Pool Room Ownership Question

Bambu

Bambu

Dave Manasseri
Silver Member
I have read before that the pool room business is a bad one, in terms of profit margins. I would like to know, from any owner kind enough to say....is owning a pool room all its cracked up to be? Was it worth investing your life in, assuming thats the case? Why or why not? If you regret it, do you feel as if you could have made it if you started with more capital, where you could buy or create a structure, rather than rent or lease? Any comments appreciated.
 
Owning a poolroom WAS all it was cracked up to be, back in the day.
Today, I'm not so sure. Times are hard and people have short attention spans. We made a living and sent two kids to college. It's a fun ride when you're young. But, we're not anymore so it's harder to relate to the younger generation. Did we make a fortune. No, we are simple folk. But, the bills are paid.
I especially love pool, still play almost every day and have coordinated wpba qualifiers, a regional tour and a juniors tournament throughout the years. So a poolroom was a good fit for me. I had worked at a fortune 500 company before that and I think the poolroom was a good fit for me.
Now that we are older we don't want to work hard anymore, and to be successful, (I believe) you must be willing to put in lots of face time as well as sweat.
I wouldn't say don't do it, I would say be very willing to be married 24/7 to be successful or have some very good people.
Good luck, our sport needs people who still care about pool.
Tracy
 
Pool Room Wonders

After 15 yrs I wonder why I ever did this, its because I loved the game.
Anymore though I dont know. I have had to do this all by myself, open till close and it gets old.

I would have liked to had more money in the bank to start out with.
There are always unexpected expenses that come up.

To really do great I think you must own your own building, giving someone
$2700.00 a month off the top cuts in deep in the profit.

I have made a living and paid the bills, but when retirement time comes in 5 years I will suffer, probably retire and keep the room just to live.
Ok Im done, but you asked.

highrun55
 
Sorry for the late reply. I got sidetracked. I do appreciate the advice, thanks.
 
poolhall maven said:
Owning a poolroom WAS all it was cracked up to be, back in the day.
Today, I'm not so sure. Times are hard and people have short attention spans. We made a living and sent two kids to college. It's a fun ride when you're young. But, we're not anymore so it's harder to relate to the younger generation. Did we make a fortune. No, we are simple folk. But, the bills are paid.
I especially love pool, still play almost every day and have coordinated wpba qualifiers, a regional tour and a juniors tournament throughout the years. So a poolroom was a good fit for me. I had worked at a fortune 500 company before that and I think the poolroom was a good fit for me.
Now that we are older we don't want to work hard anymore, and to be successful, (I believe) you must be willing to put in lots of face time as well as sweat.
I wouldn't say don't do it, I would say be very willing to be married 24/7 to be successful or have some very good people.
Good luck, our sport needs people who still care about pool.
Tracy
Click to expand...
I am simple too, no need to be rich, and I certainly love pool. I am wondering how poolrooms do from state to state. Maybe the smoking states do better? Sorry for the late response.
 
Bambu said:
I have read before that the pool room business is a bad one, in terms of profit margins. I would like to know, from any owner kind enough to say....is owning a pool room all its cracked up to be? Was it worth investing your life in, assuming thats the case? Why or why not? If you regret it, do you feel as if you could have made it if you started with more capital, where you could buy or create a structure, rather than rent or lease? Any comments appreciated.
Click to expand...

I agree with both other posters to this thread completely. However, I would add this, to be successful in this business today you must be very versatile. If you open a room you must offer something different than the other rooms in your area and state. Before I opened my room, I went to every pool room in the entire state of Washington. I did this to check out what I thought was good and bad, and what I could do to be different. Lets face it, a pool room has to be tailored to the largest economic class of people in your area, along with the type of people you as a business owner want to attract. If you are located in the country, you would most likely need to offer things at different rates than in a large city.

I am located approximately two miles from two Military bases, one Army and One Air Force, and along with this I am also in a Suburb of Tacoma, Washington. The one thing that know one in this State had going for themselves was a one stop Billiard / pool locate. My room has a pro-shop with anywhere from 150 to 200 different cues for sale daily, along with all sizes of cases, and almost any type of Pool / Billiard related accessory. I offer full cue repair, from tip replacement, refinish work, to custom cue building. Currently there is no type of repair I can not accomplish, and the basic repairs are completed while the customer waits, IE, Tip, Shaft cleaning, Wraps, refacing of joints, weight changes, and any other basic repair. I also sell a full line of bottled Beer, along with a wide assortment of soft drinks, snacks, and microwavable food. By only selling beer, I can keep my place all ages, which is very helpful in keeping the tables rented. Kids can be a pain in the ass or a blessing for a pool room owner, and it will depend completely upon the people in charge of running the room. Kids want to be treated with respect like everyone else, if you do it, set rules, and totally enforce them you will have no problems, in fact I have found that most people including our young want a safe place to hang out. Oh and by the way the kids today have a great deal more money to spend than I ever did.;)
Next, you must take the time to know your customers, including the kids, because once people see that you are interested, they will also feel obligated to act according toward you and your place.

