Buying & Building a Beach Volleyball Facility: Part 1 - The Background and The Dream
This written series is going to walk you step by step, through every process, problem and thought I have as I build out my dream beach volleyball facility.
Ya know how you think of your dream life or your dream job and wonder how you'd actually pull it off....?
Well I'm currently in the process of "pulling it off" and I decided to document it for a few reasons....
1) To teach, help and inspire other people who want to do something similar.
2) To clear up my thoughts. When I write, it gives me clarity.
3) It's smart marketing to bring people on the ride from conception til birth.
4) I might need you, the reader, at some point along the way.
Building My Dream Beach Volleyball Facility: The Complete Journey
We all have different versions of a dream life but here are the main points of mine. I've written these to myself a lot over the years and I got to share them with my mentors and peers at a few self & business development retreats including The Win Where It Matters Retreat where I first attended as a student and later, a featured speaker.
Here's my dream life:
I want to play my favorite sports whenever I want without having to drive.
I want to able to walk, not drive to a gym and have great workouts.
I want to coach and help the people around me in health/athletics, life, relationships and business.
If you don't know me, here's a quick background I've been a coach since I was 13 years old. I started helping younger kids at summer sport camps and really never stopped coaching. I built Better at Beach with the help of my best friend and I'm proud to say we have helped and coached hundreds of thousands of beach volleyball players across the world through our classes, camps and online resources.
I started this venture while competing professionally and when I retired from competing, something happened... I had the freedom to dive into Better at Beach with my full time and my full energy. In the two years since, then, we've tripled our annual revenue.
I want to build another awesome community of kind, fun loving people. I believe you can CHOOSE your community and the people you surround yourself with.
I want to live in a place that has some beautiful nature.
I want to live, work and play in the same place so I can be with my family as much as possible and raise my daughter and her future siblings in a place where community, health, fitness and hard work are all THE way of life.
If you know me, you might be thinking, "Mark, don't you already have that? You live right by the beach, you play with your buddies, workout with your beautiful wife, coach your pro athlete friends and travel all over the world to work with volleyball players."
That's all true. But there's a little more to it. In California, where we have our strongest community, the city rules prevent us from using as many hours as we want and putting on as many events as we could.
Despite only having 14 hours a week, no evenings in the winter (since there aren't lights), not being allowed to run anything in July which should be our best month and the city taking 30% of gross revenue, we've still built s successful community and local part of our business.
To expand and build the company, we built online courses and coaching programs, 7 day vacations at resorts and, in the last year, after listening to our players/customers, we built the most successful part of our business which are the 3 day intensive training camps.
We've still got a few pieces to add like, sellable workbooks, manuals and a more robust apparel line. We are also adding resources for juniors parents this year to help them with the college recruiting process and we are also growing our club consultant program where we help club directors build their coaching and business systems.
We will hit a million dollars in revenue this year, but if you own a small business, you know this truth: Revenue doesn't come close to profit and since we never stop growing, I've taken any/all profit and put it right back in the business to make it stronger and build new programs to help different segments of beach volleyball.
Our company has indeed grown to the point where Brandon (my co-founder) and I get recognized on pretty much any beach volleyball court we walk up to in the world. One of my well traveled friends/customers sent me a text after going on a beach volleyball Euro Trip and said "I've come to the conclusion that you are the most influential coaches and personalities in all of beach volleyball."
I wrote all of that just to say this:
We haven't even tapped into the concept where we can make the most money.
Why Beach Volleyball Facilities Are Million-Dollar Opportunities
I've been able to play and coach at beach volleyball facilities and resorts all over the world. I've seen the ones that failed and I've found the common threads that make the successful ones CRAZY SUCCESSFUL!
In the last two years, I dove deep into the numbers of these places and some of my friends were gracious enough to completely open their books to me. I've gotten to look at profit and loss statements from several facilities and I know what separates the top tier from the mediocre. I've written several financial plans of my own based on different amenities and numbers of courts.
Here's what I learned. When run the right way, with the right programming and events, beach volleyball facilities bring in MILLIONS. The ones you see that fail or struggle simply choose the wrong programming and have no hustle in terms of marketing and sales.
My Investment Strategy: From Better at Beach to ATX Beach
Armed with that knowledge, I was actually able to invest in my first facility, ATX Beach, in Austin, Texas. I knew the person who was leading the fundraise and going to manage it. I knew he had an audience and experience. But most importantly, I asked him to show me his programming.
He was choosing the right path and so I knew it was a fantastic place to put my money. Truth be told, I actually took out a 7% loan just to get involved because I knew the return was going to absolutely crush the 7% over the course of 5 years.
So now, after a $42,000 investment, I am a 5% owner of ATX Beach. Having that piece of the pie also strengthens Better at Beach in the long run for various reasons but here's the real reason I did that. I wanted to see the real facility numbers from conception to buildout to operations. The investors recently got our 9 month profit and loss statements and guess what, the Year 1 numbers matched my projections pretty much exactly!
What does that mean?
It means it works!
The Real Numbers: Beach Volleyball Facility Profit Analysis
Facilities need time to bring and build an audience and customer base. Even the great ones that have enough courts to be successful, might not actually profit until after the second year because the buildout is expensive. You can build budget courts for about $20,000 a court. OR you can build pro standard courts with boarders, lights, speakers, ball nets etc. for about $50,000. This is the one expense that you should not skimp on. Set it up right so you don't lose money for a day after it rains and buy the right sand! If you don't, players have a reason to go somewhere else.
After the first two years for a facility, if you choose the right programming and events and you have marketing/sales hustle, the profit numbers start getting silly! Many places across the country bring in MILLIONS.
That's exactly what we're going to do.
Finding the Perfect Beach Volleyball Facility Location
I recently went to Florida to set up my second airbnb. The first one I built (to which I added a beach volleyball court) generated over $25,000 in net profit. After rehabbing it and designing it, my systems, personnel and automations allow me to spend less than an hour a week running it.
So yeah, for that part if my life, I'm earning $480 an hour plus the tax benefits.
On that trip, I visited 6 potential facility properties (after looking at 100's online).
We found THE ONE!
I'll tell you all about it in my next write up.
How to Invest in Beach Volleyball Facilities (Starting at $60,000)
Here's how you can choose to move forward.
1. Join (or stay on) my email list to watch the progress
2. Get on the investor list and get returns in perpetuity! (Minimum investment will be $60,000)
