|
Yesterday I open the doors to Jill's Beach 4, turn off the alarm and my daily feelings of peace come over me; man I love this place. As I walk down my chandelier lit hallway I hear the dreaded sound of a timer screaming. I take a deep breath and call my man Trace and ask him to get on it for me, these two beds and their chips have been nothing but trouble! Grrr...As I wait for Trace to finish cracking his whip and get some things done I realize something...the worst thing I could possibly realize at that salon, the 1050 is down and it's the third time in less than 7 months the timer on it so sadly displays "HELP". Well, this changes everything...
Trace cracks his whip and along comes the American Sun crew, even the big dog Charles comes, Chris "dunion" Edwards is in tow and of course my man Rodney is there. They work their magic and the bed is all fixed...or so we thought.
After the boys left I called all the customers that I sent away earlier in the day and joyfully let them know my baby was up and running...YEAH!!! Along comes my first 1050 customer of the day and with some pep in my step I smile and tell him he's all set in room 1. I listen to make sure the bed turns on for him and voila! he's getting his vitamin D. Wait a sec..."what, what was that noise?" One of the girls asks me...while Eric is receiving his UV therapy we hear these strange exhaust noises coming from the room. Either this guy has some serious stomach issues or the 1050 was acting up. But how could that be? They just fixed it! So I ask my Prilosec desperate friend if everything was okay, he informed me the bed was cutting off on him. Hmm...let me look in to that. So I sent time to the bed and just stood there and watched her glow for all 12 minutes, thinking of how pretty she was all lit up and how she must look beautiful from the road right now. How this fabulous salon was built around her, how this masterpiece of tanning equipment exemplified my success in the industry and marked my business model from this point on. Maybe she would even bring in some new customers who were driving by and were drawn in by her hypnotic glow...ahh the possibilities of my beautiful Ergoline Open Sun 1050... and then, as if a smack was handed down form the heavens she cut off! She fell short...she "Big Browned" me.
She could only only run for 6 minute intervals and no matter how much I longed for her to perform more, or how hard she tried, she clocked out at 6 minutes time and time again. With a defeated spirit off to the red phone I went and called my old trusty friends at American Sun. After another hour of troubleshooting with Johnny The Gun he decided the new timer was flawed. So again to the customer phone and the dreaded "actually, the 1050 is not fixed, but will be tomorrow...hopefully?".
So tomorrow arrives and the boys pack up again and came to Raleigh to save the day and of course, their favorite damsel in distress  . They quickly replace the timer and again our "Luxury Salon" is restored to it's original glam-our....With that, Johnny and Scott breath a sigh of relief and drive off to Palm Beach Tan to fix their woes. Thankfully, our beloved 1050... the $35,000 tanning bed, the only one in our area, the bed that has it's own commercial on our Muzak system and it's own paragraph on our fabulous website, was back up and running. Ahhh, finally a girl could exhale.
We were up and running, ready for our Friday night crowd. Along came a 1050 customer and confidently we put her in...in she went and off she went without a hitch. Along comes another 1050 customer, who just happens to be one of the most menacing tanners we have, a big ole' man full of criticism who loves to harass the girls and show us how we are NOT the best, and his favorite way to point out our flaws is without a shirt on. So in we shuffle him to his 12 minutes of deep thoughts or criticism of JIll's Beach and the worst possible thing happens; As if in slow motion our hearts and heads scream "noooooooooo"...out he comes, in all his glory, armed with a smirk....the 1050 doesn't work.
We delicately take off her back and are horrified to reveal our baby once again screaming "HELP" from her timer...off to the red phone again. But it's Friday at 4:58...I cannot have this bed down all weekend. Of course my boys will be here tomorrow, they couldn't be any better; I truly believe they feel bad for me and us. Tomorrow Rodney will come and replace the timer yet again. Maybe this time it will work for more that a single tan, maybe even a full day, maybe even a week. But the question is how long will it last? What will it take to finally fix this brand new, top of the line, best in the business tanning bed?
That is where we are at. 6:42 Friday September 12th....exactly 1 week from the ITA show, 1 week from when I signed a letter of intent for a fifth salon, the biggest, baddest, salon we have ever built. 1 week when from when it's time to put together a deal to outfit that salon with "the best" equipment. 1 week from when I have to look my friend-my sales rep, in the eye and possibly know our dance may come to an end...a dance I wasn't ready to sit out on yet.
|
