I need some good opions on why to open a paintball shop.

[paintballfreak90]

My mom brought up a great point that my dad should go into the paintball buisness and open a field. Me as a 14 year old paintball lover think it is the best idea and is my dream come true. Just to make my dad more interested could anyone as a field owner or someone who knows this information answer some questions. I know some of them but i just need some more backup on them.

-How much money does it cost to start a field? Indoor price and outdoor price(wat is the difference) Insurance, fill stations all the stuff.

-How much money do you make a year on average?

-Explain to my dad how much paintball is thriving and becoming really big.

-How it doesn't make kids want to go shoot people with real guns?

-Why do people play paintball and enjoy shooting at their friends?

-Will it make younger kids all into real guns and want to go shoot people?

I just really want my dad to go into this buisness or just at least like paintball more and let me do whatever with paintball gun trade/buys :D so maybe you could convince him that it is a great sport and there really isn't anything wrong with it.

[Lohman446]

Points to consider with any business

Very few businesses based of standard business models make anything in the first 1 to 3 years. IE - be prepared to live off savings.

Most businesses take roughly seven years to take in profits what they originally invested in the years they were loosing money.

[Maggot6]

I dont know connetticut's weather patterns, but I understand outdoor feilds SUCK in the snow....Consider that ;)...And yeah, places that are new don't make much for the first year or so, unless you have some raging children in your area...I've never had the urge to take a .45 and blow someones head off just because paintball guns are available. If a kid wants to blow someones brains on the wall, it is not because he is used to shooting a paintball gun (my opinion....) Maybe you should do a survey or something at a highschool to see how many kids would be interested...

[Number13]

Honestly, and I mean no offense, but if he's sent you to get the answers to those questions I'd suggest he save himself and his family the stress and expense that starting an operation would entail. It's not a dream-come-true for you, as you may think. It is very stressful to start a small business and requires a dedication beyond just enjoying the sport or wanting to make a little money on your child's hobby. Paintball is expensive as a sport and highly competitive as a market. Unless he intends to do laborious and time consuming research on his own into the matter, I suggest he avoid entering the business. It will ruin the fun of the sport for you and for him if you enter it as a hobby business. If entered on a whim, it will end up as a large capital loss and build a lot of animosity towards the sport, as well as resentment within the family for having felt pressured to start the business.

To start a business, you have to do so for the sake of turning profit--not because you think it's a cool area to work in. Entrepreneurship is a dangerous undertaking that must be done seriously and only after insightful deliberation.

[tony3]

The first thing he needs to figure out, making money probably won't happen, you need to be in it for the love of the sport to get out alive. That is what about every field owner I've talked to/seen on the forums say.

[paintballfreak90]

hmm interesting. I guess this was a bad idea. thanx for the help though.

[Lohman446]

I don't mean to discourage you from your dreams - I do mean to discourage your from pipe dreams.

You want that explained. By all means if this is something everyone wants (any business) than go for it. But do not go into it expecting things that just don't, under nomral business models, happen. If you are truly interested in doing this see if your dad will take a couple college classes with you in business administration / retail management / theory etc. Try to do this at a local level where the instructor will have true working knowledge and not just theory.

Most businesses fail in the first year because the people operating them were not prepared for the realities of starting a business. To those of us running already establised businesses this is great news. By all means.. if this is something you real want invest the time, the money, and the effort into. However, have a realistic idea of the risk to return ratio of what you are planning.

College courses may not be made available to you (though I expect a community college would let you if you explained to them what you intended). It may be worth it, if you don't have the knowledge to properly evaluate the situation to hire a consultant to come in and advise you - this will cost money but give you a more realistic risk to reward analysis.

[magmonkey]

ok as a small shop owner, here is my take on it.

it is a rough road, I don't make enough off of paintball alone to support my family, so I have a full time job plus the shop

my day starts at 4:00 am when I get up to check the email. I go to work at my "real" job (wich I HATE MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!!)

I get out of he.. my "real" job at between 2:00 and 4:00 pm take the 50 mile drive to get to the shop, run the milling machine, answer more emails, assemble completed markers, do the shipping, basicly run around like a chicken with his head cut off.... until it is time to go home and visit with my wife who gets out of her real job at 12:00 am

that being said, I refuse to give up.... there IS money to be made in paintball and from the time I get up in the morning until the time I go to bed at night I am consumed with three things

#1 my family
#2 Paintball
#3 how to make enough money in this sport to be able to do it full time


I have two tem man airball fields, 30 rental markers, 18 scuba tanks, a booster, 3 chronographs, and no land or building to set it up in

I have a full machine shop, and great design programs so that I can design and build just about anything for paintball
and we are working out of my bussiness partners garage.


I have been playing since 1989 and this is all i want to do

you just need to be at the right place at the right time


ALan
DC

[jewie27]

-How much money do you make a year on average? I can't really say for sure, but A LOT.

