Need tips and suggestions. Maybe more.

[FreebirdAirsoft]

I am looking into creating a buisness plan. In my town there is lots of land for sale and i thought that if i come up with a pluasible buisness plan and go to the government with it they will apeal me a loan. that loan witch could be used to purchase land and whatever else is needed.

I am looking into opening up my own airsoft/paintball feild.

and on the land i plan on having a woodsball paintball spot. a speedball paintball spot and the rest to airsoft.

and a parkinglot with a shop/register spot.

In the shop you can pay for your playing fees and rentals and what not and also it be a shop like say buyairsoft. or AirsoftGi.

something like that.


I am looking for plans and stuff for building a feild.

if there are people out there who would like to help with the construction of the feild please comment below.

Thats my idea and i plan on getting it going.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

3487 or so I think

OK.. so where to start..

I know-- do some mining on here for one of the other threads on the same subject.. which by the way comes up about 3 times a month,, but strangely there are not many spanking new airsoft fields popping up.

[slink182]

I love plans. Unfortunately, reality tends to leave ugly hobnail boot marks all over them.

Start by putting together an estimated capital start-up cost that includes everything - land, insurance, licensing, labour, materials, equipment, etc. Then work out your operating costs and long-term expectations. Also, try to estimate your possible returns.

You may not like the numbers you see in the final balance...

[Ricochet]

First off, get age verified. Where are you located? You need to find people in your area.

Hardcore in Penticton, BC does something very similar. Maybe try contacting them for ideas on the field. However their rental guns are walmart grade.

If you want to host milsims, I'd suggest you attend a few. Operation Mason Relic in Claybank Saskatchewan is a good resource. There is a large diversity of players there. Usually between 200 - 300.

Have a skilled gun doctor on hand. Or find one close by that'll help you out. The ones that are worth your time charge for their services. So find someone reputable.

Study all of the legal implications. You will have to set up safety rules, waivers, ...ect. Find out the style of play of most of the local teams. That will help your set up. You'll need things like chrono's, BB's, ect.

Put a lot of effort into your field. Especially if people are paying to play. Visit some fields, or look online.

As far as running a shop goes. You'll need to find a supplier that carries what your looking for. Someone like "Spartan airsoft" for example. Figure out what guns you want to sell/rent, and pick your best suited supplier. You'll need all the proper business licenses, importers licenses and the like. Really look into the legal side, as there is a lot of it pertaining to airsoft. I'd check out a few shops first hand to get an idea.

There's a lot more to it, but I hope this helps. To run something like this it would be a good idea to know airsoft up and down. Learn about guns, brands, gear, laws ..ect. Airsoft Canada is s great place to learn about it, but experience a bunch first hand. Maybe a well known local team will let you pop out a few times.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

a rough estimate I did up some time ago for # 2345

Airsoft Field Start up costs.

Property : lets go conservative here and say you can get enough land for $100 000

Lets assume that it is vacant, so you have to do some improvements., lets go “bare bones”

A couple of uninsulated buildings , with just basic construction , ( one of the best ideas I have seen is to use a couple of SEACANS as the buildings.

These can be had for about $5000 each then some work to set them up as buildings. lets say another 10 000 , so we have buildings for admin and such . for $20 000

now if you want to go all in, with a proshop and all presume another $60 000

Now lets get to building up the field.-- basic landscaping - heavy equipment at $300 an hour + operator ( 30 / hour ) lets say they spend 3 days pushing dirt around. that is $5300.

Now lets do some building .. plywood is $30 a sheet 2x4 are about $3 each if you build anything bigger than 10x10 it is a permanent structure and requires a building permit and must be build to “code” so lets stay at 10x 10 Say we build 20 structures you will use about 40 2x4 and 10 sheets of plywood per building 30 x$3 + 10 x $30 = $420 per structure and we want 20 That is $8400 . -- lets round that to $10000 so we can build some bunkers and towers and stuff.

