Purchasing a bowling center
 

I am currently a senior in college and will be graduating in May and dont currently have a job lined up [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I have taken serious consideration into purchasing a bowling center in a county near mine and maybe another one in a city near that.

Both centers were owned by the same guy for over 20 years and were profitable for him, but due to some personal issues he recenntly closed both centers down. They were the only two centers in the county.

I could definitely see myself running both these centers for many years, the thing is I have no idea where to start.

I would like to purchase the main center which is very nice and in a great location and perhaps purchase the other one later on.

The thing is, I have no idea how to get started. I basically have no clue how to approach this but would love to look into this so I can have something lined up for when I graduate.

I basically have no idea how to get money for this, I dont know how to get the paper work and all that stuff to hire employees and for employees taxes, I obviously dont know how many people to employee and dont know how much to pay each of them.

I have tons of dumb little questions but dont know who to ask.

Where can I go for help on this?

Anyone here got any advice?

EDIT: FWIW I will have a degree in sport management with a concentration on business administration and will be getting a degree in business administration next year. My GPA will be near 3.75 when I graduate.

Re: Purchasing a bowling center
 

Go to www.score.org and find the SCORE office nearest you. They'll help you get started.

Re: Purchasing a bowling center
 

First thing I would do is go to the owner and ask him if he wll self-finance them for you.

Jimbo

Re: Purchasing a bowling center
 

[ QUOTE ]
First thing I would do is go to the owner and ask him if he wll self-finance them for you.

Jimbo

[/ QUOTE ]

Good idea. Then you need to do a lot of other things. You need to look at his last five years worth of tax returns for which ever center you're looking at and preferably go over them with an accountant. You need to read up on everything you can find on running a bowling alley.

I'd ask this guy if he'd be willing to stay on as a manager with you for 6-12 months, which would make the transition a lot smoother, assuming this guy was good at running the centers, which is not a given. As much as I would dislike broaching the subject, you need to know why he closed them down. Saying it was for personal reasons doesn't cut it with me. If he didn't want to run them anymore, and they were profitable, I'd think he'd be able to sell them rather than just closing them down.

I would probably open one at at a time. If the first one does well you could consider opening the second, but if they're the only two in the county, and people who want to bowl are now leaving the county to bowl or not bowling at all, then just opening one may get back most of these people and unless overcrowding is too much of an issue at the first center you might want to just keep the first one open and hold off on the second one. Bowling seems like a pretty recession proof business so you may definitely be on to something here.

Re: Purchasing a bowling center
 

Just add Monte Carlo bowling and profit!