He Spends 1 Hour a Week on This Business
Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office Podcast
0:00 I hate the phrase passive income, cuz it gets thrown around a lot.
0:03 It's about as passive as you can get.
0:04 And I have some friends that have some in their own home as well,
0:07 even if they do use it every day, it's only for about an hour a day.
0:11 So, for 23 hours a day, it sits unused at their home.
0:14 That made me start thinking about more of the membership model.
0:17 I just need these 10 friends and uh
0:18 my costs are at least covered and I'm breaking even.
0:21 We have a software platform that we use for all the scheduling.
0:24 What does that cost you per month?
0:25 40 bucks a month?
0:26 And your whole business runs on it.
0:27 Yeah, nothing at all.
0:28 It's a 24/7 door access.
0:30 I love the fact that I don't have to worry about it or do anything.
0:33 This business right here is 6 months old.
0:36 It was at break even within 3 months.
0:38 It makes 50% net profit margin and they've never lost a customer.
0:43 That's the golf simulator business and I'm terrible at golfing,
0:46 clearly, but I love business.
0:47 Today, we're going to meet Jay Meldrum, who quit his job in corporate America,
0:50 started a golf simulator business, and he's very profitable and growing.
0:54 So, let's dive in.
0:59 Jay, thanks for having us.
1:00 Yeah.
1:01 Tell me about your business.
1:03 Well, the name of the the business is Swing Cave Golf.
1:06 It's a single bay simulator.
1:09 So, we have members that will come in and practice their swings and work
1:13 on their golf game and something that I've wanted to do for a long time,
1:17 it personally for myself, if I'm if I'm honest.
1:21 We looked at putting one in our home and just not enough room.
1:24 We've got our third grandkid coming, too, and so my wife, of course,
1:28 is like, "No, you're not getting that room." Yeah, we got plans for this.
1:31 And I have some friends that have some in their own home as well,
1:33 and the more I talked to them,
1:35 the more I learned that yes, even if they do use it every day,
1:39 it's only for about an hour a day.
1:41 Yeah.
1:41 So, for 23 hours a day, it sits unused at their home.
1:44 Yeah.
1:44 So, that let made me start thinking about more of the membership model of, "Hey,
1:48 could I do this close enough to my house that it wouldn't be a burden on me,
1:53 Mhm.
1:53 but also open it up to other members and have
1:57 a membership model and and then everybody can enjoy it as well.
2:00 So, we ended up opening up just this last September and it's been great.
2:04 We've got 20 28 members right now
2:06 in the area and it's been it's been a lot of fun.
2:09 23 hours a day unused at your house,
2:11 that's a lot of square footage to take up for hardly using it all.
2:15 And I imagine it's clearly more expensive to build it out here,
2:19 but is it a lot more expensive?
2:20 Well, there's a lot of different simulators out there
2:22 and if you want to put one in your home,
2:24 there's a lot of economical models that you could put in.
2:26 There's some like with a net that folds down so you can conserve space.
2:29 So, that we were looking at those kinds of things,
2:33 but once I decided on the membership model,
2:35 it kind of elevates it and said, "Hey,
2:36 if we're going to do this, let's do it right."
2:38 I remember us talking and you said that when you were still building this out,
2:42 you'd spoken to some friends and you're like, "All right,
2:44 they kind of verbally committed and you said I just
2:46 need these 10 friends and my costs are at least
2:49 covered and I'm breaking even." How many of them
2:51 actually followed through and became a paying customer versus not?
2:54 Great question.
2:55 So, there were about five friends that I
2:58 talked to and three of them were right there.
3:01 Two of them were it took them a little longer, but they are now members.
3:05 It just took them a little longer to to be ready to do it.
3:09 So, yeah, all five of them are are there.
3:11 But yeah, that was kind of my model in the beginning of like,
3:13 "Hey, if I can get enough here to kind of you know,
3:17 at least give me a basis and give me feedback." One of them
3:20 was the first one to join even before we opened and he's like,
3:22 "Let me give you feedback." Yeah.
3:24 good friend and I was absolutely.
3:26 So, of feedback did he give you?
