About This Blog

A little while ago I was asked to start collecting articles about a book that I am publishing on the business of skateparks. I decided that in order to best share and collaborate with others, a blog would need to be created. I don't profess to know more than anyone else, however I hope that those tech-savvy enough to find these postings will benefit from ideas that I gather here.

Many people have asked why build a skatepark? There is a bumper sticker that states, "if your town doesn't have a skatepark it is one". Other reasons are a love of the sport, some have family into the sport, have a skate shop and want to expand, or have a lot of money and time and think it could be fun. I found that all of these are fair reasons for getting a park going. The excitement of opening a business of your own is unparalleled. But there comes a time after you have opened and things are tough, you are working all the time, and stress is mounting that having a fresh look at the business, injecting new energy into the business is needed. Maybe some of the ideas I post here will help. If not, hire someone to give you added time and new energy, it is well worth the cost.

Of all the things that I did, the best I can recommend to you is to look at the numbers of your park on a monthly basis. Spend the time to watch where your money is going, where it is coming from, and where you can make it work better for you. If you don't have an idea how you keep making rent, payroll, taxes, and the lights on you need to start. Make a simple break even point excel document (or use a free online one from Google or openoffice.org). Write down all your expenses per month (taxes, payroll, garbage, water, electricity, gas, rent) and see what you need to do for business to break even. This is your magic number. When you meet this number, on day 15 of the month, you can bank the rest of the money into savings for the times and expenses you don't foresee. In the end, for no mater what reason you got into this business, you need to keep it going, and keeping your eye on the break-even point is how you can achieve this.

It is always nice to be able to know you have the next six month's operations in the bank. Make this your new goal for the year. Keep checking back for some ideas I post here.