This is a question I get asked almost every day! And it’s a very important one. When is the best time of year to start a paintball field ?
The answer is, right now!
Now is always the best time to take action, here is why.
First off let’s talk about outdoor paintball fields but don’t worry, we will cover indoor paintball fields as well.
For outdoor paintball, in the places that actually have seasons, you want the winter months to act as your pre- grand opening phase. This way when the weather breaks in spring, you will be in full swing and able to handle the rush.
Too many people make the mistake of trying to have a grand opening in the peak season, then fail miserably because they were not ready. You need time to learn everything.
Plus things always take longer than expected when starting a paintball field. Many people try to time their grand opening for the peak season, only to run into unforeseen delays and end up opening 3 months later than expected. Don’t fall into that trap ! Plan to open now, then whatever delay you run into, is not a big deal.
Now let’s talk about starting an indoor paintball field. Our newest indoor franchise field in Colorado opened in the summer. Why? Because when the snow finally started falling and his numbers skyrocketed, he was ready for it. He used the slower summer months to get through the learning curve at a much more relaxed pace.
With all that said, you can still start a paintball field and open during the peak season and do well. But no matter when you open, you can always do well.
Evan Money is the owner of moneypaintall.org and is celebrating his 20th year helping people start successful paintball fields. With 100% financing for start ups and Working capital loans, Money Paintball can fund your dream today.
For many paintball field owners, their favorite time of year is September through October. Thousands of paintball and laser tag field owners are cashing in on the Halloween Haunt craze with their Money Paintball battlewagons ( battle wagons) and walk through mazes.
In fact one field owner in a small town of 40,000 people had 18,000 people take a $10 ride on his battlewagon ( battle wagon) in 45 days! Those are exciting numbers, no wonder paintball field owners want Halloween to be every month. Actually, it can be.
One of the main draws of the haunts is not the scare factor or the special effects, simply put, it’s the fact the people are not shooting back at them! THIS IS THE HUGE DRAW MANY PAINTBALL FIELD OWNERS MISS!
There are millions of people who would love to shoot something but don’t want to get hit back! That’s why the carnivals always have a packed section where you are shooting something that doesn’t hit back. Smart paintball field owners leverage this knowledge and create ways for people to have fun “one way” shooting experiences. Here are some great examples:
ZIP LINE WITH PAINTBALL TARGETS- This is the best of both worlds, many field owners have discovered the added revenue stream a zip line can offer, now give them something to shoot at.
SUPER HERO SHOOT- There are many paintball field owners that really don’t like the whole blood and zombie theme of Halloween. Many of these paintball field owners choose to have you shoot Super Heroes instead of Zombies. The best part is, there is always a new Super Hero movie coming out, plan your next Super Hero shoot around the release of the new movie. Why wait for Halloween?
FLYING TARGET RANGE- Laporte, the makers of Word Class Clay Target machines have now made something really amazing for paintball field owners. A flying target range, perfect for paintball and archery, check out the videos here: http://emoneypaintball.net/flying-target-range-paintball-archery-p-287.html
If your looking to start a paintball field of any kind, keep these ideas in mind.
#1. TAKING ACTION – You must Take Action Now if anything is going to happen, period. No Action, no business. The first action step is to make a decision. Decide that you will start your paintball field no matter what. The root word for decide literally means to cut off, so you want to cut off any other option.
Now the rest of the 9 ingredients below come from my very first mentor in life, the great Jim Rohn. There isn’t a single better person than Jim to cover these key ingredients to your entrepreneurial success in the paintball world.
2. Time.
Time is more valuable than capital. The time you set aside not to be wasted, not to be given away. Time you set aside to be invested in an enterprise that brings value to the marketplace with the hope of making a profit. Now we have capital time.
How valuable is time? Time properly invested is worth a fortune. Time wasted can be devastation. Time invested can perform miracles, so you invest your time.
3. Desperation.
I have a friend Lydia, whose first major investment in her new enterprise was desperation. She said, “My kids are hungry, I gotta make this work. If this doesn’t work, what will I do?” So she invested $1 in her enterprise selling a product she believed in. The $1 was to buy a few fliers so she could make a sale at retail, collect the money and then buy the product wholesale to deliver back to the customer.
