Today, billiards has become quite a popular sports game in our country.
It is played by adults and even teenagers. Gradually, he grew into a certain sport, in which competitions and other sporting events are held annually.
The first steps in this business
An entrepreneur who decides to open a billiard club, with the right approach, can earn a lot more money than was originally invested in it.
To succeed in such a business, you need to choose a suitable place and draw up a competent business plan for a billiard club. Such an entertainment institution should adhere to a certain concept.
Documents required for opening
For the design of the billiard business, no special documents are required. Need to:
- register IP;
- obtain the necessary licenses and permits;
- carefully make sure that the premises for the club meet all the requirements of firefighters and SES.
Obtaining such documents is a completely standard procedure.
Types of billiard clubs
All billiard clubs that are currently open in our country can be divided into several groups, based on the size of the room and the number of billiard tables.
The first type includes billiard rooms, which are located in rest houses, boarding houses or hotels. In this room there are no more than 5 tables designed for fans of this type of sports game.
The second type is billiard rooms located in entertainment centers and large trading houses. In these clubs there are at least 15 tables that are designed for different types of billiards. In billiard clubs of this format, professional competitions are often held at the regional level.
The third type of billiard room occupies a separate room and has in its arsenal 20, or even more tables. To create this type of institution you will have to spend money, but the elite billiard club as a business will bring several times more profit than the rest.
Club Subtypes
In addition to such a conditional division into types, billiard clubs are also divided into subtypes: entertainment, elite and sports.
Recreational billiards can be combined in one room and with other entertainments for visitors.
Professional clubs are equipped with the highest quality equipment and focus on the high-quality game, and in the last turn they care about the entertainment side. Many of the professional players come to the game with their (custom made) cues and always use the gloves for billiards.
The main concept of the institution
Before you begin to draw up a business plan for a billiard club with calculations, you need to determine its nature and think about the concept of the institution. On paper, it’s worth detailing all the costs of the items, and if the business plan is done correctly, you will soon receive the first income from your business.
Naturally, count on the fact that in the first months of the club’s work, before you get the first income, you will have to constantly invest a lot in it. An institution of such a high rank requires equipment corresponding to its status. It should be not only high-quality, but also expensive.
Please note in advance that all the financial costs that will be spent on tournaments cannot be recouped, therefore, owners often combine billiard business with entertainment and entertainment components.
Even in the billiard room, advertisements are often placed, for which the owner is generously paid. Such marketing moves help at least slightly increase the profitability of the institution.
High competition
If you have already decided to establish an elite institution, but do not know how to open a billiard club and what is needed for this, then first of all, in addition to the financial solvency of the owner, an initial client base must be compiled!
If at the initial stage of business development, the founder of a billiard room misses these two points, then it is likely that the business will simply burn through and cause losses. Business analysts argue that the market for billiard clubs is highly competitive.
There are such entrepreneurs who may doubt such an assertion of analysts and believe that there is enough free space for the development of this kind of business, the main thing is to draw up a clear business plan for a billiard club.
But experts stand their ground and assure that this type of business is developing rapidly, and over time the number of billiard rooms designed for any social strata of the population will grow exponentially.
Only one has a chance
You can enter any market, there would be a desire, but note that the opening of an elite billiard club is directly related to big money. In a small town, where there are not many fans of billiards, and there are already clubs, albeit of medium rank, they will not allow another such institution to open up. Therefore, know that your project will burn.
Important points when opening a billiard room
The conclusion can be drawn as follows, the business “Billiard” will be profitable only if its founder is not so much chasing income, as obsessed with the idea of an ideal and high-quality institution.
In this environment, entrepreneurs survive, seeking to raise the club to a certain level, and then receive money from it. If the idea of creating a billiard club is based only on generating income, then it’s better not to start working in this area!
Staff recruitment
When the entrepreneur has decided that the means and capabilities are enough to compete with other clubs, the business plan of the billiard club is well-designed and perfectly designed, you can still “stumble” and stop halfway due to the inability to recruit professional, competent staff to your elite establishment .
This is especially true for markers. It’s a big mistake to accept a student marker who knows even about the rules of the game of billiards only in theory. The marker must be proficient in cue and play several levels higher than any average player.
An inexperienced boy just scares away serious clients who could bring a lot of money to the founder of the club and increase the reputation of the institution. Any experienced businessman, before opening a billiard room, is better to overpay, but will hire a professional marker, which, of course, will be an ideal move to improve the level of the club.
