Baseball Batting Cages Business Plan

Although Barney’s Bullpen has a major edge with very little competition in the local area, it will be imperative that we send e-mail notifications to youth league coaches and make personal contact with the high school and college coaches to be successful. Quality of service, availability, and price are keys to meeting the sales forecast.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Barney’s Bullpen will start with a critical competitive edge: there is no competitor we know of within a 20-mile radius of the targeted area that has a facility of our type. The management also has a 9-year relationship with the targeted youth leagues, as well as the high schools and colleges. In addition to these attributes, the management at Barney’s Bullpen has an extreme love of the sport and enjoys teaching baseball skills to all levels.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

Marketing for the Barney’s Bullpen will differ throughout the year, depending upon demand for the facility. During the winter, when weather restricts outdoor activity and leagues are not playing, we will not need to do as much marketing or advertising. However, during late spring and early summer, we will need to make sure we remain in front of our customers.

Startup Marketing:

• E-mail notification to 75+ local classic coaches in the target area. The e-mail database has already been compiled.
• Flyers distributed to the high school and college coaches in the target area.
• Advertisements at local sports businesses and facilities.
• Advertisements in local papers.
• Word-of-mouth.
• Barney’s Bullpen website.

Spring and Summer Marketing:

• Make donations to area youth leagues in the form of registration forms with attached discount coupons. This will in turn have us listed on the website of each league as a league sponsor.
• Spring break and school holiday specials.
• Attend league coaches’ meetings.
• Summer programs: hitting leagues, June – August discounted summer pass, and clinics. 

Fall and Winter Marketing:

• Advertise in local papers.
• Word-of-mouth.
• Barney’s Bullpen website.

5.3 Sales Strategy

We will direct our sales efforts and funds to the primary customer base. Coaches, parents, and players will be informed of the facility and services through e-mail and direct contact. Sales efforts during the start-up phase will be direct and beneficial for the customers. Continuous sales efforts will vary depending on the time of year.

Startup Sales Strategy for the first month:

• Monday through Thursday – 2 for 1 batting tokens.
• First 100 customers receive a Barney’s Bullpen shirt.
• A discount coupon received for each utility lane rental.
• Door prizes for weekend customers (i.e., Rangers’ tickets, summer passes, and gift cards)

Sales Strategy:

• Discount membership packages.
• Yearly league donations.
• Spring break and school holiday discounts.
• Trophies for Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer hitting champions.
• Tournament specials. Discount coupons given to league officials to pass out to teams attending local tournaments.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

We expect sales to peak October through March; the rest of the year will be slower but could be higher than forecasted due to weather conditions for the local area. In 2005 and 2006, we expect 10% to 20% sales growth as we add new services and the customer base grows. We will do sales on credit only for businesses and large groups with whom we want to establish long-term relationships. We are estimating 10% of sales will be on credit.

Our direct Cost of Sales are limited to the fees that we pay to individual Instructors and Skills & Drills League prizes.  We keep 20% of instructor fees as a facilities usage fee, and pay the other 80% to our independently-contracted Instructors within the same month that sales are recorded. We estimate that about 50% of the registration fees collected for the Skills & Drills League will be used toward the prizes awarded to the best three contestants.

The operating costs for maintenance, repair, and replacement of equipment as it becomes worn out, broken or lost are reflected in our Profit and Loss table

5.4 Milestones

The following milestones are to be used as a roadmap to the success of Barney’s Bullpen. The marketing milestones will be ongoing. While the Internet site will be a useful tool in marketing, it is not critical that it be launched on opening day. The dates given for the Web milestones are optimistic. All other milestones will need to be followed as closely as possible.