Industry Analysis & Industry Trends
Over the past five years, the Tanning Salons industry has experienced growth as rising per capita disposable income encouraged higher spending on discretionary services, such as tanning. Moreover, the industry is expected to continue to see moderate growth in the next five years. Industry revenue is projected to grow in light of improving consumer disposable incomes and consumer confidence. Increased consolidation is anticipated between industry players, particularly as companies expand their product and service offerings to become increasingly like day spas, which will help diversify their customer base.

Industry Report - Industry Analysis Chapter
The Tanning Salons industry provides indoor ultraviolet (UV) and spray tanning services to about 30.0 million Americans each year. Over the past five years, the industry has experienced growth as rising per capita disposable income encourages increased spending on discretionary services, such as tanning. Growth has been particularly strong for the industry as the US economy recovers from the recession; additionally, personal services in general have become more popular as consumers increase spending on their appearance and other premium and luxury products.



information Sourced from IbisWorld.com

The average time that it takes to sell a tanning salon, spa, gym or most any brick and mortar style business depends upon who you ask.  It can also depend upon the unique dynamics of your tanning salon as well as the state of the current, local economy.

Conservative estimates say it takes between one and three years to sell a tanning salon or similiar business.  Other estimates are more optimistic, noting that it can take between four months and two years, with the bulk of owners selling after about a year.

No matter what your local economy and tanning business market is like, there are things that Tanning salon owners can do to sell a Tanning business faster.  The next few tips are universal and work in every kind of economy for most any tanning salon, spa or gym business. 

1) Offer seller financing.  Tanning Salon sellers who will only accept a full, up-front cash payment for their business may be severely limiting their market.  A lot of prospective buyers, particularly first-timers, have a limited amount of cash to access.  This is because many prospective first-time buyers secure their loans based on their mortgages.  Since a lending institution will only grant a loan based on a percentage of a borrower’s mortgage, the buyer is usually limited very strictly to a maximum amount. Offering your own form of financing will free up more buyers, making it easier for prospective owners with limited cash to purchase your Tanning Salon.

This involves allowing a prospective buyer to make a partial down payment and then make ongoing monthly payments directly to you for the balance.  Demanding just a partial payment up front with the balance to paid out over several years makes it easier for a buyer to get a foot in the door.  It also allows him or her the option of purchasing a business that is worth more than what a lending institution would be willing to loan them.

2) Set a realistic price tag.  A Tanning Salon owner that has poured his heart and soul into building a business tends to equate emotional investment with a dollar number.  Objectivity can fly right out the window, and you end up with a selling price that is so high no one even wants to look at your tanning salon.  This can add several months and even years to the time it takes to sell.

Similarly, some owners over-price with the idea that a potential buyer will want to negotiate the price.  The owner thinks that over-pricing and then dropping the price later is a good way to get what he really wants.  Again, this strategy can come back to haunt you when you find you can’t even get someone in the door to look.

It may be very helpful for most tanning salon owners to hire a professional tanning salon consultant who has had experience in the unique market of buying and selling tanning salon. It can be of help to have a consultant with insight and no emotional investment in your business  that will help you arrive at an initial selling price that will get you what you want without scaring people off.  Ultimately it may shave months off your time on the market and even help yield a higher sale price and better selling terms.

3) Hire a tanning salon consultant.  Not only will a tanning salon consultant help you set a realistic selling price, some tanning consultants also has extensive data base's of prospective buyers.  Which are leads that most tanning salon owners probably would not have had access to on there own.  A tanning salon consultant can accomplish in months what might take years to do for tanning salon owners to accomplish.

4) Invest in strategic advertising to sell your Tanning salon.  One of the biggest issues when it comes to selling a Tanning Salon is how and where to advertise.  You can’t just stick a “For Sale” sign on your Tanning Salon, and letting the word slip out to your customers that you’re selling your tanning salon could be a recipe for financial disaster. As such craigslist, local paper, Facebook and ect are not ever advised, Advertising to the general public will often cannibalize your tanning salons sales. Often tanners become fearful that there EFT's or packages will not be honored by the new owners, or that the new tanning salon owners will change things around, so the tanning salon is no longer to there liking. 

Of course, you’re on a limited budget, too, when it comes to advertising.  So the money that you do have to spend on marketing and advertising needs to be allocated in the most effective manner possible.

The first thing you should do is identify your target market.  If you’re not sure who this is, your tanning salon consultant can be of great assistance (call one at 310-492-3704).  Once you figure out who you’re selling to, you’ll be able to decide intelligently where to spend your advertising dollars so that you sell sooner rather than later.

5) Make sure you have all your paperwork.  A prospective tanning salon buyer may want to see your financial paperwork from the last 1 to sometimes 3 years (but not always).  This may include your balance sheets, assets and liabilities, income and regular bills (such as utilities).  It will be helpful to put all of this paperwork together into a complete and organized portfolio that you can hand to a potential business buyer, or even better hand-off to your tanning consultant for them to allocate  to the appropriate perspective buyers later on.

You should also ensure that you know exactly what paperwork you have and that you understand it all.  Accounting practices are sometimes befuddling to tanning salon owners, so you may need to sit down with an accountant and have him/ her explain anything to you that you don’t understand or are unclear about.  You don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re talking about when you’re negotiating with a prospective tanning salon buyer.  You’ll increase your chances of selling faster if you know and understand all of your numbers. Of course from the time your tanning salon is listed for sale to the time you will need to go over detailed financials with a serious tanning salon buyer may be at the very least a couple of weeks, so you have time to get these things in order without distress.

Wow!!! Ok this is a loaded question!

First you have to ask your self why you are selling it. If you have a time line, like it has to be sold by next week....well you are most likely out of luck,as most tanning salons that sell take about 90 days to 9 months from the time your tanning salon is listed for sale to the time the new buyer and you shake hands and exchange keys and payment.




I have witnessed salons that were off the market with otherwise happy owners sale in a week when the market changes and the perfect buyer walks in the door with the coffers to back up an offer in cash.

I have also personally tried to buy a salon for five years before buying that tanning salon on my terms at 90% off original asking price and then flipping my interest on it 9 months later at almost a 1000% return.

With this said The best time to sell, is when you don't need to, and don't have to and to an extent don't really want to. Why is this? its projection

Yep projection. Basically if sales are going well, customers are happy and you like being there, it translates to a good thing, and buyers want a good thing and understand if there are reasonable that it will take more motivation on there part (more money to you) to get you motivated to hand the shop keys over to them.




With that said, since most sales that are realistically going to happen, happen in 9months or less (for many but not all salons that eventually sell), I suggest listing your salon for sale about 6-8 months before your busy season normally begins, this will position most sales to occur right before or at the beginning of busy season which normally translates to a faster close of a deal, and a higher deal price, plus immediate satisfaction for many tanning salon buyers since they get to step in right at the best, busiest and for many most intriguing  part of the tanning industry year..... busy season!!!