OKay..hoping this is the board to post this on..basically hubby and I think we have a great idea for a business...an indoor glow in the dark mini golf center (with a rock n roll theme). We live in Northern NH and there is nothing like this anywhere around..maybe not even the entire state (we also closely border VT and nothing like this there either). There isn't even any place to have a birthday party anywhere around. The start up cost would be around $75,000 and we would have to lease a space (which we found)..our totally monthy expenses would be around $3000...which means we would need about 150 people (or 38 families) per week to come. Anyway, we would love to hear from people from all over..big cities, small towns and let us know what you think..good, bad, ugly..all of it!!! We don't have a lot of money by any means (just good credit)..we would have to take out a loan for the 75K. We are just nervous that our idea is only a great one to us LOL
Not sure of your breakdown of monthly expenses but 3,000 seems a little low to me. Maybe you could list your breakdown of this for us to see. You have to be very careful because there are so many hidden expenses with a business.
First one being your rental and what is included. Some leases will not cover the heating and cooling system maintenance and other things. Be sure to read the lease and understand what is and isn't included. Does it included electric? Does it included water? Who is responsible for regular maintenance? If the ac goes out who pays? If someone stuffs crap in your toilet and causes it to overflow who pays? (My husband goes to the skate ring here often to unstop the facilities due to kids flushing stuff for fun!!) You will have to have a cleaning crew, someone to clean and wax the floors. It's easy to think that you can do all these things yourself to save money but the reality is, you can't do it all.
There are a lot of license fees and insurances that are a huge expense with a business that unfortunately continue to rise yearly. What happens when someone gets hurt? Most likely you will need an umbrella policy to cover you just in case.
You will have to take credit cards. There are loads of hidden fees with this. You won't make $5.00 per person. Taxes have to come off that cause the IRS wants their piece. Then you have to figure what % you will lose since most will pay with credit. Then you have the phone bill, electric, advertisement, discounts they may use, maintenance....I could go on and on. Don't forget you need a security system and the monthly fees for that.
You also have a huge issues with keeping customers happy. Some people are looking for stuff for free. They take advantage of things. Some customers will have legitimate problems. Most of these will be solve with a refund. It can take 100 happy people to send you one new customer. One unhappy customer can tell 100 people in 5 seconds how awful your business is!
There are huge expenses with employees. You have workman's comp, liability, payroll taxes. The unemployment and Workman's comp goes up and up when you have people who get hurt or you lay off. I even had one guy able to receive unemployment when we fired him and have the paperwork trail to prove why! They said it was simple misconduct! What?! He would sleep on the job, not show up at all without calling in, among other things. He signed a disciplinary sheet every time we wrote him up! I was livid.
Who is going to file all your payroll taxes? Will you have to hire a payroll accountant to handle this? The IRS is a whole new beast to deal with. They want their money no matter what! Don't be late either. The IRS doesn't care that you didn't have the money for your 941. If you are one day late the penalty's and interest are huge! You also need to ad the cost of having an accountant to file your taxes.
I remember thinking when we opened our business that we would make big bucks. I never calculated all the hidden expenses. I also thought it will be so nice to make our own hours and take vacations when ever we want. I have never worked so many hours in my life and vacation is hard to come by and we pay dearly if we take off.
If you had the money up front it would be easier for me to say go for it. With you having to borrow the start up cost, which most likely will be more then you have listed here, it's a whole new ballgame. You have so much more to lose. (We never borrowed one dollar for either business)
I don't mean to sound so negative but I wish someone had informed us more before we opened our companies. There is just so much I never thought about. I would try to find a business owner to talk with you to give you a better idea of pros and cons. Most new businesses will close within the first 5 years. I believe most of this is to be blamed on not having a good business plan. Good luck with whatever you decide!
