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January 9, 2009 Tips from the Pros At Cossio Insurance Agency we have been insuring some of the most successful paintball fields and stores since 1987. We have always brought the best programs to the industry and we have successfully provided our new programs without any association dues for associations that do not exist. Larry Cossio speaks on insurance issues nationwide for several different industries. Many of you are coming up for your insurance renewal March 1, 2009 and we would like the opportunity to quote your insurance. Please go to our website at www.paintballinsurance.com to complete an online application. We have 4 insurance companies that we write with to provide you the best programs possible. We have some tips from the pros for you to review and you might be able to pull some suggestions from this newsletter that may assist you in making your field more successful. Funny point, after getting these suggestions from some of these field owners, they said “Wow, I sure wish I would follow my own suggestions all the time!!” From Dean Del Prete Cousins Paintball Inc 1. Get the games started early. The more time people play the more paint they will shoot 2. Sell Grenades. Add an explanation of if how you are eliminated if you are hit by one to your safety orientation 3. Rent/sell camo jumpsuits 4. Rent/provide a harness to hold more paint on the field. 5. Maintain rental equipment. Rental equipment that doesn't work will not shoot paint. From Jim & Kim Estes Northwest Paintball Park, Inc. I guess my best advice would be these (5) things that have worked so well for us for the past (9) years: FIRST TIME PLAYERS- It's an endless market all year long. A paintball park MUST be very first time player friendly or everything else goes to crap. Plant the seed. Get a new player to come try paintball. REFEREES- We are so proud of our refs. All volunteers who are there because they 'want' to be there to ensure you have the best possible time playing paintball in the safest environment we can create. Although refs are there for safety enforcement, I proudly call them your 'entertainers'. If the refs are fun, excited, motivating and put on a lot of games each day, then you are going to want to come back and do it again. Our volunteer refs get a laminated card good for a case of paint and free admission for a full day of reffing. They have a checklist to accomplish which includes "Put on no less than 16 games or you do not get paid." That is a lot of paintball which leaves players feeling like they got what they paid for. I tell people that "Our refs are the only advertisement we have." If the refs put on a great day of games and the player leaves the park at the end of the day all dirty, tired and shot up, then that player will be talking about us for awhile. It's true. I do not spend a penny on any form of advertisement. ALL word of mouth from happy players. Entertaining refs draw players. Bored, slow refs with an attitudes turn players away. FIELD PAINT ONLY- I'm amazed to see parks allow BYOP. Because they just don't make sufficent money to survive. For the same reason you can't bring your own beer to a tavern, you can't bring your own paint to a paintball park. It's the only source of profit that allows a park to survive. BYOP gives it away. My park has been Field Paint Only for 9 years. In that time, (3) other parks opened, did BYOP and are now dead and gone. There is a surviving park West of Olympia in Elma called TSP that allows BYOP. They get almost (3) times more players than we do, but, they told us they are making less than half the profits that NWPP makes with a FPO policy. You must be FPO to survive. Our field paint is ProCaps "Blaze" made with our logo printed right on the ball. It's the only paint allowed. It's above Premium quality and performance. . AVOID TEAMS & TOURNEYS- Locally, teams are a virus to a paintball park. Parks that open the doors to teams and thier needs consistently take a huge step backwards. Teams want everything discounted, BYOP sponsored paint, free admission for practice time and they just intimidate the 'money crowd' of first timers and scare them away. I detest the local team scene, both tourneys and scenario. They do absolutely nothing positive for a park. This is only my local experience. I'm aware that in other regions of the US, teams often offer good positive value to many parks. CLEAN & WELL MAINTAINED- Our park is 32 acres of beautiful NW forest and meadow. We keep it very clean throughout the day and we dump the trash daily. There is not trash on the ground. I have 17 trash cans. We fix things as we find them. We don't wait. We change the fields around about every 6 weeks. It feels good just to be here. It's clean and very well maintained. A park that does not stay clean is a reflection of the staff. A dirty park with maintenance problems will not attract many repeat players or new players From Glenn Forster Warped Sportz Ca 1. The best think I can offer is to track your customers. My waiver has a spot for email and I encourage everyone to give it, so I can send them special event info. 2. When business is slow or I have to compete with a holiday I do a free rental day, air, cheap paint day. This usually gets my regulars to bring out their friends that have never played and I get a lot of new customers that way. It takes some work to data base them but it is well worth it. 3. Do not cut back on staff or refs. I don't like to cut back on staff because accidents can happen when you have fewer eyes on hand. 4. Also, advertise a beginner game at least once a month. You'll be surprised on how many people are scared to try paintball but will come out if they know everyone is a beginner as well. 5. Email blasts are the key!! From Ken Farris Drop Zone Extreme Sports 1) Know what your costs are. If you think you are losing money, you are probably not losing it in everything you do. Identify what is losing you money and stop doing it. Do more of what works. 2) Know which of your costs have changed. At some point you will need to raise prices if your costs have gone up. You may find that you could have survived 5 years ago with your current player numbers. The difference is that your costs have increased but you have not raised prices. 3) Don't underpay your staff. The cost of training frequent replacement employees can be greater than the savings from underpaying you employees. 4) There is always somewhere you can save money and spend less. When times are good, we all get a little sloppy with the money. Figure out where you can save a few dollars. When the good times return, you will be better off for it. 5) If you have only competed with low prices, your main tool (price) is not available for increasing your player counts. Offer quality instead. 6) Think outside of the box. Do something different. Some of the best things come when we are forced to innovate and no longer rely on the comfortable status quo. 7) Don't despair. Remember that people still want to play paintball. (They really do). From Dewayne Convirs Promoter D-Day Adventure Park 1. Save, save and save money when it comes in 2. Never over stock inventory because it is cheap and changes in the market place may leave you scratching your head. 3. Mail outs to local players and mass e-mails once a month keeps you in touch with flow. 4. Keep to basics of what has always made money. Promote Church groups, birthday parties and fun game events. 5. Your staff needs to play paintball on a regular basis this will keep them on top of customer service. 6. Change your field up as this will only make your old customers keep coming back. The same old thing will make it boring. 7. I have found that giving a t-shirt or dog tags out for birthday kid has kept a steady flow for over 18 yrs. Not all of these ideas will work for you or your area, but if you look at your business and are not happy with the income, do something different. Definition of Stupid: Doing the same thing and expecting different results Cossio Insurance Agency is licensed in all 50 states and is a full service agency providing not only paintball insurance but insurance for several different segments of the entertainment industry. We also provide homeowners, life, auto, and business insurance for all states. |