FirstCavArmyVet

Good Evening my friends;

Let me take a moment to introduce myself.My name is Shea.I am a 38yr old resident of SWFlorida. I am a combat veteran of the USArmy, and an avid RCaviation enthusiast.

I wanted to jump on here to get some input and feedback on an idea my wife and I have and plan on going forward with. However, in good buisness practice, I wanted to get the opinions and input from other RCusers out there. My wife and I were hit head on while riding our honda Goldwing last april. As a result, I had a shattered hip and knee, and she had a shattered sternum and torn up knee. I will be walking with a cane from now on, which ends my career as a truck driver. So we had an idea. I plan on opening an RC park here inSWflorida that will cover most aspects of RC. Cars, trucks, paved and off road. As well as a small lake for boats and an airstrip for aircraft. I plan on having membership options for those who own their own equipment as well as rentals for those who dont'. My wife will also have a small diner on site as well.

Now I have the licensing and funding required for this venture, but wanted to see if this is a place you would visit as fellow RC operators.I obviously have alot more details, but want to keep this somewhat short.

So what do you think?

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

Sorry, not interested.

hugger-4641

My Feedback: (6)

Its a sweet idea, something I've thought about myself a few times. But I'm inclined to agree with Mike.

Logistical and management nightmare keeping up with an RC car track, boats, planes, etc. all operating at the same time with out interfering with each other. You can't be in two places at once, so how could you manage it with out hiring help?

Then you've got property liability, insurance, safety concerns, etc.

As Mike put it, a practical and profitable business plan would be very difficult. Maybe not impossible if you had lots of free help (kids), if you already owned the land, if you had a large population of RC enthusiasts near by, if you had a well stocked hobby shop already on the premises, if you didn't really need profit but just something to keep you busy or a means of investing some money with out losing too much of it, etc.

Don't mean to discourage you, but before I invested my nest egg, I would really do my homework on the initial investment, fixed costs, controllable costs, demographics, marketing, etc. and have a contingency plan if it all goes bunk![X(]

Hossfly

Since you are a veteran, I am going to submit my thoughts on your idealistic future plan. I looked at your post twice before and have been reading it over and over for the past 20 minutes. My forecast for your blue-sky plan is storms and rough times to say the best.
As many modelers want, I once opened a side business Hobby Shop in Mt. Prospect, IL. 1800 sq. ft store fronting on NW Highway, the only bad part being rather poor parking. The business flourished quite well, actually beyond my expectations.

Now the thunder begans to sound. I don't know which to say first. Insurance will be very expensive, especially an outdoor facility open to the Storms that generate in your selected area. Taxes will go out of sight after the first several years.. There will always be some local politician needing a monthly handout or close your store for some reason. After a while the load becomes excessive.
Your friends, hired part-time will break your heart as they pilfer from you, and fail to show up for work when you need them most.
In today's on-line computer store merchandising, you will have to cut your margins to the bone just to stay in business, much less make a decent living.
You and your wife will probably be working at least 14 hour days for 6-7 days per week for the first 5 years. Hire someone and his/her first question will be "Can I have off - you name it - each weekend and most of the week and just when can I expect a raise?"

The people which will be your customers probably do not play Golf, and if they do they will expect bigger discounts from you. I doubt any of them are heavy into equestrian sports as these folks are fairly rich and the average RC person does not come close to that description. They are usually looking for "good deals".

In the RC car business rentals will probably work OK. However don't expect such with the current crop of airplane drivers, especially the young ones. When anything goes astray, they have plenty answers absolving themselves from any responsibility. It will always be bad equipment or your fault.
I think you are going to either be one "L" of a worker or you are going to lose a good amount of money.

I finally sold out my store to another H/S owner. (I just got to hate RC modelers and I no longer wanted to feel like that.) He did well, however some years later he sold out and held the mortgage. Well he had to foreclose, and now I hear he has resold the store. I was in it a few weeks ago. Looks like it has been sacked by a Florida Hurricane. [:@]

Sorry to be so negative, but you did ask.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

I'm not going to be quite so negative, but will ask how you intend to make money other than from the diner? How many potential customers you figure live with in 25 mile radius?

