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.
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.
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