Advertisement, is also very important, however, it can also be very inexpensive if you handle it the wright way. Pool Leagues are great way to advertise, to do this keep to your place safe, keep it clean (especially restrooms), insure that your equipment is perfect repair (including house cues / bridges) and offer special benefits to your league players / Teams and you will have more teams than you can handle. This more than anything else will bring new people into your place on regular basis, and by offering quality repairs / work along with good fair prices on merchandise word of mouth will be a great form of advertisement. Word of mouth advertisement is the best form there is and it is free which also is great.

I hope this helps, good luck with what ever you decide to do!!!!!!!
 
manwon said:
I agree with both other posters to this thread completely. However, I would add this, to be successful in this business today you must be very versatile. If you open a room you must offer something different than the other rooms in your area and state. Before I opened my room, I went to every pool room in the entire state of Washington. I did this to check out what I thought was good and bad, and what I could do to be different. Lets face it, a pool room has to be tailored to the largest economic class of people in your area, along with the type of people you as a business owner want to attract. If you are located in the country, you would most likely need to offer things at different rates than in a large city.

I am located approximately two miles from two Military bases, one Army and One Air Force, and along with this I am also in a Suburb of Tacoma, Washington. The one thing that know one in this State had going for themselves was a one stop Billiard / pool locate. My room has a pro-shop with anywhere from 150 to 200 different cues for sale daily, along with all sizes of cases, and almost any type of Pool / Billiard related accessory. I offer full cue repair, from tip replacement, refinish work, to custom cue building. Currently there is no type of repair I can not accomplish, and the basic repairs are completed while the customer waits, IE, Tip, Shaft cleaning, Wraps, refacing of joints, weight changes, and any other basic repair. I also sell a full line of bottled Beer, along with a wide assortment of soft drinks, snacks, and microwavable food. By only selling beer, I can keep my place all ages, which is very helpful in keeping the tables rented. Kids can be a pain in the ass or a blessing for a pool room owner, and it will depend completely upon the people in charge of running the room. Kids want to be treated with respect like everyone else, if you do it, set rules, and totally enforce them you will have no problems, in fact I have found that most people including our young want a safe place to hang out. Oh and by the way the kids today have a great deal more money to spend than I ever did.;)
Next, you must take the time to know your customers, including the kids, because once people see that you are interested, they will also feel obligated to act according toward you and your place.

Advertisement, is also very important, however, it can also be very inexpensive if you handle it the wright way. Pool Leagues are great way to advertise, to do this keep to your place safe, keep it clean (especially restrooms), insure that your equipment is perfect repair (including house cues / bridges) and offer special benefits to your league players / Teams and you will have more teams than you can handle. This more than anything else will bring new people into your place on regular basis, and by offering quality repairs / work along with good fair prices on merchandise word of mouth will be a great form of advertisement. Word of mouth advertisement is the best form there is and it is free which also is great.

I hope this helps, good luck with what ever you decide to do!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
i this is a great post. i would like to open a pool room on the west side of the bridge around the gig harbor area. i was hoping to have some free time this weekend to stop by and check out your place and maybe ask you some questions but being super bowl weekend and having rugby on saturday i dont see how im going to fit it in. i was really looking forward to it too.
 
First thing you have to determine is what type of poolroom you want to open. If you look back at all of the poolrooms you visited in the past year or two, determine which one was more busy than the others. Also which one has a more consistant customer base. Most poolrooms today are not what I would call a poolroom. They are loud bars with pool tables installed. These type of poolrooms are more interested in selling food and booze rather than pool time. I hear statements from owners that they don't make money off of pool players. You have to accomodate more to the under 25 crowd instead. This means turn up that stupid jukebox and blast their ears off. Young people love that noise. I wouldn't open a poolroom today if my life depended on it. Catering to the under 25 crowd is just too hard on my ears.
 
You have to have the fire in the belly for it, and the willingness to go through some very hard times in the beginning.
I'm currently writing a book on this, and I can tell you that the beginning of opening a large pool room is a baptism by fire.
Long hours and much worry about making lease paymemts and making sure employees aren't stealing from you.
I would say only strike out to do this if you feel that it is part of your destiny to do so. If not, I would really reconsider.

