We’re just past halfway through the entry period for the 2020 Start-a-Center Giveaway, and so excited by the response thus far!
It’s amazing that we get to help one winner make their dreams come true and we’re so excited to help make that happen. There are tons of great ideas among the entries, and some passionate people who are itching to get their float plans started — we already know it’s going to be incredibly difficult to decide on a winner this year.
There’s still over a week remaining to register and enter the Giveaway if you haven’t yet! Registration closes on the 29th, and the last day to enter is January 31st!
Since it’s coming up so soon, we thought we’d take a moment to let you know a bit more about all of the generous sponsors contributing to this year’s grand prize.
We couldn’t have made the Giveaway as amazing as it was this year without each and every one of these float industry allies, and we thank them whole-heartedly for their contribution!
Leveraging their intimate understanding of the float industry, along with their years of more traditional marketing experience, Maximum Floats is able to create marketing campaigns and strategies that help your float center connect with a larger customer base — without having to depend on Groupon or other outside assistance.
Partnered with nearly 70 float centers already, Maximum Floats offers marketing consulting and direct marketing management, and have generously agreed to offer $4000 worth of their services to the winner of the Start-a-Center Giveaway to help ensure their center has a strong marketing foundation right out of the gate.
For more information, and a FREE case study for float center owners, check out their site, Maximum Floats.
The Float Conference and Workshop
Join us at the world’s largest event celebrating floatation therapy and the float industry!
To be held in late 2020, the 9th Annual Float Conference is sure to be filled with more fascinating presentations from leading experts on all things floaty.
Attending the events offers the perfect opportunity to learn more about all the fascinating floaty things in the world as well as meet the community, which is what will keep you coming back year after year. It’s been said many times, but the Conference feels more like a homecoming than a business event.
Check out the Float Conference site to sign up for updates on the 2020 events — and we hope to see you there!
The winner of the Giveaway will receive 2 tickets to the Conference events themselves, as well as 2 tickets to the Start-a-Center Workshop hosted before the events.
Helmbot (formerly Float Helm)
Appointment scheduling, point-of-sale, customer and staff management, marketing automation, and so much more — the Helmbot is almost an entire suite of software in one, offering your business a complete back-end management system.
The winner of the Giveaway will receive 6 months of free Helmbot access once they’re ready to book. In addition, the winner is also welcome to access the software before then at no cost, allowing them to familiarize themselves and their team with the software leading up to launch.
For anyone and everyone, the Helm offers free in-depth tours of the software if you might be interested in learning more.
Creating and managing any business means signing up for near constant responsibility, and with an industry as particular as floating, you’re likely to be one of the few people around who can effectively manage things…which means things are ripe to fall apart if you ever need some time away.
Designed to solve the problem of float center owner burnout, Theta State Agency offers management for your business from experienced and dedicated float center operation experts whenever you might need a vacation, or if any emergencies arise.
Theta State Agency is offering a 4 day Float Center Sitting Package to the winner of the Giveaway, to be arranged whenever they need a much deserved break.
The brainchild of longtime Float Tank Solutions friend, and passionate floatation enthusiast, Bryan Gray, we’re excited to see this project launch.
Float Halo offers a headrest designed specifically for floatation tanks. Allowing the head to rest in a more supine position, the Float Halo is designed to increase your customer’s comfort while floating, by preventing pain and tension from affecting their floats.
The winner of the Giveaway will be offered an initial supply of 10 Float Halos to stock in their float rooms.
Iron Lion Soap has been offering high quality soap products since 2008, handcrafted from time-tested, 100% plant based ingredients. They have offered an initial supply of both their Organic Body Wash and Organic Castille Soap to the Giveaway winner.
Check out the Iron Lion Soap online store to view their full product line.
The Float Tank Cure by Shane Stott
One of the most well known modern publications on floatation, The Float Tank Cure covers author Shane Stott’s personal journey and research into the world of floating, and offers the reader a fascinating insight into what floatation therapy can do for an individual.
The Giveaway winner will receive 10 copies to stock in their center’s library or retail in their shop.
Coincidence Control Publishing
The publishing arm of Float On’s floaty endeavors, Coincidence Control aims to offer high-quality prints of the works of Dr. John C. Lilly, and serves as distributor for the several other float book projects run through Float On over the years. The winner of the Giveaway will receive a copy of each of the currently available prints, all of which are perfect additions to any float center’s library.
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes from December
Since a new episode is released, every day, we thought we should do a roundup of some the top episodes so far to keep you from missing out on important topics in the floatation community.
Behold the creme de la creme of podcastery, if you will. Here they are, in chronological order
Should I Have One or Multiple Styles of Float Tank?
