I almost jumped in
We all have ideas about what you would do if we were opening a hall. I almost pulled the trigger this summer. Got a great deal on rent in a busy strip mall and I have been buying tables for a year and a half and have now aquired 14 tables,all valley. Most of the tables i paid under $500. I even have been buying stuff for a kitchen.
A very good friend approached me and said he didnt want to be pissing in my cherioos but he didnt want me to make a mistake. So I say the same thing to you, I dont want to discurage you in any way but here are the things I didnt think about till it was almost too late.
1) 2 Other pool halls have closed in the last 18 months with in 10 miles of same area. I knew this but they were badly mismannaged.
2) Because of the time needed to run the room I would have to quit my regular job and then this would end my health insurance. I have lupus and im on chemotherapy and it cost about $80k per year.
3)He put me in contact with a vending operator to give me a few pointers, who said his pool table revenue was down about 60% over the last 3 years. He said a permit for a juke box was $1000 a year for the town i was going to open. He also said that the fees for a digital juke box were about $150 a month.
4) Business insurance was $4k a year with out a kitchen. I needed a million dollar policy for liability. Recomended by my lawyer. If i wanted a kitchen i would need a ANSOL (fire protecton) system that wold be $10k and would be another $1800 a year in insurance.
5)Build out , any changes would have to done by approved firms and would need permits and inspections. This could be negociated into the lease but it still take time.
6)Free pool, this is a trend by bar owners in the area. There is free pool every night of the week at different bar. They also offer free food or drink specials. This make it hard to compete.
7) Beer and wine permit double your insurance cost.
I guess what im trying to tell you is I thought i could do it with $50k. I thougt the most important thing was getting the tables and kitchen equipment.That was the cheepest and easiest part of the whole plan. I also read a few books and I learned that 80% of business that fail in the first two years is due to underfunding. While i was doing a busiess plan I came up with a monthly expence figure. The person who I was doing the plan with a econ professor and he added my current salery of $36 an hour in to the other expencess and i quickly realized that I would have to charge $10 an hour and then I asked if i would pay that, and the answer was a no brainer. So it was 12 degrees last night here in Chicago and my car sits out side and I get into a cold car every morning cause my garage is full of stuff for my pool hall.
Well, in the end, a cold car is a lot easier to handle than having to figure out how to come up with rent in the slow summer months.
I wish you the best but please do your due dilligence.
P.S. To smoke or not to smoke. This is another issue that I could not figure out. If you have alcohol you get to chose if you want to allow smoking. I still dont know what I would have done.
