Quoted from spblat:Hi friends. So I want people to enjoy pinball. I want them to enjoy my games and I want a venue for expanding my collection. There's a sleepy beach town I love that has zero pinball machines within about an hour's drive in any direction. Because you can't make money on pinball alone in a smallish space without tons of traffic I was thinking about buying a lot near the beach and leasing space to residential tenants or other business owners in a building I'd raise, leaving me around 1000 square feet for a dozen games and a few tables for people to hang out, have a snack, charge their phones or play tabletop games. Behind the modest token revenue and the tenant income would be merchandise sales, snacks and beverages, in-home game rentals and events.
So I have a business plan. I have my eye on a lot three blocks from the water. I have a rough financial model. I'm looking for funding in a climate where lenders aren't interested in startups. What I'm most apprehensive about is that in order to satisfy my desire to spread the pleasure of pinball, I also need to get excited about managing the real estate and the leasing and the retail and a bunch of non-pinball stuff.
What do you think? Am I gearing up to do something challenging and fun, or am I setting myself up to fall out of love with pinball? How do you scratch your "spread the love of pinball" itch without a seven-figure budget?
A friend and I were planning on starting a similar venture pre covid, but without the low traffic issue you have. We both agreed pinball alone just isn't enough to cover expenses and provide enough profit to justify for us. I do think with the right location and business mix (specifically offerings other than pinball) that a profitable business can be established with a heavy pinball focus. Our goal at this point is to find an existing bar with space for games, then just split the earnings. I talked to several bar owners, and it's a bitch of an industry. That was another reason we put our plans on pause.