3:27 Just different things about the data that it provides and hey,
3:31 where's this part of the data and how can
3:33 I do this and get just try to make sure
3:35 that it's useful for him with what he wants
3:38 to do with his golf swing and then feedback around hey,
3:42 it'd be nice to get some straps over there to hold the clubs in and it would be
3:45 nice to have a place to putt in the back
3:48 and just little things like that that hey, have you thought about this?
3:51 And so, that was invaluable to basically get that type of feedback.
3:54 Yeah, there so there were a little over 10
3:56 that I talked to, but five that really only committed.
3:59 But they're all in and the other five just took them a little longer,
4:02 but it was it took about three months to get over 15,
4:07 so we were which was break even for us.
4:10 So 15 was break even.
4:11 It took us about three months from the middle
4:13 of September to the middle of December.
4:15 And then currently another three months later we're we're at about 28.
4:20 Yeah.
4:20 Max out is 40.
4:21 It's not that big of a That's incredible.
4:23 facility.
4:24 almost at full capacity.
4:25 Yeah.
4:25 And if we can get to 40 within the next couple of months,
4:28 that's the goal, then we'll have a waiting list for others that want to sign up.
4:31 Yeah.
4:31 And then that'll help us dictate based on location
4:34 where we want to set up a spot.
4:35 Yeah.
4:35 Now, how do you get to 40?
4:36 Is it based on how often they reserve booths?
4:39 Yes, so I did a lot of research
4:41 with franchisors as well as other places that have
4:45 kind of this one facility model and every one
4:48 of them said that doesn't matter how many days Okay.
4:50 40 per day is the max.
4:52 day per month.
4:52 start getting feedback that hey,
4:54 I can't get a tee time or I can it doesn't seem like I
4:58 can get the tee time I want or on the day that I want.
5:00 So that's been the feedback.
5:01 It's about 35 to 40, but depending on your price point Yeah.
5:05 I think we'll max out around 40.
5:07 And it's kind of a specific customer you want because I almost
5:09 built out a private pickleball court in the shop in my backyard.
5:13 On paper it's like I just want a bunch of people to hardly ever play.
5:16 That way I can just fill it up.
5:18 Yeah.
5:18 But if that's the person you're signing on, then
5:21 you're going to have a high churn rate, right?
5:22 Cuz they're just it's not worth it.
5:24 Yeah.
5:24 But then conversely, if you have someone that's there every day,
5:27 then instead of having a 100 max capacity, which is what I was looking at, Yeah.
5:30 you're going to have 50.
5:31 That's not ideal either.
5:32 So you probably want someone that's an enthusiast,
5:34 but not obsessive cuz then your 40 goes to 35, right?
5:38 Yeah.
5:38 Yeah, so when we were looking at this, there's a lot of different pricing
5:40 models out there and there's a lot of them that are just a single price.
5:43 You pay this per month and it's unlimited.
5:46 You know, you can't go more than once in a day,
5:47 but it's unlimited days in terms of getting it.
5:50 And so you're really going after the the person
5:53 that wants a place to practice every single day.
5:56 And we looked at it and said, well,
5:57 there's there's a lot of other types of folks that may not come in every day
6:01 Yeah.
6:01 that would love to use this type of facility.
6:03 So we have three membership models.
6:05 One is for four T times a month.
6:07 Okay.
6:08 One is for eight T times a month and another one is unlimited.
6:10 And what are the prices for all three?
6:12 175 is our for par the par membership and that is for four a month.
6:17 Okay.
6:18 And then 275 is for our birdie, which is eight times a month.
6:21 And then our unlimited is our eagle package and they can come anytime they want.
6:26 How much is the unlimited?
6:27 Uh 325.
6:28 325.
6:28 Okay.
6:29 Yeah, so economically it's more advantageous to do the unlimited.
6:33 We wanted to make sure it made sense for those that really wanted to come.
6:36 Uh but we wanted to have other price points
6:37 as well for those that may not come that much.
6:39 It's just a waste of time.
6:41 But then more recently, about a month ago, we added some punch cards.
6:44 So five and 10.
6:46 You have to use it within six months.
6:47 And so now we're getting a few more
6:48 people that may only come once every other week.