My friend Bill Bailey went to Chicago as a teenager after he got out of high school. And the first job he got was as a night janitor. Someone said, “Bill, why would you settle for night janitor?” He said, “Malnutrition.” You work at whatever you can possibly get when you get hungry. You go to work somewhere — night janitor, it doesn’t matter where it is. Years later, now Bill is a recipient of the Horatio Alger award, rich and powerful and one of the great examples of lifestyle that I know. But, his first job — night janitor. Desperation can be a powerful incentive. When you say – I must.
4. Determination.
Determination says I will. First Lydia said, “I must find a customer.” Desperation. Second, she said, “I will find someone before this first day is over.” Sure enough, she found someone. She said, “If it works once, it will work again.” But then the next person said, “No.” Now what must you invest?
5. Courage.
Courage is more valuable than capital. If you’ve only got $1 and a lot of courage, I’m telling you, you’ve got a good future ahead of you. Courage in spite of the circumstances. Humans can do the most incredible things no matter what happens. Haven’t we heard the stories? There are some recent ones from Kosovo that are some of the most classic, unbelievable stories of being in the depths of hell and finally making it out. It’s humans. You can’t sell humans short. Courage in spite of, not because of, but in spite of. Now once Lydia has made 3 or 4 sales and gotten going, here’s what now takes over.
6. Ambition.
“Wow! If I can sell 3, I can sell 33. If I can sell 33, I can sell 103.” Wow. Lydia is now dazzled by her own dreams of the future.
7. Faith.
Now she begins to believe she’s got a good product. This is probably a good company. And she then starts to believe in herself. Lydia, single mother, 2 kids, no job. “My gosh, I’m going to pull it off!” Her self-esteem starts to soar. These are investments that are unmatched. Money can’t touch it. What if you had a million dollars and no faith? You’d be poor. You wouldn’t be rich. Now here is the next one, the reason why she’s a millionaire today.
8. Ingenuity.
Putting your brains to work. Probably up until now, you’ve put about 1/10 of your brainpower to work. What if you employed the other 9/10? You can’t believe what can happen. Humans can come up with the most intriguing things to do. Ingenuity. What’s ingenuity worth? A fortune. It is more valuable than money. All you need is a $1 and plenty of ingenuity. Figuring out a way to make it work, make it work, make it work.
9. Heart and Soul.
What is a substitute for heart and soul? It’s not money. Money can’t buy heart and soul. Heart and soul is more valuable than a million dollars. A million dollars without heart and soul, you have no life. You are ineffective. But, heart and soul is like the unseen magic that moves people, moves people to buy, moves people to make decisions, moves people to act, moves people to respond.
10. Personality.
You’ve just got to spruce up and sharpen up your own personality. You’ve got plenty of personality. Just get it developed to where it is effective every day, it’s effective no matter who you talk to – whether it is a child or whether it is a business person – whether it is a rich person or a poor person. A unique personality that is at home anywhere. My mentor Bill Bailey taught me, “You’ve got to learn to be just as comfortable, Mr. Rohn, whether it is in a little shack in Kentucky having a beer and watching the fights with Winfred, my old friend or in a Georgian mansion in Washington, DC as the Senator’s guest.” Move with ease whether it is with the rich or whether it is with the poor. And it makes no difference to you who is rich or who is poor. A chance to have a unique relationship with whomever. The kind of personality that’s comfortable. The kind of personality that’s not bent out of shape.
And lastly, let’s not forget charisma and sophistication. Charisma with a touch of humility. This entire list is more valuable than money. With one dollar and the list I just gave you, the world is yours. It belongs to you, whatever piece of it you desire whatever development you wish for your life. I’ve given you the secret. Capital. The kind of capital that is more valuable than money and that can secure your future and fortune. Remember that you lack not the resources.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
It’s no secret the NEW YORK JETS NFL football team is in need of some serious team building. So what did head coach Rex Ryan do a few weeks ago. He took the whole team out to play paintball. We recently helped Harvey start his own paintball field in NJ, Hard Core Paintball. He decided to Take Action and go after team building groups. I’d say the New York Jets are a good group!