Danny K
 
Danny Kuykendal said:
You have to have the fire in the belly for it, and the willingness to go through some very hard times in the beginning.
I'm currently writing a book on this, and I can tell you that the beginning of opening a large pool room is a baptism by fire.
Long hours and much worry about making lease paymemts and making sure employees aren't stealing from you.
I would say only strike out to do this if you feel that it is part of your destiny to do so. If not, I would really reconsider.

Danny K
Click to expand...
Thanks Danny. I have been thinking about scaling down to something smaller. Less money, but less headaches too. Good luck with the book.
 
Having said all that I did about the difficulties in opening a room, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. It has been very rewarding and I have grown exponentially as a person.

Danny
 
Its gonna be a long night.

I think a good answer to your question besides all the money factors is as follows. If you are not a night person you must plan to be one. Of course this only applies to a business that is allowed to stay open late. Most pool rooms do most of their business from 10Pm till close. If close is 2-3 am and clean up takes an hour. A 20 minute ride home and by the time you wind down its 5-6 AM. That was the biggest shock to my system. With a schedule like this 9 am tee times, church, school, or seeing the kids off to school become less and less possible. LOL Also might I add that your busy nights will traditionally be nights you used to relax...Fri & Sat. Your weekends will then move to something like a Tues, Weds. It puts you out of sync with everyone else in the world. I think that is the most important thing to take into consideration with a business like a pool room. Of course all of this assumes you are making the cash you want to make in the business. My guess would be that a person who wasn't doing well in the business would get tired of the process even more quickly than I have. And if helps you to understand my position...When I first broke into the business (5 Years ago) I figured myself to have 10-15 year life span before I'd be done with it. Now I know that is way too long. Be smart and buy the property if you can. I did and now I can get out of the day to day anytime I feel like it. Of course I will have to sell the business but if you run a successful business it will be easy to sell. Whatever you can't get in price you then make up for with rent. Its all gravy man! Hope that answers your question in a way no one else has.
 
I wish I could find rent for under $15,000 a month.. I am on my second pool hall and I love it but I am 33 and a night person.. I think to make any money you need to offer more then pool like games drinks good food lot's of tv's..
 
Doodlesbilliard said:
I think a good answer to your question besides all the money factors is as follows. If you are not a night person you must plan to be one. Of course this only applies to a business that is allowed to stay open late. Most pool rooms do most of their business from 10Pm till close. If close is 2-3 am and clean up takes an hour. A 20 minute ride home and by the time you wind down its 5-6 AM. That was the biggest shock to my system. With a schedule like this 9 am tee times, church, school, or seeing the kids off to school become less and less possible. LOL Also might I add that your busy nights will traditionally be nights you used to relax...Fri & Sat. Your weekends will then move to something like a Tues, Weds. It puts you out of sync with everyone else in the world. I think that is the most important thing to take into consideration with a business like a pool room. Of course all of this assumes you are making the cash you want to make in the business. My guess would be that a person who wasn't doing well in the business would get tired of the process even more quickly than I have. And if helps you to understand my position...When I first broke into the business (5 Years ago) I figured myself to have 10-15 year life span before I'd be done with it. Now I know that is way too long. Be smart and buy the property if you can. I did and now I can get out of the day to day anytime I feel like it. Of course I will have to sell the business but if you run a successful business it will be easy to sell. Whatever you can't get in price you then make up for with rent. Its all gravy man! Hope that answers your question in a way no one else has.
Click to expand...

Adjusting to the night hours is a great point, thanks. I have lived that sort of life as a player, but not as a worker and certainly not as an owner. But, I will not let that stop me. I am still looking for the right place, somewhere in upstate or long island NY. And yes, I plan on buying a piece of property(not just a business).
Does anybody care to speculate on how large a population of any given city would be enough to support an average size pool room? I am also interested in floor layouts and possible square footage scenarios. Many thanks to all-

Bambu
 
Doodlesbilliard just described my life to a tee. Today I am finishing up my weekend! It is a life not for everyone. That is for sure.

My good friend Mark Wilson just closed his pool room "Billiard Bullpen" in Collinsville IL. For four years he was there every single day and night to make ends meet. He just got burned out on it. He told me about a Saturday when he got there at 10am and stayed till 10pm and did not have a single person walk in the door. Not one. THAT is a hard situation to deal with and keep your enthusiasm about the game of pool. You can only do so much busy work on a day like that.
 
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