Online Session Sales

Presale sessions can help everyone plan

Like movie tickets or concert tickets your skatepark can pre-sell tickets to sessions you sell, online or in the store.  Showing people that there are limited numbers of session entrances can also help sell more sessions ahead of time.  So if you have a lot of people coming in groups from out of town and they know their schedule, you can ensure these people that they will be able to get in and have the trip they were planning.  Similarly if skaters and bikers see that a session is almost selling out, they can elect to come at another time rather than trying to pack in to a crowded session.  Having a website that enables session sale and provide data in real-time can also help you plan on staffing needs.  By seeing that there are a lot of sales on afternoon sessions or on weekdays, you can staff the appropriate number of people to make sure that everyone is having fun, and all areas have enough people to keep lines down.  An additional benefit of adding online sales is that people won't show up despite having paid, or they will have bought too many tickets and will absorb the cost for a variety of reasons.  After your stated "no refunds after this date/time" it is reasonable to assume that giving a refund could have turned away others who would have paid, thereby losing you money.  While you could give a rain-check, this could be a way to increase sales and keep a steady flow of capital into your business even on non-weekend/busy time periods.  Adding functionality like this could go hand-in-hand with having a mobile ready and truly interactive site will help you and your customers get the information they need, to make their visit better.

The Key Activities of Skatepark Owners

Owning a skatepark can be as complicated as you make it.  I've seen some barn based parks that simply float a key system around for friends and the like.  Making a living owning and operating a skatepark however requires a lot of work to get paying customers in the door.  The complexity of a skatepark then makes for a lot of activities for the owner and managers.  Here are a list of some of the main activities a skatepark owner should be completing on a monthly basis.

Promotions
schedules - park and staff - calendar year tweaks and plans
advertisements - monthly and target market specific
Events planning-
stocking, buying goods
inspecting ramps
manning the desk
talking with suppliers and key partners
meeting with finance people both investors and accountant
inventory
financial review (reconciling the cash register, imputing into quickbooks, reviewing costs -v- income
cleaning
replacing broken supplies, fixing, painting, refining
Community outreach, public relations
Outreach to area organizations for cross promotion and group visits
Managing skate team
upgrading systems and controls.
meeting with staff, training staff
calling and corresponding when appropriate
Updating web, social media, other media
Skating a little too!

Lots to do every month undoubtedly.  Try to get some of these things handled by delegating.  Paying for services is a good way to increase staff's feeling of importance as well so maybe promotions, or staffing, or updates can be handled by savvy hourly staff or salaried managers.  Taking the time to be the leader of the business is necessary so don't just man the front desk but also don't be totally absent from the front desk either.  Good luck!

Identifying Market Segment for Skateparks

Often times I hear of people who say things like, there are a ton of skaters in my town so I want to start a skatepark.  I think this is a great start but are there really a ton of skaters who will use your park is a question that needs to be asked.  In traditional business plan startups, people often look at an idea, figure out how much it will cost and look at the population as a whole and go from there.  But when your money and your sanity are on the line you want to make sure that there is a sustainable market for your business before you spend money.  Ok, so going from the premise of a "ton", who are they?  Teenagers? Little Kids? At a crappy free park?  What these people show are Market Potential, it doesn't mean that these kids will come to your park.  Sitting out and counting these people, noting their age and demographics can help to give you a better idea of the dedicated skaters.  Interview the skaters/bikers you find and see who they are, what they want, and what they are will to pay for.  Similarly making friends with the local skateshop can help you better understand the market potential by providing you with stats on patrons.  This is vital information.  You have a theory, and until you go out and test your theory you'll never know for certain what is reality.  After you have gathered some data, go back to your idea and see if the market potential fits the reality.  You are trying to create a better understanding of the market by understanding your clients better. To do this you need to get out and talk with the end users.  If you have a drawing of your park, share this with your potential clients, if you have a cost structure, share this with your clients as well.  Their feedback will help you understand what you have in terms of a product, and what your market will bare in terms of price.  At some point soon you can start looking for the archetype of a typical patron.  These conversations with parents and kids can help you understand who will come to your park, how often, and at what cost.  If you have a website you can also use that to gather information.  Put a survey on the front page and try promoting it.  Another way of gathering this info would be to do a Facebook ad campaign targeting a very select group of users in a small demographic area.  You need data to make a good decision, and it won't just come to you in a dream.  So you need to go get it.  When you have a market archetype you can then figure out how to cater your park to meet their needs.  Lets just say that Junior High aged skaters and bikers were the best respondents to your survey and interviews.  These kids have a desire to come to the park 2x a month at 12$ a pop.  They expressed they skate all the time and their parents said they have very few options for entertainment.  So these end up being the core market archetype, with other groups like teens, young adults, little kids fill in your market.  Spending your time to cater your business to meet the basic needs of these skaters first is the best idea to ensure your success.

How to start an indoor skatepark

As a guide I thought I would break down what a novice would need to do to start a skatepark from scratch.

1. Formulate a plan - how will it work, who will work it, how will you pay your bills, what business structure (tax and liability issues) will you have?

2.  Do some research - Do you even know where you could put a park?  What are the costs per month of the building? taxes? parking? how will people get there?  How many skaters are there, and how many of these will pay to skate?

3. Get your finances in order.  Do you have money?  Do you have enough to exist for 6 months without earning a cent?  How long will you be able to have expenses without making money before things will get stressful?  The longer you can last, the longer you will last. You will need build up time with lots of expenses and no income.  What happens too if people are slow to respond? Plan for the worst case scenario, and work for the best.  Can you spread your own finacial liability out with other investors?

4.  Market before you have anything going.  Start the buzz early.

5.  Plan for a media blitz for when you open, get all the free press you can.  Invite web, print, tv to your place.  Have an "event".

6.  Maximize your revenue.  Don't just rely on skateboarders to pay the bills.  Sell food, stuff, lessons, rentals, private park hours, party rooms, party events, christian events, before and after school events, camps, demos, advertisements, group lessons, what every you can.  There is no shame in making this business work by selling things, this is your business, you have to pay yourself, your taxes, lights, sewer, trash, etc.

7.  Keep it clean, think of the parents.  Parents want a safe place for their kids, they are the ones footing the cost of this place.  Make them happy with a nice place to watch, use the rest room, read whatever.  Sell them things while they are there.

8.  Network - skateshops, other parks, parks departments, community service, police, whomever can help you get people in the door.

9.  Keep good track of your expenses.  This takes time and effort.  Make sure you have a good system to record data for you, what sells, what doesn't, who comes, who doesn't.  Use your data to improve your business.

10.  Hire good people who are kind yet firm about helping you stay in business.  Free only means you paid, not them.  You aren't competing with free, free offers nothing but ramps and rails, you offer lights, food, supervision, air conditioning, heat, a phone, a pair of eyes that are ready to help if someone is hurt. This is worth money and people need to understand this.

11.  Free yourself to do business things - If you are spending all your time at the park, hire someone to help you do the things you need to do.  Spend some money.  Is your money better spent hiring someone to man the front, or design an advertisement?

12. Celebrate your members!  Make them want to belong!