driving range

**kotor** · 08-17-2005 02:09 PM

I had an idea to open up a driving range (i live in florida so it would be operational year round). The location is prime, there are no ranges within 15-20 minutes any direction (unless you're a member to one of the 5 area country clubs). The area is booming with condos going up every minute. A new mall just opened up restaurants, shops, you name it. A University within 5 minutes (college kids love driving ranges). the place is growing fast.
I feel an up scale range would be a great fit in this location. I'm not talking about one of the junk ranges (tin cup) where you hit off of a dirt/grass mix. I'm not trying to put beat up cars 150 yards out. I'm talking a nice range like you would see at a PGA Tour academy.. (hitting nice balls on real golf grass). What about the idea of having a beer only bar on site? (I heard you don't need a liquor lisence if you are just selling beer)?

I would like to keep a pro on staff to provide lessons. Probably college kids to drive the golf cart rakes and operate the register. I work in golf right now, but am new to the field so i do not have any connections yet.
Has anyone thought about opening a range? Any idea of Start up costs? I imagine owning/renting the land would be a huge expense, especially in this area. I can't see the operation costs being too high though.. I have a degree in sport management and with my knowledge of golf feel i could make this business a success.
Good idea? Bad idea? give your your thoughts/criticism please.

Also, my dad (i'm only 22) told me I would need 20% of the start up costs of my own money before a bank would help me? Is this true? If i need 20% of my own money then this is impossible.. i'm right out of college and have about $2000 to my name.

**evolvingentrepreneur** · 08-17-2005 03:28 PM

I'm in Florida as well.

This is a great idea as long as you first determine that there are people outisde of the country club members who will most likely frequent your establishment.

Country club members would have no reason to frequent your range.

The land...

The last place you ever want to go looking for money as an entrepreneur is the bank. They will want the deed to your life. Obviously you don't have the capital to get a bank loan.

The first place you want to go is your network of FFF (friends, family and fools). Then you want to go to private individuals.

Do you have any of the startup costs aside from your $2000?

As far as financing the land goes, one way you could approach the seller of the land is with a joint venture. He puts up the land and you put up the startup capital for the range and all of the operational aspects, then you split the profits with the land owner.

In some instances you may get the land owner to put up a portion of the startup capital.

Just throwing some ideas at you. There are many creative ways that you could finance this deal.

**kotor** · 08-19-2005 10:16 AM

Thanks for the response. No I don't have any of the start up costs aside from my own savings. I found a business plan template on microsoft.com. I plan on filling in the blanks for that, and then working on how I could get financing. My father owns an engineering company with 130+ employees and knows a lot about business, but he has already told me I would be on my own(in terms of financing). I don't have any other friends or family that would give me money to build a range. Any other ideas to find loans? I have no idea how much it would cost to open a range. Like I said, the land in this area is going to be super expensive because of all the residential growth and malls going up.

I will differ from country clubs by offering a range open at night. Country clubs ranges close at dusk. I would keep my range open till 11:00 or so. And by keeping a pro under contract (he doesn't necessarily have to be on site 8 hours a day), I can provide a means of golf training to everyday golfers who are not country club members.

How man times have you gone to a range and had to hit those cheap range balls with gash marks in them. I would like to use x outs or other name brand balls, and keep them fresh so players get a more realistic flight from their ball.

I guess my first step is to develop my business plan, and then worry about where the money comes from later. I searched the net and found several golf business consulting firms that will dratf a plan for like 500$, but I'm going to try it on my own first.

http://www.golf-research-group.com/start.html

Any more responses would be much appreciated. Thanks

**Franakapan** · 08-19-2005 06:33 PM

Hey, instead of looking to start the driving range, go talk to one of the owners of a members-only club near by... Maybe you could negotiate a deal with him where he fronts most of the capital for land, buildings etc, while you run the range? I know it aint ideal but its a suggestion

You could include the land owner in the deal, split the biz 3 ways?

