Obviously if you check this site you understand that I am interested in a career in club ownership. This has been on going for a few years now but not as hardcore as the last couple months. I have made an offer to a club in Gainesville, Florida where I worked for a year and a half and it appeared they may have been willing to sell but were not sure. My father and I made the offer and it was rejected by the board of directors all together. It didnt make sense to anyone at least in my circle why the club didnt sell.Here we are today. New investors, new backers, new legal, and a different club. There are 3 clubs for sale in North Carolina. The asked price run from 750K to a couple million. As of now our finanaces are limiting us to buying a club closer to a half a million so we need to negotiate the current owners down on their asking price if they truly want to sell. We have been dealing with one owner who is clearly, pardon my french....you understand... This guy has been cocky and thinks his club is the best and actually thinks it is worth 750K when it is probably worth 450K. It makes me sad the denial that this man is in beceause it is hindering our negotiating procedure so we have contacted another club that is actually worth 750K. Since we will probably be spending more we might as well get our moneys worth. We are not sure where the rest of the financing will come from just yet, but we have some ideas on other backers.
As of now it is just my friend and myself as the sole owners of the company. I am the expert in understanding how to run a club, people, sales, membership, direct, etc and he is the expert in marketing and has the capital to make a reasonable down payment on the club to get us in the game. We are considering bringing a third partner in, he is a good friend of mine and brings a legal background to our table. He would be able to prepare paperwork and make sure the loose ends are tied up. Besides that I would be handle the club operations and my other partner would be handling membership sales around town (which is how we will make our most money) and I will be at the club running it so there is some value to their membership.
I have also placed an ad in the tennis network that we are in the market for a club in the southeast region of the united states. I hope we dont have to go to Mexico to buy our first club because I hate to say this but I think club owners are sometimes cocky, but that is just part of the game. I cant let that hurt my goal and I need to ignore their cockiness and lack of intelligence and just go in for the kill. We will be visiting these clubs in the next month so hopefully we will close on one of them while we are there. That is the short term goal. :)
Our long term goal is to have seven clubs under our umbrella company in the next eighteen months. I am still considering whether or not to have a third partner. I think we do need one, and I think the legal background will help. I hope he takes the bait and travels with us up to NC to see the clubs. I would like to look back one day years from now to remember this as our first of many trips together before we start jet setting around the US in our own transportation.
PS Congrats to Venus. I did pick her and Roger to repeat and I believe they still will.
your thoughts?
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