.
Ashkahn: You could … selling your plasma? I’ve heard that’s a … that’s a quick buck right?
Graham: Faking a fire? And claiming insurance money? Actually, that sounds really long term-
Ashkahn: Solves all your problems. That’s true.
Graham: Probably years-
Ashkahn: There’d be an investigation, and you’d have to do the jail time.
Graham: Years for insurance claim … yeah, you’d be serving time for that, yeah.
Ashkahn: Yeah, that’s hard because …
Graham: Whenever you need something specific and you need it right now, is the hardest time to get it.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: The more ambiguous your goals are, and the more that they can be done in the future, the easier it is to eventually accomplish them. So money right now is one of those things where, you’re gonna probably have to sacrifice something in order to get it. Again, toes, kidney, plasma …
Ashkahn: So there’s a few ways to do this with your float center. And they basically just involve running sales mostly, if you really need money right now.
Graham: Yep.
Ashkahn: So Groupon in one way of getting an influx of cash, although, they hold on to some of your money. But you still get a decent check within, what, a week?
Graham: Yeah, a couple weeks.
Ashkahn: Something like that?
Graham: Yeah, and running your internal sale. If you have a big mailing list, if you have a good Facebook following, just blasting out … and when I say, when I was kind of alluding to sacrificing something earlier, what I actually meant is, even something like running a sale, you’re really sacrificing future sales. In exchange for getting sales right now. Because, presumably, the people who are buying these floats at a discount could potentially be full-price float purchasers. Maybe just not right now. If you’re trying to get that money immediately…
Ashkahn: Yeah, and if you’re not sacrificing that, you’re sacrificing your perceived value and how much people are used to paying for floats. The more sales you do, the more you’re just getting people not used to paying full-price.
Graham: But, sometimes you just need that, and-
Ashkahn: You need the money-
Graham: And that’s fine. We’ve definitely run sales and treated our floats almost as a line of credit.
Ashkahn: Yeah for sure. Almost … most of our Groupon or sales situations, I think, have been originally motivated by some sort of construction cost that we needed to find money for immediately.
Graham: Yeah. Pretty much, if you’ve been following us for a while you we only run two sales during the year. One in December and one in June, and so anything outside of that … if you ever see a discount at Float On in April, it’s probably because we needed to replace a set of floors or something.
Ashkahn: Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong with us.
Graham: Yep.
Ashkahn: And that’s … those are your most immediate options. Other than that, you could go to the bank-
Graham: Yep, having a line of credit with the bank is actually-
Ashkahn: A line of credit is cool. And it’s usually the lowest interest of almost any way of lending money from a bank. It’s good to set that stuff up when you don’t need it, so that it’s there when you do.
Graham: So that it’s there when you do. Yeah.
Ashkahn: But often, if you have a few years of being in business and you have a healthy bank account history, then … from what I can tell, and I don’t know too much about this, getting under a hundred thousand dollars in a line of credit is generally not the craziest thing in the world. And often, just requires the approval of whoever’s working the business desk at the bank. So if you’re going for a low amount like that … and usually even you pay it back in a certain amount of time, I don’t think there’s any interest on it?
Graham: Yeah, for sure.
Ashkahn: So that’s definitely a good thing to have in your back pocket.
Graham: Yeah, there’s also … it depends on when you’re expecting money coming in, and what you need it to pay for. But on the paying-for side, often there’s way more leeway there than you might imagine-
Ashkahn: Right, for … especially for construction stuff.
Graham: Yeah, the ability to push back some of your costs by a month, or a couple months, is … you have way more negotiation leeway there than you might think that you do. Even for things like bills, or talking to the electric company, or things as simple as that. They’re used to dealing with such huge amounts of money, that even though a float center is not a cheap thing to run, it takes a good amount of funds to keep it going … in the scope of this much broader business world, we’re still itty bitty businesses. We are tiny, brick-and-mortar shops. And so, if you need to delay even something like 10,000 dollars up to a couple months out, you might be shocked just calling the company that you owe that money to and having a conversation … might just yield that time extension.
Ashkahn: Or especially if you need this money because you need to do some sort of construction fix. You can usually negotiate … they call them net-terms, like net-30’s or net-60’s, and that’s just the amount of days after something is done that you need to actually pay the bill. So you could have someone do a plumbing project for you and it’d be two months before you actually have to pay them for it.
Graham: Yeah, and so in the past when we’ve had to do emergency repairs on our walls or our floors or something like that, we’ve done a combination of that. Find the contractors that you can do the net-terms with, or the materials providers, push that out as far as you can. Take a little money from a line of credit, run a sale, and kind of all those things combined ends up being more of the solution that we’ve implemented.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Or you … I’ve also heard crippling credit card debt can be a useful thing for people.
Graham: And I do know float centers who have used credit cards to get past very similar experiences. That one of course is just terrifying because the interest rates get so high if you wait a little too long to pay them back.
