Megadisc complex- Cambridge, MN

[ajbegg]

the 5 minute biz plan was the first run at writing a biz plan for megadisc.
pretty quickly revealed itself as quite basic and I abandoned it.
don't know how it got on the web at all, but there you go, I'll be more aware.
we (Alex and I) did churn out a ten page business plan and it's quite a bit more complete.
I spent nov, dec and January in Atlanta in 2011-12 and I was amazed
at how few people played disc golf there in the winter.
I'd see one or two people (phil Arthur a lot) and when I asked,
they said it was too cold in the winter.
I went home for Christmas and played chilly dog (Saturday winter league) and we had 60 -some people and it was 18 degrees (or so). the courses are covered in snow in mn, but that doesn't stop us from playing in the winter. I shovel crown and independence, Matt smith shovels red oak, chris cook shovels the valley, and bob wolf clears the tees at kaposia. craig stainiger and the hansen crew keep the pads clean at Bassett creek and jimmy d shovels Clearwater. I think rob Chadwick was taking care of alimagnet. unfortunately, those are all I know about personally, but it's a myth that we don't embrace winter disc golf. it's mosquito free for Pete's sake!
while I agree in part, Dino t, we feel that another single course would not do for the community what a multi course would.
perhaps a champ 18 (player built) is in our future, though. time will tell.
thanks for the support, guys! we are optimistic and eager to get this done and get to work on the courses.
the signage breaks down to $660ish per hole. you might be surprised how quickly you can burn thru that.
of course, it's better to be over, rather than under funded.
there are also plans for a founding members wall and actual signage for the property in general that comes out of that pot as well.
I'd like to ask you guys to consider throwing in a buck or two. there's no risk, really. if we don't hit full funding, your money is returned. if we do, you can say you had a part in building it, and enjoy it when you are in the area. I, alan hansen begg, am the guy behind the guy. there's no money man we have to answer to... we answer to you, disc golfers.

 

[ajbegg]

the $295,000 roughly breaks down like this:
1 manager (mike) full time
1 maintenance (dave) full time
1 grounds keeper (mike) full time
2 part time office (Shari, can't remember)
they currently earn $50,000 for the six months from April to September.
we plan to be open year round, so we doubled that.
we built in two years of wages for these people because we will be building a clientele (apart from the 2000 members) and we wanted to build in enough capital to ensure that it was viable, at least for the two years.
Alex and I will be payed over those two years out of the remaining 95,000, at about $10 an hour, leaving about 10-15,000 for misc labor costs. we may need to hire a little more help.
of course, after two years we run on our own, but we felt that we would have the customer base by then.
shark tank investors want a return on their investment. this project returns the investment to each disc golfer that donates, rather than a suit somewhere.

 

[Broken Shoulder]

It's certainly an ambitious goal, but I do hope it succeeds. Glad to see more info coming out and your presence here with additional explanation. Best of luck.

 

[HybridZombiw]

I Hope it succeeds as well. It has the potential to be The disc golf Mecca, paradise, eden, etc. It's there but it looks like it would need another go around

 

[shawny0123]

the $295,000 roughly breaks down like this:
1 manager (mike) full time
1 maintenance (dave) full time
1 grounds keeper (mike) full time
2 part time office (Shari, can't remember)
they currently earn $50,000 for the six months from April to September.
we plan to be open year round, so we doubled that.
we built in two years of wages for these people because we will be building a clientele (apart from the 2000 members) and we wanted to build in enough capital to ensure that it was viable, at least for the two years.
Alex and I will be payed over those two years out of the remaining 95,000, at about $10 an hour, leaving about 10-15,000 for misc labor costs. we may need to hire a little more help.
of course, after two years we run on our own, but we felt that we would have the customer base by then.
shark tank investors want a return on their investment. this project returns the investment to each disc golfer that donates, rather than a suit somewhere.

I'm not trying to be a naysayer but there's no way you're raising $1,000,000 and quite honestly I'd be surprised if you raised over $25,000. Why is part of your business plan to raise money to pay yourself? That just makes no sense to me. You should be eating PB&J and living on Ramon Noodles not asking for "free" money to pay yourself. What does an investor gain by giving you money to pay yourself when you will also be reaping the financial rewards of the business as well. Offering a lifetime membership to play at this venue is hardly interesting enough to gain any substantial investors....they want a cut of your business and if you are serious about trying to make this work than finding private investors who get a cut of your business is the only way you have a snowballs chance in hell of procuring $1,000,000.

 

[smarkquart]

I am expecting a little money to finally make its way to me in the next month. I fully intend to become a legacy member when that money arrives. Now, my money would be worth only 0.05% of what they need, but it is a start. I am only investing because there is no risk if they do not make their initial goal; I will get my money back. The only real risk I am taking is if they make their goal, the course gets built, and then it flops. If they succeed, then I have a lifetime membership, making it well worth my initial investment.

