How to Start an Indoor Golf Sim Facility | The Headz Up Podcast | Episode 5

[@gimmyit9994]

Great looking facility! 🎉

[@GolfHeadz]

Appreciate it!

[@pkim3770]

Hands down the best golf sim in the GTA!!

[@GolfHeadz]

thank you!

[@DJPerrGolf]

Watched the video again, in it's entirety and I can really relate to the approach you all have taken. I have been in the industry for about 5 years and for the last few months, I have been planning for opening a very similar business here in south Louisiana. The info you shared regarding extra space and creating that comfort level as opposed to packing it with cheap sim bays and tight walkways/walkthroughs, was a takeaway that really registered with me. If I can ever catch up with you guys, I would like to hear even more and wish you all the best of luck in this venture. I am certain you will continue to crush it! congrats and let this be only the beginning! Our paths will cross someday before long!

[@GolfHeadz]

Appreciate the comment! I know we were jumping around topics in this episode but glad you got some nuggets. Feel free to email me, happy to chat! [e-mail] (not .com)

[@DJPerrGolf]

@@GolfHeadz I appreciate that. I just shot out an email. Thx

[@JGRHumanPerformance]

Dope setup brotha!!!

[@GolfHeadz]

Thanks Jose!

[@Par2Pixel]

Just found your channel I am currently building out my facility in Michigan Great stuff guys. Not even half way through the video yet

[@GolfHeadz]

@@Par2Pixel awesome! Good luck with the project 🙌

[@ameetnathwani3562]

Hands down the best golf sim in Toronto

[@GolfHeadz]

Thanks brotha!

[@cooperdundas1257]

Wish you guys talked more about finding funding and what steps you took to make it happen from a financial standpoint. Investors? Personal savings? Loans? And what steps you took to get those, and the timeline that happened.

[@GolfHeadz]

Good question - everyone is different and the way we did it was a bit unconventional because we had leverage with our Golfheadz media page and growth opportunities outside of the simulator. We did take on investment and dug into personal savings (which is very risky) as well as small loans from F&F. You can also go the route of a bank but that can take a lot of time and chance to not get approved without a track record. I think a big thing is, we pitched something new and exciting, so we had a lot of interest. You must build out the vision prior to pitching and we really found an area of need in the simulator space. It would be a harder sell now as the past year, a lot of similar simulators have opened up just like ours. The entire build out took about 4 months and we were raising as we were building. But we built a financial breakdown and basically saw a big opportunity to profit in the first year which we did. Hope this helps, but unfortunately we can't go into the deal teams with investment.

[@wordbird9830]

I like that you don’t allow alcohol. It’s more like a fitness facility than a bar.

[@GolfHeadz]

Exactly, less headaches and allows us to operate 24/7 and support customers remotely if needed.

[@paceofplay]

GOLF IS LIFE

[@ConorTaylor-o5m]

Place looks fire

[@jaytee2266]

Ive wanted to jump in and do this in down here in SW-FL.

[@brendanleong]

I've sent y'all a DM on IG regarding potential expansion to Vancouver if that is an outcome/goal you see aligns with your venture. But I do have a question, How do you prevent someone from booking a slot in the middle of the night "to golf", but with the ultimate goal of stealing the equipment?

[@GolfHeadz]

Hey Brendan, sorry for the delay. We have locked in the trackmans securely to the ground and have cameras. Our door requires a booking to gain access to the facility. With our booking system, we see when people book so haven’t had any issues. Also Trackman each have a serial number, so it’s really no value to anyone because they wouldn’t be able to get a subscription with it. Obviously being in a safer area helps, but we aren’t necessarily in the highest end area. Hope that helps

[@Notorious_jclb]

Whats up crew, im planning on opening a golf, beer and cigar lounge out here in so cal, what do you recommend for progarm and supplies? How many bays do you recommend?

[@GolfHeadz]

really depends on the square footage - a lot of sims cram as many bays as possible, but I believe a balance of privacy and space makes a big difference. We use Trackman, although it is higher end

[@patrickbaluyut1692]

Place looks amazing! With the construction being outsourced how much more cost per effective was it?what was that approx cost per bay? (tech not included) Did the contractor that specialized in golf bays?