6:52 But And but if it's raining outside,
6:55 we've got a couple members of TPC Craig Ranch that they
6:58 go there whenever they want and they go there to do
7:01 the driving range and but when it's raining or when
7:04 it's freezing or when there's other it's just easier for them,
7:07 they want to come here Yeah.
7:08 and practice.
7:09 And so so it gives a lot of different opportunities for people.
7:12 But in terms of our customer,
7:14 our customer is somebody that loves golf and wants to get
7:17 better at it and wants to work on their swing.
7:20 And that can go from, you know,
7:21 a member of another country club that wants to come here
7:24 whenever they want to somebody that just is barely getting into golf,
7:28 but really wants to get better Yeah.
7:30 and work on the swing.
7:31 And the way we do our simulator, the data,
7:33 it's the feedback you get from the data allows you to learn Okay.
7:37 how can I swing that a little bit better
7:38 and hit the golf ball a little bit cleaner?
7:40 Yeah, so it's like there's three buckets.
7:42 There's This doesn't replace the the 18-hole range, right?
7:45 This isn't replacing golf.
7:47 That's its own thing.
7:49 It's not replacing Topgolf, cuz that's entertainment,
7:51 that's families, that's corporate events.
7:53 This is for like the third group of people that just want to be better.
7:56 They enjoy golf, and they but they want to practice in there.
7:59 So, there's definitely that middle bucket of people
8:01 that just want a place to go to practice.
8:04 Yeah.
8:04 So, my wife in particular is just learning.
8:06 She wants to get better at it.
8:08 She really enjoys it.
8:09 But, she doesn't want to go to the range and have the guy
8:13 next to her looking at her when she shanks a ball, right?
8:15 a real thing.
8:16 And she gets a little intimidated,
8:17 and so she wants a private space like this, her own cave,
8:21 that that she can come and practice whenever she wants.
8:23 And we have several members like that as well, from that perspective.
8:27 Now, in terms of Topgolf, you know, it's interesting.
8:30 One of the reasons we went with this particular
8:32 simulator are all of the games that it comes with.
8:35 Mhm.
8:35 So, you can play soccer and football, and and there's different golf games, too,
8:40 for a you know, hitting not you know,
8:41 like Battleship, where you can hit a pirate ship.
8:43 So, so I have families members that bring their families here,
8:47 and they'll play those games as well.
8:49 And so, it's a little bit of both of that middle,
8:52 but also maybe more of the entertainment as well.
8:54 Yeah.
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9:43 Is the goal/hope for this to be at max capacity and 100,000 a year in profit?
9:49 Do you think that's realistic from this?
9:51 absolutely.
9:51 Would you ever get to the point at this place
9:54 where you would make the decision to add a second bay?
9:57 You want that to be always be the feature of this place to be private.
10:00 For me, selfishly, I want this to be a single It's
10:03 It's It's probably the closest that we'll ever get to your house.
10:05 Yeah, exactly.
10:06 So, this is this is my man cave, in a way.
10:09 And so, I want And And honestly, when I thought about,
10:12 well, who is the customer target for this?
10:15 Yeah.
10:15 It's me.
10:16 Yeah.
10:16 What do I want?
10:17 Well, I want a private place.
10:19 If I want to bring my kids and they
10:20 want to watch a show while I'm hitting some balls,
10:22 I don't want other people around.
10:24 So, for me, this is the ideal.
10:26 Yeah.
10:27 Will it always be like this?
10:28 Not necessarily.
10:29 I can see us not adding any bays to this, but I can
10:32 see us doing a two or a three or a four bay eventually,
10:35 depending on the location, depending on the market,
10:37 depending on what the customers want.
10:39 There's several of them that do very well
10:41 because there's a lot of people that are
10:42 just want something like this to be able to come and swing when they want.
10:46 Okay.
10:47 How How does your price compare to your competitors?
10:50 We are right at the market.
10:52 So, based on pricing, we're right there.
10:55 Okay.
10:55 We're not lower than them and we're really not higher than them.
10:59 I feel like we have a superior simulator compared to a lot of them out there.
11:04 Yeah.
11:04 Yeah, you know, like I mentioned before
11:06 that Full Swing and TrackMan are the top two.
11:09 There's some large franchises that are out there that switched about
11:12 a year ago from TrackMan to Full Swing because it was superior indoors.