-Explain to my dad how much paintball is thriving and becoming really big - It's the fastest growing sport in America.

-How it doesn't make kids want to go shoot people with real guns? If kids really wanted to shoot people for real, they would do it regardless of paintball or not. Paintball doesn't teach violence.

-Why do people play paintball and enjoy shooting at their friends? To learn teamwork/communtication and have fun/excercise.

-Will it make younger kids all into real guns and want to go shoot people? No. I wouldn't want to own a real gun. I've been playing 5 years.

I just really want my dad to go into this buisness or just at least like paintball more and let me do whatever with paintball gun trade/buys :D so maybe you could convince him that it is a great sport and there really isn't anything wrong with it.[/QUOTE]




It's hard to convice adults that already think negative of paintball. Show him how safe the sport is under controlled conditions. Take him to a commercial field and show him how it's run. Show him the safety rules and protective goggle systems we use. Show him the statistics put out by paintball insurance companies.

Bottomline - Paintball makes millions of dollars a year and is safer than golf/bowling/badmition/tennis/football/soccer/baseball/etc.... The insurance companies have proof if this.

[Codekevin0403]

ok well i am NOT an owner of a field, but i'm very good friends with the owners of our local pro-shop and paintball field.

1) as someone mentioned before, it takes 1-3 years to finally make a little money (take it from my friends...) so you should be financially stable before investing in such a big thing.

2) paintball is one of, if not the fastest growing sport in america. on a small scale...in my town, 3 years ago, on a saturday when you were at the field, you'd find maybe 14 players tops. now, go here on a saturday with some nice weather and you'd easily find 65+ players.

Also, if you are opening a field, also consider opening a shop because i can tell you, my local field doesn't make nearly as much money from the field as it does from it's shop.

3) Many people play paintball just because it's fun and many people have good things to say about it. Word of mouth spreads fast ;)

4) To tell you the truth, i have absolutely no idea how much it costs to set up a field. I can tell you that an indoor field will cost more than an outdoor field by common sense. I guess some things you have to buy, if you want a speedball field, are bunkers, and those can range from 2500-4500, so be ready for that. Also you want a decent amount of land before you open your field-nobody wants to play in a cramped area! And if you have an indoor, you have to have the cost of building the building, heating it/cooling it, and other stuff

hope this helps...

[Lohman446]

-How much money do you make a year on average? I can't really say for sure, but A LOT.

WHAT? This is based on an educted review of fiscal documents regarding return on investment of paintball fields right? Recurring overhead factors (insurance, electricity, supplies, employee costs) have been taken into account as well as start up fees (rental markers, masks, building, fields, etc.) and risk (of being sued while holding inadequate insurance, etc.) I assume. If its not based off of actual past returns of an actual field or store is it based of a well reasoned theoretical business model based on quantitative analysis? Or is is this just speculation based on "I see how much they charge for paint" etc.



Bottomline - Paintball makes millions of dollars a year and is safer than golf/bowling/badmition/tennis/football/soccer/baseball/etc.... The insurance companies have proof if this.

Show me the proof? Considering the insurance costs associated with most fields (should rumors be beleived) I would assert that insurance companies risk management divisions have a pretty good idea that there are distinct dangers involved in paintball. Is it relatively safe, sure... but badmitton and bowling? You are sighting a study I think done some time ago, before the big boom in speedball and today's extreme rates of fire. A study indicating less people were injured in some sports than paintball. What you fail to take into consideration are unreported injuries, severity of injuries, and injuries per participant. Data can be skewed to support most any position, but look into insurance rates before you assume they are going to be low because someone on the internet told you paintball was safe. I just don't think that an insurance company is going to beleive that.

[jewie27]

still safer than bowling and golf. I've been reading AGP for 5 years...

[ApexAZ]

I really don't see how paintball can be safer then golf :o

I mean, I guess if you take into consideration the risk of getting hit by someone elses golf ball...?

[jay b]

Golf is more dangerous, played paintball all my life basically no injures, play golf for 3days and get a driver to my face and break my cheek bone and get a crap load of stitches. :dance:

[johnson88]

Golf is more dangerous, played paintball all my life basically no injures, play golf for 3days and get a driver to my face and break my cheek bone and get a crap load of stitches. :dance:

or getting run over by one of those golf carts lol

[Lohman446]

It depends.. my golf involves cart races, mud bogging, cart jumping, adn demolition golf carts. Safety becomes an issue.

[jewie27]

The worst thing I've ever known about that happened at my paintball field is a kid witha broken ankle.

[ColdFuzion]

As far as risks, I think insurance people may be worried about the tanks with 3000-5000 psi of air that we hold to our faces... At my field, I always seem to hurt me feet, but that's due to having an extra bone in each foot and being hit by a fourwheeler 3 years ago... Other than me, the worst that's happen is a guy taking a shot in the valuables...

