I don't know VSA's financial records or situation. However numbers are always pretty reasonable for the location. Most shoots there is 30+ players. During the summer it has been reaching 60+. Walk on is £20 (£18 if you are a member) including a hot dog for lunch.
Say the hot dog an bun costs £1 per person, that's £510 a day (assuming 30 people, who are all members. so £17x30) and they all have their own guns so no maintenance required.
I am unsure how much they pay to use the land, or how much marshals and staff get, or how much the insurance costs. However as they have been going for a few years now, and not went bust I can only assume that their free hires thing is not detrimental to their finances.
I think some sites hire fees are extortionate as they use sub £100 aeg's and charge each hire £20 for the use of them. Does that mean they only use the hire aeg's 5 times before getting rid of them or dropping the hire price?
Or to they use the hire aeg's 25 times (a year if you play every fortnight) so each hire guns alone earn them £350 a year in hires (assuming they are booked each shoot, minus £50 for general maintenance and repairs.)
Say a site has 5 hire aegs that they hire out at a cost of £20+ a £15 walk on fee, this included a face mask. The site plays 25 times a year and the AEG's are all hired each shoot.
- Start up costs
Purchase price of aeg's = £500
- Purchase price of face masks = £100 (5 x £20 for "fencing" mesh mask)
- Total start up cost = £600
[*]Income
Hire's (£20 x 25)x5= £2,500
- Plus walk on fee of £15 each time = £1,875
[*]Total income = £4,375
[*]Maintaining and repairs = £300
[*]Net profit = £3,475
So yea, that is a healthy profit for not much outlay. However now think about this from a long term point of view, especially if you also run a shop....
If you are trying to encourage people to take up the sport. Then their initial outlay is high (£35 plus what every they spend on bb's and other kit). This can put a lot of people off. It also encourages most people to look for cheap things by scouring the internet and does nothing to encourage them to keep coming back to you (unless you having an amazing set up/personality)
If you have their initial outlay as low, they are more likely to take the plunge and actually try the sport and get hooked. So you get a regular stream of new players, who are buying kit from your shop (guns, pistols, clothing, bb's, pyro etc), giving work to your gun tech's and they are happy to come back to you time and again because of your good prices. Because they will then probably like you and your site, they will invite their other friends along...
If you want quick profit, then yea, charge for everything. If you want a long term profiting business that people like and appreciate then lowering prices is a good move.
