Business/Pool Advice.....
- Thread starter Heckler
- Start date
Good luck with your new ventures.
I would like to own a pool room someday and think if managed correctly
it can be successful. I dont know much about the supply company
idea but do like the one stop shopping idea.
A couple ideas maybe dumb maybe not.
Find a few quality custom cuemakers and try to get a deal to sell
for them. Custom cues but nothing ornate. Keep them in stock so that
you dont have to wait on the cuemaker. These wont be designed by the
buyer but will be from custom makers. Perhaps the maker can design
a few one offs only to be purchased through you.
Test your products and keep an eye on their quality. Be leary of the first few shipments. After those you might start seeing a few with flaws. If they can slip them in on you then they will.
I hate buying something from someone that knows nothing about the product.
I think it would all be in the advertising. Maybe find a marketable player and sponsor him in someway.
I also believe that making sure your company does what it advertises. If you are going to get it out in two days then get it out. Make sure its packed good. Following up wtih your customers after the sale is important.
As for your pool room opening. I really like Mike Massey but for a new place
you might consider two players. I am thinking maybe one female and one male. Grady and Allison would be good but I dont know if they still do shows.
Make sure its people that are recognizable then and down the road.
If you get a great player in there but they are not known or ever seen again
it does not do as good. If a person sees the player(s) on TV or in a magazine
then they will remember your place.
Mike Massey and Jenn Barreta might be a good pair.
It might be costly to anyone come to your neck of the woods.
I would like to own a pool room someday and think if managed correctly
it can be successful. I dont know much about the supply company
idea but do like the one stop shopping idea.
A couple ideas maybe dumb maybe not.
Find a few quality custom cuemakers and try to get a deal to sell
for them. Custom cues but nothing ornate. Keep them in stock so that
you dont have to wait on the cuemaker. These wont be designed by the
buyer but will be from custom makers. Perhaps the maker can design
a few one offs only to be purchased through you.
Test your products and keep an eye on their quality. Be leary of the first few shipments. After those you might start seeing a few with flaws. If they can slip them in on you then they will.
I hate buying something from someone that knows nothing about the product.
I think it would all be in the advertising. Maybe find a marketable player and sponsor him in someway.
I also believe that making sure your company does what it advertises. If you are going to get it out in two days then get it out. Make sure its packed good. Following up wtih your customers after the sale is important.
As for your pool room opening. I really like Mike Massey but for a new place
you might consider two players. I am thinking maybe one female and one male. Grady and Allison would be good but I dont know if they still do shows.
Make sure its people that are recognizable then and down the road.
If you get a great player in there but they are not known or ever seen again
it does not do as good. If a person sees the player(s) on TV or in a magazine
then they will remember your place.
Mike Massey and Jenn Barreta might be a good pair.
It might be costly to anyone come to your neck of the woods.
Thank you
Cheers Guys,
I have appreciated all the tips/ideas and views. As for trying to be a "home depot of pool" its a good idea however not sure exactly if it would be worth stocking every product...How long do think someone should wait for a product once its ordered? 2 - 7 days?
I do want to follow every customer up after sale with a phone call or an e-mail maybe.....just need to think of the most viable way.
I was also thinking of doing a scheme where by if somebody places a first order worth over say $250 - $300 then they 5 - 10 % discount on there next order no matter what it is...
I have an excellent web design company, working on this for me as we speak. In fact just yesterday I had to send them a list over of the most searched for words/brands/phrases etc to do with the sport that they can use to link my site to..So again if you have any ideas of what I need to include in that please say...I think I have most of the obvious ones...lol
With regards to the Pool Hall this is still more in the research and assesing stage trying work out facts and figures etc. It is not a something I am looking to make alot of money from rather something that I am hoping will pay for itself and allow me to be involved in pool on a more daily and personal basis
Cheers Guys,
I have appreciated all the tips/ideas and views. As for trying to be a "home depot of pool" its a good idea however not sure exactly if it would be worth stocking every product...How long do think someone should wait for a product once its ordered? 2 - 7 days?
I do want to follow every customer up after sale with a phone call or an e-mail maybe.....just need to think of the most viable way.
I was also thinking of doing a scheme where by if somebody places a first order worth over say $250 - $300 then they 5 - 10 % discount on there next order no matter what it is...
I have an excellent web design company, working on this for me as we speak. In fact just yesterday I had to send them a list over of the most searched for words/brands/phrases etc to do with the sport that they can use to link my site to..So again if you have any ideas of what I need to include in that please say...I think I have most of the obvious ones...lol
With regards to the Pool Hall this is still more in the research and assesing stage trying work out facts and figures etc. It is not a something I am looking to make alot of money from rather something that I am hoping will pay for itself and allow me to be involved in pool on a more daily and personal basis
Heckler said:
Well I ordered a video which the seller did not have in stock, but they had the producer of the video mail it to me directly. It was just a few more days wait and they notified me that it was on backorder. I was happy to have found the video as it was not listed for sale anywhere else.
