Outdoor Adventure Centre Business

bigneacy

MODS: I placed this in Biz and Sports section to get a full perspective of opinions. Hope this is ok?

I was interested in setting up an outdoor adventure centre business, ya know the ones that take people out kayaking and the like. It is directly to the front of my business (tourist accommodation) and it would complement my trade perfectly.

I have the perfect location, a former boat house that's actually on the beach with 2 sandy area's to either side, it is not in use and is part of my property. We use it as the official car park for legal/planning reasons, but it never has been and will never be used. I am in talks with local planning officers to ensure any other use will not affect the current "use".

The tide does go out 5km each day but when it's in, it stays in for a good 4-5 hours (different times each day) I can see it working despite this, would just have to arrange the activities for set times depending on the tides.

Now, I have no qualifications, nor do I have any desire to get them (too busy with my current business). The way I intend on doing it is to simply give the building to somebody with necessary skills to run as an adventure centre, they would refer all their guests over to me (and likewise) and I would take a percentage of the business for being so generous for giving it rent free in the first place.

They will be responsible for everything themselves, all the equipment and Insurance and everything, All I am supplying is the building.

So my question is; does anyone have any experience of running this type of business and what are the necessary steps to opening such a thing?

sportinglegend

http://www.asp-ireland.ie/index.php

The guys above in Aspire do a lot of that adventure stuff as part of their team building. They have an excellent setup maybe you could take a look at their site and see how are setup.

Budget Marketing

You would need good and management skills, employ people over the summer whom have outdoor activity qualifications maybe put them up in your hostel to reduce wage costs.

You will need some level of capital to start the venture, Plenty of outdoor pursit equiptment out there for sale at reasonable prices at the moment.

You will of course need insurance, it would be interesting to see how much this would cost....an absolute necessity.

You are right this would be aperfect add on to your existing business.
Also decide whom you are targeting, young families, or young travelling adults. Also i hope you have some sort of interest i the great outdoors, as i think you would need to love them to run this successfully.

Fries-With-That

bigneacy wrote: »

MODS: I placed this in Biz and Sports section to get a full perspective of opinions. Hope this is ok?

I was interested in setting up an outdoor adventure centre business, ya know the ones that take people out kayaking and the like. It is directly to the front of my business (tourist accommodation) and it would complement my trade perfectly.

I have the perfect location, a former boat house that's actually on the beach with 2 sandy area's to either side, it is not in use and is part of my property. We use it as the official car park for legal/planning reasons, but it never has been and will never be used. I am in talks with local planning officers to ensure any other use will not affect the current "use".

The tide does go out 5km each day but when it's in, it stays in for a good 4-5 hours (different times each day) I can see it working despite this, would just have to arrange the activities for set times depending on the tides.

Now, I have no qualifications, nor do I have any desire to get them (too busy with my current business). The way I intend on doing it is to simply give the building to somebody with necessary skills to run as an adventure centre, they would refer all their guests over to me (and likewise) and I would take a percentage of the business for being so generous for giving it rent free in the first place.

They will be responsible for everything themselves, all the equipment and Insurance and everything, All I am supplying is the building.

So my question is; does anyone have any experience of running this type of business and what are the necessary steps to opening such a thing?

I think you may be onto a winner here, you offer the building to a person with outdoor activity centre experience and I'm assuming a qualification in the area of P.E

They take care of all the aspects of that business on condition that you get referral business for your B & B.

I think its called a symbiotic business relationship, neither party interferes in the running of each others actual business but both benefit.

I'd imagine you're too late to gain any benifits this year, but it would do you no harm to advertise for someone with this kind of experience, with a view to having it up and running for next years season.


Best of luck with this cracking idea.

P.S don't worry about tide being out lots of activities can be done on sand.

bigneacy

My thoughts exactly, I think it would be a very worthwhile venture, and at the end of the day, I have nothing to lose!

NathanKingerlee

Sounds like a good idea in principle. Are your current guests a large part of the intended market for the adventure activities?

If it's going to be a seasonal business it's quite an investment for someone to make regarding equipment, insurance, etc, for only six months of the year; that's the main issue I can forsee.

In terms of you taking profit %, like most businesses I suppose, there's going to be a long spell of time when any profit will be re-invested to pay off initial set-up costs and attract new customers.

As a value added service to your guests I can see it working well and also an opportunity to up-sell more bed nights to them if there's more to do in the area.

If it was me I'd start smaller and test the waters first, before getting too involved/large scale. Get six sit-on-top kayaks and related equipment and offer a simple kayak self-guided hire service. Get three or four bikes and do up a couple of local route maps for biking and approach a local person regarding offering guided hikes; and have all this bolted onto your existing website.

I know you're saying that you want little involvement but unless you get someone young and extremely enthuiastic, or approach a nearby adventure company about operating a branch of their operation from your location; as a stand-alone business I'm not sure.

Is there a successful adventure nearby who already have things set up and could partially move into your base?

bigneacy

I have approached Neptune in clogherhead, they haven't replied, I take this to mean they are not interested.

Have yet to approach Carlingford.