Starting a miniature golf business sounds like an opportunity with a huge potential for profit. The sport itself is extremely fun and exciting, so it is easy to see why it could be a fantastic business venture. Miniature golf has been around for many decades, and it has seen waves upon waves of advancements with modern mini-golf courses integrating movie themes into their designs.
Operating a miniature golf business can be fulfilling and challenging at the same time, and for this reason, if you plan to venture into this business, you need to study the features of this market and how it works. The bigger your miniature golf course design is, the higher the investment that will go into it. Starting a miniature golf business comes with its sets of challenges, but if you are prepared to deal with them head-on, there is a good chance that you will soon have a profitable operation.
Here is a roundup of tips to help you start your miniature golf business.
Know Your Target Market
Knowing the demography of people your miniature golf business will serve as the key to success. Your business can target a wide range of customers including locals, people of all ages, tourists, etc. If you are developing miniature golf close to a popular tourist location, then you already have your target market figured out.
Engage your local agencies who have the data and stats regarding how many tourists visit each year so that you can have an idea of the size of your market. If you are looking to attract your local community, that means you must have a solid market base of teenagers, families with kids, and active senior citizens who will visit multiple times every year.
Put simply, if you target tourists they will probably be one-off customers. If you want to attract local residents, your aim is to get repeat customers. A one-off customer visits once, and never comes back.
Choose a Property
When you have done your research and fully understand your market, the next step will be to find a property to set up your miniature golf business. You will have to decide whether you want to set up an indoor or outdoor course before choosing a property.
Factors like the weather should also be looked into – rainy or cold weather will have an impact on the money you will make due to a lower turnout, but you will likely make more money during the summer. An indoor course ensures that your course is open all year round, although you might lose customers who like the appeal of golfing outdoors.
Look for properties that are located in busy areas that have a lot of foot traffic like properties that are close to shopping malls or popular tourist sites.
Design and Build Your Miniature Golf Course
You will need professionals to help with designing and building your miniature golf courses, except if you already have some knowledge on designing and building mini golf courses. Employ an experienced architect or a landscaper who will create a design for your mini-golf course.
Explain your ideas in great detail to the designer including the theme, and the obstacles you want the course to have that will make it more interesting. Think about loops, beams, water traps and banking. If you are on a shoestring budget, you should focus on the course itself and leave out the other design props.
Hire your Staff
Before your business can open its doors to customers you need to hire your staff. They will keep the business running when it is open by attending to customers and performing various tasks. You might want to start with employees that you’ll need immediately as soon as the course is open and then grow the number if it becomes necessary.
The last thing you want is redundant staff. Whenever you think you will be having a larger crowd, like on-peak periods, hire extra staff. So you should have one or two employees at ticketing, food stands, bar, sanitation – try to cover the important aspects of keeping your miniature golf business running optimally.
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Interesting related article: “Golf courses are great places for doing business.”