Are you the guy that can't visit a small biz without wondering how much money they make?
Well I spent an hour indoor sledding in the smokies yesterday & learned all about this wild new cash cow biz model:
Most don't realize that the Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited of all national parks, and it's not even close.
14.1m people visit per year, more than twice the Grand Canyon.
Why?
Because the East Coast has a ton of people and it's an easy drive. Also, it's beautiful!
Over $2B/year is spent in Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg on tourism alone. Millions of Americans go & visit Dollywood, go hiking and indoor sledding, apparently!
After visiting, I asked the owner of Pigeon Forge Snow how much his biz makes & this is what I learned:
- 35k sqft building
- Cost mid 7 figs to build out (out of self-respect i don't say "multiple" 7 figures, sorry)
- The land alone was 7 figs (but Guy Fieri is next door so #worthit#flavortown)
- Annual EBITDA? Yep, 7 figgies
- Financed with bank loan. Had RE experience.
- Usually 6-7 employees on the clock
- Break even is 3-4 sledders at a time, but it holds hundreds!
- $30-$45/hour per person to slide, with wintertime being peak season, by far
- It was slowish yesterday, and only took 3 mins without a line. 20 slides per hour, not bad!
- Double digit % of revenue comes from non-ticket sales. Massage chairs, candy and pics for sale. What else are adults gonna do while the kids sled? (I was sledding, personally. Freaking fun)
- Slide #5 is the fastest (by my testing)
- No chemicals, just frozen water.
- This was the first of it's kind.
- Can it be replicated in a non-tourist trap market? TBD!
-99% of water used is recycled
- There's a snow room for kids too small to sled
- Launched in 2018
A fellow Twitter bro @CryptoPicard hooked me up with 12 free tix when he heard I was in town. Free tix + 🔥 🧵 material? I'm not too proud!
Feel free to DM him or comment w/ questions. He's considering franchising
This summer, thousands of bros will make money selling:
pest control
home security
solar systems
Door to door.
Back in college I made cash BUYING things door to door, and this model works even better today.
I promise you've never heard of this:
My first "real" biz was a chain of iPhone repair shops back in 2010. I opened a handful of them across Alabama & then sold to a big competitor.
Our #2 revenue source was buying back & reselling phones on eBay. Very profitable & easy.
We didn't want to reinvent the wheel on valuation, so we'd use Gazelle . com to price out the devices, cut the customer a check, and list it on eBay for twice as much.
You can also filter by sold devices on eBay to get a feel for price.
I'm fascinated by the trash bin cleaning biz. Just met a guy that runs one and learned everything I could.
Here's exactly how I'd growth hack this biz to 6 figures/year profit:
1/
Why do I love this biz?
- Everyone has trash bins - not going anywhere. They're all gross!
- Very young industry, low market penetration
- Just need 1 truck & some hustle
- Post Covid world = many germaphobes
- Housing density getting tighter
- Viral marketing potential:
2/
These trucks are $40k+, but it's a hard asset. Easy to borrow money for it
If a bank won't, ask a family member
Use SearchTempest to search Craigslist nationwide to find one used