Finance for spray tan equipment

What do people think about financing equipment these days?

Would it be useful to be able to finance spray tanning equipment so you can get a really professional system, a high quality gun and full extraction booth for example? The kind of system I am envisaging is high end and is around the £3000 pound mark. We are just looking at some of the public reaction to the overblown DHA report published in the last couple of weeks and extraction seems like it may be a sensible route forward but it's pretty expensive.

Would say £150 per month seem sensible, that's about 6 to 8 tans to cover the cost.

Any thoughts on this would be welcomed.

Should I assume that this is aimed at just salons and not mobile therapists?

If not how big & heavy is the extractor unit your talking about and what makes the machine worth so much?

Hi,

We haven't decided on a manufacture yet but there are mobile booths available, they take about 1 minute to assemble and are light. They are a little cheaper.

The cost is in the quality of filters, the intake airflow design and the number of cubic meters of air they can process per minute. Smaller floor standing extractors or filters to give them their proper name are not capable of filtering enough air fast enough to really make a difference in air quality. Don't get me wrong they do reduce airborne particulate but not significantly. A quality gun and HVLP machine is around the £300 to £500 mark.

The upside is they are a joy to use, they use less product, your work area really is kept clean and of course you and your clients have a clean air environment. These systems also look really professional.

Our opinion on the recent DHA report in the States is that it was largely based non published papers that were almost certainly commissioned by the big players in the UV tanning industry and that the issue was overhyped. There are in other ingredients in some solutions that are far more alarming like Brown HT for example.

Never the less it's common sense that if you're working everyday with tanning solution it would be better to have clean air than not. Also there may be moves to regulate our industry in the not to distant future. We're talking to government on the issue and would welcome some regulation, but clearly we have no idea how far it might go.

So we are just interested to know what professionals think and whether a well thought out top quality package for around £150 per month would help in the tanning market. If legislation is passed we would like to be in a position to help our customers.

Anyway any feed back would be much appreciated.

So £150 per month for a minimum of 20 months (you would prob have to add interest to the sum you stated in your opening post so prob at least another 2/3 months of payments), that is a lot of money.

I would have to do approx 15 tans per month just to cover my basic costs and pay the finance.

I already have a good machine a tent and everything else I need except an extractor if that was to become a legal requirement I would have to look around and get one. I think they are £500/£600 each but I still wouldn't be paying anywhere near the £3000 your talking about for all my equipment including the extractor.

For me it wouldn't be something I would consider as I know tanning is a seasonal thing and there are times I don't do 15 tans a month.

I would feel more confident in saving up and then going off and buying the equipment I need. There may be people out there who would consider the option but I personally would need to know what is so much better about the equipment your offering over what I already have.

There may be people starting up who would consider it but in my opinion your going to get a lot more takers if you do a lower priced starter kit on finance.

Q) How many posts are there on here asking where they can get a good quality but cheap kit from?
A) Loads & loads.

Q) How many threads are there asking about upgrading their kit?
A) A handful if any.

Hi Baggybear,

Thanks for that and looks like you're right as you are the only person who has taken an interest We supply equipment but only at cost and see it as just being convenient for our customers. We encourage customers to go the HVLP route as apposed to Airbrush but I think you still need to pay around £300 quid to get a system with a decent gun.

The extractors are like a vertical uv tanning booths and they are between say £1200 to £3500, some have great lighting and warm airflow for example. We would also include solution, retail skin care & marketing. Still a lot of money though.

We do have a lot of salons that are doing 20 a tans a day so for that kind of operation I guess the monthly cost would not be an issue. I don't think the mobile market has the same issues with overspray as its going to be pretty minimal even at a tanning party so I don't think you can justify the cost. The mobile versions of the booths are still around £1700.

I have just come across a robotic tanning booth at £20,000. You walk in and the booth weighs you and works out you body mass index, you select the colour you want from a touch screen and the robot arm gets to work with instructions to the client re how to stand being computer generated. They are thinking that there is an untapped market in terms of people who would be to embarrassed to have a spray tan. Not sure on that one. I'm a bloke and always find that beauticians have a professional way about them so you don't feel embarrassed. My wife's been in beauty for 25 years and I would say the ability for a beautician to make a client feel comfortable is one of their core skills.

Anyway thanks for your input.

I always thought it might be a good idea to offer finance on equipment to offer therapists to get started. We ran a "lease scheme" a few years ago where therapists could get trained and pay monthly but apart from a few dedicated therapists who really took the bull by the horn and used the system how it was meant to be, ie set you up in business, get you going and enable you to earn money it seemed to attract a lot of people who fail to pay the initial amount let along any following payments and you get a world of excuses why the credit check cant be done. All in all it was a worth while exercise and we gained some good customers but overall I think that setting up in spray tanning to get started doesnt cost anything compared to setting up a business in other industries and its relatively easy to work your way up to larger equipment, salon or other treatments.

Now this is bearing in mind that we were targeting the mobile sector so the monthly payments were peanuts, so it might be a different case for you as the monthly payments you are asking are much higher so you might attract a completely different clientele, but i think nowadays anyone might be scared to commit to any montly ongoing payments when they are setting up as they dont know how the business is going to go and to cover £150 for the equipment each month - let alone any other ongoing business costs is quite a chunk of money to commit to. It might be worth looking at a longer time scale if you want to attract salons, ie make it a 5 year plan to reduce the monthly cost?