The ability to work with serious clients and a professional game will attract new interesting players to the institution who are ready to leave a tidy sum for an exciting game.
Properly selected premises are already 50% of the club’s success
Like any other business, billiards requires a careful selection of premises. After all, your guests will come here, on which the favorable or not so course of your affairs directly depends. Here you also have to make a difficult choice.
An inexpensive room can scare away a rich clientele, and an expensive room in a good place will greatly increase the payback period of a club. Indeed, in the estimate of waste for doing business, item No. 1 should be the rental of premises.The best option in this case is usually the choice of premises in buildings that are closer to the city center on any densely populated street.
Buying the necessary furniture
Before buying tables, calculating the business plan of a billiard club, decide what target audience your visitors will be. If the main visitors are young people, then you need to bet on tables for the "American", and the older generation prefers classic Russian billiards.
If you still can’t decide and organize your own purchases, you can get advice from an experienced billiard player or look at the research of marketers in this area.
How much does it cost to open a billiard club?
Let's look at the calculations on the example of an inexpensive billiard club.
To open an economy-class establishment, one should take into account that visitors will need not only billiard tables, but also a bar, a kitchen and several diverse slot machines.
For such a set, starting capital from 50 to 200 thousand cu is needed. (depends on the price of gaming machines and the quality of playing tables). This investment with an average attendance of the club should pay off in two years.
Billiard Room Requirements
As for the inexpensive billiard club, its visitors, in order to play several games, are too lazy to go to the center. So you can safely rent a room for a club in any residential area.
Before opening a billiard club, the owner should worry about a suitable room, it must at least meet the following conditions:
• large and spacious (for a comfortable arrangement of billiard tables, the room should be at least 400 m2);
• it is desirable that the room be without columns (the best option is rectangular or square).
If the owner of the institution himself will calculate the required area for the billiard club, then it is necessary, in addition to the place for tables, take into account the place for the bar and tables to accommodate visitors who want to have lunch or dinner after the game.
It will also be quite out of place to place small tables with armchairs for friends and players themselves near the billiard tables.
Essential Accessories
Tables for billiards of good quality can not cost less than 1.5 thousand. If additional accessories for the game are not attached to them, they will have to be purchased separately.
This, of course, balls, cues, sticks, stickers, and it would be nice to buy gloves for billiards.
Although passionate players buy this accessory in person, sometimes they can take advantage of those offered by the club.
It is worth buying timers that will control the operation of the marker. Each such electronic device costs about $ 500. It attaches to the table and begins the countdown of the game when the light is turned on over a particular table.
The device saves in memory all the time spent near the table, and this is how the owner can verify the amount received per day.
Some tables may have token counters. Playing at such a table, visitors spend their tokens paying.
When to start?
If the premises are correctly selected, quality equipment is bought, professional staff is recruited, it remains only to choose the appropriate name for billiard clubs, and we can say that the work has gone.
Extra profit
Naturally, the game remains the most important moment in the billiard club, but do not forget that the kitchen and the bar sometimes bring the same income, and in some institutions even the largest part.
The most widely used low-alcohol drink during the game is beer. Therefore, make sure that in your club it is always fresh and varied, from an inexpensive draft to a varied bottle (light and dark). Stronger drinks are also in good demand: whiskey, cognac and vodka, and the variety of choices should also not be scarce.
As for the work of the kitchen, the menu should combine a variety of meat dishes, salads and sausages. Waiters must ensure that orders are received from club customers near their desks.
Club opening hours and staff
It is advisable that the work of the billiard club lasted around the clock. Then the staff, except for the director of the institution, should be as follows:
- Chief Accountant;
- shift managers (at least 4);
- bartenders (at least 4);
- waiters (at least 8);
- cleaners (at least 4);
- security guards (at least 8).
Such a staff should be in any club that works around the clock. But not all establishments work without a break, in some billiard clubs the work schedule starts from 12 noon and lasts until 6 in the morning, in which case the number of full-time employees can be significantly reduced (at least 2 times).
Advertising
The owners of billiard clubs claim that this business does not need advertising either before opening or during work. If the institution was done wisely and they did not spare money to create it, then information about the opening of a new club will spread very quickly.
If possible, then you can start advertising in the free print periodical, which is distributed in restaurants, discos and casinos, it can be useful. Typically, in such places spend their leisure potential customers of the billiard club.
The best advertising of a club is the participation of its team in prestigious tournaments and competitions. Such actions are covered in the media, which serves not only as an additional advertisement for the billiard club, but also raises its rating.
