Tip #1: Professionalism. Grammar, punctuation, and a general understanding of English as a written (and spoken) language will benefit you by presenting you as an educated, responsible adult. I would honestly be hesitant dealing with anyone that replied to e-mails or posted on a forum (say, advertising your field online) in a way that seems you fell asleep in school. Presentation goes a LONG way.
Tip #2: Play time. Do you like playing paintball? If so, abandon any ideas to start a field. If you are an owner and operator of a field and pro-shop, you will NOT have time to play until you are established with your own competent employees. "Competent" being the major qualifier here. A good reffing staff will make or break a field.
Tip #3: Money. You will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in start-up costs. I don't know how you plan on obtaining that money, but you can count on paying off that debt for years to come. IF you succeed. On that note, paintball is not a viable income. You will need side jobs or rely on someone else's funds until you develop a sustainable reputation. This is NOT a firework stand. There are not a lot of ways to make money on paintball. Paint profits only go so far, and a brick-and-mortar pro-shop will have a very tough time competing with online retailers. Where do you plan on getting the money to invest in a store?
Tip #4: Reputation. Your success depends on your reputation. If your staff are incompetent boobs, or arrogant jerks, you will lose customers, and they will spread the negative word. Congratulations, you just forced yourself under. Advertising, professionalism, quality field, and many other factors come into play here. Also, you will have to balance pricing and profit. You may soon find out why the other store's pricing "isn't very good."
Tip #5: Fields and acreage. The renters and recballers are the bread, butter and backbone of a thriving field. You cannot cater to speedball, and you cannot cater to woodsball. You will need enough land to have a multitude of options for anyone who wants to play. That is how you will draw your crowd. You can have all the advertising you want, if people don't like your product, it doesn't matter how well organized you are.
There are MANY more things to consider, but I'm a lazy bum, and that's about as much as I want to write at the moment. Still interested?
------------- Evil Elvis: "Detrevni is definally like a hillbilly hippy from hell"
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