Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Ashkahn is busy preparing for everything that happens tonight and tomorrow for the Conference, but that doesn’t mean Daily Solutions will stop being daily.
Graham and Jake talk construction and what to expect when you’re expecting… a giant expansion for your float center. What’s it look like when you go from one tank to three? How do the demands change? What needs to be put in place to make sure that you’re not hitting snags?
Fortunately, these guys know the score and are happy to share.
Show Resources
The Float Conference is happening right now! There’s still time to sign up for Friday Activities later tonight at FloatConference.com/friday-activities.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Hey, welcome everybody. I am Graham.
Jake: And I’m Jake.
Graham: And Ashkahn is working on some of the conference logistics so he won’t be jining us today. Instead, we’ll be rocking out construction questions with Jake here. Today’s question is, kind of half of a statement and then a question at the end, it’s, “Expanding from one to three tanks, going to a new space. Any suggestions?” Question mark.
Jake: It’s a pretty broad question, I guess you start there.
Graham: Yeah well get ready for insanity. It’s a big step from one to three tanks.
Jake: Your game is definitely going to change. Obviously three tanks is going to be much harder on the space than the one tank you had before.
Graham: Yeah so especially if, you know, often times with one tank. It’s in the house or maybe detached to a spa as kind of an afterthought. Yeah, it’s not, you don’t do as much planning around it and because it’s only unit you kind of don’t have to do as much planning around it.
Jake: Yeah your materials, your build out materials can be a little less robust if you only have one tank generating humidity, one tank drawing power, one person showering, where if all the sudden you triple that load, you’re using that much more water, so appropriately sized supply lines. The drainage that comes from all that. You might have been able to get by with one tank in your garage at home and just cleaned up all that salt. You’re not going to want to do that if you’re turning over three tanks and trying to keep good customer service with your clients like you want drains, so you can push all that saltwater away.
The waterproofing, that goes through the roof as well. You’re no longer just throwing up some pond guard rubber or something like that. It did well in your home, all of a sudden now you’re using waterproof panels, or you’re using porcelain tile or something like that.
Graham: It’s kind of the short answer, you just have to start worrying about things a little bit more. The kind of low demand that’s put as a result of a single tank onto a building, and the fact that you can pay attention to everything that’s going through that room. You individually get to talk to every customer. You personally get to go in after every customer and make sure that the room is looking nice and everything is good.
Jake: And the tanks in good repair.
Graham: Now if you triple the load, it’s just there’s so much more to pay attention to. You need seating for everyone. You need to make sure your water supply lines are the right size. You need to worry if the electrical is going to get out of hand, if all of these different things kick in. Then you’re not even, when you’re doing the transitions, it’s hard to pay attention to every single room and really make sure that salt water isn’t going everywhere. I would also say if you were in a house beforehand, people just tend to treat those a little more respectfully.
Jake: Absolutely.
Graham: They recognize they’re in someone’s home. As soon as you move to a bigger commercial space, it’s almost like some people really want to get their dollar’s worth. They’re just like, “I paid 70 some dollars for this and I’m going to make as much mess as I can.”
Jake: I’m going to swing my hair all over the room. It’s on the ceiling.
Graham: Right? It totally happens.
Jake: It’s part of it, yeah.
Graham: Just get prepared for really actually being concerned about all of these individual variables that you might have just kind of skated on by before.
Jake: Of course, like a real basic one, anything that failed at your first center, try to do better at your next center, right?
Graham: Learn from the past.
Jake: Try to at least learn that, if your floor drains failed, maybe spend a little extra money, get nicer floor drains, or something like that.
Graham: Yeah, what else in general? There’s so much stuff that we could just go into all of the details of construction that you need when you’re building out a serious float tank center. I was trying to think of the main differences.
Jake: Yeah, I was thinking of just some quick bullet points.
Graham: Yeah.
Jake: Your waterproofing, you’re going to need more of that. It’s going to need to be more robust. Your HVAC, how are you going to handle all that extra humidity? Like you said, the load calculation of electrical. How much power are you going to be drawing? A commercial space, you need more power if you’re running three tanks, depending on what type of tanks you get and how much they’re drawing. Parking, I guess.
Graham: Yeah, parking and seating.
Jake: Parking and seating, because-
Graham: Restrooms.
Jake: Yeah, restrooms, that could up that camp too.
Graham: Now you’re going to have multiple people, which means perhaps needing a second restroom.
Jake: You could have six people at one time, right? Three people leaving and three people coming.
Graham: Scheduling maintenance. When you only have one tank, it’s really easy to schedule someone in, or know when it’s going to be busy. Now when you have three tanks, it’s a lot more to keep track of. We of course, recommend using The Helm.
