Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Ni hao! Hello everyone

I have to say "thank you" to forbes.com to direct me to such a great site about entrepreneurship and business . I was browsing through forbes on funding for start-up for different kind of business opportunities and I was directed to startupnation.com.

Firstly, I am really glad to see so many aspiring/ successful entrepreneurs in startupnation.com. I can`t wait to share my views/experiences/problems to everyone and to gain that extra knowledge on entrepreneurship!

For your information, I`m from Singapore and I hope to share what I know from my country. So do ask me lots of questions so that I can ponder about it and exercise my brains.

Anyway, I`m here posting this topic because I found this issue affecting quite a number of young entrepreneurs in my country / maybe in any part of the world. I would like to talk about my situation about funding opportunities for start up. Since a couple of months ago, a business idea struck my mind (when i was having my examinations! haha) as I could sense good demand in the future for this market. Its about renting sport facilities/ space to recreational players that wants to play like professional players. In Singapore, land area is limited and it`s hard to find a proper football pitch unlike other countries which have vast amount of space. The weather also changes very rapidly in Singapore as we are near the equator. Its either too dry or too wet to play football in Singapore. Football is one of the favourite sports in Singapore, although our country is not ranked among the best in the world/asia, we get live telecast of football matches from the English Premier League every weekends. So, football is quite popular in Singapore.

My idea is to create something like an indoor football pitch to play 5-a-side football ( something like futsal but played on turf). Then, I would rent this facility out on an hourly basis. There are further development on the process as I am still cracking my head working on the business plan.

I`m on a situation now that I just finish my polytechnic education and awating for national service(2 years of servicing for the army for all guys above 18 years old). I`m quite disappointed with this policy as I couldn`t focus 100% on my business idea. But I have to protect my country and I will protect it with pride :)

I`m looking at around S$25 - 50k start up funding for my idea. I understand that banks do loan capital to entrepreneurs but without pass records and security, it`s kinda hard to get this loan. It`s not a small amount of money. I was thinking of business angels to fund my start up but I do not know where to start from. Bootscraping looks impossible as I do not have that much pocket $$. In my opinion, most students graduated from tertiary education do not have sufficient funding on hand to start a business idea similar to mine, which required certain amount of capital. I hope to hear your opinions on this issue and some advices to my problem. Thank you!

Rgds,

A.L.V.I.N

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"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein

When you say football do you mean soccer?

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<A HREF="http://www.AuditAuctions.com">Get ISO Certified</A>

Ya. I guessed because Singapore adapted from this british culture. Sorry to confuse you guys. Hahaha. Ya, its not american football, its soccer.  Hope to hear from you guys!

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"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein

Indoor soccer arenas are very popular around here.

This is the one I used to play in ... maybe it is the kind of business model you are looking for? (Bad website though!)
Off the Wall Soccer

There`s one and only company doing this in singapore. I looking at this model but I have a slightly different concept. To your info, this is the website URL:

www.thecage.com.sg

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"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein

Alvin,

It is pleasure that you found the article on Forbes. I hope get answers to all your questions. This is trully a great place.

Alvin,

 

How did you arrive at the dollar amount specified?  You said land is at a premium in your country.  What amount of land would this require?  What are your zoning regulations?  What are your building cost?

My partners and I looked into building an indoor soccer/roller hockey arena in our area.  Real Estate costs and zoning were two of our biggest obsticles.  Even a cheap, out-of-the-way piece if dirt was so expensive it made the $1.5 million investment prohibitive.  Zoning was the LAST thing we looked at, and it would be the hardest to overcome no to mention it would have taken the investors 6 years to get their return back.  Too long for most models.

So, I would look into all of the easy and obvious things first so you don`t spend a year of precious time only to find out it wasn`t to be.

 

Tim Pockrandt

BelizeHomes

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TSP ResortBelize

Hi TSP,

Thanks for that precious advice . I thought of the same problem as you do. Real estate will be a major obstacle that I will need to face to starting this up. I`m following closely to my only competitor, and I found out that the area they lease is not that big (because the area houses only four 5-a-side artificial turf indoor soccer field, and it lies in the industrial area). To my surprise, their business picks up really fast, as from the 1 indoor court to 4 indoor courts in less than a year or 2 because of the great demand.

I have even thought of area such as rooftop which is truly unbelievable . For a rough estimate, leasing will be for around S$5k - S8k per month. I believe with the great demand, investors can get their money back quite fast. I believe in starting up small and meeting the demands of my customers as I am a football fanatic myself. Another information, they operates 24hrs and weekends bookings are atonishing, even in the wee hours of 2am there`s still people going over to use the facilities. I truly believe this model is workable. ( You have to see it to believe it! haha)

In our country, people demand good quality and they don`t mind paying for the quality they recieve. Artificial football turf is still a new thing in the country , but I believe in a few years time, there will be more of these courts available. Entrepreneurs need to think fast and act fast, so I must act now! Haha . Another information, these indoor football pitch is around 15m X 25m ( much much smaller than a full size football pitch). I planning to start with one of this pitch, placing more emphansis on the theme, dressing rooms, other ammenties available.

Rgds,

A.L.V.I.N

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"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein

Alvin,

 

When we looked into this for our project, I realize things may work differently in your county, you may not want to start TOO small and spend TOO much time on the ammenities.  I play indoor soccer, so we asked around, a lot, and found most people didn`t care so much about the locker rooms, but quality of the field. And that there was a retail space for impulse and emergency purchases and a place like a bar or cafe type place.  If you only have one field and it maxes out quickly, in the time it takes to put together anouther field, you may loose those clients.  If you are going to investors for the money, you should include the costs of building at least most of the fields but be sure to put the numbers into your plan that assumes they will be full.

 

I know of a couple of guys that built a field here and they be interested in a project abroad.  Let me know if this interests you.

 

Tim

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TSP ResortBelize

Hi Tim,

Ya. I agreed completely that the quality of the pitch is the utmost importance for indoor football players. But on the same time, locker`s room/ changing room is also important to my sense. Ya, I agreed on the idea of adding in cafe/bar which I was thinking all along in my business plan. I`m currently still working on my business plan.

I`m glad to hear that there`s someone out there interested in this project. Tim, I`m opened to every discussion. So do let me know if there`s anyone interested in this project. If possible, We can even discuss this.

Rgds,

Alvin

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"Success is 99% hardwork and 1% intelligence"
Albert Enstein