Lets add approvals Variances , permits and insurance $10 000

so where are we now..
$100 000
$20 000 to $80 000
$5300
$10 000
$10 000

so we are $145 000 to $205 000 to start before we open.
Say we borrow that money .. and we get a little more.. so our loan is $220 000 , and we put it over 5 years at say 6% .. the monthly payment is $4300

Now lets say we want to draw 2 minimum incomes from this endeavor , and have a part time employee .. so monthly payroll at $6000 a month

So we have basic costs of $10300 a month

Now lets say we charge $ 20 per session to play - to pay our basic costs we need 515 people a month to buy a session .. say we are open 7 days a week .. then you need an average of 18 people a day to play.

You can add more income from paint sales.. and from other sales so maybe you can reduce your player base to 15 a day or 450 a month.

So if you do 100 players a weekend .. and do some business on other days as well you can make enough to survive. now consider that the business is seasonal so you will actually need nearly double the numbers during fair weather .. to make it through the winter.

If the land costs more though...
and of course we have not considered advertising or costs such as that.

So it can be done.. Initial capitalization should probably be $200 000 + land costs and you will need a pretty tight business plan to sell it to a bank

[Ricochet]

So basically you'd have to have a strong enough market for it, where you are. You can lease the land as well to save some monthly cost. And depending on the property you could do a lot of the work yourself, or with help. But it's easy to sink with this kind of endeavor. Remember, organized teams in your area that have their own field won't want to pay to play. So unless your hosting a semi major event, where you can make money as long as you put on a good show. You'll mostly run into weekend warrior types.

Geez! It sounds like we are trying to dash your hopes. But we're not. A lot of time, research, and financial backing will be required. Also, your business plan has to impress the bank.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

The real issue is market...

Location location location... people will travel.. for special events.. but your business will live or die on it's regulars

and keep in mind you live in CANADA and this business is seasonal you can't run it in any reasonable way from November to April .. 6 months of the year .. most players are fair weather only

so yeah... scratch my 450 players a month number .. that may work in BC but in Ontario.. you will need nearly double that in the playing season.... Ops what is that sound? it's a loud.. sucking sound

[surebet]

Wow, usually these people are only looking for a hand-out as far as the plan goes, this one also want a grant to go with.

Kid, you didn't even give us a vague geographic location. Right off the bat, even if we were inclined to spoonfeed you, we can't even right now.

[FreebirdAirsoft]

Ok, Brian i just read ur thought.

I am located in Ottawa, Ontario.

The land we plan on purchasing is 32,000$ for 50 acres of heavy wooded area.

and for the labour costs for basic landscaping and heavy equipment isnt gonna cost us anything. A fellow family member of mine owns heavy equipment. All we would have to pay for would be the gas.

and for the income it would be from rental, and playing fees.

Paintball rentals and playing fees, plus there ammo fees are far more expensive than airsoft.

Airsoft :

The playing fee is 25$ per day

the rental fee is 25$ and includes a kraken AK(AEG), eye pretection, High Cap mag, and a tac vest.

BB fees - 20$ per 0.20g bag
25$ per 0.25g bag
28$ per 0.28g bag


Lunch - 5$ (Slice of pizza and pop)


Paintball :

Playing fee is 25$ per day

rental fee is 35$ per day and include

Pod pack, Tipman 98 custom, hopper, and Eye pretection.

Paintball prices.

100 pb - 10$

500 pb - 40$

1000 pb - 120 $

Lunch - 5$ (Slice of pizza and pop)

[FreebirdAirsoft]

employees are my partner and I. he is a great guntech and for the first year all income is to the feild to pay off dues and to add cool stuff :P

1 year of income to feild.

[surebet]

Ok, here we go...

Originally Posted by FreebirdAirsoft

Ok, Brian i just read ur thought.

I am located in Ottawa, Ontario.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research

What is the competition like? How many players are in your region? What have you to offer that isn't already catered to by existing fields?

Originally Posted by FreebirdAirsoft

The land we plan on purchasing is 32,000$ for 50 acres of heavy wooded area.

At that price it's in the middle of buttfuck no where. Once again, what do you have to offer to motivate people to go to you?

Originally Posted by FreebirdAirsoft

and for the labour costs for basic landscaping and heavy equipment isnt gonna cost us anything. A fellow family member of mine owns heavy equipment. All we would have to pay for would be the gas.

