Opening a new room. Questions..

Mustardeer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I’m in a major market. Cheapest existing rooms without the liquor license sell for $75000+. Larger rooms start at $300k.

I’m a serious pool player who used to be a very successful nightclub promoter.

I’d target 80% groups of friends drinking and shooting and 20% serious players and league players.

My strength is getting bodies in and getting them to come back. My weakness is all the paperwork / permits nightmare that goes into running a brick and mortar.

Question: assuming zoning is not an issue would it be smarter for me to just lease an empty warehouse and buy a beer and wine license for now instead of buying an existing room? I don’t care about their existing clientele if it comes with a 300k price tag. I can pack a place for cheap. I’m thinking as many used valley boxes as I can fit ( at least 10 ) and 1 or 2 9’ diamonds.

Any advice aside from “it’s very risky, it’s very hard, you have no idea what you’re signing up for” will be greatly appreciated.
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I’m in a major market. Cheapest existing rooms without the liquor license sell for $75000+. Larger rooms start at $300k.

I’m a serious pool player who used to be a very successful nightclub promoter.

I’d target 80% groups of friends drinking and shooting and 20% serious players and league players.

My strength is getting bodies in and getting them to come back. My weakness is all the paperwork / permits nightmare that goes into running a brick and mortar.

Question: assuming zoning is not an issue would it be smarter for me to just lease an empty warehouse and buy a beer and wine license for now instead of buying an existing room? I don’t care about their existing clientele if it comes with a 300k price tag. I can pack a place for cheap. I’m thinking as many used valley boxes as I can fit ( at least 10 ) and 1 or 2 9’ diamonds.

Any advice aside from “it’s very risky, it’s very hard, you have no idea what you’re signing up for” will be greatly appreciated.
I like your warehouse-n-wine idea. Get a place going and then look at building your own building. Building one isn't cheap i know but you'll own the place. If the pool doesn't work you still have a building to lease/sell/change businesses.
 

SBC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It can be done.
You can get a LLC with legal zoom for 600
Liquor licenses can be obtained by you. I did ours, not hard. You can buy a temporary while the application is done.
If you are building a room from scratch, as I did, know the expenses are high unless you do a lot yourself I have a 5 year lease with 5 years gauranteed option behind that. We did everything to build the room. Ask locAl codes if you can do your own electrical work...then get it inspected. If you pay an electrician it will cost a ton.

Find out if you have to do an site plan... local town boards make you do this if they don't want you opening. If you are in your own building, they can put you through it. Costs like 10k.

Restaurant license is simple. You will never make much on food. You can get by with snacks galore, sandwiches and get air fryers to make fries, boneless wings mozzarella sticks. The cost of a full blown kitchen and a cook is prohibitive.

Picking up an existing business with customers would be optimal. It takes years to build a client base.

Know you will find out who your real friends are. Many will ask a lot from you. They presume you are getting rich. If you don't absolutely love the game and are willing to accept all the headaches ..then go forward. You will be working when staff call in. Fixing everything that breaks. Doing payroll,dealing with vendors.

If you can just make a club. BYOB. The general public is a lot of hassle honestly. If you do good, you will be shopping unless you order enough to use a vendor that delivers. If you have to hire someone to run your books that's more out of pocket.

Do you have a day job? Would this be your only employment? How much are you willing to risk to see your vision to fruition?
 
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Mustardeer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
No day job. I’m an entrepreneur, I work on various projects but can work on this full time if I choose to. Can invest 50-200k solo. I can also recruit a few partners if it makes sense financially. I’m in a major city. Unfortunately there’s a ton to do over here. I think pool works best in the middle of nowhere where all they got is pool. But it can be done. A few rooms here are making ok money.
 

SBC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
No day job. I’m an entrepreneur, I work on various projects but can work on this full time if I choose to. Can invest 50-200k solo. I can also recruit a few partners if it makes sense financially. I’m in a major city. Unfortunately there’s a ton to do over here. I think pool works best in the middle of nowhere where all they got is pool. But it can be done. A few rooms here are making ok money.
A lot of hassles.
Guy who owned the room before me, who lost it to fire, told me fir 5 hours why I'd be crazy to open the room again. Everything he spoke to me about has come to fruition and more. I love the game and won't settle to see it go the way the other room in town has. I'm up to the challenge most days. Im working 3 nights a week plus my day job, going in on weekends. Shopping with my wife who also does a few day shifts. She does all the books which is easily 4 hours a week. If you are in it to make money, I'm sure there are easier ways. Myself I can make $86 an hour per diem at the hospital. Like I said for me it's not about money. We have rebuilt a room for all the old timers, regulars and give the public a better option than the Dave and Buster's pool hall up the road.

Look at everything. Price it all out. You can write-off a ton in the first few years. You will need a great tax man. Use Paycheck for payroll, very simple. If you accept credit cards charge a 3.5% conveinience fee.

Your average customer will spent 12 to 15 bucks. You need to keep overhead low. I need to make $380 a day...covers everything. That's because I bought out a full pool hall for peanuts after the fire, built the entire room ourselves and hustle for every improvement we made including Diamond tables.

If you have any specific questions please ask. It will take 3 years to build your business. Very hard to spread the word to the general public. You need to really figure how big you can go. I think for many it is go big and go broke.
 
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Mustardeer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Appreciate it. $380/day is not bad at all. But if you’re bleeding it can get ugly really quick.. When I did nightclubs, before social media, I bad a bar door split with the owner. I got the door ( cover charge ) he got the bar. On a Saturday night my costs were 10k and I got 20k in cash. My bar did about 14k which all went to the owner. But it wasn't a daily so if I had a bad night I had time to tweak the formula. Good old days. Instagram killed all that.

From my experience no matter how much you love it, if you’re losing money it’ll turn to hell real quick. I do think the pool niche can be profitable. Predator, APA, and a few other brands are making a killing. I heard there’s a room in Atlanta that’s doing really well and growing.
 
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