Construction and buildout are likely  going to be some of the largest expenses for any float center. Possibly even more than the float tanks themselves in some situations. Most float center owners aren't millionaires, and when faced with these large expenditures, it can be difficult to decide what to cut to keep your costs down. Doing your own construction can be an effective way to go about that, but with so much technical work needed to go into building a float center, is that really the right thing to do?

Graham and Ashkahn lay down some knowledge on this, having both worked on a lot of their buildout themselves initially, as well as hired out workers for repairs and upgrades.

Marketing is a big gamble for any industry. You have to invest in a strategy on a platform and just hope that it pays off. It's certainly one of the most essential investments for your business, but how do you know what will work and what won't? This problem seems especially aggravated for float centers. Whatever marketing you do needs to tell people more than just that you exist, it also needs to explain what floating is and why people need it. How do you overcome these hurdles? And are traditional mediums even viable?

Getting together with other wellness businesses seems like a slam dunk for float centers. Or at least it should be. Floating seems to have a special sort of synergy with things like yoga, massage, acupuncture, or what have you, but that doesn't always mean that other wellness practitioners are going to be your greatest advocates. How do you turn that acupuncturist across the street into your biggest advocate?

Graham and Ashkahn have tried it all and worked closely with tons of businesses in joint marketing ventures as well as referral programs. They share what has worked best for them, and some of the surprises they've found with stuff they thought would work that just totally didn't.

It's human nature to suck at planning. we can't help having inefficient mental systems for establishing the importance of a project when we're working on it. This problem can be especially bad for float centers too, given that certain projects, if not addressed quickly, can dramatically become exponentially worse, like with salt damage. 

Graham and Ashkahn face these exact same problems when they undertake any project, but still manage to find ways to be productive. In this episode, they share some of their tips as well as personal philosophies on work. Plus, Ashkahn's strong desire to have a waterslide.

If you're running a float center, you definitely have a newsletter. Right? If you don't, then you should. Most businesses these days have them. Establishing a newsletter can be a daunting undertaking if you're unfamiliar with the process. What goes in a newsletter? How frequent is too frequent to send it out? Who are you sending it to? 

Graham and Ashkahn dole out some wisdom on the importance of this correspondence method. Give it a listen.

There's a lot of debate about intercom systems within float tanks. For some, it seems like a natural progression for the design, and for others it can feel like something that potentially negatively impacts a float. 

On the one hand, Intercom systems have a lot of utility (especially in the CYA sense). Inversely, it does seem like something that can easily be abused by customers.

Ashkahn and Graham hash out the pros and cons to these systems and exactly how they feel about them in this episode.

Laundry is a fundamental necessity for float centers, the significance of which you can easily overlook. Some centers do laundry on-site, while others hire out a laundry service. On-site is almost definitely cheaper, but is it worth it? How much does it factor in to your bottom line to hire a laundry service, and what about the drawbacks of doing it on site? Not every float center can afford an industrial washer and dryer, can residential units handle a float center's salt encrusted towels? 

Graham and Ashkahn hit all these points and more while talking about their own personal experience doing both on-site laundry and hiring out a service and which one they definitively think is better and why/

Post float lounges are cool. Lots of float center owners use them to imbue their centers with their own personality, whether it be large sprawling rooms with comically large furniture, oxygen bars with artificial waterfalls, or just a place for you to hide mushroom sculptures for your customers to find. But these come at the cost of square footage for your center, which undoubtedly can cause problems. So, is it worth it? Ashkahn and Graham tackle the pros and cons, getting into the finer details of what it really means to have or not have these rooms in your center.

A fundamental part of a float centers daily schedule is the transition between floats. It's when the rooms get cleaned, the water runs through its filtration system, floaters need to shower, linens need changing out... So how long do you need to get all of this done? Naturally, the shorter it is, the more floats you can run in a day, but how close to the wire can you cut it? 

Graham and Ashkahn lay out very clearly exactly why they do what they do at Float On for transitions and help illustrate some of the benefits and major hurdles they have had to overcome to get to this sweet spot in their scheduling.

This is not an easy question for any business to answer, and it depends a lot on your own personal situation. Graham and Ashkahn lay down their thoughts on this difficult topic and provide insight into how they handle it at Float On.