I have $1,000,000 to build an indoor range

[EricW]

Food for thought before opening ANYTHING where you have to pay back The Man®:

Let's say your sugar daddy gives you $4M, 0 down, 7% interest, and would like to see his money back over a very long 10 years. (I would never hand anyone that kind of ching and get my money back in more than 5, but that's just me, and I don't have that kind of ching anyway.)

Monthly Payment = $46,174

Which means in order to keep The Man® from totally bumming out your mojo, you need to NET $1539.13 each and every day - assuming The Man®'s calendar only has 30 day months.

That's a lot.

[konkapot]

Scott you are a smart dude and if anyone could swing this you would be the guy to do it

BUT

really think this one through. Really THINK it through......

I bet Bend's population is right around 75k or so. How many of them are shooters?

The Seattle metro area (from Tacoma to Seattle) has just over 1 million people, and there are only three indoor ranges. One (WSI) went under in the past 2 years or so.

Do the math; a metro area of 1m people supports 3 indoor ranges; Bend at less than 10% the size, would rate roughly 1/3 of an indoor range. That's an oversimplification of course but use that noggin of yours in a real empirical way before you get real deep into this thing.

I worked/taught at an indoor range in Tacoma on/off for a couple years. The largest chunk of the revenue (by far) came from range rentals and ammo sales. They really did not carry much reloading stuff as it was just too hard to have everybody's wants covered, and competing with BillyBob at the gunshows was tough.

There was a fair amount of county and federal LE that rented the range out.

As you know, there's a good demand for intro/basic firearms training, but the pyramid gets really skinny the more "advanced" you go.

Don't think about "oh man but it would be so cool..." but try to actually picture meeting the numbers that EricW roughed out for you, and picture how many paying customers it would take to actually MAKE those numbers

PM enr. re: specific annual numbers on this place.

FY42385

[Loves2Shoot]

Eric,

FYI, I'm not paying anyone back, as this is not my venture to fund. He said he has 1 million he would be willing to invest in the project. I do know that if the numbers don't pencil for him he won't do it.

I'm trying to help him get good info he can use to make a good, informed decision on what to do with the $ is is willing to invest, as I think it is in my best interest to do so, and the best interest of the community where I live. I've made the mistake of assuming folks couldn't afford things before only to find out later they had more money banked than I'll make in ten to twenty life times.

There are some folks out there that don't need to draw a wage from a day job and just want something fun to do, as they have folks who run the day to day operations of their investments. Those folks have a few more options than folks like myself.

John,

Thanks for the PM! Central Oregon is unique in it's make up. The area has a population of about 210,000+, and Bend is the hub. The market is pretty small numbers wise, but there is a lot of money in the town. That is why I think a private "club" might do much better than a range.

I'm so busy with my business, that I don't have a lot to input to the project, but I knew I would get good info from the folks on this board. I do honestly appreciate all the feedback (positive and negative) and I've passed it all on.

I don't want your job for sure. If I had my own place like they have down in Lake View at Clint's place where I could do whatever I want with no one to gripe about it, I "might" consider it Not to make money, but to have a kick ass time shooting guns. I do enjoy teaching, but I wouldn't want to do it day in and day out.

[Rob Boudrie]

It is easy to make a small fortune with a private shooting range. Just start with a large one.