I think we can wrap up our series on malls today. I can almost hear all the groans of disappointment. Yes, I love the mall too.

One aspect of operating a tat business in a mall as opposed to doing fairs and festivals is that you have the mall to answer to. If your kiosk is not up and running during mall hours you could get fined by the mall. If you have an employee who leaves the kiosk unattended excessively, you could get fined by the mall. So hire responsible people to work for you.

It is important that your employees know the value of the equipment they are using. Hold them responsible for damage to equipment caused by misuse. This is why you will need to do a good job training your employees. If employees are trained on the proper care and use of the equipment, you should not have a problem. When we had our kiosk we did not hold the employees responsible for damaged needles or cones but everything else, they were responsible for and we never had a problem. Again I say, “Hire responsible people to work for you”.

I think if I were doing a mall again I would have one complete system and a back-up Power Palette, compressor and two or more back-up airbrush guns. This extra equipment will allow you to set up another work station if you get too busy, and you will also have a back-up if something breaks down. I would also have additional airbrush gun parts, especially extra needles and cones. If your equipment breaks down and you don’t have a back-up, you are out of business. I would recommend having a single airbrush gun set up to spray only black tats in addition to your Power Palette. Now if you have customers waiting in lines, you have another station ready to spray black tats, which are the most popular.

As Kirk stated in his article on malls, 1/3 of your business for the week will be generated on Saturday, 1/6 on Friday and 1/6 on Sunday. You know the busy times so schedule for them. Plan on stopping by the mall on the busy days to relieve a worker, collect money and insure everything is running smoothly. Whenever we did malls, we only had one worker scheduled, even for the busy times. We did have lines of customers waiting for tats but our workers were experienced and pretty fast at applying tats. If yours are not, you may want to schedule two people to work during the busy times.

I would have a sign at my kiosk advertising that I did parties and private events. However the mall may object and ask you to remove the sign because you are generating outside business from your mall location and the mall will not get any of that money. This is why you printed your name and phone number with “We Do Parties” on the back of the “Care of tats” paper that you will give each of your customers. You may also want to direct their attention to the fact that you do parties when you hand them the care of tats paper.

I have one final note regarding the economy. People are still going out to dinner, shopping at the mall and looking for a good time. They may be scaling down but they are still buying. It’s true they may not be willing to spring for that $100 “real” tattoo but the $10 tat at the mall will satisfy them. People may not be taking the kids to Disney World but they will go to the mall and buy them a tat. Teenagers still want to be rebellious and hang out at the mall during summer vacation. People will still go to the mall to cool off on hot summer days and take the kids to the mall on rainy summer days and people still want to celebrate a special event with a unique party.

I live in Michigan. The unemployment rate for the rest of the country has now reached the level it has been in Michigan for the past few years. Right now the unemployment rate for Michigan is over 11% the rest of the country has an unemployment rate of just over 7%. When I go to the movies, I have a hard time finding a place to park, when I go to the mall on a Saturday afternoon; I have to drive around the lot looking for a place to park. If I don’t want to wait for a table at my favorite restaurant, I have to go there on Sunday night. As dismal as the economy in Michigan may seem, people are still spending money. Our tat kiosk in the mall had an awesome money making track record. I think today with the addition of the party tat business, it would be even better. Don’t be discouraged about the economy; there is still a lot of money to be made in this business.