What better way to get the word out about your field. What better way to add credibility and attract attention for your field? If your thinking about starting a paintball field or you already own one, have you contacted your local pro sports team? The only thing you have to lose is the next big group playing at your field.
If your looking to start a paintball field or paintball business, you will need financing ( which we provide) or money upfront to get everything off the ground. Many smart people hire me to consult them when starting a paintball field, simply because we have done it over 1,000 times around the world. One question that comes up every time is ” should I buy land and or building or rent/ lease?” Great Question!
We do not recommend buying land or a building to start and this is what I tell all my consulting clients. The 3 big reasons not to buy land are:
#1. You don’t know if you really have a great location. You can do all the research and still be wrong, you never know if you have a great location until you open. Renting or leasing land gives you options, so your not locked in if a better paintball field location opens up for less money.
#2. The current Real Estate market. We recommend doing a lease with an option to buy, this way you have the best of both worlds. If the market goes up you have an option to buy later at a low price. If the market goes down, you are safe and you can buy for the lower price.
#3. The out of pocket cost. As a start up paintball business “cash is king” , you need to preserve your cash on hand. When doing a lease in today’s market we have successfully negotiated 4 to 8 months free rent for our clients, saving them thousands upon thousands of dollars. We can do the same for you, call our office at 310-750-6218 and ask for Evan Money.
“Good business plans take thousands of hours to create, and then can be summarized on the back of a napkin. And you’ll look at the napkin more than the plan. Welcome to the world of owning your own business.” – Ryan Blair . Such a great quote and so true when starting a paintball businesses or laser tag or any extreme sports business.
I’m currently working with a successful young man who is opening an indoor paintball field, when looking for an investor he didn’t show them a business plan, he took the investor to an indoor paintball field that had 350 people that day. Done deal!
So if your really serious about starting a paintball field or paintball business, relax about the business plan and realize the napkin is best!
To read about how Home Depot was formed on napkin business plan, click here ( http://emoneypaintball.net/blog/?p=43 )
With our 100% financing , custom field packages, paintball compressors, paintball turf and over 1,000 paintball fields started world wide, here at moneypaintball.org we can make your dream come true!
Most people that want to start a paintball field or their own paintball business are very excited about having a legitimate 2 day work week. Only in paintball is this possible! Now I must confess, you will no doubt need a few extra days to count all the money that your paintball park will bring in, when you work with us and our proven success model.
Some may ask, how is this possible? It’s rather simple, for a small to medium sized paintball park you can have the phone # directed to your cell phone. More and more people are booking online which is nice, but most Mom’s still want to talk to a live person when booking a paintball party. So if you don’t mind a few calls while your on the beach or fishing or doing what you prefer during the week, you are all set. If the calls get to be too much, you can simply hire a service to take the calls for you. It’s a pretty basic script and again all the info is on your website. Or you can hire a highly skilled stay at home Mom to take the calls for you for a very reasonable price. Some Mom’s will do it at no charge if you let her son play at your field for free : )
Now the fun begins, your two day work week stars early and ends late, so your freedom Mon through Friday has a cost of giving up your weekends and holidays. Small price to pay to make $30,000 or more a month and have a blast doing it.
I’ll be the first to admit owning a paintball filed or paintball business isn’t always sunshine and roses, but it sure beats sitting in a cubicle all day or sucking up to your boss having to wear a suit and tie. So to each his own, a life of freedom and adventure and owning a business based on fun or doing what you hate. You decide.
With our 100% financing , custom field packages, paintball compressors, paintball turf and over 1,000 paintball fields started world wide, here at moneypaintball.org we can make your dream come true!
Paintball field owners and people looking to start a paintball field always want to know what rental equipment is the best choice. Too often, field owners go for the lowest price or off brand paintball markers and end up paying a huge price. There are very few good choices for a rental marker (which we will discus today), while there are hundreds of choices for a personal marker.