-Cold

[jewie27]

As far as risks, I think insurance people may be worried about the tanks with 3000-5000 psi of air that we hold to our faces... At my field, I always seem to hurt me feet, but that's due to having an extra bone in each foot and being hit by a fourwheeler 3 years ago... Other than me, the worst that's happen is a guy taking a shot in the valuables...

-Cold


What's worse: a 68 cubic inch 3000 psi paintball tank by your face or a 80 - 120 cubic FOOT SCUBA tank on your back? SCUBA has been around since the late 50's. The tanks are much larger and some now even hold 4350 psi. You don't see SCUBA divers gettin worried.

[Ghetto]

I don't run a business nor am I an expert on small business. But I do have a small amount of insight regarding setting up a field. I just recently acquired a 3 man hyperball field (the black corrugated pipe). The pipe itself cost me nothing I just had to haul it off along with a 10 man spool field. Easy enough I borrowed a 12 foot trailer and made a few trips everyday after work and a full day on Saturday. Got the field to my house( I live in the country on 3 acres) and started setting the field up. Had to buy supplies screws, spray foam ect. Now that I have the field how I want it I've got to buy netting, poles, concrete ,rope and clips. All expenses for what started out as a free field. After all is said and done I'll have about $900 invested and its just a practice field. My point is there's always more expense involved then you think. So if your dad is serious about running a business , as someone said before research everything. When looking at how much capital you will need don't over look the small things they add up fast.

[Lohman446]

What's worse: a 68 cubic inch 3000 psi paintball tank by your face or a 80 - 120 cubic FOOT SCUBA tank on your back? SCUBA has been around since the late 50's. The tanks are much larger and some now even hold 4350 psi. You don't see SCUBA divers gettin worried.


Take someone SCUBA certified to your field once so they can see what happens and you're going to see them getting worried.

Scuba divers generally don't flash fill there own tanks. They don't generally slide around on the ground, dive towards bunkers or the ground, or casually toss there SCUBA tanks around. Many people beleive it is only a matter of time before something seriuos happens involving paintballs (in general) lack of respect for the HPA systems we use.

[Muzikman]

To start a field with a pro shop takes a lot of start-up capital. I hope the family has a large savings, good credit and a good career to fall back on.

I gave opening an indoor field a serious thought about 2 years ago. The total opening cost was over $250K. After crunching numbers I realized that there was no way that I was going to make that money back in a reasonable amount of time. I also figurered I was going to have to continue my normal job just to live. This took all of the "fun" out of my idea, so I gave up.

I also did the same with thinking of opening a blues club and when I realized it was going to cost over 1 mill to start out, I gave up on that too:)

[Lohman446]

If you are serious about this and realize the risks involved, let me try to come up with an alternative to you.

Perhaps it is better to consider buying an established field or store first. When looking into a business pay a good business consultant to look at costs and income of that business to see what you can expect. It may be easier to analyze risk to return ratios of an established business than a start up business. The general rule of thumb is a business is"valued" at annual profits X seven plus material value of the building / equipment.

If you think that this is a great immediatly profitable opportunity with minimal risk let me discourage you fully.

[AzrealDarkmoonZ]

A friend opened up a field here recently has a hobby, I would put the total cost of what he bought and the initial outlay of paint ect at around 15k-20k, of course he already had a building on the land, he already had land, and its one 7 man airball field. Do I expect he will ever pay off the initial investment...maybe in 15 years. He makes enough to keep it open and support his overhead.

Az

[slade]

It depends.. my golf involves cart races, mud bogging, cart jumping, adn demolition golf carts. Safety becomes an issue.
too bad they took my sig, or i woulda put that in it :p :D


opening a field or store will most likely be a lot harder than you think, and it can either be a failure and never gain a profit, or become very lucrative. the owner of my field drives a hummer. enough said.

[paullus99]

I've been told by many that they didn't get into paintball to get rich (and then the joke is, now that they are in the sport, the realize they CAN'T get rich ;) ).

Insurance rates for fields are going through the roof (x3 just here in the Maryland Area & I assume that is the same for the rest of the country as well). Besides insurance, you have field upkeep expenses, staff, equipment, etc. Its a fairly large overhead & many fields are started on land that eventually will be sold to developers (the paintball fields pay the mortgage, then the land is sold for $$$$$$$ after a few years).

Stores are a bit different, but realize that you have a whole load of internet shops to compete with & players that will beat you up day and day out over pricers. Its a tough business - don't get into it for the money.

[CKY_Alliance]

too bad they took my sig, or i woulda put that in it :p :D


opening a field or store will most likely be a lot harder than you think, and it can either be a failure and never gain a profit, or become very lucrative. the owner of my field drives a hummer. enough said.

Anybody can finance a car. Like some others have said starting a buisness takes alot of devotion and can put a starin on your family life.It can also get very stessfull, but if you do pursue it, eventually it all pays off and is usually worth it in the end...if you make it.