11:17 Versus TrackMan is used by a lot of PGA instructors, right?
11:20 It's portable.
11:21 You can pick it up, go to an outside range, you can keep it indoors.
11:24 But the one downside of the TrackMan, at least for that portable model,
11:29 is it's about 2 to 3 second delay from the time you hit
11:32 the ball and you see it on the screen and this one's instantaneous.
11:36 Okay.
11:36 Now they have another model that's indoors as well and other things,
11:39 but because of that we did slightly higher in some
11:42 of the memberships for that as well from a technology perspective,
11:45 but for across the board we're probably right there.
11:48 I didn't want to come in lower and just generate demand.
11:51 Yeah.
11:51 I wanted to see is this the right price point and and I feel like it is.
11:55 Yeah.
11:56 So what are your monthly costs?
11:57 You've got rent, what about insurance, your technology, all that?
12:02 technology, no.
12:03 We pay a software subscription for like 100 bucks every year.
12:06 That's it.
12:07 You have utilities and then you've got the rent and then you've got insurance,
12:11 yeah, but it's not that much from a from a cost perspective.
12:16 If we maxed out at 100k at 40 people,
12:20 it's about we have about 50 to 55% margins.
12:24 Wow.
12:25 That's net?
12:26 Net.
12:26 That's incredible.
12:27 Yeah.
12:27 So we're kind of looking at okay, 50% it's 100k 50.
12:31 50% is kind of the model that we're after.
12:34 We haven't really done a lot of marketing.
12:35 Everyone said you need to have a grand opening and you need to go, you know,
12:39 get get some marketing in the area in the residential and I
12:42 was very particular that I don't want to do that right now.
12:44 I want to learn everything about this and I want to learn
12:47 about the demand that is generated by word of mouth, by seeing it.
12:54 Yeah.
12:54 And could I have broken even quicker than 3 months?
12:56 Absolutely.
12:57 Yeah.
12:58 Could I hit 40 quicker?
12:59 Absolutely.
13:00 So our goal for the second location is to do all of that and see
13:04 how compressed the time frame is and then we've got two use
13:07 cases for the third or the fourth or the fifth one in terms
13:10 of what's the right balance of marketing in terms of who our target customer is.
13:15 Yeah.
13:16 And you're kind of a different situation cuz
13:18 you were in corporate America for a while.
13:20 You were entrepreneurial in college,
13:21 kind of put that on the back burner for a couple decades, yeah, retired early,
13:25 and so this is like a passion project and it's
13:28 fun and you're building it for a customer of one.
13:30 I feel like that's just a really strong place to be.
13:32 It's almost like when you try less hard to make it work,
13:35 you're it's almost like it's more likely to work.
13:37 Does that make Yeah, well I think anything entrepreneurial,
13:39 if you're passionate about it, it's a lot easier to do and it's
13:42 a lot easier to address when things don't go right.
13:45 Yeah.
13:45 If you're passionate about it.
13:46 And so yeah, I started a business in college and sold it and then
13:50 went into professional services and have been
13:53 there for the last almost 30 years.
13:55 I saw it as very entrepreneurial in a lot of respects and then over
13:59 the last probably 10 years I've seen
14:01 that entrepreneurship in the large corporate world just deteriorate.
14:05 So I've been anxious to do something not
14:09 just this but to do something more entrepreneurial.
14:12 And so
14:12 Yeah.
14:12 Yeah, so I left a a large firm about a year ago
14:15 and this was literally the project two weeks out after finishing with that.
14:20 This is what we did.
14:21 And we want to do more of it and I'm interested
14:23 in other types of businesses in different
14:25 different sectors and things like that.
14:26 So this is what I feel like I've been missing for a while
14:29 and this is an easy way to I don't tiptoe back into it a little bit.
14:33 Yeah.
14:33 If you think I have a terrible swing, go ahead and hit subscribe.
14:38 So how would you like to scale this business?
14:42 You know, I'm in no rush but I do see the opportunity and you know,
14:46 first mover advantage everyone's aware of and so I think in the next
14:50 probably two to three months if we can max out at 40,
14:52 we will definitely be looking for a second location.
14:56 We already have three identified.
