Gamer Centered Entertainment
A good location is a key ingredient in your business success. No matter is you are planning an indoor, outdoor or mobile laser tag business, the key element is:
You may have to sacrifice space for a better location.
Having a good location will mean the cost of acquisition of a customer will be lower. And this means you are more likely to be successful in the long run. The first step in obtaining a good location is to scan your region for likely venues.
If you are planning on runnign a mobile laser tag business you still need to consider venue. The venue could be your customer's backyard. Great!
But it could also want to play in a local park or even a national park. With parks you will need to investigate local regulations and rules. For example, in our city if a private citizen organises and plays laser tag in a park, it's free. But if we as a business run a commerical operation then the local city council will charge us for the privledge of using the park. Battlefield Operators also need to consider security issues. In most jurisdictions "creating public alarm" is against the law.
As a general rule of thumb, we do not recommend schools or national/public parks for commercial operations.
Another benefit of including Battlefield Sports’ gaming inflatables into your arsenal is that you can run mobile events that drive bookings to your fixed location. Plus, as you are invited to different premises for special events always keep your eyes open for future booking possibilities.
If you are considering indoors then you need to balance venue rent against the building’s location and size.
While huge warehouse arenas have been popular recently, we recommend that size should be sacrificed for location. Yes, sacrifice space for a bustling, vibrant place that has better foot-traffic (or at least great visibility from the interstate or motorway and easy access and lots of car parking).
A location that has busy foot-traffic is more important than space.
For forest fields, ideally, you would be part of a busy, multi-activity site. The best sites can be seen from the Interstate or Motorway. Either way, your drawing population includes people with 30 to 45 minutes drive.
Local authority charges and business rates for services including waste collection might affect the desirability of a premise. You should also check whether local planning restrictions will allow you to use the building/forest for the purpose you intend.
If the venue already is zoned for multi-activity outdoor recreation, for instance, you might be able to start straight away. But it is best to check with your local authorities as regulations differ from county to county.
Once you’ve found a likely venue, the key selection criteria to consider are, the 3 “P’sâ€:
Suitable venues could be privately owned conference centers, scout camps or resorts.
If your preferred venue already has a history of renting their facilities to groups this is a good start. Find out if the venue is available for use on the weekends. Since we are an entertainment business our peak periods are Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday.
Phone and ask for the Facilities Hire Manager, ask if it is a convenient time to talk, explain briefly what you do.
Here’s an example:
“Hi, my name is XX [your name], I am the Events Co-ordinator [or whatever you have chosen as a position title] at XXX [your business name]. We run interactive team games for entertainment (outdoor laser tag). I am expanding into this area, and I was wondering if you hire out your facilities to groups such as mine to run team events?â€
If they say no, fine, move onto your next option.
If they are interested in finding out more, arrange a face-to-face meeting. If they are not sure offer to post them an info pack. There is an example info pack in the Battlefield Sports University.
Then follow them up a couple of days after they receive your info pack.
As well as being able to meet in person to the manager, to build rapport, it is a good chance to demonstrate how safe the equipment is. By the way, if the venue is run by committee, I strongly recommend seeing if you can present your proposal to the entire committee.
Determining the amount you pay for your rent is important. We’ve found that a percentage of the takings works well. As a rule of thumb, we usually pay the landlord 10% of turnover excluding sales tax.
This is a good system because it is linked to the number of people admitted. These sorts of deals mean that your landlord is incentivized for you to increase your gamer numbers.
It is a win/win situation.
This way the busier you get, the happier your landlord will be.
Alternatively, you could organize to pay a per head amount. We believe it is really important to build a friendly relationship with your landlord. Ongoing communication is an important element of this.
Whatever option you go for, there'll be advantages and disadvantages.
So make the most of what you’ve got.
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