Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Graham takes the helm again without any co-captain to steer the SS Daily Solutions through the rugged storms of float industry questions.
Today he answers a question about when the best time of year to open your float center. The important thing to remember is that, whenever you choose, you should plan for even earlier, as float centers are more likely to get delayed in construction.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: All right. Hello, once again. My name is Graham and I am the only one here. Start to get a little stir crazy after a while when you’re the only one in the studio answering questions about float tanks. I don’t know if that’s a documented neurosis or something, but it should be. Anyway, we have another question today for me from you and it is, “is there a best time of year to open up a float tank center, either a best season or a best month?”
Yeah, I think there is, I think there is a pretty acceptably good time of year in general to open up. We, when we were opening Float On, we actually opened October 17, and I think that that’s pretty darn near perfect, and we just kind of lucked into it. That wasn’t pre-planning on our part or anything like that. But especially for here in Portland, but largely everywhere, you’ll see a general attendance dip in the summer, universally referred to as the summer slump. And even in places that are kind of hot year round, you’ll see a little bit of a dip, especially in June and again in September, maybe not as much during the main hot months of the summer. But for places that have hard winters or just long winters, when it starts to get sunny outside, attendance in flat tank centers just kind of naturally drops off. I think a lot of people want to be outside on trails or out on lakes or rivers or oceans and not in a building in a room in a box inside their own head, literally the most inside that you could possibly be.
So summer tends to be a big drop off, and similarly and very predictably winter and specifically December is a really strong time of year. So December, for a lot of the float tank centers that I talk to tends to double their general sales for a month. And certainly the case with Float On. And that’s pretty much all in gift cards. So we’ll do the normal volume of sales in a month just in gift cards in December in addition to all the other floats that we’re running. So December is always just a huge month for us. So, that kind of sets the parameters for what we’re looking for for an open date is stay the heck away from the harsh summer months.
Our first summer felt like the first winter over here from the Pilgrims. Just like, man, if we can survive this first harsh summer, we’ll make it through. So, yeah, avoid the harsh summer and open in time to take advantage of the kind of influx of December gift card sales. So, yeah, for us here in Portland, the kind of summer heat winds down late September going into October, and of course December is always in December, so opening some time in that October/November range, at least for the Portland area is ideal. And for most places, too, sometime in there. September, October, November, I would say that’s really the best time of year to open if you can.
And the problem with that that we keep seeing is that construction tends to run over when you’re opening a float tank center. So if your goal is to open in October/November, it’s just a really common story for the contractors run late, they miss an inspection, whatever happened and now that October/November opening got pushed back to December/January, which then got pushed back to January/February, and all of the sudden you’re opening in the beginning of the new year. You’ve kind of missed some of the winter sales and now it’s the longest time period that you’ll have between when you open and the next December will roll around. So as far as actually opening your doors and doing business, certainly getting open October/November is the ideal, but nowadays, I kind of recommend people plan on opening for more like maybe June/July, and when things almost inevitable do run long, you kind of accidentally end up opening in the best time of year anyway. And if you open during the light times of month, treat it like a soft opening. You might not bring in as much immediate revenue as if you had opened straight on the ground running right into the fall months, but again, way better to kind of plan on opening a little earlier in the summer months, and then stagger your way into December, then planning on opening close to December and missing it altogether.
I think, I was just trying to think if there was anything else. I think that’s pretty much all I have to say about the best time of year to open. Def let me know if the trend is different where you are. Certainly places that have hotter summers or hotter winters in addition to hot summers tend to see less of that summer dip, but almost everywhere that I talk to, there still seems to be some kind of decline that happens especially around June and September, so if you can avoid that, all the better.
And yeah, if I’m totally wrong, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and let me know all about how things work differently where you are and we will talk to you tomorrow, hopefully with Ashkahn hot in tow. All right, is that even an expression? Hot in tow? I started saying that and I was like, I don’t even know if that’s a thing. Obviously I need Ashkahn around, it will be good having him back and good having you back listening to us tomorrow. All right. All right. For reals this time. Bye everyone.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Float Centers in Hip Neighborhoods – DSP 199
Do float centers in the hip part of town do better than ones on the outskirts? Graham and Ashkahn are well versed on this in that Float On is in a fairly hip part of Portland.
The guys break down some of the benefits of being one of the “cool” businesses in town as well as some of the serious drawbacks. Naturally, things like foot traffic aren’t as important. Almost no one walks into a float center and hops in a tank off the street. So there are fringe benefits to it, like awareness, but if you decide on going to a different part of town, then you’re not automatically doing a disservice to your brand.
Can You Clean a Float Tank with Vinegar? – DSP 198
You have to change out your float tank water eventually. Is it a good idea to give your float tank a vinegar cleanse when you do? is that effective? Is it too much work for the results? Are there better solutions to keep your tank clean and fresh?
Graham and Ashkahn discuss while providing assurances like “either you’re not crazy or we’re all crazy”, so that’s nice.
Have you Experienced Challenging Floats? – DSP 197
Graham and Ashkahn share stories about their most challenging floats. Everything from extreme physical discomfort to literally staying in too long.
They also share stories of floats from friends and customers that they’ve accumulated over the years and discuss the value of experiencing these difficult moments in the tank and how you might approach them when one occurs at your center.
What’s the Best Representation of Float Tanks in TV or Movies? – DSP 196
It happens every once in a while, a tv show or a movie will feature a float tank and the entire industry gets a jolt as if to say “we made it to the big time!”
But not all float tank cameos are created equal, so which one does it the best? What is the best representation of floating in media? Graham and Ashkahn go through the list of everything from Altered States to Stranger Things to find out what it is.
Is it Bad for Float Centers to Always be Running Discounts? – DSP 195
Welcome to the last episode in Social Media Week with Derek, Ashkahn, and Graham. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes in the series, it is strongly recommended that you start at the beginning especially for this episode as it references some points brought up earlier in the week.
Derek and Graham share some more intricacies of the Float On business philosophy and share their opinions on constantly running ads for floats through Groupon or on Social Media. Admittedly, Float On doesn’t run discounts very often, and they share why that is. They also talk about how to run discounts effectively and have a tough conversation about what to do if you want to break that cycle of constant discounts for your floats.
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