14:57 I was just going to say, I know you're already looking.
14:59 have three identified and we have a right
15:01 of first first refusal on one this fall.
15:03 Okay.
15:04 But yeah, so in my mind scaling looks like
15:07 going one to two and then two to five.
15:13 Mhm.
15:13 All at once?
15:14 Like Yeah, within you know, within a couple of years, right?
15:17 And then once we hit five, reset,
15:20 see if there's efficiencies that we can continue to gain.
15:24 Depending on where the locations are,
15:26 we've had some even just now our members have said,
15:28 "Hey, if you get more than one, two, three locations,
15:31 it would be nice to reciprocate membership
15:34 depending on where people live that hey,
15:36 I'm in Allen today or I'm in Princeton or I'm on the other side.
15:40 We've located We've looked at a location on the other side
15:42 of Allen and so that may be interesting to think about.
15:45 And so then from my perspective, you go from five to 10.
15:51 And then you go from 10 to 20.
15:54 And then at 20, you have to make a decision
15:57 of do you want to franchise this or not?
15:59 Yeah.
15:59 I mean, there's a lot of precedent of companies
16:01 that have franchised after one or two locations.
16:04 I mean, with varying levels of success, right?
16:07 But I think that most potential franchisees feel really
16:10 comfortable even if you only have two or three.
16:11 Yeah.
16:12 I think there's a downside though that if you've only
16:14 got two or three and you try to franchise it out,
16:16 do you really you're dealing with different locations every time.
16:20 Yeah.
16:20 And that franchisee comes in and he can't get
16:23 to 40 within 6 months and then there's some friction, right?
16:27 So I think I don't know,
16:29 maybe it's just me and maybe I'm a little more conservative than others,
16:32 but I would rather own than franchise any time of the day.
16:35 But I'm really interested in that second one where we compress,
16:39 we do a ton of marketing, a ton of you know, the grand opening,
16:42 things like that and just to see the opposite of if I
16:45 really focused on the marketing and how quickly could we do this?
16:48 And I think that that learning there will help us really Okay,
16:52 how quickly can we scale this and what does that look like?
16:55 Yeah, I mean, I've talked to a lot of business owners that have scaled one
16:58 retail location to many and it seems like
17:00 they always really surprise themselves with a second.
17:03 Like they're comparing the second to the first cuz that's all they know,
17:06 but then the second just blows expectations out
17:08 of the water cuz they're leveraging all those learnings.
17:11 I hope that's the case for you.
17:12 I hope so, too.
17:13 So if someone's watching this and they're thinking,
17:15 I want I want to open a golf simulator.
17:17 Like I love this.
17:18 I love golf.
17:18 I want to do what Jay did.
17:19 What advice would you give them?
17:21 Uh number one, if you really want to do it, just do it.
17:23 You learn more by doing it than thinking about it.
17:27 And so, just do it.
17:28 There is upfront cost.
17:30 It's about 100K upfront to get everything situated and ready to go
17:34 and for all the equipment and the and the finish outs and all that.
17:37 But, 100K upfront and 100K on your revenue per year and 50 to 55% margins Yeah.
17:44 payback.
17:45 I mean, that's really good compared to most businesses.
17:48 So, yeah, if it's a passion of yours, just do it.
17:50 I think there's a couple things that we were
17:52 able to do to mitigate a little bit of risk.
17:54 Our lease arrangement, we were able to work in a clause
17:58 that we didn't have to pay rent until we opened.
18:00 We were ready to open within 3 weeks of me signing the lease.
18:04 Yeah.
18:04 We worked in the a clause that we didn't have to pay until we opened up.
18:07 So, that really benefited us because you just don't
18:11 know how quickly you can be able to open.
18:14 Yeah.
18:14 So, that was helpful.
18:15 We also, I have a good friend that's a real estate attorney and we're able
18:18 to get some good a good amount of leasehold
18:20 improvements to help mitigate the cost a bit.
18:22 So, those are little things that I would, you know,
18:24 use your network around you to get advice, but don't let don't wait.
18:29 Just jump in and Yeah.
18:31 Like, if I look back and said, "Oh,
18:33 maybe I should have waited until I got the permit, right?" Yeah.