Having a "Club" and memberships is one thing, I'm sure a local bunch of guys would jump at the chance to have a field/track/pond built for them to form clubs around. Most Clubs file for Non-profit status, so they pay no income taxes. Our Club and many others I imagine pay rent to use the land the club sits on. But my understanding is once you start charging admission as a business your Tax and insurance liability goes through the roof. This in my mine is you biggest hurdle.

With 95% of rc car/ruck/boat guys on 2.4 ghz them all running at the same time is really not an issue anymore, you'd just need a central 75/27 band frequency board for the few still on those channels. The lake and tracks would have to back up to each other. That can be worked out.

Would I come? Heck Yeah, if I lived near by a place like that

good luck

red head

I considered doing about the same thing after I got out of the Navy. I had a lot of the stuff figured out and then I got serious about the Hobby business and what it might offer me ( it wasn't much ) in return for all I planed on putting into the plan. It was going to be ALL work and no real return. The headaches working with the public ( hobbiest ) was way more then I needed after 21 years in the Navy.
I even worked in a Hobby shop a few years to get a better idea and that was the stick that broke the camels back.
We ended up buying a 5th wheel and truck ( with the money ) and just traveled around the States for 12 years. That was the best decision "we " could have made and ENJOYED all of it. Just my opinion: Don't waste the time you have given to this country, if you can,
go out and ENJOY it. ( the way things are going we may not have much time )
I know you said you were both hurt bad and that isn't going to WORK well with your idea. I also know that you probably can't travel like we did but that is just one idea, and it's a lot less work then you are thinking about.
Now the clincher: if you do this thing, let me know and I MIGHT drive over to see what you have "BUT" I won't pay much for anything and I'm what you will be looking at comming through your gates.
Sorry for the negative side but that's what I came up with in my plan. ENJOY !!! RED


How to make a Million in the Hobby business ~~~ Start with 2 Million !!!!

FirstCavArmyVet

Very good responses. Which is what we wanted. I sat down with my wife a bit today and discussed alot of what was said here. We have a few ideas that we have pooled that may or may not help. I know that paintball is real big here, but the 3 major areas that used to "allow" them to play have been either taken back by the  bank or sold to another owner. I know I can get an area large enough for my idea, as well to add a paintball arena. We also figured we may pull out the air and water options and go with a covered enclosure for the wheeled. Probably an off road and paved track. See how that runs then decide if we want to expand or not. We have alot more to work out and play around with, but we at least have a starting point. As for potential customers, well that is something we will have to ask around locally and see if we can get a small concensus on how it may or may not take off for us.

By all means keep the input coming. It's helping us to work out precious details we would have otherwise missed.

FirstCavArmyVet

LOL found this old post and just had to update you guys on it. We never went through with it. I told her about some of the issues you guys brought up and we squashed it. I got healed up enough to where I work "part time" as a repo driver since the VA pays squat. In the off hours I'm a ministry student. I wound up crashing the Traxxas and sold it at a yard sale for $40. Stayed out of R/C until about 2 weeks ago when I got ahold of a huge lot of aircraft and asst parts (just posted on here about those in another part of the forum). I plan on joining one of the two local aviation clubs. Sad part is even though I'm 45, the last time I went to one, they looked at me like some "kid" LOL.
Anyway, I do again appreciate the help there. Saved my wife and I from a rather "ugly" and possibly financially ruining experience.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Glad you are still 'with us' so to speak.....

the pope

I was a little younger when I got serious about rc planes . Truth be known theres a-holes everywhere so just hang with the guys u have something in common with . The best advice I can give is
- dont get involved in club politics
- swallow your ego
- dont give up until u can fly and then you can please yourself when and who u fly with
I remember when I 1st joined my current club, the very 1st day I was asked to be on some club committee on some electric issue . Now I dont fly electric stuff plus I would have been in a no win situation as someone would have been unhappy whether glow guys or electric plus imagine the guy being there one day sprouting forth his views on this . Thats a big no thanks . I also would never be on the commity as that would suck trhe fun right out of it for me . Also no flight instructing for me , I like my house to much and I dont like going to court . If u dont think that can hapen try flying a plane threw someones head and see how u get on !