So you don't necessarily need to keep everything in stock, you can sell the items and have the manufacturer/producer mail it directly to the customer.
Heckler said:
Just keep in mind that words in graphics will not be picked up by search engines. So if you are selling say Moori tips, be sure to have the words billiard, billiards, pool, cue, tip, tips, Moori, Moori III, S, M, Q, etc. in text on the page.
So when I go to search for Moori III tips, I will find your web site.
If you want to do international business, list the different spellings of billiard for different languages. altavista.com has a cool translate feature which you can use to translate your pages.
For example here is a page in german...
http://www.bcv-neustadt.de/Training/Artikel/Kickshot_2/kickshot_2.htm
Same page translated by altavista...
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babe...de/Training/Artikel/Kickshot_2/kickshot_2.htm
Heckler be careful with regards to the search engine keywords, most search engine give them little weight. Also although a closely guarded secret google tends to put far more weight to what sites link to your site and how important they are (number of hits etc..). You would fair far better in search results by either
a) paying google to appear high in the list for certain words etc
b) getting some great banners done up and linking to the top pool related sites out there.
You can also do a a lot worse than put your url and forums such as this.
For example if you google me: "Craig Riley" I come up as number one in google. I have keywords in my site but only started to climb up the google rankings when I started getting links on forums and consequently getting hits of course.
Not finished yet but if you ever need any advice have a look at my portfolio page:
http://www.thelifeofriley.org/employment/web/portfolio.cfm
a) paying google to appear high in the list for certain words etc
b) getting some great banners done up and linking to the top pool related sites out there.
You can also do a a lot worse than put your url and forums such as this.
For example if you google me: "Craig Riley" I come up as number one in google. I have keywords in my site but only started to climb up the google rankings when I started getting links on forums and consequently getting hits of course.
Not finished yet but if you ever need any advice have a look at my portfolio page:
http://www.thelifeofriley.org/employment/web/portfolio.cfm
Heckler said:
Having Mike Massey doing a trick shot exhibition would be awesome...i will never forget back about 1964 when i seen Minnesota Fats give an exhibition..it is something you will always remember.. just remember to have all the zoning and permits approved Before you put Alot of money in your business..good luckGremlin said:Hello,
Unless you are in a large population area for plenty of walk in customer traffic
I would say save your money on the Billiard Supply as the on line mail order billiard supply market is saturated.
The poolroom is a poolroom so you might want to have a pretty staff or special menue, great chef, variety of entertainment, even type of tables. That would be your call. Mike Massey to open up the poolroom.
Good Luck,
"Gremlin"
As a Financial Planner that does a lot of work with small business start up, I will chime in on what I have seen. A good business plan (and I mean a good professional one, can run about 5k). With out it and without sticking to it, you are doomed. While the online billiard retail industry is not over saturated, the market share each has is very limited. There are only so many customers in the market to support the industry. For example, no matter how good your service or porducts might be, you can not tap into a market place that does not exist. Let's say there are 3 million online billiard shoppers. Let's say the top 5 retailers online own about 80 percent of the market. You will need to move them to your site. Not an easy task. That is all you have to work with. You can not make people that don't play pool to buy shafts and cues on your sight. Target marketing is the only way to achive traffic. And now you are forced with a high price per view-low ROI advertising.
There are ways to do it and do it well, but you will see that starting up will keep you in the red for a long long time. Same with a pool hall. You will not make your money from top players and regulars, you will make your money from the bangers that come in with a group of 4 and by booze and food, and stay for four hours. When I play 20 hours a week I spend less then what a group of four will pay in one night. Keep that in mind when you choose your demographics. I.E. a college town.
If you are serious and would like real help PM me.
There are ways to do it and do it well, but you will see that starting up will keep you in the red for a long long time. Same with a pool hall. You will not make your money from top players and regulars, you will make your money from the bangers that come in with a group of 4 and by booze and food, and stay for four hours. When I play 20 hours a week I spend less then what a group of four will pay in one night. Keep that in mind when you choose your demographics. I.E. a college town.
If you are serious and would like real help PM me.
Hey guys I know this resurrecting an older post and I know we were talking about a home depot style of website.
However that will take sometime to get all the products together, properly. So are there any cues/products that you would reccommend I get instantly and also are there any custom cue makers I should try to hook up with instantly????
Many thanks
However that will take sometime to get all the products together, properly. So are there any cues/products that you would reccommend I get instantly and also are there any custom cue makers I should try to hook up with instantly????
Many thanks