Teen Club Idea- Please look

[gtrejo]

I have an idea for a teen club and am working on a business plan. I know generally teen clubs are not seen as a profitable structure, but please look and provide any feedback you can, thanks.

The club will also offer games :pool table, foos ball, etc.
and light food and drinks (pepsi, virgin marg's)
Club Size : 6,000 sq.ft.
Operating : Every Saturday

Projections/weekly

Attendance: 700
Cover: $10

GROSS SALES: $7,000


Expenses

Lease: $1,500 (based on $6,000 monthly)
Payroll: $436 - 11@$9, 4hours. , Clean up 2@$10, 2 hours
Insurance: $288 (based on 15K yearly)
Marketing: $400
Equip. Loan Payment: $2,439 ($125K @ 10%)

TOTAL EXPENSES $5063
NET $1,937

1st YEAR NET: $100,724
2nd+ Years net:$227,552

Potential Market: We will be marketing to the ages of 14-19
The total enrollment of our area highschools is 6,243
Our only competition are the local movie theatres and a very small ( 100 cap.) teen club that caters to punk rock group.

I did the figures multiple times and I only see the need to spend substantially less than 125K but to be conservative went on 125K. I purposely left out any revenue from drinks, snacks, games or novelties, as I have heard that these should not be counted on for a teen club.

I visited a teen club in a suburb of Seattle (200 miles away) and visited with the owner (a friend of friend), he has 1000 kids a night @ $10 for girls and $15 for guys. This is where I based my attendance counts off of.

Also if the club is succesfull I plan to purchase the building which will lower the payment and increase equity.

Please give me any feedback.
Thanks.

[Cheek]

I don't want to sound like the downer here, but are you sure you want to do this? Teen nights are as close to hell on earth as you can get. The community and the local police will hate you, good luck. Now on to the figures:

You stated that teen nights aren't profitable, I disagree. They can be extremely profitable, but the headache associated with teen nights makes them undesirable.

Who is getting $9 an hour? The doorstaff? Seems a little high to me for doorstaff pay. Also, for 700 screaming teens, you will definitely need more then 11 staff members. I would say 15 at least, 3 at all times at the door, 3 selling drinks/food, 2-3 in the parking lot, the rest on the floor or support for the door/bar.

What equipment are you buying for $125k? Sound and lighting?

You may want to consider the age group also. When we did this our age limit was 13-17. We felt that the younger kids had no business hanging out with 18 and 19 year olds and the parents we talked to agreed and were thankful that we did it. I should add in our area we can have 18 yrs old and up in all the time even if we are selling alcohol, so the 18-19 yr olds already had a place to go on the weekends.

Also, are you going to allow smoking? Not a good idea if minors are there.

I noticed for marketing you only have a $400 budget. I take it your going to flyer only? If you want to reach a broader audience try radio. The right station can really attract this age group. And a hot teen night will draw kids from farther away then you could imagine. We always hit it hard for the first 2 weeks and word of mouth took care of the rest.

Good luck

[Trance_matt074]

gtrejo,

First off, most teenclubs are very profitable but they have to be done right. The interior should be easily changed, and easy to clean up. As far as staffing goes, you only need about 10 people. the only thing is your security must know what the hell there doing. So many times teenclubs hire untrained, inexperinced security (in effort to cut the cost) and later on relize things have gotten out of hand.

As far as promotions go, flyering is good, but radio ads would only help. Free mix Cd's are another good promotion item to hand out at malls, cinamas and high schools. Get a group of teens together that would be loyal to you and have them pass out flyers and talk to people about the club, and you could get them on your vip list.

[Shock G]

I owned 25% of a teen club located in Louisiana just over a year ago. It was a failed venture - Your better off investing that kind of money in an Nightclub that is 18+ or 21+. I'm not saying that it can't work, but its a BIG risk.

A FEW THINGS TO THINK ABOUT -

What it the demo's on your community?

Do you realize that you can't put 700 people legally in a 6000sf building?...... Our buiding is 5800sf and is rated at 392 Teens don't tend to rotate venues during a night, they pay and they stay.

Adequate HVAC and fire supression in that building would run $125,000 alone..... Was it a club previously?

Way understaffed at your stated levels......

What about other expenses? Maintenance, BMI / ASCAP Fees, Accounting, Legal, Utilities, Etc.?

Your break even point stated means you HAVE to have 500 people each Saturday, when you revise your operating expenses its more like 600. Do you really think you'll have that consistently?


All of the research that I did prior to opening indicates that teen clubs usually only work well in VERY large markets....... other than that its a crap shoot!

Can you handle phone calls from angry parents about there kid that either got beat up, assauted, drunk or drugged at YOUR club? Remember, they're minors and even though they did it you share the blame!!!!


Don't want to bum you out gtrejo, but think this one over....


:(