It’s becoming increasingly common to offer floating alongside other health and wellness modalities. In the most recent State of the Float Industry Report, 74% of float centers offer some form of wellness service in conjunction with floating.

There’s a lot of reasons why combining float tanks with other forms of alternative wellness is a good idea. We’ve heard from many massage therapists that they love to send their clients in for float sessions beforehand because it makes them easier to work on. Gyms and fitness centers have been adding float tanks as a benefit to their members, who can float as a way to recover after exercising.

If you’re a massage therapist, gym owner, chiropractor, or another wellness practitioner that’s looking to add float tanks, you’ll want to consider the following points to determine if floating is right for your business.

Everyone is getting into floating

Because the benefits are so numerous, there are lots of people who have started to use floating to improve their lives. Float tanks aren’t just showing up in spas and wellness centers, but sports teams like the New England Patriots and the Golden State Warriors have started incorporating floating into their training regimens with astounding results. Two-time MVP, three-time NBA champion Steph Curry is an enthusiastic advocate for floating and considers it one of the things that help him maintain his competitive edge.

In the world of mental health, veterans programs have been using floating to help treat PTSD, and more and more therapists have been incorporating floating into their sessions as it helps their patients feel safe and receptive to processing challenging issues.

However, you don’t have to be a doctor or professional athlete to find floating useful. Float enthusiasts intersect with lots of other types of people, and no matter who your clients are, they’ll probably find some benefit from floating.

Floating lives up to the hype

Floating is more than just a cool activity to try once cuz you saw Stranger Things and started wondering if you’re secretly telepathic. While there’s a seemingly limitless supply of stories from people sharing adventures they’ve had in the dreamscapes of their minds while floating weightlessly in the dark, the benefits go far beyond simply a novelty.

Despite being a relatively new wellness treatment, there’s a lot of fairly well-researched benefits to floating. Let’s look at just a few of them:

• Anxiety reduction
• Hypertension
• PTSD
• Depression
• Anorexia nervosa
• Insomnia
• Restlessness
• Pain management
• Pregnancy related issues (back pain, nausea, etc. It’s also a great opportunity for a pregnant person to connect with the tiny human they’re carrying with them)

In many cases, patients who used floating as a treatment showed better results than those treated with traditional methods. Floating also has some extremely positive effects. Such as:

• Increased creativity
• Stress relief
• Generally improved mental health
• Quicker physical recovery
• Improved accuracy
• Greater focus
• Increased mindfulness,
• Along with many other benefits that are still being researched.

Float tanks have a way of affecting people in surprising ways. Float centers regularly keep journals in their lobbies and post-float lounges so that floaters can share their experiences and even draw them out. We end up seeing page after page of truly life-changing experiences that happen during floats. In fact, most float center owners start their own businesses because of how significant floating has been in their own lives.

(below are just a couple of the recent float experiences that we thought were pretty cool).

It makes business sense

While so many of the things mentioned are great to know about floating, the rest of the perks mean very little if adding a couple of tanks is not a good business decision. Profitability is often the primary concern when adding a service to any business. While it’s true that there is a high upfront cost to adding float tanks (no, you absolutely CANNOT just throw some float tanks into an existing room and call it good), the variable costs per float are extremely low, especially if you already have staff on hand. This means that once your investment is paid for, the passive income of having float tanks adds up quickly. 

As we’ve already mentioned, floating can complement other services nicely. This makes it easy to create packages and other incentives in your existing wellness business. Also, including floating can be a nice way to add value in loyalty programs or as part of an advertising campaign. 

People who may not normally come in for a massage or a cryotherapy session may suddenly come in because they’re curious about floating, broadening your appeal. If the market you’re currently in is fairly competitive with similar services around, you can certainly make yours stand out by adding floating to your list of offerings.

Okay. I’m curious. Where can I find more information?

First and foremost, FLOAT! 

There is no way to know if this is right for you if you haven’t tried it yourself. After all, if you don’t know what’s so special about floating, how can you encourage others to try it?

While we’re sure you’re excited by the incredible potential float tanks offer, it’s understandable if you have questions that may need answering. Fortunately, we have literally hundreds of podcasts, blogs, and free resources for you to peruse and find the information you need. 

After you’ve determined that you want to add floating to your existing wellness center AND you’re ready for in-depth training, reach out to us directly to find out what you’d need to to make it happen at your location. 

We’re always happy to educate future float center owners on the vital, yet relatively obscure information we’ve collected throughout the years of helping others create float communities of their own.