You’ve been skating for years or have run a skate shop and now you’re looking to build your own skatepark. Maybe you had one in your backyard and want to expand to add more ramps or rails. If you’re a big-boy or big-girl now and are about to dive into building a real-life skatepark, you need to take a lot of things into consideration.
A business plan: Is this for you and few buds looking for a good time, or are you trying to make money out of this thing?
Don’t be too intimidated by the idea of a business plan. You can start by using a simple online template until you really flush out what you want to do with the park. The beauty of the plan is it’s a great way to stay motivated and on task – and it makes you sound like you know what you’re doing.
A business plan for your skatepark should consist of a few main points:
Executive summary: Include how you want to fund this park, the mission, financials, and your unique selling proposition.
Industry & local market analysis: Show that there is a demand in your area for your new skatepark. Include local stats, and competitor info.
Skatepark company/ownership overview: Summarize the structure of the operations; location, ownership, legal status, employees.
Products & services: Detail how you are going to make money (if you want to make money). Price per session, memberships, selling other things like boards or gear.
Sales & marketing strategy: How will you attract people to come to your skatepark? Explain how you’ll get people there – list all your activities to generate interest; social media, flyers, influencer marketing…
Financial information: If you’re looking for potential investors or partners, numbers are your friends. Show how you arrived at the figures – including profit and loss predictions, cash-flow, breakeven figures, and capital needed to start this thing up.
Implementation plan: How are you going to make all of this happen? Make a list of all your action steps and set dates of when you want to hit each benchmark.
Construction: You need an actual idea of the blueprint for your park and how you would like it to be constructed. Construction comes down to usability and function.
Usability: Think flow, speed, styles or disciplines of skate, difficulty, traffic, visibility, and safety.
Functionality: Think access, drainage, aesthetics or theme, capacity, seating, and security
Skatepark Insurance: Of course we’re here to tell you that you’re going to need insurance for your skatepark. That’s not just because we’re in the business, it’s because it is a requirement. It not only protects you and your future, but it also protects your employees and your participants.
We can work with you to go over all that is required to get the best skatepark insurance quote and what factors go into the cost of skatepark insurance. But, just a few factors to be aware of are; the number of participants, the size of your skatepark, indoor vs outdoor, safety precautions, waiver forms, number of employees and revenue generated. We even wrote a post about insuring your skatepark and what’s needed.
This is just a snapshot of how to open a skatepark and as you move further into your passion you’ll need the help of experts. If you are interested in learning more about skatepark business operations, we have a wide network of partners that are experts in action sports; CPAs, attorneys, financial planners, and operations software developers.
And, if you have any questions about skatepark insurance we are more than happy to guide you through the process.