What harm is there in investing in a no real risk plan? What is the worst that could happen? It will not get built and some people will have learned a lesson. You will get your money back. What is the best that could happen? Now we have a world class complex within reach of a major metropolitan area.

Hint, hint, and totally overt statement: If they could find it in their budget to bring me on full time, I would jump careers for this opportunity. Right now I am struggling to find a new teaching position in the Twin Cities because I did not want to commute 90 minutes each way for less than what I would make at other districts.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

it seems there is support as a whole from the DG community but im not sure the logicstics here are as sound as need be. I personally believe there needs to be much more grassroots type of work before any public funding does good. Here is a thread I just started on the idea similar to that which is behind this complex.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105964

To me the entire idea that you would earn any type of profit in the first few years needs to be thrown out the window along with the current payment structure.

 

[Swisher Streets]

the $295,000 roughly breaks down like this:
1 manager (mike) full time
1 maintenance (dave) full time
1 grounds keeper (mike) full time
2 part time office (Shari, can't remember)
they currently earn $50,000 for the six months from April to September.
we plan to be open year round, so we doubled that.
we built in two years of wages for these people because we will be building a clientele (apart from the 2000 members) and we wanted to build in enough capital to ensure that it was viable, at least for the two years.
Alex and I will be payed over those two years out of the remaining 95,000, at about $10 an hour, leaving about 10-15,000 for misc labor costs. we may need to hire a little more help.
of course, after two years we run on our own, but we felt that we would have the customer base by then.
shark tank investors want a return on their investment. this project returns the investment to each disc golfer that donates, rather than a suit somewhere.

I'm not trying to be a naysayer but there's no way you're raising $1,000,000 and quite honestly I'd be surprised if you raised over $25,000. Why is part of your business plan to raise money to pay yourself? That just makes no sense to me. You should be eating PB&J and living on Ramon Noodles not asking for "free" money to pay yourself. What does an investor gain by giving you money to pay yourself when you will also be reaping the financial rewards of the business as well.

These were my thoughts exactly. I had something typed up earlier today but decided against it because it sounded pretty demoralizing. Funny you brought up Shark Tank though because anytime an entrepreneur goes on that show and factors in a salary for themselves as part of the requested start up capital the sharks always laugh in their face. In Megadisc's case your salaries are almost 30% of the goal funding amount!

 

[Cgkdisc]

Shark Tank isn't about start-up funding but expansion funding. It's unusual that they fund ventures without any proven sales. Crowd sourced funding is more about true start-up capital much which can go for labor. Software and new products funded in crowd sourcing can have large labor chunks buried in them. When it says build a prototype for $X how much of that cost is really labor cost?

The Megadisc team thought crowd sourced funding would be a successful way to raise money and allow many to participate. If they're wrong, they move on and try other avenues. No reason to tear down the project. Just indicate this type of funding is not for you. I'm sure they're listening to the other options presented if they have to go to a plan B. Hopefully they won't need to knock on as many doors (1009) as Colonel Sanders before he got funding.

 

[ajbegg]

I've never seen a business plan that didn't include salaries or pay if employees are to be involved. the 5 current employees will be kept on, optimally. a business won't stay in business if the employees aren't paid. a business plan has to factor in the realistic costs.
it's not free money, they are getting value that they agree to. if you or anyone don't wish to donate, that is your choice. some people will, and if we succeed, they will get their money's worth. if we don't, they will get their money back.
we feel it is a great opportunity. if someone else presented this plan, I'd join up. in fact I did join this venture.

 

[ajbegg]

just saw the post from shawny.
the answer is no. even if we got a loan to fund this project, we would then have a mortgage, business loan, and all the other expenses detailed in our biz plan.
to make that work, we would have to charge enough to cover that nut.
currently, the market in Minneapolis for pay-to-play disc golf runs about $5-7 per round.
we have 8 courses that charge, so I'm averaging.
the mortgage is going to be about $6000, the loan (again hypothetical) will probably run $1000 a month or more since we are still going to need 72 baskets, all the tee pads and signage and a larger parking lot and all the rest.
that would not include ANY employees, which they currently have five. even if you remove Alex and myself the salaries or wages of those five comes to $50,000 for six months.
so, if anything goes wrong in our plan, we will jeopradize the whole project.
or we could just all chip in $500 and have the same thing, risk free and into perpetuity and we just thought that sounded like a better plan, seeing as how we all love disc golf.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

I've never seen a business plan that didn't include salaries or pay if employees are to be involved. the 5 current employees will be kept on, optimally. a business won't stay in business if the employees aren't paid. a business plan has to factor in the realistic costs.
it's not free money, they are getting value that they agree to. if you or anyone don't wish to donate, that is your choice. some people will, and if we succeed, they will get their money's worth. if we don't, they will get their money back.
we feel it is a great opportunity. if someone else presented this plan, I'd join up. in fact I did join this venture.

 

[Swisher Streets]

Good luck to you guys I'll leave it at that.