Ashkahn: So then you just pay it off with another credit card. That’s the key.
Graham: And if you do it right, you can just get non-stop rewards during the process, so … sort of like, you can’t see, but I’m drawing a triangular-shape thing.
If you sell credit cards to other people, and then they start using them, you get a bonus for every charge that they do.
Ashkahn: Yeah, you should really get into some financial business.
Graham: So there are some ideas. What else? Child slavery?
Ashkahn: Yeah, those are the real ones.
Graham: Yeah, for sure. There’s only so much you can do to really generate that money in the short term.
Ashkahn: Maybe asking your friends and family for a loan is the next option?
Graham: Yeah, I just really, I don’t even … I didn’t even want to say that one.
Ashkahn: Uh, yeah …
Graham: Yeah … I was going to make a joke about going to your rich uncle or something, and I was like, “Eh, that’s not even good as a joke.” Because it’s so … then if you can’t pay your uncle back it’s awful …
Ashkahn: It’s just …
Graham: You’re going into-
Ashkahn: You pay him with a credit card, you know?
Graham: Pay off your uncle with a credit card.
Alright, anything else to add over there?
Ashkahn: I think that’s probably it.
Graham: Alright, good luck.
Ashkahn: Yep.
Graham: Good luck out there. Hope you raise some quick funds.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: And if you have any more emergency questions, definitely go to a professional.
Ashkahn: Don’t send them into the podcast.
Graham: If you have more slow-paced questions yeah, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and shoot them off there.
Recent Podcast Episodes
How do Float Centers Incorporate Massage? – DSP 210
What’s the best policy for a float center that wants to add massage? Do they hire on the Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) as an employee, or do they bring them on as an independent contractor? Or what about just letting them rent a room in their business and not having to worry about it.
Dylan Calm of The Art of the Float podcast is in the studio with Ashkahn and Graham to discuss this issue, since his float center, The Float Shoppe, offers massage as well as other services, unlike Float On.
Can You Wear Jewelry in a Float Tank? – DSP 209
Sometimes people wear jewelry. Sometimes people float. What happens when these things overlap? What about piercings?
Graham and Ashkahn concisely explain why it’s a good idea to take that wedding ring off before you float in this episode.
What’re the Benefits of Financial Transparency for a Float Center? – DSP 208
There’s a traditional wisdom in business that dictates certain information should be held close to the vest. Financial information, hiring information, performance metrics, and so on should only be shared on a need to know basis. More recently, there’s been a push for more businesses to have transparency in some of these areas.
Ashkahn and Graham explain their stance on transparency and the thought process behind making Float On as transparent as possible, as well as many of the benefits they see on a regular basis because of it.
How to Prevent Losing Members to Cheap Discounts – DSP 207
Many float centers rely on memberships, usually monthly, to help maintain a steady flow of income throughout the year. Sometimes that’s not enough, like during slow months, and a steep discount can seem really attractive for filling up float tanks. What’s the best solution to making sure that you aren’t cannibalizing your own sales with discounts and potentially losing members?
Graham and Ashkahn share their tried and true approach to this nuanced question and share some excellent examples of how Float On rewards its members without losing sales during discounts as well as throughout the rest of the year.
Dealing with Low Flow After Installing a Flow Meter – DSP 206
Flow meters are designed to measure how quickly water travels through a filtration system. This is useful for all sorts of recreational water facilities. Pools and spas have been using them for years. Often times health departments will require them for float tanks, as they help provide a certain level of assurance to the filtration quality of a system.
The problem arises when using flow meters that aren’t designed to handle the specific gravity of float tank solution. So far, only one flow meter is designed to be accurate for float tanks and if a system isn’t using that one, it can be a bit surprising to find out that the flow is different. Ashkahn and Graham talk all about the reason for flow meters and how to troubleshoot problems that may cause a loss of flow.
Latest Blog Posts
Handling Tough Decisions…
I’ve written the introduction to the conference program for four years in a row, and each year I like to share it on this blog. For those of you who didn’t make it out for the 2015 Float Conference, here are a few of my thoughts on the work that float center owners do, and the questions they may face in running a float tank center.
How to Drain and Fill a Float Tank
There are roughly 850 pounds of epsom salt and 200 gallons of waters in an average sized float tank (approximately 8 feet long and 4 feet wide). It takes hard work (and a few tips I’m about to share) to get a tank ready for floating.
The Whys and Hows of Email Marketing
A trending strategy when a small business goes to market is that social media marketing becomes their main focal point. On the surface, social media marketing is easy to get started with, the costs can be nil, and most people are already using it for personal use. The...
How to Deal with a Power Outage in your Float Center
Power Outages = Unplanned Sensory Deprivation It only took a day since the publishing of my last blog post before I would have to put my knowledge of unconventional ways of waking up floaters to the test. The incident did not involve “sinkers” those individuals who...