[@GolfHeadz]

@@patrickbaluyut1692 contractor was specialized but I think on our next one we will go with a more general contractor to save cost. It’s good to get a sense of how big you want your bay size.

[@GolfHeadz]

Thanks for watching this episode! If you got any specific questions, let us know in the comments below. Be sure to hit that subscribe and like to support our channel - more content on the way!

[@ryanhawkins9805]

How did you build capital to start ?

[@GolfHeadz]

@@ryanhawkins9805 Loans and scrapped a Friends & Family Round along with personal

[@Gully_Golf]

Best SIM in the GTA

[@dhwarriors33]

@golfheadz what are you zoned as?

[@GolfHeadz]

Zoned as Recreation - zoning is the most important

[@thepractitionerzs]

What are you guys used to automate your set up so that you don’t have to be there all the time

[@GolfHeadz]

It's a bit complex but we use Skedda for a booking software and software called Zapier to automate it - we had a friend who had this built out that we leveraged. There are other booking softwares that can automate things as well.

[@willdouglas1300]

Man, I live in a place with NO entertainment and 126k people. We're in FL with thousands of serious golfers. I want to build one of these, but I'm not sure if they're profitable. Is there anywhere I can go to look at case studies? We'll definitely have F&B and I want kid/social games as well as real courses, in order to maximize profits. Any advice is appreciated!

[@GolfHeadz]

Those areas are interesting, but it depends on the weather. Our summers here are really slow but our winters are rammed. Also we don't do F&B which we don't have any costs outside of rent, utilities, and wear & tear. I would look at other areas that have indoor sims such as Arizona.

[@Powner187]

Tons of useless talk.

[@GolfHeadz]

@@Powner187 lol might do a part 2, if you have any specific questions lmk!

[@Powner187]

@GolfHeadz yes, I'd like to know how well 4bay, 8bay, 12 Bay, and 20 bay facilities are doing. Doesn't have to be those specific numbers, just a range from smallest to largest. If the larger ones are doing better or worst. If larger bay facilities can charge less. Like to know if people are choosing real golf over sim golf or if they just come in during winter months. Putting has always been less reliable, like to see or know if there is any new technology out there, for example if there is a putting green that can change its surface to match what is in the sim.

[@Powner187]

@GolfHeadz just additional useless info of how I imagine putting greens for Sims. I imagine once on the green there would be a common green in-between all the Sims which the sims usually run along the wall leaving an open center. If the artificial green can shape to match the sim green, and have a projector project the hole at the same distance as the sim green, you would have the most realistic putting, completing the sim experience. Thinking to have a green that can do this would have a lot of options, like using cylinder shape inflatables beneath the surface much like the tough inflatable play house material kids play on. Use cameras to measure the slope to make sure it matches the sim putt. This is very possible because it is not too far off from 3d printing where if you take a 360degree video of any object, that object is rendered to any scale of the original through the software. Would be the same for this, software renders and adjusts the putting surface accordingly.

[@GolfHeadz]

@@Powner187 There's a lot here to cover - but some great questions. I'll address some here so that you get some feedback. I think location is the most important - and your biggest monthly expense is rent. So if you can have more bays, that better financially. I know a lot of sims that have squeezed in a lot of bays but that experience isn't the greatest for guests and typically these spaces use a cheaper sim technology. We went with 6 bays which is typically a good standard with 4 open bays and 2 private bays. My recommendation is based on rent and average expenses - figure out your breakeven point. How many hours per bay do you need to cover expenses. Indoor simulators are seasonal, so making sure you manage a buffer for the summer is important. We still get a lot of teachers moving indoors and using the bay time and have a few regulars that just rather play indoors as much as possible. We adjust pricing in the summer as well. Putting with Trackman is fairly accurate and we encourage either doing Manual Aimed putting - so it will give you the line and you'll just have to putt the right speed straight. We use this in our league and a lot of people like that - but we let them know that from the hitting area to the screen is approximately 10 feet. From the moving ground - that is a big expense but I know Foresight has developed something to simulate the putting experience. It's an interesting concept but haven't yet tried it out. We'll be at the PGA show checking some of the new technology out that we're excited to share.