18:36 Maybe I could have, but I learned a lot Yeah, yeah.
18:39 in between that time of waiting and even having a couple
18:42 of members show up before and give me feedback and Yeah.
18:45 I it it it it was very beneficial.
18:47 Of your 28 members, how many like did you know personally versus like strangers?
18:51 Um I would say of the 28 members, I know about 15 of them Okay.
18:57 personally.
18:58 Okay.
18:58 Some of them better than others,
19:00 but I knew of them and I knew of their interests.
19:03 Church and work and stuff.
19:04 Church and work and sports and kind
19:06 of the the neighbor area neighborhood areas around here.
19:09 And then, yeah, the other 13 or 14 or so,
19:12 they were looking around or they had a friend that saw
19:15 it when they were driving by and or I've got several
19:17 that are actually in this neighborhood right behind that have seen
19:20 it when they drive by all the time and they're like,
19:22 "Hey, what's that?" And I'd love a place to go to to practice my swing.
19:25 So Cuz from what I understand, you're not marketing, really.
19:28 No.
19:28 Right?
19:29 You've got a decent location.
19:30 It's close to our homes.
19:31 Yep.
19:31 I drive by it a lot.
19:33 But there've been other businesses in this strip mall that haven't done well.
19:36 I know you wanted to optimize for being close.
19:38 You're 5 minutes from home.
19:39 Yep.
19:40 Right?
19:40 What else made you choose this location?
19:43 Yeah, so it's kind of a funny story, too.
19:45 So I did want something within 5 miles of my house.
19:49 I didn't want to have to drive into the main part of Allen or other areas.
19:53 So I was looking for other areas and and this one actually just came up.
19:58 We drive by it every day as well and there was a vape shop here
20:02 and I found out through somebody else
20:05 that that they were under investigation for selling to minors.
20:08 Good.
20:08 And so I was like, "Hey, Good.
20:10 Good.
20:10 Good.
20:10 Shut down.
20:10 And I hadn't really thought of this location yet.
20:12 I thought about a bunch of other ones like some shopping
20:14 centers and hadn't really thought of this and I was like,
20:16 "That's interesting." And I'm sure that the the the lessor
20:20 would want to have them replaced.
20:22 And so anyway, I called them up and I said,
20:23 "Hey, I I will offer you a deal right now.
20:26 If you give me 15% off of their current rent,
20:29 I will step into their lease, whatever it is.
20:31 I don't even know what it is, but I'll step into it." Hm.
20:33 Um and he was like, "Yeah,
20:35 okay." And then it was 2 weeks later that they call me up and say,
20:39 "Hey, if you're interested, you're in." Wow.
20:41 And so at that point in time, we really hadn't done anything with the business.
20:45 It was an idea and we were like, "Hey, we got to find some space and then we can
20:48 start working on this." And so at that point in time,
20:51 everything shifted and we're like,
20:52 "This is a great space." We had to tear out a few things.
20:54 We had to put a wall in and other things, but The more I'm here,
20:58 the more I also understand what a great location it is,
21:02 that it's not by a shopping area.
21:05 When you max out at 40 people per bay, Yeah.
21:09 it you don't need a mass an area where there's
21:12 a lot of massive people coming around in and out.
21:14 You don't need that traffic.
21:16 Yeah.
21:16 But, it helps to have the road traffic going by and seeing it.
21:20 Frontage.
21:20 And it helps it to be close to neighborhoods where people's homes are
21:24 because if the alternative to putting something in their home, this is it.
21:28 It's close.
21:28 It's within walking distance for several of our members
21:31 or an easy drive for most of them.
21:33 Yeah, I mean, there's a hundred thousand people within 5 mi of us right now.
21:37 And you need 40 of them.
21:38 Yeah.
21:38 So, if you ever want to start a golf simulator business,
21:42 we actually made a 30-page business plan,
21:45 charts, graphs, 5,000 plus words about everything you'd ever
21:48 need to know to start a golf simulator business.
21:51 Cheap, expensive, ton of marketing ideas.
21:53 It's 19 bucks at the link below.
21:55 Go check it out.
21:56 Are people allowed to bring guests,
21:58 friends, family members for their one membership?
22:00 Yes.
