Business Plan in the works... Philadelphia PA Region
 

Hi everyone,
First let me introduce myself. My name is Joshua and I am currently in the development stages of a business plan. I intend to open an RC car Store complete with indoor and outdoor on-road racetracks. The tracks will be professionally planned and built. The purpose of this post is to gather data for the projections needed in the business plan so that I can get the appropriate funding to build this idea the right way. That being said I have a few questions that I would appreciate honest answers to.


1. Would you be interested in joining a racing league as an amateur or professional racer?

2. If you live in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area how far(miles) would you be willing to travel to get to the race track?

3. What services and/or products would you expect the race track to provide?

4. How much money do you invest into your RC car hobby per year on average?

5. If you have a family would you involve your children in your hobby?

6. If the store part offered professional paint jobs as a service would you be willing to pay for one?

7. Are you a member of a racing team, league or club? If so would your associates want to rent exclusive track time?

These are all the questions that I have for now. Thank You everyone for your input.

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I'm in the philly area and just finished up my first year racing. There's a shop/track just opening in Pensauken, NJ soon and a few other local tracks. You should get familiar with the racers in the area who race a lot (your potential clientel) by visiting some of the local tracks in the PA,NJ,DE,MD area.

There's a local building available that I think would be great for racing - the caln roller rink in downingtown, PA. Last I checked, it was going for $16K/month. Ample space for a 1/10 scale track, shop, pits and cafe. If I were you, I'd do an indoor on-road/offroad combo and outdoor off-road. You'll most likely get more racers if you look at off-road layouts.

I think business-plan wise, you will have to factor in losses for the first couple years. You should expect an outlay budget of $100K for the setup, shop stocking costs, etc - just to get going. Then you need to figure out how to attract 40+ racers per week to try to recoup the costs. Along with track rentals for parties, etc.

Ans to your ques:
No really, 50mi, pits/track/access too food (near a store, or onsite), $$? too much (mostly eBay), I do (son), no, no (but track rental is good for birthday parties and such). To do the birthday party thing, you need rental cars, *clean* environment (soccer moms avoid dirty places), good prices, cafe/food and other expenses that may or may not pay for themselves with the rental fees. Good tracks nearby who "do it right" - Family Hobbies, Vineland, NJ; Bumps & Jumps, Etters, PA. Pretty good are Pit Stop Hobbies in Mt. Joy and Mushroom Bowl, Kennett Sq, PA. An Onroad/offroad place that does it right is FastCats up in Ontario, CA. they run off-road one week on-road the next indoors and also outdoor onroad in the back parking area in the summer.

Thanks for the info! Everyone keep the answers coming :)

I am definitely thinking of making it a family friendly environment. The challenge will be to make it family friendly and attract the pros at the same time.

Don't leave New York City out of your potential customer base. Racers from around here are always willing to travel to a quality track.

I suggest you do very thorough research. You would be surprised at some of the answers you will find.

I have seen this combo under the same roof and it DID NOT work. There was a track near Wash DC yrs ago and they tried dirt and carpet under the same roof. The dirt was great, BUT the carpet was "suspossed" to be black. Even with vacuming it still made foam carpet ries loose traction in 6 laps or less. Indoor is good for carpet or asphalt. Asphalt and dirt work well outdoors. If you ever want to see an idoor asphalt track and are willing to do a trip check out Hobby Town USA in Frederick Maryland. Thier track is So smooth your going to think it's black ozite carpet.

T. - you may have responded to part of my reply where I mentioned FastCats in Ontario. They do off-road and on-road on the same track. They setup an off-road track with a nice array of smoothed jumps and such to create a carpet "off-road" course. They run slash, 1/10 buggies and trucks and have a respectable group of stock-class entries too as well as mod-class. That's about the only way to get both on-road and off-road in the same building without dust getting into the carpet area if there were two tracks.

This place: http://www.rctech.net/forum/electric...pet-track.html

my son and i raced last season at blue diamond in DE...it's a great track.
we would love to race indoors during the winter...we are in the phila area

1:yes as long as the schedule fits

2:I live about 45 min north west of Philly and id be willing to drive it once a week if an 1hr-1.5hr once a months about

3:Kits, Parts, Engines, battery's, Tires, everything needed to support the classes raced.All at prices that compete with online prices.

4:Maybe 1k-1.5k give or take

5: I have 2 kids still to young yet but in the next 2-3 years i would like to get my son into it which brings up an idea of maybe on a slower night make a kid time at the track.

6: Its not a bad idea but the amount of time that is needed to be invested vs the amount of money people are willing to pay them It prolly wouldn't be profitable.But maybe some classes/seminars teaching how to.

7: No but suggestion is maybe rent the track for party's and rent out some bullet proof cars for kids to race??

Allso I would love to see a large banked outdoor speedway type of track.Ive seen tracks like it where the infield allso doublers as a street course ?????