by razazarak » Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:09 am
So first and foremost, this is still a passion that I am looking forward to one day being able to bring to our area. I am extremely upset though that I was unable to get this going in the timeframe that I wanted to. Money was the key factor that stopped everything, and I would be happy to share a bit as to why.
In talking with other small business coaches, and they all said when starting a B&M business from scratch you need atleast 3-6 months of budget funded because the first few months WILL be negative with the purchases required and that one cannot open immediately because they have to acquire the equipment and build the arena. So, based on my budget that I worked out, 6 months of budget is roughly $117,000. This includes EVERYTHING: rent, equipment, minimal personnel, insurance, marketing, etc. Could I cut it down a little? sure. But that depends on location, the amount of equipment, etc. I am still trying to figure out how I could get this started on less, and maybe start in other ways and use the funds to go directly to building the indoor airsoft arena.
The other issue was WHERE will I get funding like that?? I had a few ideas: angel investing, crowd funding, traditional loans, etc. Problem was at the time I had nothing I could use as collateral, didn't have a very good credit score, nor did I have anything to put down. Just a younger person with a big dream! So that kinda threw out traditional loans. Crowd funding, while has its ups does have an unfortunate downside in that you may not get a whole lot and really get nowhere while also having to provide some type of reward (and im not one to be like some of these other crowd funded things that take YEARS to get the rewards out to people). And angel investing...well lets just say if you have an idea that you basically want to give ownership to someone else, go with angel investing. Ever seen Shark Tank? Similar but more ruthless from what I understand.
Also life got in the way and we had another child, my spouse and I. Not that its an excuse, but I needed to make sure I was able to provide for the family you know?
So what am I doing right now to get this going? Constantly looking at other avenues to get funding to get started. Ive started another biz that required less, got multiple licenses in that industry, and everything I make in that biz goes right into a savings for THIS biz! Also trying to find ways to cut that budget down greatly. Looking for places which can be used more on the cheap side to just get started and move up as funding allowed and as reputation and activity allowed. Ive also thought about possibly renting out part of my parents property on weekends to run some games to begin with but as I can tell, thats already happening during the summer so it would be nothing different than what you all are used to.
I am WIDE OPEN for suggestions...because I DO want to get this going!!!!!!! I have many ideas to build it to be amazing, but as I said, funding was the main problem. So im still working towards it, but its unfortunately slow at the moment. Plus feel free to shoot me messages if you have any ideas.