22:00 So, there's a lot of these out there in franchises
22:04 that only they limit you to three or four people Yeah.
22:07 per bay when you come in and even some
22:09 single ones that limit you to three or four people.
22:11 We wanted a place where they were unlimited, right?
22:13 Now, no one's going to come into the space and bring 20 people.
22:16 There's just not enough room.
22:17 But, we have families that come in with eight to 12 to 14 people and they they
22:22 watch a show while some people are playing
22:24 on it and do a little bit of activity.
22:26 But, we don't it if that's your tee time and your your space, it's your space.
22:31 And you can bring whoever you want here during that time.
22:33 And are the tee times 1 hour?
22:35 So, for our members, it's up to 2 hours for your tee time.
22:39 For our punch passes, they're up to an hour.
22:41 Okay.
22:41 And do you use like a third-party scheduling software for that?
22:44 a We have a software platform that we use for all the scheduling.
22:47 Okay.
22:48 What does that cost you per month?
22:49 On a per month basis, 40 bucks a month.
22:52 Oh, it's nothing.
22:52 And your whole business runs on it.
22:54 Nothing at all.
22:54 What do you pay in rent here for this?
22:56 We pay about $31 per square foot.
22:59 Okay.
22:59 So, we're right around right around 33, 3400.
23:04 Okay.
23:05 Now, 28 members, which tier is the average person on?
23:08 Right now, our average is about $250 per member.
23:12 So, we're kind of right below the middle tier.
23:16 Okay.
23:16 Right?
23:16 So, 175, 275, 325.
23:18 We're right around 250 on a weighted average.
23:20 And is that kind of like a barbell?
23:21 Like, half are on the most expensive, half are on the cheapest?
23:24 Yeah.
23:25 Okay.
23:25 So, 7,000 a month in revenue?
23:29 So, that's awesome.
23:30 After 6 months.
23:31 Yep.
23:31 Okay.
23:32 And your break even's about half of that.
23:33 Yes.
23:34 Okay.
23:34 So, you're profiting 3 to 4 grand a month.
23:37 And at full capacity, you'll be profiting 6 to 8 a month.
23:41 Yeah.
23:41 And it's I mean, I I hate the phrase
23:43 passive income cuz it gets thrown around a lot.
23:46 People sell a lot of courses around it.
23:47 And really, nothing is passive.
23:49 Cuz if you know, if something is passive,
23:51 you have to do a lot of active work to get to that point.
23:54 As far as any business goes, this is quite passive, I imagine.
23:56 It's about as passive as you can get.
23:58 There is very little maintenance.
24:00 It's a 24/7 door access.
24:02 So, you'll get an email saying what your tee time is.
24:05 And then 10 minutes before that tee time, your phone will light up,
24:09 you push a button, it'll automatically open the door, you're in.
24:12 Yeah.
24:12 So, from my perspective,
24:14 I wrangle my 14-year-old every Saturday and we come here for about
24:18 an hour and he helps clean up and take the trash out.
24:21 know what?
24:21 Like, you're doing that to spend time with your kid.
24:23 Like, you could hire that out if you wanted.
24:25 Absolutely.
24:25 Yeah.
24:25 I could have I have several families
24:27 with memberships that they have a teenage son Yeah.
24:30 that want that plays here, too, and practices.
24:32 And I could easily say, "Hey, you know,
24:34 you could help me help me out with this." It's It's just very passive.
24:37 I don't I love the fact that I don't have to worry about it or do anything.
24:41 It's We have full video surveillance and cameras.
24:43 And so, there's sometimes where I'll have a new member
24:45 that's coming for the first time and I'm out of town.
24:48 Yeah.
24:48 I can't meet him and give him an orientation.
24:50 Yeah.
24:51 But I can see when they get there and I can ping them and say, "Hey,
24:53 let's walk through it if you want." So,
24:55 there's there's some necessities like that, but it's very very easy.
24:59 Well, Jay, this has been amazing.
25:00 Where can people find you if they want to learn more?
25:02 Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn,
25:04 Jay Meldrum, but the business swingcavegolf.com.
25:07 If you're interested in doing something like this, let me know.
25:08 I'm happy to give you feedback.
25:10 All right, thank you.