If you had every model and type of float tank you’d be running the Burj Khalifa of float centers, with an estimated 38 unique float tanks, which include pods, custom open pools, cabins, vertical tanks, and inflatable or portable float devices currently on the market (not even counting old models).
This is all to say that there are a ton of options out there when considering tanks for your center.
Whether you’re opening a two-tank center, or a bajillion-tank center, do you want all the same model, or will you have some variety?
Why ROI Calculators Suck! (or at least why you should use caution)
“What is an ROI calculator?” I hear you asking. “ROI” simply stands for “Return on Investment”. An “ROI Calculator” is just a tool that outlines the cost of something and generates what your anticipated profit will be over a certain length of time. Usually annually.
We should make a distinction between a simple ROI calculator (i.e. a widget built into a website with limited inputs), and a financial plan (complete with P&L, cashflow, and balance sheets). Both are going to try and do the same thing, but one is going to be far more detailed and accurate.
Roughly what we’re going to be talking about is a return on investment for your whole business, but return on investment can (and should) be used for lots of different aspects to your business to help you determine how best to spend your company’s money. Usually, though, that’s going to require a lot of detail that a simple widget can’t provide.
How to compete on price without slashing prices
Let’s say you’re a float tank center and more centers are starting to show up in your town…
Or, maybe you are that other center starting up a town that already has float tanks…
As new centers enter the market, the typical response is to run promotions on daily deal sites, promote large specials, and/or run Facebook Ads selling floats for much less than the usual offerings.
The best case scenario is this price slashing behavior subsides shortly after the neighboring center opens.
But what if it doesn’t? What if an existing competitor decides their new price is even lower?
How do you compete with a price slashing neighbor without competing on price?
Learn a few ways to make price a non issue with your customers…
Float On’s Halloween Spooktacular!
‘Twas briny, and the epsom groves fluttered with salt-bats, a lurking fog floating atop the murky bog. From the dark maw of silence came a guttural groan, an eerie utterance akin to those of monsters. From the depths of darkness, that groan turned into what mortals...
Timeline for Opening Up a Float Center
Opening up a float center is a lot like climbing a mountain. Even if you can see the peak, it’s a lot further away than you think, and when you finally get there, the journey and the destination usually end up being different than previously assumed.
In this post we’ll lay out a general process and timeline of what you may encounter on your path, from initial idea to actually operating a center.
Can you have volunteers at your center?
So you’re thinking about using volunteers in your float center?
Before we clarify what a “volunteer” actually means, we’ll first explore why a float center might be considering them in the first place. While it can be a way to provide floats to people who are otherwise unable to pay, the impulse to bring in volunteers can also stem from a desire to get some sort of free labor (later in this post we’ll dive into why you can’t actually do this, but it’s important to recognize that the instinct is understandable, especially when you have someone lined up and willing to work for free).
In addition to a desired boost in overall productivity, it’s also a way to invite more people into your center to experience what you do. Some customers actually want to help out and see what happens behind the scenes at a center.
Floating and Athletics, a Strong Relationship
One of the beautiful things about the float tank is that it serves to rejuvenate the whole person. — the body, mind, heart.
Broadly speaking, it’s a tool for homeostasis, an ideal environment that supports balance, health, and growth. This piece will look specifically at floating and athletics. For anyone who defines themselves as an athlete, or as a general pursuant of athletic endeavors, the float tank can be a powerful asset.
In this post, I’ll discuss individual athletes who float and how to look at this from a marketing perspective. I’ll also discuss past and present research, and share some thoughts on how the relationship between the athletic and floating communities might continue to unfold.
A Skeptic’s Guide to Floating
I think it’s time we addressed the giant metaphorical elephant in the salty metaphorical room — there are lots of exaggerated and untrue claims about the benefits of floating being spread around the industry.
Some are anecdotal, some are only half true, and some are just patently false. Floating has historically had a strong oral tradition tied to it — the practice has survived through word-of-mouth, one passionate floater teaching another everything they know. The unfortunate thing about this is that the information disseminated can’t be reliably tested or shared with others on a broader scale. You can’t use “my buddy Chris” as a source for a health benefit of float tanks in a newspaper article, much less for a research paper.
Now that we’re becoming a bit more mainstream, we thought it would be nice to add some clarity to what we should and shouldn’t be telling people about these difficult-to-understand, saliferous containers.
How Many Float Tanks Should I Have?
Intro If you’ve crossed over into the sacred realm of “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna open up a float center,” an obvious question arises — “How many tanks should I have?” Now, if you’re like me, you’re creating a 90 tank float community where everyone who buys in...
Looking for something specific?
Search our nearly 100 blog posts.