Jake: We track all of our metrics through there, yeah.
Graham: Which also doubles as tank chemistry, which again when you have one tank you can keep track of what’s going on in there in the water a lot easier than when you have three tanks. Now you really, the importance of keeping logs is so much greater when you have that many tanks that you can lose track of. Really rigorous chemical logging is important too.
Jake: Having extra chemicals on hand, having more storage. You’re going to have more salt on hand because you’re turning over three tanks.
Graham: Yeah, right all of a sudden if for some reason you need to change out two tanks, that means you just need to have twice as much salt in back up by nature.
Jake: Are you doing laundry in house? What might have been fine with your residential unit with one tank, now all of a sudden you’re running three towels and three robes every transition or something.
Graham: Oh, laundry is a good one.
Jake: Laundry is a good one.
Graham: I hadn’t even thought of that one.
Jake: It just popped in my head right now, just sitting here.
Graham: Bam. I’m shocked too, we’ve had to deal with laundry on so many occasions, how is that not just burnt into my brain?
Jake: I think the most important thing to take away from this is go for it, definitely expand to three tanks. I think that’s awesome. I love that idea.
Graham: Yeah, I guess we were talking about the things to be careful of, but the things you have to look forward to. A, people love coming in with someone else to float with, and not everyone wants to wait around for their friend to get out, and then they go in, kind of the one at a time thing. Even just going from one to two tanks. You’ll see just a natural uptake in clientele because there are some people who don’t want to go in and do this weird thing without a friend also doing it at the same time. Multiple tanks is going to be awesome for that size of business. Of course, you just get economies of scale.
Jake: The revenue yes, absolutely.
Graham: You can have one person taking care of one tank, or you can have one person taking care of three tanks. Now all of a sudden, you’re getting way more out of each session that you have coming through there because you’re not tripling your payroll with the tripling of the number of float tanks you have. Yeah, there are some things that will be harder, but there are also some real serious upsides that come along with expanding, which again I’m sure is why you’re doing it.
Yeah, you’re nodding at me like you want me to close out the episode.
Jake: Yeah.
Graham: You want to try it? You want to try the little close out this time?
Jake: Alright, well thanks for listening. I really, really appreciate you spending your time with us here today. You can go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast
Graham: Nailed it, good.
Jake: -If you want to ask anymore questions. We look forward to lovingly reading all of your submissions.
Graham: My only critique was that it was too good, and now I’m going to feel bad when in the future I close out episodes.
Jake: Alright, here’s the nod one more time.
Graham: Alright, we’ll talk to you all tomorrow.
Jake: Alright, thank you so much.
Recent Podcast Episodes
HIPAA Compliance – DSP 330
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) required the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop regulations protecting the privacy and security of certain health information. This means that most medical information recorded by healthcare providers has to be stored based on a certain standard of security.
This is only just now becoming an issue in the float industry as centers are starting to accept insurance and medical referrals. However, this is still extremely rare. If this is something that may affect you personally, definitely research additional resources to make sure you’re in compliance.
Getting High (on air) in Float Tanks – DSP 329
Graham and Ashkahn light one up to honestly answer what they think about people coming into float centers high.
The guys share their experiences having Float On share a wall with a dispensary and the number of problems (or lack thereof) that it has caused over the course of many years.
Sit back, grab some munchies, and enjoy the ride with these guys.
What you Need to Know about UV – DSP 328
Have you ever wondered why the UV light on a float tank needs to be replaced so often? If the light is glowing, doesn’t that mean it’s working?
Ashkahn and Graham tackle everything you need to know about UV light, how it works in a float tank, and most importantly, how it can go wrong. This episode is dense with information useful for anyone who uses UV in their float center.
What’s going on with the MAHC? – DSP 327
The Model Aquatic Health Code is a document released by the CDC and has made waves throughout the float industry as this year it included a section on the ideal health department code for float centers as well as pools and spas. Some folks are worried about this because it may mean more rigid and unruly regulations in certain areas.
It’s been a few months since its release, so Graham and Ashkahn give an update to how it has impacted the industry and what it means going forward. Also, Ashkahn learns to abuse the show notes.
Logo Copycats – DSP 326
If you’ve ever looked at a collection of logos from various float centers, they can start to look a little similar. How do you avoid this when designing your own float center logo? Is it a big deal?
Graham and Ashkahn dish on logo design, the importance of simplicity, and a not so subtle reminder that the “don’t be an asshole” rule exists for a reason.
Latest Blog Posts
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...