Lol, the above is far frm ideal but its the best I can think of right now! Anyway, hope its helps,

Sam

**pentupentropy** · 08-19-2005 06:57 PM

as for the beer license, that's a state by state thing. I can tell you in NY there are separate licenses for beer & wine vs liquor and then two totally diff licenses for distributing those.

Check with your state's liquor authority or a lawyer, which you'll want anyway to do the paperwork on said license. DWI's on your record will stop you from getting the license.

BTW, make sure you carry wine as well. You'd be surprised how many people will drink wine.

**djb-9999** · 07-12-2008 07:33 AM

do u need a license to open a driving range

**BrianB** · 07-22-2008 04:42 PM

A partner and I are planning on opening a quality driving range in TN where there are no great ranges within 30 miles and none at all for 20 miles. We are looking at ways to fund it. Together we have 30grand in capital and are considering ways to fund. Anybody with experience with angel investors, venture capitalist, bank loans, and lines of credit for funding.

**CDRamming** · 07-22-2008 04:58 PM

Check to see whether all of the country clubs around have driving ranges. There is one nearby me in St. Louis that does not have a driving range so they have a contract with a driving range that the members are able to go to the range for free because their facilities don't accommodate.

**chrispalko** · 07-22-2008 06:21 PM

I'm also in FL and you have yourself a good idea.

I know land costs are way down opposed to years ago so that's good in your case.

I don't know anything about the liquor license so I can't help you there, but I do have some good advice for you. This is probably one of the best decisions I've made:

Go to Score.org (Counselor's to America's Small Business) and find an office close to you. Set up an appointment.

Score is FREE business counseling from mostly retired business owners. Yes, free business counseling.

They will help you develop a really good business plan and they work with the SBA. Do you know what that means?

That means that they help you develop a really good business plan and when you go to apply for funding at a bank, you are government backed up to 80% so you are really only responsible for 20% of the loan when they review your application.

I don't know all the details to this as I normally go for low-cost start-ups (I hate owing people money).

Anyways, definitely talk to one of their counselors as they can get you going especially since you are going to need a significant amount of capital.

Score is something I am definitely going write an article about on my site.

Hope that helps.

**matt555matt** · 01-17-2009 12:26 AM

Hey, registered just for this thread.

Thanks to your information, chrispalko, i plan on attending a SCORE workshop on the 20th. I have a great location for a driving range and have noticed that in my area there isn't anything open after hours. Tonight alone i searched hi and low for any driving range that was open after 7:30pm and found NOTHING within an hours drive.
The only thing that scares me about opening a driving range in my city is that over the past decade i have seen many stand alone (no golf course attached) driving ranges go out of business in what i thought were absolute prime locations. One of which was on one of the busiest roads in our city and had a bar (beer only), double decker driving range AND a few air conditioned driving booths! This was a high quality place. I think they didn't make it because the location was in a low-middle class area and the people that really appreciated a place like this (middle to high class) had to drive 30 minutes off the highway. (The other ranges around here that closed, i imagine, just got offers they couldn't refuse in regards to the price of their land... sorry i love parenthesis tonight)

What are everyone's thoughts on putting the driving range in a low lying area? One that no condo developer would think of building on because of insurance costs... I don't have the slightest clue about insurance costs but i imagine insurance for dwellings in a low lying area would be 10 fold that of a normal none dwelling business.

With that knowledge i would plan for defeat at some point but if i can get a good 5-6 years of profits out of it i would be a happy man. I see this venture as a first attempt at business ownership.

As for funding, i think i can get really creative there. Luckily i have a lot of contacts, mostly friends retired parents with no clue what to do with their stash of cash, but also there are a lot of big businesses here which would love investing in a small driving range and adding membership there to their employee's list of benefits. The location i have in mind would pretty much cater to that type of clientele.

Anyways, this is a 3.5 year old thread so I'll try and keep this short... Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone familiar with the woes of running a driving range?

Thanks for reading.
Matt