[shantnutiwari]

> You’re chances of success are 10x higher trying to build technology for tanning salons

Except tanning salons (or hairstylists or dog walkers or plumbers) usually a) dont have cash to spend b) Dont see their problems as software related c) are in many cases hostile to software, due to geniune bad software

I remember some time ago when I used to hang out in bootstrapped.fm, every week a person would come in and say "Oh I built a software for salons/hairstylists/dog walkers" how I can sell it? 4 weeks later they had shutdown their business, and a new person would come in, rinse and repeat.

[chickenWing]

Don't build software for salons; start your own salon that uses software you create, and make that your competitive advantage. Don't know how to cut hair? Then you probably don't know what software would help in that business anyway. Find a business you can do yourself, and help yourself using your technical skills.

This is also why this (very good) advice is not so easy to follow in real life. You need multiple skillsets.

[JackFr]

https://www.getspiffy.com/about

Guy owned two carwashes in Cary, NC. Thought technology could enable mobile carwashing. Got connected with the right technology people ...

[lostcolony]

The obvious problem here being that there is a very, very fine line to tread where software actually matters.

If you're not as well placed as the incumbents at the core product (salon, sure), software will not save you.

If you're better placed than the incumbents at the core product, software doesn't matter.

If you're (roughly) equally placed as the incumbents at the core product, software can help you, but it will likely take a while to realize any competitive advantage.

And, I say placed, because there are a lot of factors at play. There's the quality of the service/product (itself a huge set of variables), pricing, location, and availability, to name a few. None of those will custom software directly help you with.

[machiaweliczny]

Tell this to Booksy.com (valued ~1B)