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.
The Most Ambitious Float On Project Yet
We have a new endeavor that we’ve been working on in private for awhile now, and we think that it’s going to make a big splash in our salty little industry. After many years of testing behind closed doors, we’re finally ready to take the plunge and release our secret project to you, the floatation community.
You might want to sit down for this one….
The Start-a-Center Giveaway Returns!
Everyone knows that, when it comes to gifts, it’s much more fun to give than to receive. With this year’s Start-a-Center Giveaway, however, I’m not so sure anymore. With over $13,000 in Float Tank Solutions products going to one lucky duck (plus $4,000 worth of goodies from other float industry homies), we humbly suggest that we may have finally tipped the scales in favor of the recipient.
If you’re Charlie, this Giveaway is the Golden Ticket, which I guess makes the Construction Package a Wonka bar and the Ninja Fans are the Fizzy Lifting Drink. So, what do you have to do for a chance at all the Everlasting Gobstoppers?
It’s been three years since our last Giveaway, and we thought that it was long overdue for another one. So, what’s the dealio? The Giveaway is a chance to give a big ol’ boost to a deserving Float-Center-To-Be. This time around, we’re taking things to a whole new level, with over three times the value of products and services being given away. To you. For free.
Dear Everyone: Please reconsider building your own tanks
Look, we get it. Really. Float tanks are expensive – especially for what can seem, from the outside, like a glorified bathtub with spa parts attached. It doesn’t take long to go from, “Why is this so expensive?” to “I’ll bet I could save money by making my own tank!” After you start mulling it over, you get excited. You could be offering something no one else does right now… because it’d be your own creation! How hard can it possibly be?
As experts in only thinking about half of the consequences of our actions (at best), we’d like to say, “Incredibly hard, actually!”
Location Checklist – The Search for Your Float Center’s Home
In honor of our newly minted, fresh off the press, prize winning Construction Packet, we are releasing one of its more succinct components, the Location Checklist, as a free resource. Don’t let the fact that it’s only one page fool you – this set of questions breaks down the major site and location considerations for your center.
Financing Your Center With Bank Loans
If you are looking to open a center, at some point, you have to face the reality that you’re going to need to spend, and thus track down, a good chunk of money. There are many ways to fund a float center – personal capital, family and friends, sending travel funds to the exiled Liberian prince that you met on the internet and using the forthcoming reward money, etc. This post, however, will focus on financing using bank loans.
A Peek Into Our Construction Packet: Planning Your Space – Square Footage and Number of Float Rooms
For anyone opening a float center, one of the earliest questions they’ll have to tackle is, “How big should my space be?” This can be one of the most difficult queries to answer, because it hinges on many variables.
Will you be offering other services? What types of tanks are you getting? What other rooms will your space need? If you’re planning on installing a float tank water slide, that’ll take up extra space, too. I know it’s unreasonable, but Jake really wants someone to do it.
All of these questions aren’t even factoring in thinking about profit margins. It quickly becomes a daunting task that can feel overwhelming.
How to Launch a Successful Kickstarter Campaign
At Float Tank Solutions, our main goal is simple.
We want to provide access to floating for as many people as possible. That’s why, this week, we are opening up our blog to our friend, Shane Stott. Shane, an avid float ambassador, life coach, and founder of Zen Float Co., will walk us through the essentials of running a Kickstarter campaign, with a highlight on his current efforts to raise money through Kickstarter for a documentary on floating.
4,937 Things to Know About Buying a Used Float Tank
You’re thinking about buying a used float tank. Whether this is for a new center, an addition to an existing operation, or a purchase for your home, this is a big decision.
We’ve compiled together some of the major questions and considerations to entertain before making a purchase. While you do have the opportunity to save some money and snag a good deal, there can be hidden costs and unknowns to weigh against those savings.
Offering Overnight Floats
Almost three years ago, we discussed the merits of running overnight floats from an employee’s perspective, focusing on the opportunities of this unique experience as well as its challenges. We’d like to take a deeper dive into this issue because, while the majority of floaters come through our tanks during “normal” business hours, overnight floats form an important part of not only Float On’s identity, but also its business structure and broader culture.
How to Talk About Floating
You step into the elevator and shuffle to the side to make room for the kind-eyed, old woman with the miniature poodle.
“Good morning,” you say with a smile.
“Good morning,” she beams back, her gaze resting briefly on your water bottle with the logo from your float center’s annual party.
After a brief pause, she asks, “What is Float-a-Palooza?”
You take a breath, smile, and launch into your literal elevator pitch.
So, what do you say?