If you still have not started your paintball field and are looking for the perfect personal paintball marker, check out paintballgunsforsalenow.com They are not the typical retail paintball site. Yes they have great prices and FREE shipping but they also have detailed reviews plus tips and tricks from paintball how to’s to help you succeed and even some uplifting motivational stories for you to read. Their tag line is; helping you be the best at what you love the most. I think that’s pretty cool, You can check out their blog at blog.paintballgunsforsalenow.com.
Now if your a field owner looking to upgrade your fleet or your ready to finally start your paintball field, you need to take a few things into consideration. Take your favorite personal paintball marker and from about chest high drop it on the ground! I know, I know, you’d never do that in your right mind, well guess what? That’s the first thing your customer is going to do with his ” rental marker .” I talked with a soon to be paintball field owner today who was really excited about having invert mini’s as rental markers, sounds good on paper but after an hour of rental abuse, not so good. Anything that takes battery’s or you have to charge up is not a good idea to rent out. On the flip side, having a rental upgrade for a premium price to a nicer gun is a workable option. But make sure your paperwork says, you break it , you buy it and get the credit card first!
Lastly, it’s not always the customers that break your guns, look no further than your underpaid and over worked staff. Are they excited about gently taking care of the rental fleet at the end of a long day? I strongly recommend a rental marker that is built to last from a company that has stood the test of time. Do you know how many field owners are stuck with rental guns that they can’t get parts for? Also why bother copy cat guns? Get an original, from a manufacture that has been around for 10 or even 20 years.
If you have any questions on what rental markers to choose, e-mail me directly at evan@moneypaintball.org and check out moneypaintball.org for 100% financing and great package deals.
The blogs, talk radio shows and every other media outlet are red hot with the ” Right to bear arms” debate. So we don’t need another one, however we do need to discuss if the despicable events of one man in a CT school will affect your paintball business and possibly starting a paintball field.
Over the last 20 years I have been in paintball, I have seen the sport crawl out of the woods and onto ESPN and my own #1 rated Los Angeles Prime Time Paintball Radio show and now back to the woods. Where and how paintball is played doesn’t matter. As a field owner you want to provide as many options for your customer as possible. So the answer to the question I’m asked hundreds of times ” Woods or Speedball?” Is … BOTH. What does matter is, will our businesses be effected and be put in a negative light because we shoot guns at each other.
The answer is NO! Paintball is not about guns, it’s about an experience, it’s about an escape from your everyday problems. The paintball ” marker” as we refer to it (and I highly encourage you to do the same thing) is simply the device that propels the paint.
The proof I have to offer is substantial. General motors has a 100 million, that’s right a 100 million dollar ad campaign that features paintball in it and THEY ARE STILL RUNNING THE AD! It’s an ad for Chevy Trucks where a Dad is asked what he does for a living and he flashes back in his mind to everything he does with his family and his Chevy truck and paintball is one of those activities. If the big boys at GM are still running the ad they know what I’m telling you now. Paintball isn’t about guns, it’s about an experience and of course a family experience. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT TO MARKET TO YOUR CUSTOMERS, especially at this sensitive time.
For more marketing ideas from money paintball go to moneypaintball.org and sign up for our free mailing list.
Good question! Many of us are hoping it will. The real truth about the paintball business and owning or starting a paintball field is this, people play to escape their problems. So if candidate ” A” wins, you can bet a lot of people will be sad and will want to escape for the next 4 years!
However, if candidate ” B ” wins, guess what? You can bet a lot of people will be sad and will want to escape for the next 4 years! So in a sense you win as the paintball field owner.
A great way to insure this is, the day after the election, send out an email special/ facebook/ text etc. and say ” Come light up the president this weekend and win a free ipod.” You can buy an ipod for $50 but the draw you will get from this promotion will be huge!!! Then hire or make one of your sponsored teams or employees , dress up as the president and run around during the games. If he gets hit , he gives the shooter a raffle ticket. At the end of the day you draw the winner. Must be present to win, so they stick around and shoot more paint : ) ** Make sure to subscribe to this blog so you can get more great ideas **