Not such thing as free. You seem to underestimate the amount of fuel heavy machinery burns through, this isn't like gassing a car. Also, if you think family will provide free equipment, you are either vastly underestimate the amount of work or are overestimating the generosity available to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amortiz...ss)#Accounting
http://decisivecost.com/Fuel-Consumption-Cost.aspx

Also, you can't just pull this out of your ass, you'll need professionals involved, permits, insurance. There are major costs involved in the construction of anything.

Originally Posted by FreebirdAirsoft

and for the income it would be from rental, and playing fees.

Paintball rentals and playing fees, plus there ammo fees are far more expensive than airsoft.

Airsoft :

The playing fee is 25$ per day

the rental fee is 25$ and includes a kraken AK(AEG), eye pretection, High Cap mag, and a tac vest.

BB fees - 20$ per 0.20g bag
25$ per 0.25g bag
28$ per 0.28g bag

Krakens will never, ever survive rental use. Not even sure you'll get your monies' worth out of them before they melt down, even if the whole field fee goes to just the guns. Rental guns would have to be of much higher quality, right now you're not even AVed so you have no idea what's worth what.

Finish school first kid.

[Matt 'Maverick' Watts]

Brian has a LOT of the main points listed, BUT there's a few more you really have to look at:
1) Zoning - if it's not zoned for commercial/recreational, you have to appeal to have the zoning changed. Why? So you can LEGALLY operate your business and apply for the appropriate paintball/airsoft field license (yes it does exist).
To get the proper zoning, you'll have to have things like environmental impact studies done, noise studies, an evironmental audit of the property, due diligence informing the surrounding population, etc...
2) Insurance - you really need this if this is going to be a business venture, which is why you need the zoning. With proper zoning, you can get proper insurance. A minimum of a $5 million liability needs to be carried, that works out to about $35,000 a year in insurance costs.

Now let's look at the time. You may like playing airsoft/paintball, but once you start working in this field, it will eat up ALL your time (and not pay you very well). Be prepared to STOP playing and actually run the business if you want to succeed.
I have helped set up many, many paintball/airsoft fields over the years, both here and in the States. 90% of the people that do it don't come anywhere close to being prepared to do it right, and almost all of them close within a short period of time.

[Ricochet]

I know a few guys that ran a fairly successful paintball field, without a lot of overhead. A suggestion would be to keep your store, and your field separate entities. If your selling guns in a shop then saving money on rentals wont be an issue. I guess I'd suggest classic army for rentals. They are built fairly well, and easy to attain. Also they don't cost a fortune.

Very important about airsofters. They don't like getting paint on their gear, so keep the fields separate. This is also an issue that hardcore has. Serious airsofters don't want to play with kids, running around in camo pajamas shooting high caps, and not calling their hits. True airsofters are the ones with the real money to spend as well. If you make a really detailed, interesting play area, you may attract more of these. To get them to play there regularly, offer discounts in store, for guys that buy a membership.

Try hosting events. This will bring in more revenue, and attract higher caliber players. If the event is big and crazy with a lot of effort put in, people will travel further to attend. Mason Relic for instance has Pyro (professionally done of course), huge draw prizes from them and their sponsors, large organized objective based milsims, and military vehicles. This will be a bit much for 25ish acres, but airsoft has a lot of effort and expectation.

I guess you could have team tourneys as well. Have your open to the public days, where anyone can come try though. Often times you will snag a player who will invest more into the sport that way. And have your team days, or for age verified more serious players.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Originally Posted by FreebirdAirsoft

Ok, Brian i just read ur thought.

I am located in Ottawa, Ontario.

The land we plan on purchasing is 32,000$ for 50 acres of heavy wooded area.

)

50 acres.. for $32000 is not "in Ottawa"

how far out? in what direction.. what are the fields like that are closer to the population centers?

Why would anyone drive to your field over one that is closer if the price is about the same.. and a wooded field is, well a wooded field.

[Drake]

Plans.

Plans never survive first contact with ASC


FreebirdAirsoft, it sounds like you have an idea; but it also sounds like you know nothing about airsoft. That's a surefire way to lose both the respect and interest of this community. Learn about the sport and get involved and undertake whatever endeavor you choose to go with because you want to help the sport move forward, not just because you see a potential revenue stream associated with it.

First and foremost, you're offering rentals and walk-on style play. You might attract a few people, you might attract kids and people curious about airsoft... but you won't attract many serious players. Airsoft isn't paintball.